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It's Not Fair DT Emor SCR
“It’s not fair!” I heard a child yelling at his playmate on the synagogue playground the other day. “It’s not fair!” And it reminded me how fundamental our innate sense of fairness and ethics truly is.
https://archive.reconstructingjudaism.org/dvar-torah/its-not-fair
Posted on: 2017/05/05 - 11:40am
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Illness and Connection - DT SCR Metzora
It was one of those difficult weeks where nearly every day I received a phone call about either a sudden death in the community, or someone who had just discovered one form of cancer or another and was struggling with the “Why me?” question and the fear of death staring them in the face. It was also a week where I was reminded nearly every day of why Judaism places so much emphasis on the power of community as the foundation of our religious identity.
https://archive.reconstructingjudaism.org/dvar-torah/illness-and-connection
Posted on: 2017/04/24 - 4:39pm
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Finding Healing in Separation DT Metzora
This week's parashah is Metzora. In this parashah we continue the laws concerning the person with tzara'at (skin afflictions). We were informed in the last parashah, Tazria, that the person suffering from skin afflictions (commonly but inaccurately translated as leprosy) is to be kept separated from the camp until the priest has determined that s/he is healed. The person is considered ritually impure and in danger of contaminating the camp both physically and spiritually. The Torah does not distinguish physical illness as separate from the religious realm.
https://archive.reconstructingjudaism.org/dvar-torah/finding-healing-separation
Posted on: 2017/04/24 - 3:34pm
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Life, Death and Holiness -- DT Acharei Mot / Kedoshim SCR
This piece was written in 2002, during the second Intifidah. While the circumstances in question have changed, the teaching that emerged from them remains relevant today.
Tears and hope, fears and resolve, profound sadness and fierce determination – that is the mood in Israel this week. How ironic that this week’s double Torah portion is called “Akharey Mot/Kedoshim”, which translates as “After death — Holiness.”
https://archive.reconstructingjudaism.org/dvar-torah/life-death-and-holiness
Posted on: 2002/05/01 - 12:00am
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Birth of Humility - Tazria DT SCR
This week is one of the least popular bar or bat mitzvah portions in all the Torah. It is filled with laws for how to recognize and treat leprosy when it is found on one’s body, one’s clothes or in one’s home. Most kids are a bit squeamish about skin diseases, so they search for anything else in the portion that they might talk about.
https://archive.reconstructingjudaism.org/dvar-torah/birth-humility
Posted on: 2017/04/24 - 4:36pm
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Tamar and Judah DT Vayeshev
There is so much wonderful meat for discussion in the Joseph story that it is easy to skip or skim the story of Judah and Tamar — or of Tamar and Judah — to get back to the next installment of Joseph in Egypt. Even when read with care, it is not an easy story. Briefly, Judah, fresh from telling Jacob that Joseph has been killed, marries a Canaanite woman and has three sons, the eldest of whom, Er, marries Tamar. Er is killed by God for some unstated fault.
https://archive.reconstructingjudaism.org/dvar-torah/tamar-and-judah
Posted on: 2017/04/21 - 12:11pm
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Strange Fire DT Shemini Steve Nathan
Instead of a traditional d'var Torah on Parashat Shemini, I chose to write an original midrash about Nadav and Avihu. These two sons of Aaron the High Priest, after seeing Divine fire come down from heaven and devour the first sacrifice made in the newly-dedicated Mishkan (Sanctuary), decide to take matters into their own hands. They bring a “strange fire” before God, that God had not commanded them, and their punishment was to then be devoured by Divine fire.
https://archive.reconstructingjudaism.org/dvar-torah/strange-fire-midrash
Posted on: 2017/04/17 - 11:47pm
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Shabbat Hagadol DT Howard Cohen
The Shabbat before Pesach is known as Shabbat HaGadol: The Great Shabbat. The special nature of the day is highlighted with a haftarah selected from the prophet Malachi. The words of this anonymous prophet (the name Malachi simply means “my messenger”), who lived around the middle of the 5th century BCE, are remarkably contemporary sounding. A closer look at what he has to say can be simultaneously comforting and frightening.
https://archive.reconstructingjudaism.org/dvar-torah/shabbat-hagadol
Posted on: 2017/04/05 - 4:47pm
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Danger of Religious Fanaticism - DT Vayekhi
[Editor's note: This piece was written for Martin Luther King weekend several years ago, and refers to specific events occuring at the time it was written. However, its insights remain relevant over a decade later.]
https://archive.reconstructingjudaism.org/dvar-torah/danger-religious-fanaticism
Posted on: 2017/04/05 - 2:56pm
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My Brother's Keeper DT Vayishlakh Eron
Few conflicts are as significant in our lives as our struggles with those who are most close to us: the members of our family. Who we were, who we are and who we will become is most clearly seen in our relationships with our parents, our siblings, our spouses and our children. Our ability to move beyond our conflicts to an attitude of acceptance and affection is a measure of our growth as human beings. Our deepest felt experiences are those of familial love and loss, and alienation and reconciliation.
https://archive.reconstructingjudaism.org/dvar-torah/my-brothers-keeper
Posted on: 2017/03/29 - 7:01pm
