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Teshuvah: Seeking the Hidden Face of God
Sep 26, 2014 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Ha'azinu | Shabbat Shuvah
This coming Shabbat, the Sabbath between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, is known as Shabbat Shuvah, the “Sabbath of Return.”
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On This Very Day
Sep 26, 2014 By Joel Alter | Commentary | Ha'azinu | Shabbat Shuvah | Yom Kippur
It’s difficult to overstate the pathos of Moshe’s last days. This man (and he is most assuredly a man, not a god, not a saint), who never wanted to be a leader—and after his first, impulsive attempt at leading was met with contempt from those he tried to save and condemnation from Pharaoh, his adoptive father (Exod. 2:11–15)—carried the burdens of prophetic leadership with fierce loyalty to both of his masters, God and the people.
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Choose Life and Torah
Sep 19, 2014 By Arnold M. Eisen | Commentary | Nitzavim | Vayeilekh
The Torah wants to speak to Children of Israel in every time and place, in a way that leads them—leads us—to carry forward the project that Moses has directed. It succeeds in that effort: we too are stirred by Moses’s language, compelled by his vision, moved to undertake responsibility for his Torah. Four passages in Parashat Nitzavim seem to me especially crucial to Moses’s teaching and our response.
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The Covenant and the Land
Sep 19, 2014 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Nitzavim | Vayeilekh
At the opening of Parashat Nitzavim, the Israelites stand rooted before Moses and God. A captive and diverse audience, they are recipients of a message that is both immediate and transcendent in nature.
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Reflective Learning in the Season of Teshuvah
Sep 12, 2014 By Jason Gitlin | Commentary | Ki Tavo
While the formal Hebrew title for each book of Torah is today derived from a word in its first verse, the Rabbis regularly employed a different logic: use a name that captured the book’s main theme.
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From Reflection to Appreciation
Sep 12, 2014 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Ki Tavo
Having underscored the role of memory at the conclusion of last week’s parashah (remembering the cruelty of Amalek), the Torah now accentuates the importance of appreciation in Parashat Ki Tavo.
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A Time to Grieve
Sep 5, 2014 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Ki Tetzei
As the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas continues to hold and war is waged against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), we turn our soul’s attention to Parashat Ki Tetzei.
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Who’s Judging?
Aug 29, 2014 By Danielle Upbin | Commentary | Shofetim
In the opening verses of our Torah portion, the Israelites are commanded to establish a fair, impartial, and moral judicial system upon settling the Land of Israel.
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Dependent? Yes, but on Whom?
Aug 29, 2014 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Shofetim
The Cairo Genizah, a rich treasure trove of Jewish history (60,000 fragments of this repository are housed in The Library of The Jewish Theological Seminary) rediscovered by Solomon Schechter toward the end of the 19th century, attests to the rich Jewish life that flourished in Egypt and beyond.
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How to Practice Faith
Aug 22, 2014 By Daniel Nevins | Commentary | Re'eh
Watch a world-class athlete do something extraordinary, like somersault and twist through the air from a high diving platform or serve a tennis ball so fast down the line that it seems fired by a cannon.
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Lessons of Idolatry
Aug 22, 2014 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Re'eh
Parashat Re’eh looks forward to the entry of the Israelites into the Land.
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Waters of Uncertainty
Aug 15, 2014 By Alisa Braun | Commentary | Eikev
“If it doesn’t rain, we don’t know what’s going to happen,” commented a NASA water-cycle scientist recently on the drought that has been devastating California.
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Taking Responsibility for the Land
Aug 15, 2014 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Eikev
Parashat Eikev deals heavily with the theme of entering and securing the Land of Israel.
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The Comfort of Prayer
Aug 8, 2014 By Jan Uhrbach | Commentary | Va'et-hannan
Parashat Va’et-hannan contains some of the most inspiring and sweepingly grand passages in the entire Torah, and some of the best known, including the Ten Commandments and the first paragraph of the Shema.
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Humility: God Is Above and Below
Aug 8, 2014 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Va'et-hannan
Parashat Va’et-hannan, the second Torah reading of the book of Deuteronomy, places much of its emphasis on the loyal observance of mitzvot, God’s commandments.
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The View From the Other Side
Aug 1, 2014 By Stephen P. Garfinkel | Commentary | Devarim
Is the author of this week’s Torah reading, Parashat Devarim, or the author of the entire book of Devarim (Deuteronomy, the last of the five books of the Torah), not paying attention?
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A Shared Responsibility
Aug 1, 2014 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Devarim
This coming Shabbat, we begin the fifth and final book of Torah as we read Parashat Devarim, the opening of the book of Deuteronomy.
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Life’s Journeys
Jul 25, 2014 By Shuly Rubin Schwartz | Commentary | Masei
In a few weeks, thousands of US high school students will leave home to begin college or a gap year of study and/or service before entering college.
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At Home, Running for Cover
Jul 25, 2014 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Masei
The past month has been a time of great emotion and tension for those of us living in Israel. From the moment that Naftali Fraenkel (z”l), Gilad Sha’ar (z”l), and Eyal Yifrach (z”l) were kidnapped, there was a sense of foreboding that overtook the country.
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Our Prayers for Israel—For Whom Is the Message?
Jul 24, 2014 By Samuel Barth | Commentary
A serious challenge confronting the all-too-human venture of praying to God is in working out what we can say to the “One Who knows all.” A prayer for a congregation to recite in the face of destructive storms might open with the words, “God, we stand before you in time of peril”—but if God truly knows all, might we not assume that God is well aware of the peril facing the community?
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