Author: rabbituchman

  • The First Blind Female Rabbi Is Making Sure She Won’t Be The Last

    https://forward.com/culture/464331/lauren-tuchman-may-be-the-first-blind-female-rabbi-but-shes-working-not-to/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Main&fbclid=IwAR1reiw2x5s1mprMByhsovllwBAAxwxjzLDr2d0Xk9WZQ_-MR4wOkm9x6-E  

  • Torah From A Mussar Perspective Mishpatim 5781

    Torah From A Mussar Perspective Mishpatim 5781

    During this pandemic time, I have found myself frequently moving between periods of normal energy and periods of considerable fatigue. I note that the latter is not unexpected, given all that has occurred in our world and in my own life this past year. Yet, I yearn to emerge from…

  • Vayetze 5781 — The Humanity Of Our Ancestors

    Vayetze 5781 — The Humanity Of Our Ancestors

    There’s something so richly rewarding about returning again and again to our foundational stories in sefer Bereshit year after year. As we learn in Perkei Avot, often translated imprecisely as ethics of our fathers, turn it turn it, for everything is in it. I approach Torah year after year with…

  • Bereshit 5781

    Bereshit 5781

    After a Tishrei like no other, here we are, beginning our Torah anew, just as we do every year. Bereshit, like all of the parshiyot in Genesis is filled with foundational ideas and narratives. In the opening perek/chapter, we are told that human beings are created b’tzelem Elokim—in the image…

  • Wisdom And Reflections For A Very Different New Year: Seeking The Divine Face

    Wisdom And Reflections For A Very Different New Year: Seeking The Divine Face

    This piece originally appeared as part of the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington’s Wisdom and Reflection For A Very Different New Year series in 5780/2020. Psalm 27, which we traditionally recite twice daily from the beginning of Elul through Hoshana Raba is one of my favorites. It is emotionally complex…

  • The Plurality of Mourning Shabbat Nachamu 5780

    The Plurality of Mourning Shabbat Nachamu 5780

    This piece originally appeared on SVARA: A Traditionally Radical Yeshiva. Nachamu Nachamu ami, “comfort, comfort my people,”— the opening words of the Haftorah from the book of Isaiah, which we will read this Shabbat, ring particularly poignant this year. What does it mean for us to move from a period of…

  • Voices from the Bookshare Community: Rabbi Tuchman is Champion of Disability Inclusion

    https://benetech.org/voices-from-bookshare-community-rabbi-tuchman-champion-disability-inclusion/

  • A Reflection For The Three Weeks 5780

    A Reflection For The Three Weeks 5780

    With every passing year, the enduring wisdom and beauty of the Jewish calendar never ceases to surprise me and give me newfound insight. I’ve been thinking these past few weeks about the upcoming period of The Three Weeks, a period of collective mourning for the Jewish people which begins on…

  • Bahaalotekha 5780

    Bahaalotekha 5780

    Our parsha or Torah portion this week is parashat Bahaalotekha, the third parsha in Sefer Bamidbar or the book of Numbers. We are introduced to Pesach Sheni or Second Passover in this parsha, which was instituted upon request of some Israelites who were unable to offer the Passover sacrifice at…