The Source of Our Joy (Simcha)

Last updated on: August 18, 2025 at 3:21 pm By Hebrew College

By Rav Rachel Adelman, Hebrew College Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible Parashat Re’eh Deuteronomy 11:26-16:17 I just returned from Israel this week, after one of the hardest summers we have ever endured. The war in Gaza drags on and on, with the hostages still held in deplorable conditions and inexorable suffering on the Palestinian side. A pall of depression hangs over the country, compounded by this week’s thick heat. And yet, paradoxically, Israel is still the place I feel the... Read more

Four Freedoms

Last updated on: August 18, 2025 at 2:16 pm By Hebrew College

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By Adam Zemel Parashat Eikev (Deuteronomy 7:12-11:25) Parashat Eikev sees Moses continuing his long farewell address to the ancient Israelites before they enter the promised land. Moses, who midrash tells us was a hesitant public speaker at the beginning of his journey, speaks powerfully in the Book of Deuteronomy. FDR, one of the great orators in American political history, cited Parashat Eikev in his famous “Four Freedoms” speech, making the argument that modern democracies must stand for something more than the... Read more

All the Days and All the Nights

Last updated on: August 4, 2025 at 4:45 pm By Hebrew College

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By Alyssa Coffey, Editor, 70 Faces Va’etchanan Deuteronomy 3:23-7:11 Parshat Va’etchanan begins from a place of profound humility: Moshe recounts how he prayed to God, pleading for the opportunity to accompany the Israelites across the Jordan River: וָאֶתְחַנַּ֖ן אֶל־יְהֹוָ֑ה בָּעֵ֥ת הַהִ֖וא לֵאמֹֽר׃ אֲדֹנָ֣י יֱהֹוִ֗ה אַתָּ֤ה הַֽחִלּ֙וֹתָ֙ לְהַרְא֣וֹת אֶֽת־עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶ֨ת־גָּדְלְךָ֔ וְאֶת־יָדְךָ֖ הַחֲזָקָ֑ה אֲשֶׁ֤ר מִי־אֵל֙ בַּשָּׁמַ֣יִם וּבָאָ֔רֶץ אֲשֶׁר־יַעֲשֶׂ֥ה כְמַעֲשֶׂ֖יךָ וְכִגְבוּרֹתֶֽךָ׃ אֶעְבְּרָה־נָּ֗א וְאֶרְאֶה֙ אֶת־הָאָ֣רֶץ הַטּוֹבָ֔ה אֲשֶׁ֖ר בְּעֵ֣בֶר הַיַּרְדֵּ֑ן הָהָ֥ר הַטּ֛וֹב הַזֶּ֖ה וְהַלְּבָנֹֽן׃ And I pleaded with God at that time, saying: “Lord God!... Read more

A Bridge Made of Words

Last updated on: July 29, 2025 at 11:23 pm By Hebrew College

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By Rabbi Adam Lavitt, ’12, Director of Learning, Jewish Studio Project Parashat Devarim Deuteronomy 1:1-3:22 Each year, as Tisha B’Av approaches — our day of collective mourning — we carry both ancient sorrow and the ruptures of our own time. Through the poetry of Eicha and the remembrance of generations of suffering, we open to heartbreak both personal and historic. But just before we fully inhabit our grief, we hear Moses in parashat Devarim — beginning a long farewell, speaking... Read more

Are We There Ready Yet?

Last updated on: July 24, 2025 at 9:43 am By Hebrew College

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Parashat Matot Numbers 30:2-32:42 Parashat Masei Numbers 33:1-36:13 Recently, my oldest child delivered a dvar torah in honor of his high school graduation. He expressed fascination with the cloud of glory resting on the tabernacle and guiding Bnai-Yisrael through the desert, a clear signal showing where to go and when. Why, he wondered, contemplating his imminent launch into the wilderness of “adulting,” does God not provide us a cloud, and how should we navigate without it? Now, as we conclude... Read more

Reflecting Our Merits

Last updated on: July 1, 2025 at 11:49 am By Hebrew College

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Parshat Hukat Num 19:1-22:1 In the beginning of the second aliyah of Parshat Hukat, following the laws of the Parah Adumah – the red heifer – we read of the prophet Miriam’s death near the end of Israel’s desert journey. The Torah is characteristically concise: “The whole group of Israelites arrived at the wilderness of Zin in the first month, and the people stayed at Kadesh. Miriam died there and was buried there. And the group was without water, and... Read more

Reading Korach in Times of Trouble

Last updated on: June 24, 2025 at 10:19 am By Hebrew College

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By Rabbi Jessica Spencer, Hebrew College Rabbinical School `24 If you opened this week’s Torah portion looking for a comfort read, you might be disappointed. The death and destruction in the aftermath of Korach’s rebellion is made even more disquieting by our struggle to understand what was so wrong with the rebellion itself. Commentators over generations have wrestled with the text, pulling apart Korach’s words to find hidden meanings. Especially in times like these, with our hearts in the East,... Read more

Relating to the Collective

Last updated on: June 16, 2025 at 2:09 pm By Hebrew College

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Parahat Sh’lach Numbers 13:1-15:41 When I take a moment to pick my head up out of my inbox and meetings and other work, I am reminded that what enables me to move through these challenging times is relationships. Thankfully, Jewish tradition has much to say about relationships—with individuals, with places, and with ourselves— and the importance of finding ourselves grounded in a community, rather than being alone. It’s this call to connectedness that I have been carrying with me over... Read more

Elevating Sparks in the Desert of Life

Last updated on: June 11, 2025 at 12:02 pm By Hebrew College

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By Risa Dunbar In the summer of 2011, I spent six weeks in Israel on a program called Nesiya. Our group, composed of forty teens, half North American Jews and half Jewish Israelis, began with a three-day backpacking trek in the Negev. Two days after meeting, we were carrying 20-liter jerrycans and hoisting one another up desert craters. Yet what I recall most about those days wasn’t physical strain, but deep encounters of awe with a vast new landscape, strangers... Read more

The World Is “Under-Blessed”: A Call to Spiritual Generosity

Last updated on: June 4, 2025 at 12:18 pm By Hebrew College

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Parashat Nasso Deuteronomy 4:21-7:89 My late teacher, Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, of blessed memory, often said, “The world is under-blessed.” In his gentle, playful way, he reminded us that while we are quick to name what is broken or lacking, we are much slower to offer words that sanctify, uplift, and affirm the good that persists—even in the midst of hardship. He believed the world aches not only from violence and injustice, but from spiritual poverty—a drought of blessing. To say... Read more

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