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Shemot 5783 – We Shall Overcome

There will not be a dvar Torah today, there will be a dvarette or a dvarala, if you prefer.

Shemot, names. There are many names you will recognize that you will be hearing in a few minutes in today’s Torah Reading.

In exile in Egypt, the Jewish people increased in number from being a family to become […]

Vayechi 5783 – Foregiveness

The book of Genesis ends in parshah Vayechi with three significant scenes. First, Jacob blesses his grandsons, Efraim and Menashe. Second, Jacob blesses his 12 sons. Third, after the death of Jacob, the brothers asked Joseph to forgive them for selling him into slavery, which he does. Evidently, the brothers harbor the suspicion that Joseph […]

Vayigash 5783 – Wholeness (Not Perfection

If we zoom out for a moment on Genesis there are any number of injustices that highlight the first book of Torah.  For example: Cain kills Abel and walks; Lots daughters rape their father; Abraham lies about his wife twice, attempts to sacrifice his son, and becomes a patriarch; Jacob deceives his own family members […]

Vayishlah 5783 – Jacob’s Transformation is Our Own

A recent subject of National Public Radio’s show called RadioLab, was “transformations.” Examples were given of how, sometimes surprisingly, people are not necessarily locked in to a specific pattern of behavior. Behavior can and sometimes does change. This is an appropriate theme for my D’var Torah, as it relates to Jacob, because today’s parashah is […]

Vayeitzei 5783

Vayeitzei, “and he went out.”  In this Parsha, Jacob went out from Be’er Sheva to Charan.  But did he only go out geographically or on another level?  Did Jacob in his search for a wife, also go in search of a life?  Why was it necessary?  For his personal and spiritual evolution did he need […]

Chaye Sarah 5783

What a strange title for this week’s Parsha. Chaye Sarah means “Life of Sarah”. Doesn’t the Parsha deal, among other things with the death of Sarah? And isn’t the most time spent finding a wife for Isaac?Perhaps the Parsha should be titled “Mas Sarah”, Death of Sarah, or “Isaac Gets a Wife”?

Sarah dies at the […]

Vayera 5783 – Abraham’s Chutzpah – the Foundation of Judaism

Well, things hadn’t been going so well. Adam and Eve screwed up their cushy surroundings in the Garden, Cain displayed his anger management problems in the most violent of ways. The Tower of Babel demonstrated the hubris that humans could have. Build a tower to the heavens? Why not? Gd created order, but humans created […]

Bereshit 5783 – Reconciling Shame

One of the many stories in Bereshit is that of Adam and Eve. In particular it is the shame that Adam and Eve experience upon eating the forbidden fruit. Rabbi Manis Friedman, co-author of “Living a Life that Matters” relates Adam and Eve’s emotional response to these three aspects of shame: 1) humility, embarrassment and […]

Ha’zinu 5783 – Past and Future

Today’s Torah portion is Ha’azinu, the 2nd to last portion, getting near the end of the Torah. The sidra begins with the song/poem that Moses introduced at the end of the last Parashah, Vayelech. Through a variety of metaphors, G-d’s faithfulness to the Israelites in the past and into the future is extolled. This contrasts […]

Yom Kippur 5783 – May Their Memory be a Blessing

With the high death rate attributed to Covid over the past couple of years, the war in Ukraine, and the passing of Queen Elizabeth last month, we have been inundated with death. Many within our community lost loved ones during this time, and the world has faced astronomical levels of death.  1.06 million people have […]