Falling Wisely
Nov 2, 2018 By Sarah Wolf | Commentary | Hayyei Sarah
Hayyei Sarah offers us a scene straight out of a romantic comedy. By the middle of the parashah, Rebekah has agreed to follow Abraham鈥檚 servant back to Canaan, where she will meet and marry Isaac. Rebekah and the servant near their destination on camelback as the afternoon draws to a close, and Isaac is wandering in the fields. The mood is set for an elegant and romantic first meeting.
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The Legacy of Sodom
Oct 26, 2018 By Steven Philp | Commentary | Vayera
Following the destruction of Sodom and Gomorra, Lot and his two daughters flee to the mountains above Zoar. They are stricken with fear, having witnessed the devastation of the two cities. They grieve the dead, a vast number that includes Lot鈥檚 wife, the mother of the two women, who鈥攈aving paused to look back toward Sodom鈥攚as turned into a pillar of salt (Gen. 19:23鈥�26). It is necessary to understand the emotional frame within which they are operating, as it underlies the following narrative.
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Abram the Hebrew
Oct 19, 2018 By Jonathan Sarna | Commentary | Lekh Lekha
鈥淚 believe we have not yet appointed a Hebrew,鈥� President Abraham Lincoln wrote on November 4, 1862, to his secretary of war, Edwin M. Stanton, amidst the Civil War. Partly to rectify that imbalance, he agreed to appoint Cheme (Cherie) Moise Levy, the son-in-law of Rabbi Morris J. Raphall of New York鈥檚 Congregation B鈥檔ai Jeshurun, to be an assistant quarter-master with the rank of captain. This may have been the first example of 鈥渁ffirmative action鈥� in all of American Jewish history.
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Basic Questions
Oct 12, 2018 By Shira D. Epstein | Commentary | Noah
Early in my teaching career I worked with kindergarteners, incorporating drama into daily Judaics lessons. The holiday cycle offered developmentally appropriate treasure troves of life lessons: practicing ways to say 鈥淚’m sorry鈥� to loved ones during Tishrei; exploring Esther鈥檚 mustering of courage to speak the truth; hesitations of the Israelites to part from predictable routines in the known and familiar Egypt to try something brand-new and strange.
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Here We Go Again!
Oct 5, 2018 By Stephen P. Garfinkel | Commentary | Bereishit
What?! Starting Genesis again? We read it last fall. And we read it the year before that, and the year before that. How many times do we need to hear, 鈥淚n the beginning of God鈥檚 creating the heavens and the earth鈥� (or 鈥淲hen God began to create . . .,鈥� or the even better known, but less accurate, translation, 鈥淚n the beginning, God created heaven and earth . . .鈥�)? Really, don鈥檛 we already know that the first chapter of the Torah announces to all readers and listeners that God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh day?
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When Buildings Fall
Sep 28, 2018 By Julia Andelman | Commentary | Sukkot
From my childhood perspective growing up in an apartment building in suburban Boston, having a sukkah was a symbol of arrival鈥攁nd our family didn鈥檛 have one. Most of our friends lived in private homes, and so, with a mixture of enjoyment and jealousy, we traipsed all around town to have our yom tov meals in other people鈥檚 sukkot.
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Our Very Life
Sep 21, 2018 By Lilly Kaufman | Commentary | Ha'azinu
At the end of his life, with Joshua by his side, Moses begins his great, thunderous poem, Ha鈥檃zinu, summoning the heavens and the earth as witnesses to his powerful, angry message, as God commanded him to do in the preceding parashah, Vayelekh. And yet, in a one-verse reshut, a prayerful, wishful intention, preceding the central portion of his sermonic poem, he says he wants his words to land lightly: 鈥淢ay my discourse come down as the rain, my speech distill as the dew, like showers on young growth, like droplets on the grass鈥� (Deut. 32:2). Then suddenly, central angry theme emerges, and he calls the people 鈥渦nworthy of [God], crooked, perverse鈥� (32:5), 鈥渄ull and witless鈥� (32:6).
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Metaphorically Speaking
Sep 14, 2018 By Amy Kalmanofsky | Commentary | Shabbat Shuvah | Yom Kippur
I am sometimes surprised at how literal liberal Jews can be. Many wonder whether they can refer to God as 诪讞讬讛 诪转讬诐, Restorer of Life to the Dead, if they do not believe there is life after death. Many wonder whether they should recite the blessing which praises God for choosing Israel from among the other nations, 讗砖专 讘讞专 讘谞讜 诪讻诇 讛注诪讬诐, if they do not believe that God chose Israel.
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