Category: D’var Torah

Shabbat Shalom! – Bo

Parashat Bo continues the Exodus tale, growing grimmer with every verse. Egypt is racked by locusts, then darkness, with Pharaoh’s heart wavering and then stiffening with each blow. Moses warns Pharaoh about the final, terrible plague, which enrages him. Then the text takes a strange turn, with a commandment for the Israelites to “ask the Egyptians for gold and silver.” Is this payment for their slave labors? Is it “bribe us to go away”? Curious.

Then, abruptly, God moves on to other things, to commandments about the Pesach meal and the future, beginning with this:

הַחֹ֧דֶשׁ הַזֶּ֛ה לָכֶ֖ם רֹ֣אשׁ חֳדָשִׁ֑ים רִאשׁ֥וֹן הוּא֙ לָכֶ֔ם לְחָדְשֵׁ֖י הַשָּׁנָֽה׃

This month shall mark for you the beginning of the months; it shall be the first of the months of the year for you. – Exodus 12:11

This week, I am simply going to pose YOU some questions:

What about the Exodus story is speaking to you right now?

With whom in the story do you most identify?

With whom do you find it hardest to identify, and why?

I look forward to your thoughts.

Shabbat Shalom – Va’era

Image: Egyptian tomb painting. Photo by Souza_DF/Pixabay.

Parashat Va’era (Exodus 6:2 – 9:35) continues the saga of the struggle between God and Pharaoh. It deals with Moses’ feelings of inadequacy, the obstinacy of Pharaoh, and the first seven plagues.

The story of Exodus has had deep resonance for people in time of trouble. Enslaved people in each generation have seized upon it for hope.

Beyond the familiar story, what can we learn from this portion of the Torah? Here are some contemporary divrei Torah that explore parashat Va’era:

A Message for Moses and America: “Never Give Up” by Rabbi Peretz Wolf-Prusan

Take a Deep Breath by Rabbi David Ackerman

Elisheva: Challenging the patriarchal structure with her mixed feelings by Rabbi Sylvia Rothschild

Earning Our Luck by Rabbi Marc Katz

Sight Words by Anita Silvert

Executive Orders Based on Fear Won’t Work. Ask Pharaoh. by Rabbi Seth Goldstein

The Moral and Historical Imperatives of Exodus by Rabbi Jason Strauss

 

Shabbat Shalom! – Shemot

Shemot means “names” and Parashat Shemot is indeed full of names. We begin perhaps the most famous Bible story of them all, the story of the Exodus from Egypt. This is a full portion, with many different famous stories in it.

A few of these drashot also address the fact that this Shabbat falls on the evening after Inauguration Day in the United States. Having seen the Obama Era in U.S. History come to an end, and the Trump Era begin, it is good to take a moment to reflect.

Let’s see what our commenters make of this portion and/or this moment in history:

Shemot – Names by Rabbi Kari Hofmeister Tuling, PhD

Does the Presidency Have a Prayer? by Rabbi Jeffrey Salkin

Know Your Past by Rabbi Jordan Parr

Each Life is a Novel by Rabbi Marc Katz

The Revolutionary Road to Marriage by Rabbi Esther Hugenholtz

The Mother Who Bore 600,000 by Rabbi Stephen Fuchs

Names and Deeds by Rabbi Ruth Adar

Shabbat Shalom! – Vayechi

The Joseph story comes to its dramatic close this week in Parashat Vayechi. Brash young Jacob who stole his father’s blessing has become dying Jacob, blessing his own children. Foolish young Joseph has become an older, wiser, sadder man, finally reunited with his family.

Change is the constant in human experience. This can distress us if we try to cling to the past, because no matter how hard we try, we cannot stop time. But we can find hope in the inevitability of change: very little, other than death itself, is as final as it seems.

Our darshanim this week:

No Matter Where We Think We Are, We Are Still in Egypt by Rabbi John Rosove

Giving Others the Benefit of the Doubt by Rabbi Marc Katz

Bilhah and the man who mistook his wife for a bed by Rabbi Sylvia Rothschild

Jewish Time by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks

Theology defines… by Rabbi Kari Hofmeister Tuling, PhD

Make Meaning of the Past by Rabbi Seth Goldstein (VIDEO)

End of a Cycle by Anita Silvert

 

 

 

Shabbat Shalom! – Miketz

I associate various Torah portions with memories. I remember Shelach Lecha as the week I  became a Jew, and the week I left home for rabbinical school. I remember Yitro as the first time I first chanted Torah for the congregation. And I remember Miketz because it was the portion I was assigned for my first d’var Torah in rabbinical school.

