Parashat Vayechi (Genesis 47:28-50:26) This Shabbat, we complete the first full week of the new secular decade. The beginning of the year 2020 has inspired many to look back over the last 10, 20, or more years, reflecting on the changes we have seen in our personal lives and in the world at large, to speculate on where the decades to come will take us, and how we will shape the future for ourselves, our children and the world. Reaching... Read more
By Rabbi Micha’el Rosenberg Miketz (Genesis 41:1-44:17) When you know a story very well, it’s easy to take its twists and turns, its assumptions and its surprises for granted. So it is with a moment at the beginning of this week’s Torah reading, Miketz. While Joseph remains forgotten in jail, the Pharaoh of Egypt has dreamed two dreams — the first about two successive sets of cows, the one fatty and the latter lean, and another about similarly-sized sheaves of... Read more
By Rabbi Avi Strausberg Parshat Vayeishev (Genesis 37:1-40:23) We have dreamed a dream and there is no one to interpret it. This verse from this week’s Parshat Vayeishev strikes me as painfully sad. It is the voice of two people who are lost and disempowered, who find themselves unable to make meaning of the world around them. In this week’s parsha, Joseph, after refusing the advances of Pharaoh’s wife, finds himself thrown into the dungeon, with the Chief Baker and... Read more
Parashat Vayeitzei (Genesis 28:10-32:3) A few summers ago, my family was camping in Franconia Notch in New Hampshire’s White Mountains. We had spent many hours hiking up Cannon Mountain. As we reached the top, we climbed the lookout tower which enables one, on a clear day, to see for miles around into several states. Upon seeing the view, our youngest son shouted out in Yiddish (our family language), word by word, “Ikh! Ken! Zen! Di! Gantse! Velt!” “I! Can! See!... Read more
By Rabbi Carol Glass Parshat Toldot (Genesis 25:19-28:9) My teacher and colleague Rabbi Marc Margolius points out that Toldot begins with two assumptions common to the narrative style throughout Genesis. First is the perception that parental love (as expressed through a father’s blessing) is finite, and dependent on merit. The second is the presumption of hierarchy between or among siblings, with its resulting envy, intrigue, competition and anguish. In Toldot, this week’s Torah portion, we see these themes play out... Read more
Parshat Chayei Sarah (Genesis 23:1-25:18) By Sara Gardner When I was first assigned to write about this week’s parsha, Chayei Sarah (Genesis 23) I couldn’t help but be impressed by the coincidence. Putting aside the obvious overlap in name, I have always found Sarah, our originating matriarch, a fascinating figure who escapes easy categorization. Indeed, one of my favorite moments that displays Sarah’s vibrant spirit comes a few chapters earlier in Genesis 18, when it’s announced that Sarah will have... Read more
Parashat Vayera (Genesis 18:1-22:24) By Rabbi Jessica Kate Meyer, Rab`14 God walks into the tent of a 99 year-old man, and declares: a year from now, your 90 year-old wife will give birth to a child. The 90 year-old woman, ear pressed against the tent-flap, spontaneously erupts into laughter. A few scenes later, we read—ה׳ פקד את שרה God remembered, tended to Sarah, and she gave birth to Isaac. But I want to rewind to that previous scene. A year... Read more
Parashat Lech Lecha (Genesis 12:1-17:27) By Batya Ellinoy This week’s Torah portion begins with God’s great call to Avram — Judaism’s “founding father” — to go forth from his land, from his home, and from his family, to a land that God will show him. God tells Avram that by doing so, he will be both blessed and a blessing (Genesis 12:1-2). Avram responds to this call by embarking on a harrowing journey with his spouse Sarai and their nephew... Read more
Parashat Noach (Genesis 6:9-11:32) Noah is a man of little faith. This is what Rashi, the great commentator on the Torah, tells us. This sets the bar pretty high. If Noah — who builds the ark and gathers all of the animals at God’s request — is not a man of great faith, what could faith possibly look like? Rashi makes this claim at the very moment that Noah enters the ark. In chapter seven verse 7, we are told... Read more
By Joey Glick Parashat B’reishit (Genesis 1:1-6:8) I said to the sun tell me about the Big Bang The sun said, “It hurts to become.” – Andrea Gibson, I Sing the Body Electric On the first day of the Hebrew month of Elul, I was sitting in the lobby of the Cambridge city courthouse. The night before, I had been arrested with a group of Jews at a protest in solidarity with undocumented immigrants. My fellow protesters and I were... Read more
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