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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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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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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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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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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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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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An Eye For An Eye? DT Emor Kligler
וְאִ֕ישׁ כִּֽי־יִתֵּ֥ן מ֖וּם בַּעֲמִית֑וֹ כַּאֲשֶׁ֣ר עָשָׂ֔ה כֵּ֖ן יֵעָ֥שֶׂה לּֽוֹ׃ שֶׁ֚בֶר תַּ֣חַת שֶׁ֔בֶר עַ֚יִן תַּ֣חַת עַ֔יִן שֵׁ֖ן תַּ֣חַת שֵׁ֑ן כַּאֲשֶׁ֨ר יִתֵּ֥ן מוּם֙ בָּֽאָדָ֔ם כֵּ֖ן יִנָּ֥תֶן בּֽוֹ׃
V’ish ki yiten mum ba’amito, ka’asher asah ken ya’aseh lo: shever tachat shever, ayin tachat ayin, shen tachat shen. Ka’asher yiten mum ba’adam, ken yinaten bo.
https://archive.reconstructingjudaism.org/dvar-torah/eye-for-an-eye
Posted on: 2017/05/05 - 11:34am
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Jacob Staub KI Talk on Reconstructionism
In this talk given at Congregation Kehillat Israel in Pacific Palisades, California, Rabbi Jacob Staub explores what makes Reconstructionist communities unique. Selected quotes follow. The entire call transcript is available at the bottom of this page.
Posted on: 2016/10/28 - 1:11am
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Land DT Behar
Parashat Behar is primarily concerned with rules and regulations pertaining to the land of Israel. We read the description of the laws governing the sabbatical (“Shmitta”) years in which the land was to lie fallow one out of every seven years. We learn of the idea of the Jubilee year, which occurred every fifty years, when property that had passed out of a family by reason of economic necessity reverted to the original owners.
https://archive.reconstructingjudaism.org/dvar-torah/land
Posted on: 2016/06/16 - 1:27pm
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Blessings and Curses DT Behukotai
At the end of the traditional Birkat HaMazon, the Grace after the Meal, is a verse from the Book of Psalms that reads, “Once I was young and now I have grown old but I have never seen a righteous person abandoned nor his children begging for food” (Psalm 37:25). It is one of a series of biblical verses acknowledging God as the one who sustains all. There are many ways to sing the verse but I was taught to drop my voice when I came to this passage and recite it in a whisper. Why?
https://archive.reconstructingjudaism.org/dvar-torah/blessings-and-curses
Posted on: 2016/06/16 - 1:12pm