On the one hand, the stories in Miketz have been favorites of mine ever since I was little: Joseph interprets Pharaoh’s dreams! Joseph becomes the Prime Minister of Egypt! Joseph faces his brothers again! And on the other hand I was going to speak before the whole school, and I wanted to say something profound about the Joseph story. Rabbi Dr. Michael Marmur was assigned to me as a mentor for the first sermon, and I was as intimidated by his reputation as Joseph’s brothers must have been in Pharaoh’s court.

I didn’t say anything profound that week. It was a fine learning experience: Rabbi Marmur taught me how to dig into the text for something coherent to say, and I said something reasonably coherent. I remember, with blushes now, my overblown ambitions for that sermon.

However, I have some wonderful divrei Torah for you from people with more practice at it than I had back in 2002!

The Torah’s Secret History of Conversion by Rabbi Marc Katz

The Strange Case of the Disappearing Women by Rabbi Sylvia Rothschild

Confronting Their Past by Rabbi Stephen Fuchs

Light One Candle by Rabbi Dan Fink

The Shamash is the Tall One in the Middle by Rabbi Jeff Goldwasser

A Dutch Proverb by Rabbi Esther Hugenholtz

Miketz with Rabbi Ellie by Rabbi Eleanor Steinman (VIDEO)

 

 

Shabbat Shalom! – Vayeshev

Parashat Vayeshev begins the Joseph story in Genesis, one of the world’s great short novels. In the great scope of Torah, it tells us how the descendants of Abraham and Sarah came to be in Egypt. In its own right, it is a complete story. This parashah is only the beginning of the story. It also includes one of the more mysterious elements of the story – another, shorter story, the only one that interrupts the Joseph narrative. That’s the story of Tamar, a woman who stands up for herself. You can read her story in Rabbi Rothschild’s sermon, below.

Welcome to the Joseph story. Some advice: notice which character you identify with. Then make an effort, decide, to identify with a different character for a while. That initial insight, and the decision to vary it, will vastly enrich your reading.

Tamar, taking her destiny in her own hands by Rabbi Sylvia Rothschild

So Many Questions! by Rabbi Amy Scheinerman

When Our Faces Betray Us by Rabbi Marc Katz

A Face of Many Colors by Rabbi Jordan Parr

What is the Theme of the Stories of Genesis? by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks

What Changed Joseph? by Rabbi Ruth Adar

In Dreams Begin Responsibility by Rabbi Rachel Barenblat

 

Shabbat Shalom! – Vayetzei

This week’s Torah portion is Vayetzei, “And he left.” Jacob leaves his ancestral home in a hurry, fleeing the rage and despair of his brother Esau. In last week’s portion, he tricked his twin Esau out of his birthright and their father’s blessing. In this portion, he will learn what it is like to be tricked out of something rightfully his.

Jacob’s uncle Laban is a tricky fellow, too, and Jacob will suffer at his hands in this portion. Readers often gloss over the degree to which the sisters who will become Jacob’s wives are complicit in Laban’s deception. Leah knew that Jacob expected to marry Rachel, but when her father substituted her for her sister under the wedding veils, she went along. Rachel said nothing either. Thus Jacob, who wore animal skins to deceive his father, was himself deceived in his wedding bed by the women he married!

A hagiography is a piece of writing that makes its subjects seem to be saints. Torah is often the opposite of a hagiography. The writer(s) tell us stories about the family of Abraham that most families would bury and never tell.

This week’s interpreters:

The Mouth of the Well by Rabbi Amy Scheinerman

Rachel and Leah Show Us a Thing or Two by Rabbi Sylvia Rothschild

Regarding a Ladder by Rabbi Jordan Parr

The Power of Persuasion by Rabbi Rafi Mollot

A Midshipman’s Torah: Dealing with Dishonesty by Rabbi Nina Mizrahi

As Only God Knows by Rabbi Marc Katz

Communication for Good or Bad by Miriam Jaffe

Vayetzei: A Broken Family

Image: A pile of stones. Photo by Mathias_Beckmann/Pixabay.

Towards the end of Parashat Vayetzei, after the drama between Jacob and Laban has played itself out, we find an account of a treaty between the two men.

