Ki Tavo (Exodus 26:1-29:8) By Rabbi Brian Besser | August 23, 2021 During upcoming High Holiday services, we will shortly confront one of the most theologically disturbing prayers in all Jewish liturgy, the Unetaneh Tokef, which begins: “On Rosh Hashanah it is written and on Yom Kippur it is decreed . . . who shall live and who shall die . . . . ” One year, a congregant, Jen Richler, came to me to discuss the spiritual disaffection that the... Read more
Parshat Ki Teitzei (Deuteronomy 21:10-25:19) By Rabbi Shira Shazeer | August 17, 2021 It is the month of Elul. In just a few weeks we’ll reach the High Holy Days, our yearly attempt to start fresh, to get things right. As I write these words though, I am keenly aware, and I imagine you are too, of the baggage that we, as a global society, will be bringing with us into the new year. Each Yom Kippur, we repeat the vidui, the liturgical, alphabetical list... Read more
Parashat Shoftim (Deuteronomy 16:18–21:9) By Rafi Ellenson | August 9, 2021 Now that Elul has begun, I am once again undertaking the process of chesbon ha’nefesh—accounting of the soul. Reflecting on the year that was, I meditate on moments I fell short and times when I could have been better to my loved ones, as well as to the greater community around me. Frankly, it is hard not to wince when thinking of particularly embarrassing or shameful incidents. And while, fortunately, these instances... Read more
Parshat Re’eh (Deuteronomy 11:26-16:17) By Rabbi Shira Shazeer | August 5, 2021 The following was originally posted on August 7, 2018. Rereading this Dvar Torah, three years later, it strikes me how innumerable individual choices still make the difference between whether our lives as a community are like heaven or hell on earth, just as surely as they did when I shared this story last, as they did when I heard the story years before, and as they did when the... Read more
Parshat Eikev (Deuteronomy 7:12–11:25) By Rabbi Avi Strausberg | July 26, 2021 We live in a time beyond the wondrous miracles that God performed for the Israelites in the wilderness. There are no staffs that turn into snakes or seas that split before our eyes. While we may discover the miraculous in small moments of wonder, the big miracles, the miracles that defy the laws of nature, these are a thing of the past. In Parshat Eikev, Moshe reminds the Israelites... Read more
Parashat Va’etchanan (Deuteronomy 3:23–7:11) By Rabbi Minna Bromberg | July 23, 2021 So take care of your soul, my friend, she is far more precious than gold. Every evening for months and months now, I have started my 19-month-old’s bedtime songs with these words. They are from Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld’s interpretation of a 16th-century North African piyut (a Jewish liturgical poem) and to me they call on each of us to honor and protect the preciousness and brilliance of every... Read more
Parashat Devarim (Deuteronomy 1:1–3:22) Naomi Gurt Lind | July 13, 2021 I never get tired of saying this: the Torah is always right on time. Last Shabbat we came to what felt like a stopping place at the end of Bamidbar (the Book of Numbers). With the journey to the Promised Land seemingly about to be realized, God spoke through Moshe one last time, summarizing the laws and commandments that the Israelites should follow for eternity. Cities of refuge were established, each tribal chief... Read more
Mattot-Masei (Numbers 30:2–36:13) By Rabbi Avi Killip | July 2, 2021 The first time I made a vow, I surprised myself. I was angry that my hometown baseball team moved to a new stadium in a different neighborhood and I declared—with great indignation—that I would never set foot in the new stadium! Less than a year later, I went to the stadium. Was this the first time I made a vow? Probably not. I must have made similar declarations before, usually from... Read more
Parashat Pinchas (Numbers 25:10-30:1) By Rachel Adelman | June 30, 2021 I dedicate this essay to two of my BeMidbar students, Ken Richmond (spring 2020) and Sara Blumenthal (spring 2021), who presented on this topic in my class and inspired many of these insights. The story of Pinchas and the apostasy of Baal Peor straddles two Torah readings: the end of Parashat Balak (Numbers 25:1-9) and the opening of this week’s reading, Parashat Pinchas (25:10-15). The story begins when the Israelites... Read more
Parashat Balak (Numbers 22:2–25:9) By Naomi Gurt Lind | June 22, 2021 Pssst! Have you heard the one about the talking donkey? Parshat Balak has a bit of a reputation. Between the talking donkey, the two main characters with just-similar-enough names, and its position in the Torah cycle as the mother of all tangents, Balak is hard to pin down. It’s tempting to underestimate its theological import, but as any follower of the Marx Brothers or Sarah Silverman can tell you, just... Read more
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