Claire Bruder – Senior Sermon (RS ’27)
Oct 21, 2026 By JTS Senior Sermon | Commentary | Public Event video | Senior Sermon | Lekh Lekha
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A Parent’s Prayer
Oct 23, 2026 By Yael Landman | Commentary | Lekh Lekha
When we think about Abraham and prayer, we might immediately recall the patriarch’s bold petition to God on behalf of Sodom and Gomorrah. We might even think of God telling King Abimelech that Abraham is a navi, a prophet, and thus has the special capacity to pray on the king’s behalf. Yet Abraham emerges as a person of prayer even earlier in his story. Following years of his wife Sarah’s infertility, and the birth of Ishmael to Abraham and Sarah’s slave Hagar, Parashat Lekh Lekha narrates the Divine promise to Abraham that Sarah will finally give birth. But instead of expressing joyous gratitude to God, Abraham responds: לוּ יִשְׁמָעֵאל יִחְיֶה לְפָנֶיךָ —“If only Ishmael could live before you!” (Gen. 17:18).
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Sara Birnbaum – Senior Sermon (RS ’26)
Oct 31, 2025 By JTS Senior Sermon | Commentary | Senior Sermon | Lekh Lekha
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Claiming Our Ancestors: The Case of Terah
Oct 31, 2025 By Eliezer B. Diamond z”l | Commentary | Lekh Lekha
For all of us, there is no going without leaving; and so it was for Abraham: “Go forth from your land, your birthplace, and the house of your father to the land that I shall show you” (Gen. 12:1) [emphasis added]. And when we leave places, we leave people as well. When Abraham departed for Canaan he left behind, among others, his father Terah. And it was always thus: “Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother” (2:24).
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Sass Brown – Senior Sermon (RS ’25)
Nov 6, 2024 By JTS Senior Sermon | Commentary | Senior Sermon | Lekh Lekha
Sass Brown Senior Sermon for Lekh Lekha
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How Can We Be a Blessing?
Nov 8, 2024 By Cantor Rabbi Shoshi Levin Goldberg | Commentary | Lekh Lekha
I have often pondered the meaning of the expression that a deceased person’s memory should be a blessing or will be for a blessing. Proverbs 10:7 teaches that “the name of a righteous person is invoked in blessing”—זֵ֣כֶר צַ֭דִּיק לִבְרָכָ֑ה . Originally, this likely referred to invoking the name of a well-known righteous person as an exemplar and conduit for our own blessing. The Babylonian Talmud also teaches (Kiddushin 31b) that after the death of a parent, we may continue to fulfill the mitzvah of honoring our parents, and by extension other beloved relatives and friends, by saying “zikhronam livrakhah,” “may their memory be for a blessing.”
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Gisel Baler – Senior Sermon (RS ’24)
Oct 25, 2023 By JTS Senior Sermon | Commentary | Senior Sermon | Short Video | Lekh Lekha
Parshat Lekh Lekha All the Class of 2024 Senior Sermons
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What Should We Call Our First Foremother?
Oct 27, 2023 By Sass Brown | Commentary | Lekh Lekha
Twice in this week’s parashah our first foremother’s name is disrupted. First, when she is abducted into Pharaoh’s household in Egypt, she seems to lose her name entirely. Then, in the concluding chapter, God changes her name while she is off screen. In both moments of unnaming, Sarai is voiceless. In both, Avraham receives something grand—a gift, a covenant—while Sarai is elsewhere. Given how similar these two events are for Sarai, it feels like they are asking to be compared. On the other hand, one is an interpersonal episode of a woman suffering while her husband thrives, and the other is the initiation of Avraham’s covenant. Can the mistakes Avraham made in Egypt shed light on the holy charge he receives in the conclusion of Parashat Lekh Lekha?
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