Shabbat Weekly Dvar Torah
Apr 29, 2022
The term "scapegoat" was apparently coined by William Tyndale, the first great English Bible translator, and has come to mean "someone whom people blame for their own misfortunes and even for their faults and sins--though the original notion of a scapegoat included the public acknowledgement by the community of its own transgressions."
Apr 21, 2022
This week, at the conclusion of Havdalah, we will bid farewell to Shabbat and the festival of Pesach, and begin a new journey, a spiritual ascent to Mt. Sinai. On the second night of Pesach, we began counting the omer, a spiritual exercise, as we prepare to receive the gift of Torah.
Apr 15, 2022
One of the more challenging questions about the seder - How do we make it relevant today? Here is one suggestion. Let’s start by discussing a well-known statement found in the Haggadah: “In every generation a person is required to see oneself as if he personally went out of Egypt.” How is it possible to do this? And why is this necessary?
Apr 8, 2022
The Pesach seder is an event filled with symbols that have dual and opposite meanings; likewise, there’s a subtext of argumentation. It’s ‘organized’ argumentation - like the Talmud - but built into the Haggadah (the “script’ of the seder) is debate and even conflict among the participants.
Apr 1, 2022
When I was 12, a few weeks before my Bat Mitzvah, I went in to meet with one of the rabbis of my synagogue. At the time, the synagogue newsletter included a “pasuk of the week,” a verse from that week’s Torah portion that was particularly interesting or thought provoking. However, as the rabbi confessed to me, the week of my bat mitzvah was to be the end of that custom. He just couldn’t find anything that fit the bill. That week’s parashah? Tazria.
Mar 25, 2022
While there is an ocean of difference between pagan Greek myth [of Icarus] and our Torah, often cross-cultural comparisons can be enlightening. Interestingly, the very hubris that motivated Icarus’s downfall is reflected in a different way in this week’s parashah (Shmini) in a story, which has troubled many.
Mar 18, 2022
As I write these words, I have just watched a young 44-year-old former comedian in an olive drab t-shirt address the Congress of the United States and indeed the world. It is a Churchillian moment, although he is speaking in Ukrainian, and this young political novice within weeks has not only become the voice of his people but has embodied the consciousness of the world.
Mar 11, 2022
One of the main challenges of Jewish education in the twenty-first century is finding relevance in Jewish learning... This week’s Torah portion is Vayikra, the first portion in the book of Vayikra, translated [from Hebrew to Latin] as Leviticus. It discusses aspects of the korbanot or sacrifices that were made in the Tabernacle and later the Temple, but it is hard to find meaning in the detailed ancient practices.
Mar 4, 2022
This Shabbat we read Parashat P’kudei, containing the final verses of the Book of Exodus. The Exodus narrative takes us on an incredible journey from bondage in Egypt to the experience of revelation at Sinai and the transformation of the Israelites to a people committed to a life guided by Torah and walking in G!d’s ways.
Feb 25, 2022
Every literate Jew knows the word: SHOAH. It’s the Hebrew word for the Holocaust, derived from the biblical word Shoah (שואה), meaning "catastrophe." Most of us, me included, have never heard of the term: Holodomor. According to the History Channel, it’s a combination of the Ukrainian words for “starvation” and “to inflict death,” and is a key event in Ukrainian history.
