Tag: Torah
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Memory and Moving Forward: A Reflection on Purim 5781
A version of this piece was originally published by SVARA: A Traditionally Radical Yeshiva. Today, I remember. I remember vividly the all-consuming sadness I felt last Purim, as the sun was setting and my celebratory seudah was ending, the last event I attended with a large Jewish community. I…
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The Importance of Hallel on Passover A Reflection on Pesachim 95
This piece was originally published as part of My Jewish Learning’s Daf Yomi page of the day Talmud project. Today’s daf opens with a Mishnah. “MISHNA: What is the difference between the Paschal lamb offered on the first Pesaḥ and the Paschal lamb offered on the second Pesaḥ? On…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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
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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…
Rabbi Lauren Tuchman 