Parashat Terumah (Exodus 25:1-27:19) By Leah Carnow | February 1, 2022 As a child, I loved “The Wizard of Oz.” Although I grew up watching plenty of movies in color, I remember feeling amazed as Dorothy swirled from the black and white world of Kansas to the colorful world of Oz. The yellow brick road, the blue and white gingham dress, and, of course, the shiny ruby slippers, are etched in my memory. To see the world in rainbow color... Read more
Parshat Mishpatim (Exodus 21:1–24:18) By Rabbi Avi Strausberg | January 24, 2022 After about eight months of not seeing my 96-year-old grandmother and still deep in the pandemic without a clear end in sight, my wife and I decided we couldn’t afford to let another six months go by without a visit. We loaded our two small kids into the car and drove the five hours from DC to the Bronx in order to see my grandmother. We stood outside... Read more
Parashat Yitro (Exodus 18:1–20:23) By Rabbi David Maayan | January 18, 2022 This week’s Torah reading gives us the opportunity to reflect upon the value of distance, as well as closeness in our relationships, even with the Divine. It centers on the climactic moments of the Mount Sinai revelation, a paradigm for Jews of a direct encounter with the Divine. Rabbinic tradition does not speak of the “Ten Commandments,” but rather of the aseret ha-diberot, the “Ten Utterances.” This term... Read more
Parshat Beshallach (Exodus 13:17–17:16) By Naomi Gurt Lind | January 11, 2022 Some parshiyot are so eventful it’s hard to believe it all fits into one parsha. Beshallach is like that. In Parshat Beshallach, miracles large and small tumble by like waves. The story begins with God sending the Israelites toward the wilderness after they finally leave Egypt. Going the direct way would have taken this fractious, traumatized people in the line of fire of an ongoing battle, so instead... Read more
Parashat Bo (Exodus 10:1-13:16) By Rabbi Tiferet Berenbaum | January 5, 2022 “Turn it and turn it for everything is in it,” we read in Pirkei Avot 5:22—“it” being the Torah. Elsewhere in Pirkei Avot we read, “Torah k’neged kulam,” Torah is relevant to everything. These verses are often cited when we are searching for a connection between our current realities and the Torah text. This week’s parasha, however, requires no such justification. Parashat Bo describes the final three plagues... Read more
Parasha Vaera (Exodus 6:2-9:35) By Rabbi Jim Morgan | Dec 30, 2021 We approach Parashat Vaera at a particularly dark time and on the cusp of the secular new year, when the impulse towards retrospection feels irresistible. Indeed, I began this year of 2021 with great hope, both personally and nationally. I work as a geriatric chaplain, and had scheduled my first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine for the morning of January 6, 2021, which was also the day that Congress... Read more
Shemot (Exodus 1:1–6:1) By Rev. Tom Reid | Dec 21, 2021 The episode of the “Burning Bush” (Exodus 3-4) is one of the most well-known in all of the TaNaKh (Hebrew Bible). As a graduate of the University of Kansas, this episode often makes me think of the seal of my alma mater, which features Moses kneeling before the burning bush—an embodied symbol of the scholar kneeling humbly before wisdom, thus bringing a holy aura to the academic pursuit of... Read more
Parashat Vayechi (Genesis 47:28–50:26) By Rabbi Neal Gold | December 13, 2021 Does Judaism have a “secret handshake”—a coded way of “speaking Jewish” within the family, so to speak? A wonderful midrash offers a whimsical take on that question. In the final chapter of Genesis, we read of the deaths of both Jacob and Joseph. And we learn that the Israelites’ standing in Egypt has changed radically during the years between the demise of father and son. Jacob was buried... Read more
Parashat Vayigash (Genesis 44:18–47:27) By Rabbi Max Edwards | December 7, 2021 After many years of distance between Jacob and his son Joseph, we read of a remarkable reunion in Parashat Vayigash. Certain that Joseph died long ago, it takes a moment for Jacob to internalize the words of his children who inform him that Joseph, his beloved son, is still alive and thriving in Egypt: They went up from Egypt and came to their father Jacob in the land... Read more
Parashat Miketz, Genesis 41:1–44:17 By Rav Hazzan Ken Richmond | December 01, 2021 Hanukkah always arrives at a dark time of year, when we in New England are feeling the urge to hibernate. The days are shorter, the weather colder; Shabbat begins and ends in the late afternoon. The outside activities and pleasures of summer and fall are diminishing, along with the chances to socialize, to linger, to eat with friends outdoors. Despite having experienced these seasonal shifts annually for... Read more
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