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  1. Tzara'at and Selfishness DT Metzora Cohen

    Parshat Metzora deals with a peculiar condition called tzara’at that afflicts skin, surfaces of walls and clothing. This condition has long been erroneously translated into English as “leprosy.” However, tzara’at is not Hansen’s Disease, the clinical name for leprosy. For starters, the symptoms are not at all similar. Moreover, the rules associated with tzara’at do not make sense if the disease is contagious.

    https://archive.reconstructingjudaism.org/dvar-torah/tzaraat-and-selfishness

    Posted on: 2017/04/24 - 3:03pm

  2. The Eternal Flame Within Us All - DT Tzav Berger

    A Jew walks into a synagogue and looks around. What can s/he expect to see? An area for prayer that includes an ark that contains at least one Torah; perhaps a table, a bima, in front of the ark as a focus area for the prayer service and the Torah reading; and finally, a light, either attached to the top of the ark in some way or hanging from the ceiling.

    https://archive.reconstructingjudaism.org/dvar-torah/eternal-flame-within-us-all

    Posted on: 2017/03/28 - 4:06pm

  3. 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

  4. Blueprint for a Full Jewish Life - DT Terumah Schein

    Reprinted by permission of the Cleveland Jewish News.

    This d’var Torah is one of a series influenced by the Me’am Loez Sephardic Torah commentary.

    If we review briefly the last several parshiot of Exodus, we see an interesting pattern. We began with mythic moments of redemption from slavery and the revelation of the Torah in Bo, Beshalakh, and Yitro. Human beings cannot live without these moments, but living with them only is also impossible. 

    https://archive.reconstructingjudaism.org/dvar-torah/blueprint-full-jewish-life

    Posted on: 2018/02/09 - 3:35pm

  5. Four Lessons We Learn from Purim DT Purim Tepperman

  6. DT Vaykhi Mackenzie Reynolds 2016

    The following is adapted from a d’var Torah given by RRC student Mackenzie Reynolds in early 2017 at a gathering of congregational presidents and rabbis at the Society for the Advancement of Judaism, a Reconstructionist Synagogue in New York. 

    “If I have found grace in your sight, don’t bury me in Egypt,” Jacob asks of Joseph in this week’s parsha, Vay’khi. A midrash continues:

    https://archive.reconstructingjudaism.org/dvar-torah/have-you-no-decency-midrash-and-centrality-love

    Posted on: 2017/01/13 - 11:49am

  7. 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

  8. 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

  9. 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

  10. 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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