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Reclaiming the Crown of Torah: Mishpatim 5781

In the Song of Songs (5:2) we read a romantic verse, “I was asleep, but my heart was awake.” אני ישנה ולבי ער—the plain sense of the verse is that the time of sleep is also a time of longing. The...

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A Tabernacle for Today: Terumah/Zakhor 5781

כְּכֹל אֲשֶׁר אֲנִי מַרְאֶה אוֹתְךָ אֵת תַּבְנִית הַמִּשְׁכָּן וְאֵת תַּבְנִית כָּל כֵּלָיו וְכֵן תַּעֲשׂוּ: “And so shall they do,” is an unremarkable coda to God’s command to Moses that Israel must...

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Purification after Violence: Parah 5781

Tony Hicks was fourteen years old in 1995 when he shot and killed a college student named Tariq Khamisa in a gang-related robbery. Hicks was convicted of murder, and was imprisoned until 2019, but...

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The Festival of Education: Shabbat HaHodesh 5781

Passover is sometimes called “the festival of education” (חג החינוך). I have been unable to find this expression in pre-modern sources, but it accords with classic rabbinic approaches to the holiday....

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Confessions of Joy: Vayikra 5781

The Hebrew word “semikhah” in various forms alludes to drawing close, leaning into or supporting another, or laying on of hands. In that purposeful contact there is a transfer of energy and the...

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Feel the Love this Pesah: Shabbat HaGadol 5781

What’s love got to do with it? We are accustomed to thinking of Passover as the festival of freedom, of liberation from enslavement, the march from Mitzrayim to Sinai, and on to the Land of Israel and...

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The Palace of Torah Expanded: Aharei Mot-Kedoshim 5781

For many modern readers, engaging with Torah presents a paradox. Biblical and rabbinic voices reaching us from the distant past are like starlight emitted millennia ago—brilliant and often shockingly...

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Stand up straight? Behar-Behukotai 5781

Just before the Torah switches from blessing to rebuke in our second portion, Behukotai, God reminds the people that they were removed and liberated from Egyptian servitude in order to walk upright,...

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A Better Way to Pay Restitution: Naso 5781

Many years ago my car was stolen from its spot outside our apartment in Michigan. In the middle of the night a police officer woke us up and informed me that someone had been pulled over while driving...

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Humility from Heaven: Pinhas 5781

“And there shall be a sin offering for the Lord” (Numbers 28:15).   Did God commit a sin? What? When? We know all about the sin of Adam and Eve, but God is perfect, right? Indeed, the Torah does...

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Bereshit 5782: Freewill from Forbidden Fruit

Who wouldn’t want to eat a fruit that makes them smarter? In Chapter 2 of Genesis, God places Adam in the Garden of Eden and invites the first people to taste any fruit in the garden, except for the...

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Questions of Life and Legacy: VaYehi 2017

This final parashah of Genesis bears a cryptic title: Vayehi, “He (that is, Jacob) lived.” Well, of course he lived, and soon he will die, but how has he lived? What legacy does he bequeath? These are...

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Between the Lines: VaYehi Podcast 2023

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Eleh Ezkerah: Stepping in and out of the Shadows

Eleh Ezkerah for Minyan Maat Yom Kippur 5784 / September 25, 2023 These I recall and my soul melts with sorrow; for the bitter course of our history, tears pour from my eyes.  The pages of Eleh Ezkarah...

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A Week in Northeastern Poland: Memory, Mourning, and Admiration

A few months ago my father, Michael Nevins, was invited to participate in a commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the Białystok Ghetto uprising on August 16, 1943. This would be his fourth trip to...

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Behar 5784: The Blessings of Imperfection (GOA Graduation Address)

In Philadelphia hangs a famous bell with a great crack running down its side. The Liberty Bell is inscribed with the King James translation of a verse from this week’s Torah portion, Behar: “Proclaim...

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Ki Teitzei 5784: The Extended Effects of Captivity

Danny Nevins, Ansche Chesed, Minyan Maat Shabbat Ki Teitzei 5784 /September 14, 2024 During the 330 days that her son Hersh was held captive, Rachel Goldberg-Polin made dozens of speeches that moved...

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