The AJR Center for Judaism and Science has an annual competition for the best student D’var Torah infused with science. Click here to view the entries that have won our לדעת חכמה (Lada’at Hokhmah) Award.
Parashat Vayigash 5786
December 22, 2025
Rabbi Anat Katzir
A D’var Torah for Parashat Vayigash By Rabbi Anat Katzir (AJR ’22) “The connection of shared grief and the inspiration of shared destiny.” I sat down to begin writing my D’var Torah with an idea of exactly what I wanted to write about. Thinking ahead about the parashah there was a moment in the story that always stuck out in my memory. The moment that Joseph asks his brothers not to tell Pharaoh that they are shepherds and you could almost imagine him face-palming when Pharaoh asks: “what is your profession?” And they respond “we are shepherds…” This moment has been a favorite of mine in the simple irony, with Joseph being a character that can’t seem to filter himself, sharing truths in the most blunt way throughout his story. I have always been inspired by the overarching sense that the truth has such great power that is comes out...
Parashat Mikeitz – 5786
December 15, 2025
Rabbi Inna Serebro-Litvak
A D’var Torah for Parashat Mikeitz By Rabbi Inna Serebro-Litvak Who doesn’t like fairy tales? Even as adults, although we don’t always admit it, we enjoy going back to the stories that were once read to us by our parents. The magic of fairy tales, the happy endings, the prevalence of good versus evil—these concepts stay with us forever, instilling hope that, even when life is hard, it will get better. My favorites were always the ones that had narratives involving themes of destiny, overcoming challenges, true love, and reclaiming what’s lost. Take “Cinderella.” She worked so hard, lived in poverty, and was abused. Yet she was the one—not her rich sisters—whom the prince fell in love with and married (not without some magic, of course). Or what about “The Ugly Duckling?” He was abandoned by the swan flock and was so ugly that no one wanted him. But as...
Parashat Vayeishev – 5786
December 10, 2025
Rabbi Scott “Shalom” Klein
From the Pit to the Promise: Finding God’s Presence in Parashat Vayeishev A D’var Torah for Parashat Vayeishev By Rabbi Scott “Shalom” Klein (AJR 2024) Parashat Vayeishev, which we read just before we kindle the lights of Chanukah, plunges us into one of the darkest family sagas in the Torah: the story of Joseph and his brothers. It is a portion filled with sibling rivalry, betrayal, favoritism, and descent—Joseph is thrown into a pit, sold into slavery, and eventually imprisoned. Jacob, in his grief, refuses all comfort. Darkness seems to prevail. Yet, amidst this unrelenting bleakness, the Torah offers a crucial counterpoint, a phrase repeated twice in the Parashah, like a quiet, enduring whisper of hope: “וַיְהִי ה’ אֶת יוֹסֵף”— “And the Lord was with Joseph.” (Genesis 39:2, 39:21). The first instance comes after Joseph is sold and finds himself in the house of Potiphar: “The Lord was with Joseph,...
Parashat Vayishlah 5786
December 1, 2025
Cantor Sandy Horowitz
A D’var Torah for Parashat Vayishlah By Cantor Sandy Horowitz (AJR 2014) Our patriarch Jacob is a troubled soul who experiences three profound encounters with the Divine, each of which takes place at a significant moment in his life. This week’s Torah reading, Vayishlah, tells of the second of the encounters, bookended by those in Parshiot Vayetzei and Vayigash. At the beginning of the Jacob narrative we read about how he takes sibling rivalry to the nth level. First, he tricks his ever-so-slightly older twin brother Esau into selling his birthright for a pot of stew. Dayenu that would have been enough for Jacob to earn the label “not a nice guy.” Yet he goes even further by convincing their aging and blind father Isaac to give him, Jacob, the blessing intended for the elder Esau. This enrages Esau to the point of threatening to kill his deceitful brother, so...
Parashat Vayeitzei – 5786
November 26, 2025
Rabbi Wendy Love Anderson
Separating Joys A D’var Torah for Parashat Vayeitzei By Rabbi Wendy Love Anderson When Jacob finally marries his uncle Laban’s daughter in Parashat Vayeitzei, he discovers that he and Laban disagree about which daughter he is supposed to marry. But Jacob and Laban do agree that every wedding is a week-long affair; Jacob makes no objection to Laban’s suggestion that he wait to marry Rachel until “the week of this one” – Leah – is over. Apparently, the entire bridal week is spent feasting, judging by the later wedding precedents of Samson (Judg. 14:11) and Tobit (Tob. 11:18). An anonymous baraita in the Babylonian Talmud (Ketubot 7b) updates the practice for rabbinic norms: not only are there seven days of feasting, but also seven days of reciting the birkat hatanim – the grooms’ blessing. This blessing is the ancestor of our Sheva Berakhot, which can still be recited at a...
