Zachary Bernstein-Rothberg – Senior Sermon (RS ’26)
Nov 3, 2025 By JTS Senior Sermon | Commentary | Senior Sermon | Vayera
Reflecting on Ibn Ezra’s reading of the Akedah, Zachary Bernstein-Rothberg reimagines Abraham and Isaac’s journey as a model for healing and solidarity, urging us to walk together through pain and renewal.
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Recasting Lot’s Wife
Nov 7, 2025 By Rabbi Ayelet Cohen | Commentary | Vayera
In difficult times it’s natural to want to look back. Our memories can have a way of blurring the edges, so we remember things the way we have categorized them in our minds, without the details that don’t fit our story. If we’re remembering warmly, we may blur out the parts of the story that don’t hold up; if it’s a bitter memory we may leave out the parts that included kindness or helpfulness.
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Claire Shoyer – Senior Sermon (RS ’25)
Nov 14, 2024 By JTS Senior Sermon | Commentary | Senior Sermon | Vayera
Claire Shoyer’s Senior Sermon on Vayera
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Alex Friedman – Senior Sermon (RS ’25)
Nov 13, 2024 By JTS Senior Sermon | Commentary | Senior Sermon | Vayera | Rosh Hashanah
Alex Friedman’s Senior Sermon on Vayera
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Can You Spell Check the Tanakh?
Nov 15, 2024 By David Zev Moster | Commentary | Vayera
There is a puzzling word in this week’s parashah: מֵחֲטוֹ “from sinning” (Genesis 20:6). God appears to Abimelekh in a dream and says, “I myself have kept you from sinning (מֵחֲטוֹ) against me [with Sarah].” The word מֵחֲטוֹ is unusual because it should be spelled with an alef, either as מֵחֲטֹא in 1 Samuel 12:23 or as מֵחֲטוֹא in Psalm 39:2. We know there should be an alef because the Hebrew root חטא “to sin” appears 603 times in the Tanakh and has an alef 99.2% of the time. So, is the missing alef of מֵחֲטוֹ a spelling error? It depends on who you ask.
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Josh Bender – Senior Sermon (RS ’24)
Nov 2, 2023 By JTS Senior Sermon | Senior Sermon | Short Video | Vayera
Josh Bender Senior Sermon on Parshat Vayera
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Hagar’s Tears and Ours: Choosing Connection over Despair
Nov 3, 2023 By Rabbi Ayelet Cohen | Commentary | Vayera | Rosh Hashanah
Genesis offers us narratives of our biblical ancestors struggling with many of the deepest challenges that we may face in our lives, whether in our familial or interpersonal relationships or as we face the uncertainty, fear, and loss of living in a broken world. Throughout the Genesis cycle we encounter families who accept the fallacy that there is not enough blessing to go around, and thus make terrible mistakes. Parents choose favorite children, siblings are pitted against each other as rivals. This year we return to these stories shattered by the horrific violence of the October 7th massacres, as we see a new and terrifying chapter unfold in the primal conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. We know that there is enough suffering and trauma and outrage to go around. We wonder if there is enough compassion or enough hope to carry us through this time.
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The Sacrifices of Hagar, Ishmael, and Isaac
Sep 12, 2023 By Aaron Koller | Public Event video | Video Lecture | Vayera | Rosh Hashanah
In the Torah readings for Rosh Hashanah, we read about the dissolution of Abraham’s family. First Ishmael is banished and nearly dies in the desert; Hagar leaves the household where she has lived for decades; and finally God commands Abraham to sacrifice his remaining son, Isaac. How do these stories come together, and how do they contribute to the ‘biography’ of the first patriarch? We see how these linked narratives develop some of the themes of Genesis—and why they are appropriate for the New Year.
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