I created a self-guided Torah study for this week’s parsha: Vayishlach.
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This week's parsha is Re'eh, and we are in the valley. We are not on the mountain of blessing or on the mountain of curses. We are not on the extreme of ‘do every mitzvah flawlessly’ and neither are we on the extreme of ‘do nothing but wickedness.’
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I was invited by T’ruah (the rabbinic call for human rights) to write a d’var Torah for this week’s parsha for their weekly (M)oral Torah. Having an opportunity to write about any social justice issue, anything that keeps me up at night, I considered many possible themes from Vayekhel before I accepted that what I needed to write was personal.
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Sometimes our students pick up on things we didn’t realize we were teaching.
Sometimes our legacy gives illuminating insight about our lives.
Our parsha this week is Chaye Sarah, which means the life - or really lives - of Sarah.
It is also the bat mitzvah parsha of my student Tamar.
Eve: “Pinky swear?” I reached out toward my camera with my pinky.
God: “Pinky swear.” God smiled and reached back toward me.
We pinky swore through the screen, folding distances of all kinds.
Today is a dawn to dusk fast day.
Yeah. The day after Rosh HaShanah.
Today we remember Gedaliah, but who was he, anyway?
We are out here in the field.
This field that is here for us.
The Queen is here, too.
I am so very honored to share a guest post!
My student Evan Hymes, a member of Mount Zion Temple, has given me permission to share his words of Torah on Naso, and quite honestly, I find them brilliant. He shared them yesterday on the bima at Mount Zion.
I’m thinking about God in new ways because of Evan, and you might, too.
He celebrated becoming bar mitzvah on May 27th, 2023, 7 Sivan 5783.
Mazel Tov & lots of love, Evan! You did it!
The first thing you need to know is this: I do not know when Elmer died.
Well, that’s not entirely true.
I know he died in October.
Seven months ago.
And also before you know that you also need to know that this is a draft.
A first draft.
I am writing without a plan and anything could happen.
The second thing you need to know is that I found out that Elmer died on Wednesday.
Not “a” Wednesday.
Wednesday.
Two days ago.
Maybe when we pray, maybe when we take our love and our kindness and breathe life into it so it can live in the world, maybe when we come together and care for one another, maybe we are creating a dimensional experience where we activate something on God’s side of the screen.
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However we make sense of this, tending these lamps is our job. You see, it isn’t only Aaron and his descendants who are priests. Back in Exodus 19:5-6 we learn that we are to be a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation. Elevating one another’s light? That’s up to us. So I want to invite us to read it this way: We are the lamps and we are the ones charged with tending them. It is not our job to create sparks of life. It is our job to nurture life sparks for one another so that each and all of our flames can rise.
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It’s the 6th anniversary of my decision to wear a kippah all the time, and reflecting on that today has gotten me thinking. Tonight, the night after yesterday's election, feels really different for me than it once might have because November 9, 2016 has become my baseline.
Tonight, I feel pretty grounded and okay enough.
Better than I anticipated I might.
You?
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How might we make sense of what is often a nonsensicle world and to manage a relationship with God with maturity and honesty about the pervasiveness of our experience of moral disorder?
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NEW WITH AUDIO! Listen to my NEW d’var Torah for Bresheet.
(Or read it - that’s still an option, too!)
I doubt what I’m about to write is going to make anyone feel better.Let’s just be clear about that.
"We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled," Justice Alito wrote in the opinion Justices Clarence Thomas, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett all backed. "The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision. . . ."
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One of my favorite things is talking Torah with my students.
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V’etchanan, this week’s parsha. V’etchanan, which means, “I pleaded.”
Maybe when we are charged to love God with our whole two-vet hearts, we are charged with remembering that we are created in God’s image and charged with having hearts that reflect the hearts of one another.
Lonely, sits the city once great with people. She that was great among nations has become a widow. The princess among states has fallen under their power. She weeps bitterly. Her friends offer no comfort. Her allies have betrayed her. Empty of festival pilgrims, her gates are deserted. My eyes flow with tears.
Every year we chant these words on Tisha B’Av and are reminded that lament deserves our time. Pain will not be forgotten, but can be held. There is no just future without having an honest reckoning with our past.
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In this d’var Torah, I’m about to share a pretty personal story with you. Most of the time, when we donate blood, or volunteer, or help someone who plans to give remember to stay hydrated, or advocate for science-informed and inclusive donor eligibility policy, the person whose life we are sustaining on the other side of that donation is marvelously ordinary. They are probably so scared. We are helping them hold onto their muchness. And maybe that blood will be all they need. Or, more likely, that blood will mix in with the blood of lots of other people, and all together a life gets sustained. Beth Jacob’s Blood Drive this year is next week on Sunday, January 19, from 8:30-2:30. Donate there. Donate somewhere. Volunteer.
Please do consider committing one of your days to helping someone like me have another one.
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Chanukah Shall we start with the brass-tacks? The stuff we need to know so anything else makes any kind of sense? For me, the miracle of the oil is that beyond all reason, they decided to light it. They rededicated the Temple because there was enough for today. They were enough for today. What a miracle it is when we can take a breath and remember that we are enough. We are enough in this day. And in this day we dedicate ourselves to bringing all of the light and joy and hope and justice and peace and love to the world that we can. T
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