Tag: Torah
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Behar 5782
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 in addition. As it so happens, 5782…
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Pesach 5782 On The Seder As A Living Experience
This piece can now be found on ExploringJudaism.com as part of EJ’s 5784 Passover Reader. Download the entire reader here. On seder night, we embark on a holy commemorative journey through the Haggadah as we move spiritually and temporally from degradation to praise. We do not merely recount by rote…
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Finding My Possibility Model
A version of the below piece originally appeared as part of Hot Off The Shtender, a series of reflection pieces from SVARA. It is hard, nay impossible, to adequately capture the feelings that came over me when I learned about the passing of a dear friend: the fierce and…
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Shabbat HaChodesh 5782
I wish to dedicate this dvar Torah to the memory of Sheryl Grossman. Her love of Torah and her steadfast, unapologetic commitment to justice for people with disabilities will remain with me always. She taught me that one could both be a lover of Torah and a fighter for justice…
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On The Lessons We Can Learn from Queens Esther and Vashti: Purim 5782
Purim is a holiday filled with paradox. It is simultaneously the happiest festival on the Jewish calendar and a day on which we reckon with all of the ways in which we experience brokenness in our world and in our communities. We are feeling that keenly this year in particular…
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Rabbi Lauren Tuchman Interviewed in Lilith Magazine
From Moses To COVID: Rabbi Lauren Tuchman On Disability Inclusion
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Torah From A Mussar Perspective Vayeshev 5782
The below commentary first appeared as part of Torah From A Mussar Perspective through the Mussar Institute. Parshat Vayeshev contains within it the multi-faceted story of Judah and Tamar. Judah, Jacob and Leah’s fourth son, has journeyed away from his brothers and has married a woman named Shua with…
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Thoughts For Yom Kippur 5782
Yom Kippur is often translated into English as the Jewish day of atonement, though I feel that this is a mistranslation. Yom Kippur’s awesomeness, in the literal sense of the word, is that the Jewish tradition provides us with a 25-hour period, Shabbat Shabbaton (the sabbath of sabbaths) to focus…
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The Heart Knows the Bitterness Of Its Soul: Experience As An Integral Expression of Holiness
With the marking of Rosh Chodesh Elul this week, the Jewish tradition invites us into the holiest months of the year. It’s a time for personal introspection and stock-taking, a time to ask ourselves about the people we want to be in the new year. This Elul is particularly significant…
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Bamidbar 5781
This week, we begin the fourth book of the Torah, Sefer Bamidbar. In Hebrew, bamidbar means wilderness or desert. In English, the title Numbers derives from the multiple censuses taken throughout the book. Bamidbar is a much more apt title for the journey that we will be taking these next…
Rabbi Lauren Tuchman 