By Maharat Rori Picker Neiss
• Published December 21, 2023
Were I to be the director of the film version of our biblical stories, a moment in this week’s Torah portion would certainly be one that I would design as a climax.
We open with a speech by Judah, the longest oration in the Book of Genesis, as he...
BY RABBI ELIZABETH HERSH
• Published December 14, 2023
“And removing his signet ring from his hand, Pharaoh put it on Joseph’s hand; and he had him dressed in robes of fine linen and put a gold chain around his neck.” (Genesis 41:42)
Joseph arrived in Egypt as a slave and rose to the second...
For the past 15 years, I’ve had the pleasure of working alongside my wife. People often ask us whether it’s difficult to live and work together, and the truth is I really can’t imagine it any other way. We both like to talk about everything from...
By Rabbi Brigitte Rosenberg
• Published November 30, 2023
Occasionally there are moments in Torah that are extremely difficult, and this week’s parashah, Vayishlach, offers us one such moment.
Dinah, the daughter of Leah and Jacob, is noticed by Shechem, a prince of the area, and the text tells us that...
Rabbi Rachel Kay Bearman
• Published November 15, 2023
In this week’s Torah portion, Toldot, we read of yet another set of biblical siblings who are opposites and rivals. Because of its economy of writing, the Torah seems to focus on plot-driving, sibling strife, but every time that I read Genesis, I find...
Rabbi James Stone Goodman
• Published November 8, 2023
We bring down a clue from the Zohar, classic text of Jewish mysticism, that there was something chaser (missing) in Abraham’s generation that we are still struggling with, those of us who are its inheritors. The clues are everywhere written, and not...
Over these last terrible weeks, so many people in our community and around the world have been struggling with very big questions as they try to get a grasp on the war in Israel. I cannot remember another time in my rabbinate when I’ve heard from so...
Rabbi Lane Steinger, Rabbi Emeritus, Shir Hadash Reconstructionist Community
• Published October 23, 2023
About a week before a Shabbat or Yom Tov, I peruse the Torah Portion for that particular occasion. Generally, I focus on one or two parts of the Parashah, into which I delve more deeply. When Shabbat Lekh L’kha approaches, I go over the Portion from...
CANTOR AND RABBI RON EICHAKER
• Published October 12, 2023
Starting this week, I am leading a study of a course offered at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill by professor Joseph Lam titled “Creation Stories of the Ancient World.”
At the same time, we are beginning the reading and study...
By Rabbi Brigitte Rosenberg
• Published October 5, 2023
This week we joyously celebrate the bounty of our lives during the festival of Sukkot. Even though most of us are not farmers, we think about the cycles of nature and, more specifically, the harvest season.
If we were farmers, while focusing on the...
Is it possible to change? Can we actually make the world, or others, or even ourselves better?
A well-known folktale from our Jewish tradition tells of a king who had a wayward son. In anger and frustration, the king banishes his son from the kingdom....
Philip Roth was a controversial Jewish author, to say the least. I enjoyed reading his writing, and one of his books, in particular, was very impactful in my youth. It was the collection of short stories entitled “Goodbye Columbus.”
The title...
