By Rabbi Or Rose Rosh Hashanah Ever since childhood, I have been fascinated by the ritual of the sounding of the shofar (ram’s horn) during the High Holy Day season, particularly the shofar service on Rosh Hashanah. While I could not articulate this as a boy, I was, and continue to be, intrigued by the use of this ancient, natural, and rather simple instrument in the context of modern, carefully crafted, and complex High Holy Day services. To this... Read more
By Rabbi Shani Rosenbaum Parashat Ki Tavo (Deuteronomy 26:1-29:8) “What’s in a name?” bemoans Shakespeare’s lovesick Juliet. “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” This may be true for a rose, but for people, there is often a whole lot in a name. Ask anyone who has undergone a name change, or been called a name they don’t want: in the context of a human life, names matter. Among other things, what we call each other signifies... Read more
Parashat Shoftim (Deuteronomy 16:18-21:9) By Emmanuel Cantor This past summer I made my way through The Overstory, a sweeping work of fiction by Richard Powers. A Pulitzer Prize winner in 2019, the novel weaves together nine stories of Americans fighting the deforestation of the California redwoods. One of them, the plant ecologist Dr. Patricia Westerford, writes the following in her book on the power of trees: “Trees know when we’re close by. The chemistry of their roots and the perfumes their leaves... Read more
By Chaim Spaulding Parashat Re’eh (Deuteronomy 11:26-16:17) Parashat Re’eh begins with the imperative re’eh (see!), and a choice: the Israelites are presented with bracha u’klala, blessing and curse. Blessing will flow from following God’s commandments; curse will be the consequence for following other gods asher lo y’datem—gods of whom the Israelites have no personal, first-hand knowledge. Over and over in this parashah, woven in among laws on a variety of topics, we are warned not to stray after gods we don’t know. As I encountered these passages,... Read more
By Rabbi Adina Allen Parashat Eikev (Deuteronomy 7:12-11:25) We should each hold two slips of paper in our pockets, a well-known saying in Jewish tradition goes. On one should be written, “The world was created for me,” on the other, “I am but dust and ashes.” Attributed to Reb Simcha Bunem, an 18th century Hasidic rebbe, in its original context this teaching was meant to help us remember, when we feel lowly and depressed, that who we are and what we... Read more
By Naomi Gurt Lind Parashat Vaetchanan (Deuteronomy 3:23-7:11) For Lea Andersen, of cherished memory Parashat Vaetchanan begins with Moshe deep in his feelings, as he recalls pleading with God to be allowed to enter into the Promised Land. He has devoted his life to his people, has endured hardship and frustration, conquered self-doubt and overwork, only to find that at the end of his life he will not get to see the task come to fruition. In Deuteronomy 3:25, early in the... Read more
By Rabbi Daniel Klein Parashat Dvarim (Deuteronomy 1:1-3:22) As we begin the Book of Deuteronomy this week, the fifth and final book of the Torah, we greet the Israelites triumphant. After 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, they are finally on the threshold of entering the Promised Land. It is an extraordinary moment of accomplishment. And yet, as Moses begins his final, book length soliloquy to prepare the people for their new lives in the Land of Israel, he... Read more
By Rabbi Ebn Leader Parashat Matot Masei (Numbers 30:2-36:13) With Parashat Masei—The Journeys—the Torah concludes the story of the Israelite people. While the Torah includes one more book, dedicated almost entirely to the parting words and death of Moshe, the story of the people ends here, in the plains of Moav. The vision of a promised land is central to the biblical story beginning with the narratives of the ancestors in Bereshit. Still, this “allotted haven” (Devarim 12:9) is never reached. (This is true of... Read more
By Rabbi Jessica Kate Meyer Parashat Pinchas (Numbers 25:10-30:1) The transmission and transition of leadership from one generation to the next is ritualized in Parashat Pinchas. Moshe stands Joshua before Elazar, the High Priest, and before the entire male Israelite community. He lays his hands on Joshua in the original act of semicha, symbolically placing leadership on his shoulders. According to the 19th century rabbi Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin (known as The Netziv), through this act of semicha, Moshe filled... Read more
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The Mitzvah of Forgetting
Parashat Ki Teitzei (Deuteronomy 21:10-25:19) By Rabbi Neal Gold Parashat Ki Teitzei falls when the full moon of Elul is fat in the sky and the awareness settles on us that Rosh Hashanah is just around the corner. We are now deeply ensconced in the season of teshuvah and the task of sifting through the details of our lives and our relationships. Among the wide array of Mitzvot found in this parashah are a special set of agricultural laws that... Read more