Can We Grow?

Can We Grow?

Dec 29, 2017 By Deborah Miller | Commentary | Vayehi

Family relationships are often complicated, but the family of Jacob is a particularly jumbled mess. In this week’s parashah, the story has hints and echoes of a decades-long, tangled skein of family dynamics. We see these in two particularly problematic scenes in this parashah. Both scenes illustrate William Faulkner’s truism that “the past is never dead. It’s not even past.” And in this story, we see how the past leaks into the future.

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Beyond the Four Questions: Creating Fun and Meaningful Seders for Children

Beyond the Four Questions: Creating Fun and Meaningful Seders for Children

Mar 19, 2013 By Deborah Miller | Video Lecture | Pesah

Ever wonder how to make the seder fun and meaningful for youth and children? Join Dr. Deborah Miller as she explores the rich educational structure of the seder while giving practical tips and advice on how to keep children ages 0 to 15 engaged in this powerful ritual.

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It’s Not What You Say . . .

It’s Not What You Say . . .

Dec 19, 2012 By Deborah Miller | Commentary | Vayehi

We have learned that two trees do not make a pattern—it takes three. So we have to look at a series of events in order to learn about Jacob. What can we discern?

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The Challenge of Nadab and Abihu

The Challenge of Nadab and Abihu

Apr 21, 2012 By Deborah Miller | Commentary | Shemini

The idea of distinctions persists throughout the Torah and in Jewish life. The word lehavdil (to separate/distinguish) occurs in the first act of Creation—“God separated/distinguished between light and darkness.” The theme continues into this week’s parashah, Shemini. 

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“Lights, Camera, Action!”

“Lights, Camera, Action!”

Jun 11, 2011 By Deborah Miller | Commentary | Beha'alotekha

We’ve all heard the adage about the opera not being over until the fat lady sings. But the opera doesn’t begin, at least not at the Metropolitan Opera, until the chandeliers go up. The performance starts even before the curtain opens, as the twinkling crystal chandeliers ascend to the ceiling. The stage has been set for something illuminating, magical, and transcendent. We are invited to enter into an alternate realm that whisks us away from the finite and ordinary world we inhabit.

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Is Seeing Believing?

Is Seeing Believing?

Oct 23, 2010 By Deborah Miller | Commentary | Vayera

Is seeing believing? Or, to put it another way, is seeing necessary for believing? I am not asking a theological question, but a psychological/social/emotional one.

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The Sin of Moses

The Sin of Moses

Jul 4, 2009 By Deborah Miller | Commentary | Balak | Hukkat

Everyone knows how Romeo and Juliet ends, and yet we still cry when they die. The same is true of the first of the two Torah portions we read this week, Parashat Hukkat/Balak. In this portion, we learn that Moses will not enter the Promised Land. We have heard or read this story every year, and yet we are still upset, still angry that, on the threshold, Moses is denied admission to the Land to which he has been leading the Israelites for forty years.

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