“In the beginning…”: Returning to the Wild Depths of Creation

Last updated on: October 13, 2020 at 8:40 pm By Hebrew College

Parashat Bereishit (Genesis 1:1-6:8) By Tom Reid | Oct 08, 2020 It is an interesting time to be thinking about beginnings. Allegedly, we are in the month of October (but did we ever actually make it through March?!). As we continue to grapple with the intersecting pandemics of COVID-19, systemic racism (what some are calling COVID-1619), wildfires, and economic devastation, it is very difficult to mark beginnings and endings. A friend and former classmate of mine, McKenna Lewellen, offered a powerful description... Read more

Praying for Rain

Last updated on: October 7, 2020 at 11:36 am By Hebrew College

Shemini Atzeret By Rabbi Daniel Berman | October 07, 2020 Eight years ago I wrote a short d’var Torah for Shmini Atzeret. The topic was rain. Highlighting the theme that we’re not quite as powerful as we think, which is at the center of Sukkot and Kohelet, I wrote, “when it rains, it rains, and when there’s sun, there’s sun, and, for the most part, there’s not a thing in the world we can do to change that.” My wife, Sarah, an... Read more

The Walls That Surround Us

Last updated on: October 1, 2020 at 10:31 am By Hebrew College

Sukkot By Rabbi Avi Strausberg | Sep 30, 2020 I find that there are days when I don’t leave the house. And some days, before I settle into another day of working from home, of navigating another eight-hour day of my five-year-old’s virtual kindergarten, I step outside and just take a breath, surveying our urban DC street from our front door—the early morning runners, the dog walkers, the garbage trucks, as they pass by. The rest of what I know of... Read more

Moses and Musical Theater

Last updated on: September 23, 2020 at 10:17 pm By Hebrew College

Parashat Ha’azinu (Deuteronomy 32:1-52) By Leah Carnow | September 22, 2020 I am in a field in a small park in Wellesley, Massachusetts on a mild spring day. My partner and I are alone, seemingly the only people there on a weekday afternoon during a pandemic. I hesitate for a moment, and then, channeling Julie Andrews in the opening number of The Sound of Music, I run across the grass. I shout “ahhhhhhhhh,” as if I could fill the whole world with the... Read more

“One Thing I Ask of YHWH”: Humility & the Spiritual Search

Last updated on: September 17, 2020 at 4:04 pm By Hebrew College

Rosh Hashanah By Rabbi Or N. Rose | Sep 17, 2020 It is customary to begin reciting Psalm 27 on the first day of Elul, one month before Rosh Hashanah, continuing through Sukkot (Feast of Booths). Like the sounding of the shofar (ram’s horn), this twice-daily practice—morning and night—is intended to help us reflect on our beliefs, questions, hopes, and fears as we prepare for a new year. When I revisit the psalm this year, I find myself drawn to verse... Read more

Taste and Know

Last updated on: September 10, 2020 at 8:12 am By Hebrew College

Parashat Nitzavim-Vayelech (Deuteronomy 29:9 – 31:30) By Rabbi Minna Bromberg A bougainvillea flower. The corner of his big sister’s latest artwork. A bit of cracker lost last week and now found. The foil wrapping from the top of a wine bottle. These are just some of the things that my suddenly-crawling-everywhere eight-month-old has managed to pick up from the floor and put in his mouth in the last few days. As terrifying and guilt-inducing as it can sometimes be... Read more

Butter, Wizards, and Hope

Last updated on: September 2, 2020 at 4:57 pm By Hebrew College

Parashat Ki Tavo (Deuteronomy 26:1-29:8) By Joey Glick | Sep 02, 2020 A few weeks ago, I came across a song written in quarantine by my friend Adah Hetko: My world is my block my apartment’s my country my state is my bedroom my bed is my body My country’s full of frying butter of frying butter, my country’s full Hearing Adah’s song was a revelation. I have struggled to connect with much of the art and writing created in the COVID... Read more

Coming Down from the Rooftop

Last updated on: August 26, 2020 at 2:22 pm By Hebrew College

Parashat Ki Tetzei (Deuteronomy 21:10-25:19) By Tyler Dratch | August 26, 2020 Much can change in only one year. When we read Parasha Ki Teitzei last year, I had just, days earlier, stood under the chuppah (wedding canopy) and married my wife. It was the happiest day of my life; it was a moment overflowing with possibility. That week, a hurricane had been projected to travel up the East Coast, and yet New England was experiencing the clearest, sunniest day of... Read more

Seeking Solace in the Face of Ambiguous Loss

Last updated on: August 24, 2020 at 11:05 am By Hebrew College

Parashat Shoftim (Deuteronomy 16:18–21:9) By Rachel Adelman | August 21, 2020 “I, Indeed I am the One Who Comforts You.” (Isaiah 51:12) It has been months since the onset of the global pandemic, and we are still reeling from the seismic consequences. The psychologist, Paula Boss, in an interview with Krista Tippett, has given us conceptual language to name what we are all going through: “ambiguous loss,” a term she coined to characterize mourning that has no closure. A person may experience ambiguous... Read more

Awash in Prophecy

Last updated on: August 12, 2020 at 6:54 am By Hebrew College

Parashat Re’eh (Deuteronomy 11:26 – 16:17) By Frankie Sandmel | Aug 15, 2020 Re’eh—perceive, see, consider—I set before you blessing and curse: the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I enjoin upon you this day; and the curse if you do not obey the commandments of the LORD your God Our parashah opens with a powerful entreaty from God—you have a choice: follow my ways and be blessed, stray from my ways and be... Read more

What does "Gethsemane" mean?