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This week we begin to read the Book of Shemot, or Exodus. Shemot is full of stories we are familiar with from our Pesach Seders – the plagues, the resistance on the part of Pharaoh, and the final leaving of Mitzrayim, that place of constriction and narrowness, to begin the return to the homeland of […]

Vayechi is the last parashah in Bereshit/Genesis. “(Jacob) and he lived. Of course, in true Torah fashion we will read of the death of Jacob and of his son Joseph. We read about Jacob’s ‘ethical’ will, his eulogy, the seven days of shiva – all manner of mourning practices we hold to this day. Jacob […]

My d’var this past Shabbat re Chanukah: D’var Miketz: Light. Chag Urim Hannukah, Bring light into the world. Be a Maccabee. We are probably all familiar with the Talmudic story of the small vial of oil that the Jews used to dedicate the Temple after it had been desecrated by the Assyrian-Greeks, and then cleansed. A small […]

This week, in Vayeshev, we read that Jacob finally settles, he rests in the Land. All the comings and goings that have marked his life until now have ended, and he now simply dwells in the Land. But even as this word implies a settling in, his life quickly and tragically becomes unsettled with the drama of the […]

Vayetze is such a special parashah for me – and has been for decades. But even I could not have anticipated what this past week brought to us. We have been needing a second Sefer Torah – for holidays, Rosh Chodesh – all manner of occasions need a second Torah set and ready for reading. This […]