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  1. DT Tetzaveh Schein

    What does the well-dressed Cohen Gadol (High Priest) look like? Quite resplendent, according to this week's Torah portion, Tetzaveh. Bearing on his chest the hoshen mishpat (breastplate of judgment) with twelve different minerals, each representing a different one of the tribes of Israel, the high priest is the living embodiment of the commandment of hidur mitzvah, beautifying the mitzvot that connect us to God.

    Halachic Clarification

    https://archive.reconstructingjudaism.org/dvar-torah/holding-high-jewish-office-do-clothes-make-man

    Posted on: 2016/02/17 - 10:52am

  2. She Said No!

    Based on Chapter 1 of the Book of Esther

    Without her gown, He summoned her down
    Said it was his right, As a man with a crown
    He was obsessed; She should be undressed
    Vashti refused to be, a woman oppressed.

    CHORUS:
    She said “no” to the king,
    She said “no” to the king,
    She said “no-no-no-no-no-no-no”
    She said “no” to the king!

    https://archive.reconstructingjudaism.org/music/she-said-no

    Posted on: 2016/04/15 - 1:47pm

  3. Eleh Ezakara - Sacrifice and Martyrdom

    Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, is never an easy day. Fasting, however, is not the real problem. Rather, the day's challenge comes from its demand that we confront deep spiritual, theological, and philosophical issues we would often wish to avoid. We are asked to consider, for example: the tension between sin and forgiveness, the relationship between suffering and redemption, and the emergence of hope out of tragedy. The prayers and readings of Yom Kippur demand that we meditate on these themes as personal challenges, but present them to us in grand images on a mythic scale.

    https://archive.reconstructingjudaism.org/dvar-torah/eleh-ezakara-sacrifice-and-martyrdom

    Posted on: 2016/05/06 - 10:10am

  4. Our Akeidah, Our Binding

    There is a thread running through all the Rosh haShanah portions, except one: that thread is fathers and children, mothers and children.

    The Akedah is the sole exception.

    Where are the mothers today? 

    This is an impressionistic reading of the Akedah.

    It does not explain the text.

    This is not the comfortable reading that, in praising our ancestor Abraham, gains credit for ourselves.

    This is not the reading that shows we are a people who have long put aside idolatry and child sacrifice.

    I have no comfort today, only questions.

    https://archive.reconstructingjudaism.org/dvar-torah/our-akeidah-our-binding

    Posted on: 2016/05/06 - 10:13am

  5. Sukkot: Yom Kippur's Counterbalance

  6. The Modern Meaning of Tisha b'Av

    The Jewish Memorial Day, The Fast of the Ninth of the Jewish month of Av, Tisha b'Av, marks the end of a three week period of mourning during which our people remember the series of events that led to the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem and the destruction of our people's first Temple on that date in the year 586 BCE.

    https://archive.reconstructingjudaism.org/dvar-torah/modern-meaning-tisha-bav

    Posted on: 2016/05/06 - 10:25am

  7. Future Prayer

    Isaiah 57:14-58:14

    Are these the words for the future prayer not yet in our mahzor, the one all the generations after us will recite?

    We heard the prophet say: “Prepare, prepare the road - clear away the stumbling blocks.” But instead, we have built walls across the roads to keep out those we fear.

    https://archive.reconstructingjudaism.org/dvar-torah/future-prayer

    Posted on: 2016/05/06 - 10:36am

  8. Filling the Earth with God's Presence

    Haftarah Yitro from last week includes words so important they were made part of the service: “Holy, holy, holy! All the earth is filled with the presence of the Lord of Hosts.”

    Or it could be, if we made room for that presence.

    Making room for God is a task set for us by all of Jewish teaching, and it is one whose details are included in Parashat Mishpatim.

    https://archive.reconstructingjudaism.org/dvar-torah/filling-earth-gods-presence

    Posted on: 2016/05/06 - 10:45am

  9. Pinhas DT on egal

    Towards the beginning of Parashat Pinhas, we read the story of the daughters of Zelophehad. After Moses instructs the people on the division of the Promised Land once they enter it he also informs them that the land will pass from father to son so that it will remain within the tribes. Upon hearing this the five daughters of Zelophehad confront Moses with the fact that their father died in the desert leaving behind only daughters. Given the new laws their land would be lost from their family.

    https://archive.reconstructingjudaism.org/dvar-torah/equal-god

    Posted on: 2016/06/15 - 2:25pm

  10. Transitioning Leadership - Pinhas DT

    One of the most difficult tasks faced by a community is the orderly transition of power from one leader to the next. Every nation, religious group, society, organization, and family inevitably faces the challenge of how to transfer allegiance and authority from the accepted leader to the appointed successor. 

    https://archive.reconstructingjudaism.org/dvar-torah/transitioning-leadership

    Posted on: 2016/06/15 - 2:31pm

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