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Ekev 5774: Reimagining God
On the surface, Parashat Ekev is about what kind of people God expects that Israel will become. We read that Israel’s God “demands” many things—reverence, love, obedience and devotion. Israel is warned...
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Shabbat Shoftim 5774: Doubled Prophecy, Double Significance
Word repetition is one of the most common tools used in Biblical texts to add emphasis to a point, but it also provides interpreters with the opportunity to add layers of meaning to the text. This...
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Ki Tetze 5774: A Safe Home for Escaped Slaves and Refugees
In a summer dominated by the battle between Israel and Hamas in Gaza and also between Russian-backed separatists and the government in Eastern Ukraine, the violent expansion of ISIS in Syria and Iraq,...
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Ki Tavo 5774: A Mezuzah for all the World to See
Chapter 27 of Deuteronomy describes various rituals to mark the future entrance of Israel into the promised land, including the plastering of stones and inscription of “these words of Torah” upon them....
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Nitzavim/Vayelekh 5774: Exile from the Land, and from the Earth
Yearning to enter and inhabit the land is the great desire that suffuses Deuteronomy; fear of exile is the dark counterpart that lurks insistently by its side. Midrash Sifre (Ekev, piska 43) says that,...
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5775: A Green Rosh HaShanah
Could it be that Rosh HaShanah is not a Jewish holiday? No—it couldn’t be! Rosh HaShanah is the Jewish New Year. On Rosh HaShanah Jews gather in Jewish houses of worship and say Jewish prayers. We hold...
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Yom Kippur 5775: Becoming Shomrei Yisrael
It was a perfect day at the beach. Early-July, late in the morning. Not too hot, nor too cold; sand stretching off to the horizon, the surf pounding pleasantly at my feet. After an hour of baking on...
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Sukkot 5775: Is Being “Only Joyous” Achievable in this Life?
The mood swing from Yom Kippur to Sukkot is among the most dramatic of Jewish transitions (similar in a way to the less prominent shift of mood from the 9th to the 15th of Av, the saddest and most...
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Shmini Atzeret/Bereshit 5775: A Time to Laugh, a Time to Mourn
The celebration of two days of Yom Tov here in the diaspora is a decidedly mixed blessing. On the one hand, extending the holidays gives us more time to examine their meaning and to internalize their...
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Noah 5775: Species Purity and the Great Flood
[Published as a JTS Torah Commentary] Omnicide is a dramatic move, on that we can all agree. But what causes the Creator to grow violently disgusted with the creatures that had just recently been...
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Lekh Lekha 5775: Patriarchs in Search of Peace
One of my favorite songs by the late great Arik Einstein is called אוהב להיות בבית (listen here; lyrics below). He describes the heroic adventures of many people who go off climbing mountains and...
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Vayera 5775: Laughter Lost by our Wounded Warriors
What became of laughter in the home of our first family? Abraham fell down laughing when he got the news that he and Sarah would finally have a child. Sarah too greeted the annunciation with laughter...
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Hayyei Sarah 5775: Bringing the God of Heaven Back to Earth
Where is Abraham, the paragon of compassion, when we need him most? Reading the news this week, when antagonists in the holy land have succeeded in spewing hatred in newly violent ways, let’s think...
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Toledot 5775: Isaac’s Midlife Premonition of Death
Did you ever notice the strange thing that Isaac says to Esau in sending his elder son out to hunt for his blessing? Isaac has gone blind in his old age, but what troubles him most is uncertainty about...
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Vayetze 5775: Poverty, Race, and Thanksgiving
And Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted his voice and wept (Gen. 29:11, R. Alter trans.). Why is Jacob crying? The simplest explanation would seem to be relief. After fleeing in terror from his enraged...
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Praying for Rain in Bavel
Those who attended Shaharit in WLSS on Wednesday had the treat of hearing Rabbi Joel Roth explain the history of how diaspora Jews settled on Dec. 4/5 for the beginning of the petition for rain, ותן טל...
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Shabbat VaYishlah 5775: Two Camps of Contemporary Jewry
“And Jacob split the people with him…into two camps…saying ‘if Esau comes upon one camp and smites it, the other camp will be a remnant.’” The ancient sages discerned that Jacob prepared for his...
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Shabbat VaYeshev 5775: Jacob’s Refusal to be Comforted
“The lady doth protest too much, methinks,” is one of Shakespeare’s great lines in Hamlet (Act III, Sc. II). Ironically, the queen’s fervent vow that she would never remarry should her husband die...
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Shabbat Hanukkah 5775: The Light of Compassion Shines from Within
Around JTS when we cite Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, we refer to the great twentieth century theologian who fled Europe during the Holocaust and spent his final decades teaching Torah at JTS, writing...
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Shabbat Sh’mot 5775: Reknitting a Frayed Social Fabric
[Delivered at Minyan Maat, January 10, 2015 This is a difficult Shabbat. In addition to the painful individual losses in our community, we are in shock and mourning over the dreadful attacks in Paris...
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