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Isaac, Digger of Wells DT Dannin Toldot
In Toldot, we come at last to Isaac’s story. And this year, as most years, we read it as we enter late autumn: a transitional time, the secular — or at least non-Jewish — equivalent to the transitional period that begins with Rosh HaShanah — New Year’s Day — and continues on through late summer/early autumn to Simchat Torah. The Jewish New Year observances begin as summer, warmth, and growth give way to decline. For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, this secular period begins as autumn is about to give way to winter.
https://archive.reconstructingjudaism.org/dvar-torah/isaac-digger-wells
Posted on: 2017/11/09 - 12:40pm
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Meeting Angels DT Vayetzey
And Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him. And Jacob said when he saw them: “This is God’s camp.” And he called the place, “Makhanaim.” Genesis 32:2-3
https://archive.reconstructingjudaism.org/dvar-torah/meeting-angels
Posted on: 2017/11/15 - 8:10pm
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Connecting the Dots DT Vayishlakh Dannin
Flowing through Bereyshit/Genesis are the themes of blindness, deception, and identity. Last week, in Parashat Vayetzey, Jacob’s very identity was shaken and remade at Bet El. Before he fell asleep he was a thief fleeing from the wholly justified wrath of his brother Esau. When Jacob awoke from his dream at Bet El, it was to realize that he had met the divine. Through the rest of Vayetzey, Jacob moved through a series of new identities: lover, husband, father, shepherd, and fugitive from his father-in-law Laban.
https://archive.reconstructingjudaism.org/dvar-torah/connecting-dots
Posted on: 2017/11/20 - 2:42pm
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Wrestling With... DT Vayishlakh SPN
(This week’s parashah, Vayishlah, tells the story of the reuniting of Yaakov and Esau, which is preceded by Yaakov’s night-long wrestling encounter on the banks of the Jabbok with a mysterious man/angel. This is my interpretation of this parashah and the “sequel” to an earlier commentary I wrote on an imagined Esau-Cain encounter from parashat Vayetzey.)
https://archive.reconstructingjudaism.org/dvar-torah/wrestling
Posted on: 2017/11/20 - 2:53pm
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Tamar the Hidden DT Vayeshev
Maybe the Torah is really Tamar’s story. Seen from that perspective, Judah’s interlude with Tamar is not an annoying interruption placed between Joseph’s sale into slavery and Joseph’s encounter with Potiphar’s wife. Maybe we need to know Tamar better. After all Psalm 92 tells us, tzaddik k’tamar - the wise/just are like Tamar. They are planted in the house of God, where they fruit and send out seed in order to tell of God’s uprightness.
So what does it mean to be like Tamar?
https://archive.reconstructingjudaism.org/dvar-torah/tamar-hidden
Posted on: 2017/12/03 - 7:44pm
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Community Teaching 11-21-2017 - Maurice Harris
In this Community Learning call from November 21, 2017, Rabbi Maurice Harris talks about the strange way the Torah tells us about Moses’ up-close encounters with God, contradicting itself purposely within the space of nine verses. Two consecutive stories in the Book of Exodus confront us with a crucial paradox about how it is or isn’t possible to encounter the Divine, leaving us as readers with something like an “impossible” mental picture that we may be tempted to try to resolve or to hold as a fruitful paradox.
https://archive.reconstructingjudaism.org/spoken-audio/moses-encounters-god
Posted on: 2017/12/11 - 2:31pm
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Sandy Sasso: Art and Biblical Text
In this Community Teaching call from January 2017, Rabbi Sandy Eisenberg Sasso teaches on artists and biblical text as seen through literature, visual art and music.
https://archive.reconstructingjudaism.org/spoken-audio/art-and-biblical-text
Posted on: 2017/12/11 - 2:57pm
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Open Letter on Burma Human Rights and Freedom Act
RRC/Jewish Reconstructionist Communities joined a broad coalition of organizations from across the Jewish community — including leaders of major organizations and the Reform, Reconstructionist, Conservative and Orthodox movements — in releasing a letter urging the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to advance the Burma Human Rights and Freedom Act of 2017 (S. 2060).
https://archive.reconstructingjudaism.org/endorsement/open-letter-burma-human-rights-and-freedom-act
Posted on: 2018/01/05 - 10:54am
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Moses' Double Mission - DT Va'era Eron
This week’s Torah portion, Va’era, is set in Egypt. Moses has already returned from his exile in Midian. He has had his first and unsuccessful encounter with Pharaoh, who, in response to Moses’ request to allow the Israelites the opportunity to worship God in the wilderness, has placed additional burdens on the already overworked Israelite slaves. In addition to Pharaoh’s scorn, Moses’ own people abuse him for the troubles they believe he has brought upon them. Soon after it has begun, Moses’ mission already seems to have come to an end.
https://archive.reconstructingjudaism.org/dvar-torah/moses-double-mission
Posted on: 2018/01/05 - 11:07am
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These Are The Names Shemot DT Micah B-K
The Book of Exodus, Shemot in Hebrew, begins with the listing of names. A recounting of “who is who” as a new era opens. While Genesis/Bereshit begins the Jewish journey following one family, as we begin Exodus, the narrative begins to be about a people emerging into being. This week’s portion continues some 375 years after the end of the Genesis text.
https://archive.reconstructingjudaism.org/dvar-torah/these-are-names
Posted on: 2018/01/05 - 1:08pm