They don’t like one another. Each believes himself to have been cheated by the other. Laban tricked Jacob into marrying Leah, then got seven more years of labor from him to earn the hand of Rachel. Then Jacob, angry at his father-in-law, used trickery to enrich himself by means of Laban’s flocks. Laban resents it, believing Jacob’s wealth is stolen from his pocket.

Both men see themselves as the victim of a cheating scoundrel.

Finally, Jacob sneaks away with his wives, his household, and his flocks, and Laban follows in hot pursuit. He whines that Jacob crept away secretly, robbing him even of a chance to say goodbye to his daughters, even robbing him of his household gods.

Jacob roars back at Laban, and the twenty years of resentment pour out of him. And then, just at the moment we expect the two men to come to blows, Laban points out that like it or not, they are family: Laban’s daughters are Jacob’s wives. They have more in common than their grudges.

“Come, let us make a pact, you and I, that there may be a witness between you and me.” (Gen 32:44) Jacob sets up a pillar, and they make a pile of stones and share a meal. And in a telling detail, they call the place by two different names, words that mean the same thing, one in Aramaic and one in Hebrew. As alike as Laban and Jacob are in many ways, ultimately they do not understand one another at all.

Sometimes, when families or individuals cannot get along, peace looks like a boundary line, respected by both, though they cannot understand one another at all.

Shabbat Shalom! – Toledot

Image: Logo of Hasidah, a nonprofit organization that supports Jewish couples suffering with infertility.

Toledot – “Generations” – Another eventful parashah carries us beyond Abraham and Sarah to the generations that follow. It begins with a situation that repeats again and again in Torah: a couple have trouble conceiving.

Isaac pleaded with the LORD on behalf of his wife, because she was barren; and the LORD responded to his plea, and his wife Rebekah conceived. – Genesis 25:21

This verse will be achingly familiar to many modern readers, although most situations of difficult conception or infertility are not so easily remedied. There is a wonderful organization, Hasidah, which supports and assists Jewish couples who experience infertility. They describe themselves thus:

Hasidah is the voice of hope and compassion that raises awareness of infertility, connects people to support resources, and reduces financial barriers to treatment in the Jewish community.

That last item is significant: infertility treatments, while effective, are horrifically expensive and are usually not covered by insurance. If you have tzedakah money available, sending a donation to Hasidah is a mitzvah, indeed. I serve as a rabbinic partner to Hasidah, and know it to be a well-run organization.

Rebekah conceived, and she delivered twins after a difficult pregnancy. Toledot takes us through that story, and the stories of Jacob and Esau that follow.

Our teachers this week:

When Isaac Speaks: Infertility and Spiritual Awakening by Rabbi Idit Jacques

Toldot, a story of siblings by Rabbi Eleanor Steinman

Peace with Security by Rabbi Aryeh Klapper

Toldot: No More by Anita Silvert

Then why am I? by Rabbi Rachel Barenblat

Bless me too! by Rabbi Nina J Mizrahi

More generations and more branches in our family tree than we notice by Rabbi Sylvia Rothschild

What’s With Those Wells? by Rabbi Amy Scheinerman

 

Shabbat Shalom! – Chayei Sarah

Image: Hebron. The Tombs of Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob and Leah are in caves beneath the large building at the lower left. Photo by See The Holy Land via Wikimedia. Some rights reserved.

This week’s Torah portion is Chayei Sarah, “The Life of Sarah.” While the portion is named in the usual way (with the first distinctive words in the portion,) in this case it is ironic, for the first thing that happens in the portion is the death of Sarah, Abraham’s wife and our first matriarch.

In this portion, Abraham negotiates to buy a burial place for Sarah, and then sends his servant to negotiate a wife for Isaac. One of the striking things in the portion is that Isaac’s role in his own marriage is passive (Abraham sends a servant to find Isaac a wife,) Rebekah is a much more active participant, deciding the timing of her departure from her father’s tent.

The portion concludes with a brief look into the life of Ishmael, the other son of Abraham. He has 12 sons who will become chieftains of 12 tribes, stretching from Havilah, near Egypt, to Asshur (Mesopotamia.) We know them today as the Arabs.

Our divrei Torah this week:

The Crown of Aging – Rabbi Marc Katz

On Death and Land – Rabbi Rachel Barenblat

The Blessed Burden – Rabbi Menachem Creditor

Getting On With Life – Rabbi Don Levy

Plan Ahead! – Rabbi Jordan Parr

Sarah – Rabbi Sylvia Rothschild

Rebekah, Woman of Contradictions – Rabbi Ruth Adar