Torah Reflections

Vayeira Genesis 18:1-22:24   The subject of circumcision has engendered much controversy over the past few years. Should we or should we not, as a Jewish people, continue to honor the tradition that is said to have originated with Abraham? Or is it a barbaric...

Lech Lecha Genesis 12:1-17:27 Lech Lecha marks the beginning of the Patriarchal story in the Book of Genesis. We have traveled through the confusion of Creation and the Flood, and now we are about to embark on our spiritual journey as the descendants of our mythical...

Noah Genesis 6:9-11:22   One day, my daughter—who was 10 at the time—came home from the Jewish day-school she attended with an assignment to write a short essay about the opening verses of Noah:                This is the line of Noah.—Noah was a righteous man;...

B'reishit Genesis 1:1-6:8   We are accustomed to reading the opening verse of Torah as “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” but the Hebrew text is pregnant with esoteric interpretations that go far beyond that simple statement. For starters,...

V'Zot Ha-Brachah Deuteronomy 33:1-34:12   “Never again did there arise in Israel a prophet like Moses, whom the Eternal knew face to face, for all the signs and portents that the Eternal sent him to perform in the land of Egypt…and for all the great might and...

HaAzinu Deuteronomy 32:1-52   Chutzpah. Whether Jewish or not, almost everyone knows this Hebrew/Yiddish word. The dictionary defines it as “unmitigated effrontery or impudence, gall, nerve, courage bordering on arrogance.” But there is a much deeper...

Ki Tavo Deuteronomy 26:1 - 29:8 Sometimes it seems that the fast-approaching High Holy Days come way too early. The waning days of summer are still warm and inviting, kids are just starting back to school, gardens still need tending and harvesting—who has time to...

Ki Teitzei Deuteronomy 21:10 - 25:19 As we come to the second half of the book of Deuteronomy, Parshat Ki Teitzei contains a record of individual, familial, and communal laws and mitzvot. In the passage that pertains to individual vows, we read: “Guard what comes...

Shof'tim Deuteronomy 16:18 - 21:9 In the middle of this week’s parashah is one of the pithiest yet most powerful verses in all of Torah: Tamim tih’yeh im YHVH Eloheicha—Be whole with the Eternal One your God. [Deut. 18:13] We have noted elsewhere—from the teachings of...

Eikev Deuteronomy 7:12 - 11:25 A few verses into this week’s parashah bring us to one of the most famous sayings in Torah, tucked in the middle of an extraordinary verse: “God let you live in want and hunger, and then He fed you manna, which neither you nor your...

VaEtchanan Deuteronomy 3:1 - 7:11 This week’s Torah portion is awash in an abundance of themes. It includes Moses’ plea to God to commute his death sentence so that he may enter the Promised Land along with the people he has led for forty years. It speaks of the three...

D'varim Deuteronomy 1:1 - 3:22 “Eleh ha-D’varim—These are the words that Moses spoke to all of Israel….” (Deut.1:1) With these words we begin the fifth and final book of the Torah, in which Moses both retells and explains the foundational myth of the Hebrew people....