Rabbi Lauren Tuchman

Tag: Jewish

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • Grief, Mourning and Rage: A Spiritual Response and Call To Action for White Folks

    Grief, Mourning and Rage: A Spiritual Response and Call To Action for White Folks

    In this audio teaching, I offer a response for this moment. Grief, Mourning and Rage: A Spiritual Response For This Moment

  • Behar 5780

    Behar 5780

    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…

  • Behar 5779

    Parashat Behar, our Torah reading for this week, introduces us to the Shmita year. Every seven years, Leviticus/Vayikra instructs us that the land must lie fallow—no agricultural or food production is permitted and there are a number of other restrictions put into place as well. The number seven holds great…

  • Emor 5777

    Author’s note: This commentary was written in May, 2017, in the Jewish year 5777 and was significantly updated in 5779. The LORD spoke further to Moses: Speak to Aaron and say: No man of your offspring throughout the ages who has a defect shall be qualified to offer the food…

  • Kedoshim 5779

    It has become something of a cliché in the circles I run in these days that when a teacher of Torah or a clergyperson from any religious tradition, for that matter, sits down to write a sermon, the sermon they often write is that which they most need to hear.…

  • Our Covenant Includes All: Thoughts on Deuteronomy 29

    Our chapter is largely concerned with HaShem telling the Children of Israel what will befall them if they stray from the covenant which, it is emphasized, includes everyone, those who are there on that day and those who are not. If the Children of Israel uphold our covenant with HaShem…