Bamidbar 5780 Parashat Bamidbar, which Jews the world over just completed, is chiefly concerned with an extensive census of military-aged men and a meticulous description of the manners by which each tribe camped and traveled. The parsha opens the fourth book of the Torah, known in English as Numbers owing to the opening census and in Hebrew as Bamidbar,...[ read more ]
This week marks the tenth Shabbat since I have been in shul, davening with a minyan. Each Shabbat morning as I arise, put on my tallit and prepare to pray the morning or Shacharit service, I cannot but feel the absence of friends, the silence without melodious harmonization, and the void left without a physical community to be amongst. This...[ read more ]
New Accessible Jewish Paradigm shifts in the Wake of COVID-19 March 20, 2020 This week has been a challenging and uncertain one for our world. We know we’re in this for the long haul, that things are going to get worse before they get better. Many of us feel profoundly unmoored as mainstays of our lives are temporarily closing....[ read more ]
Parashat Terumah begins a series of parshiyot or Torah portions chiefly focused on the construction of the Mishkan or portable sanctuary for The Divine which the Jewish people carried with us in the desert. In the second verse of our parsha, we learn that all of the children of Israel are asked to contribute physical material gifts towards the Mishkan’s...[ read more ]
This week’s Torah portion, Parashat Bo, contains within it some of the most famous incidents in the Torah. The final plagues of locusts, darkness and the death of the firstborn are mentioned, as well as the introduction of the Passover offering and the observance of Passover as an eternally relevant festival in the life and collective national memory of the...[ read more ]
This reflection originally appeared as part of the 929 Project, the study of a chapter of the Jewish Bible or Tanakh each day. Our chapter, the final in the Book of Isaiah, presents us with a variety of contrasting and paradoxical motifs. A beautiful, redemptive conjuring of Yerushalayim is juxtaposed with the ways in which those who do evil in...[ read more ]
4 Tishrei, 5780/October 3, 2019 The following remarks were presented as part of a public event sponsored by Join for Justice at Temple Beth Zion in Brookline, Massachusetts on October 3, 2019. The event featured Rabbis Lauren Tuchman and Becky Silverstein. Organizing for Liberation with Rabbis Lauren Tuchman and Becky Silverstein Shanah tovah and gmar chatimah tovah! A...[ read more ]
November 1, 2019 In the opening verse of our parsha this week, we learn that Noach was a righteous man in his generation. Our sages have made much of this descriptor. One of the greatest gifts our Torah gives us in my understanding is that we get a glimpse of the raw and real humanness of our ancestors. In...[ read more ]
December 7, 2019 The following remarks were presented as part of a lunch and learn at DC Minyan in Washington, D.C. Shabbat shalom! Before I begin, I’d like to first thank the SC and everyone who has brought me to be with you all today. It is truly an honor and privilege. I wanted to spend a few minutes...[ read more ]
What To Do With Unbearable Suffering Rabbi Lauren Tuchman Torah 2020 Parashat Chayei Sarah 5780 November 14, 2019 Throughout the centuries, our commentators have puzzled over the opening of this week’s parsha. Why, they ask, is our parsha called Chayei Sarah—the life of Sarah—when it opens by recording Sarah’s death at the age of 127? What meaning are we...[ read more ]
