Parashat Hukkat 5784
July 10, 2024
Rabbi Enid C. Lader ('10)
Our Torah portion this week begins with describing “zot hukkat haTorah – the ritual law” concerning the red heifer.
Parashat Korah 5784
July 1, 2024
Cantor Robin Anne Joseph (’96)
“I’m falling on my face” is a phrase I heard many-a-time growing up. What it usually meant was “I’m exhausted,” “I have no more energy,” or “proceed without me.” When my mother would say it out loud, I knew enough to give her some space, or some time to rest, or get my tuchus in gear and help cook dinner.
Parashat Shelah 5784
June 24, 2024
Rabbi Rob Scheinberg
A French Catholic teen’s first glimpse of Jews wrapped in their Tallitot led him to intuit one of Judaism’s essential values
Parashat Beha’alotekha 5784
June 17, 2024
Rabbi Greg Schindler (’09)
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a prophet? To know things before they happened? This week’s parashah, Parashat Beha’alotekha, represents a master class in prophecy. Through a series of vignettes, the Torah provides insight into what it means to be a prophet. In the first episode, several men come up to Moses and Aaron saying that they were unable to bring the Passover sacrifice because they were ritually unclean. Is there any way they can still participate (Num. 9:6-7)? All that Moses had learned from G-d was that the sacrifice was to be brought on the fourteenth day of the first month (Num. 9:5); there was nothing about what to do with people who were unable to participate at that time. What should Moses do? Would he look weak if he admitted that he did not know the answer? Should he make his own interpretation? What does Moses do? He consults G-d and...
Parashat Naso 5784
June 11, 2024
Rabbi Cantor Inna Serebro-Litvak ('16)
There is a beautiful place in the Ayalon Valley – west of Jerusalem – just 25 km away. It is called Latrun. The name Latrun may have been derived from “Le Toron des Chevaliers,” the name of a Crusader castle that once stood there. In modern times the hill is best known as the site of an important battle during the 1948 Israeli War of Independence.
