Parashat Toldot (Genesis 25:19-28:9) By Naomi Gurt Lind Growing up, there was a time when one of my siblings received a gift I really wished had been mine. (It was a snow globe, if you must know.) I very nicely asked if I could have a turn with it and as soon as it was in my hand, I threw it across the room. I only meant to show how upset I was, but of course the laws of physics had... Read more
By Rabbi Shira Shazeer RS ‘10 Parashat Vayeira (Genesis 18:1-22:24) “I really prefer Semitism,” one of my teens remarked around the Shabbat table this week, on hearing about an educational program for teens about antisemitism. Understandably, in the wake of Hamas’ brutal attack on Israeli citizens, and the callous support for that calculated act of mass terrorism that we’ve seen in various communities and college campuses, Jewish communities are responding with programs to prepare and educate our teens for what... Read more
By Rav-Hazzan Ken Richmond Parashat Lech Lecha (Genesis 12:1-17:27) Last week, while talking about the news in Israel, my ten-year-old asked me, “Why don’t some people like other people?” I told him about people hating other people because they are different, because they are jealous or scared of them. I talked about competing claims for land or resources. I spoke about the long tradition of scapegoats, of people in power oppressing a populace but channeling their resentment towards Jews or other... Read more
By Leah Carnow Parashat Noach (Genesis 6:9-11:32) Last year, I interviewed my seven-year-old nephew; we discussed the story of Noah. We spoke about many things—what the story was about, what the characters were thinking, why God made the flood. One of the questions that struck me most was our discussion on a question Torah learners have been asking for generations—why did God choose Noah? In the opening line of Parashat Noach, the Torah teaches that “Noah was a righteous man, upright in... Read more
By Rabbi Adina Allen Parashat Bereishit (Genesis 1:1-6:8) “I’ve never felt physically aligned with the conception of linear time” writes author Sophie Strand. “Time…layers, compresses, buckles…The past can change and reflux into the present. The present can settle like dust and pollen on other older sedimented events, forming a physical chronicle.”¹ Emerging from the power and intensity of our high holiday season, we end with a celebration of the cyclical, spiraling nature of time. Just last week, on Simchat Torah, we... Read more
By Rabbi Minna Bromberg Shmini Atzeret / Simchat Torah We are coming to the end of the Jewish calendar’s long season of introspection, accountability, celebration, and many many prayers for rain, for renewal, and for redemption. With Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur behind us, and our sukkot perhaps not holding themselves up so well, every lulav is by now, we hope, very thoroughly shaken. Many of us have had lots of time with family, with community, and with our own best and... Read more
By Risa Dunbar Exodus 33:12-34:26 I have always felt that celebrating Sukkot in New England means facing the tension between our physical vulnerability, and our tradition’s description of this season as “the time of our joy.” Some years it has been impossible to sing in the Sukkah while drenched and shivering, or to enjoy dinner as shreds of multicolored decorations are whipped into my food by the wind. But Sukkot, at its best, can serve as a time for grappling... Read more
By Heather Renetzky Parashat Ha’azinu (Deuteronomy 32:1-52) In his final reminder to the Israelites about their covenant with God, Moshe, embodying the voice of God, says the following: See, then, that I, I am the One; There is no god beside Me. I deal death and give life; I wounded and I will heal: None can deliver from My hand. How does Moshe have so much trust, confidence, and acceptance of God that he can face the people and affirm God’s... Read more
By Rabbi Justin David The other day, I had the pleasure of a conversation with our teacher, Dr. Nehemia Polen. He knows how much I love hasidic texts (as I do all the learning at Hebrew College), so he stopped by my office to share a rich and beautiful teaching we would enjoy exploring together. It was a teaching on Rosh Hashana by Kalonymus Kalman Epstein, the great hasidic teacher and author of the classic Ma’or va-Shemesh, published in Krakow... Read more
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Aging with Vitality
By Rabbi Jim Morgan RS ‘08 Parashat Chayei Sarah (Genesis 23:1-25:18) At Centre Communities of Brookline, an independent housing facility in Massachusetts where I serve as Community Rabbi and Chaplain, I have the privilege of working with a surprising number of very old people. By “very old,” I mean folks in their nineties or older, including one person who recently turned 106. Among the questions that come up in my conversations with these residents is why they are still alive:... Read more