• Finding Light in the Darkness

    This week’s torah portion, Vayetzey, opens with Jacob running away from his brother Esaw who wants to kill him for taking his firstborn blessing.  Jacob is going to his uncle Laban’s ranch on the eastern side of the Jordan River in Haran.  The Torah writes: “Jacob left Beer-Sheva, and set out toward Haran. He bumped…

  • Prayer as Relationship

    This week’s Torah portion, Toldot, opens, “And Isaac was 40 years old when he married Rivka… And Isaac prayed to God opposite his wife because she was barren, and God responded to his prayer, and Rivka became pregnant.” The word for prayer here is not the normal word that is used, lehitpalel or lehitchanen, to pray or ask,…

  • The faiths of our foreparents

    This week’s Torah portion, Chayei Sarah, literally “The life of Sarah,” begins with Sarah’s death, which follows the story of the Akedah, the binding of Isaac, at the end of last week’s portion. Rashi is bothered by the strange juxtaposition of the almost slaughtering of Isaac by Abraham and the death of Sarah, and quoting…

  • Being Athens, Being Sparta

    The State of Israel has achieved something truly miraculous: the ability, in the words of Daniel Schueftan, Director of the National Security Studies Center at the University of Haifa, to be both Athens and Sparta. Athens was a center for culture, philosophy and democracy, known for its intellectual achievements. In contrast, Sparta was a militaristic…

  • Rain of Blessing

    In this week’s parsha, Noach, we read about the flood that destroys the world and about Noach the Righteous, who is saved along with his family and all the animals in the Ark. Rashi, known for his succinct style, in this instance repeats himself several times, all on the same theme. When God tells Noach…

  • Joy to Sadness to Joy

    At the beginning of this week’s Torah portion, Ki Tavo, Moshe tells the Children of Israel that when they enter the land and grow crops there they must bring the first fruits to the Temple. When the farmer brings this basket of first fruits he has to recite a four-line summary of the history of…

  • To merit long life

    In this week’s Torah portion, we are commanded to send away a mother bird before taking her young from the nest. The reward for this mitzvah is long life in the land which God has given us. There is one other mitzvah with this same reward, honoring one’s parents. Both are about parenthood and the…

  • Restraint in Destruction

    In this week’s Torah portion, Re’eh, the Torah writes: “You must destroy all the sites at which the nations you are to dispossess worshiped their gods, whether on lofty mountains or on hills or under any luxuriant tree. Tear down their altars, smash their pillars, put their sacred posts to the fire, and cut down the…

  • Speaking Up and Speaking Out

    This past week, Rabbi Yosef Blau, the longtime Mashgiach Ruchani (religious and spiritual guide) at Yeshiva University, wrote a public letter about the current war that Israel finds itself in and the need for us to “affirm that Judaism’s vision of justice and compassion extends to all human beings.” He asked Orthodox rabbis to sign…

  • Bless Out Loud: Permission, Mindfulness, Community

    This week's Torah portion, Eikev, contains the only blessing that is commanded in the Torah, the Birkat Hamazon (Grace after Meals). The Torah says, “And you shall eat and be satisfied and bless the Lord your God, on the good land which God has given you.” The Torah is clear about saying a blessing after we eat,…

  • You shall eat, be satisfied, and bless the Lord your God

    This week’s Torah portion, Eikev, contains the only blessing that is commanded in the Torah, the Birkat Hamazon (Grace after Meals). The Torah says, “And you shall eat and be satisfied and bless the Lord your God, on the good land which God has given you.” The Torah is clear about saying a blessing after we eat,…

  • Embracing Life’s Absurdity: Moshe’s Existential Challenge

    This week’s d’var Torah is dedicated to my colleague long ago, Rabbi James Diamond, z”l, a sensitive chacham who first brought this Midrash to my attention and who died tragically—gone in the blink of an eye. This week's Torah portion, Ve’etchanan, begins with Moshe recalling his plea to God to be allowed to enter the…

  • Morality, Accountability, and Questioning our Leaders

    In a way, the Torah ended last week. We finished the book of Bamidbar (Numbers), in which the Jewish people arrive at the banks of the Jordan River, and that is where the Torah ends. But as we know, there is a fifth book, Devarim, which means words. Moshe reviews the last 40 years, tweaking…

  • Reflections on Kesher Israel

    A recent visitor in shul, looking slightly bemused, asked me, “Is Kesher an international organization?” I answered, “Yes and no.” We are a shul, but additionally we have “members” all over the world, many of whom have lived here and some who just attend a few times a year. All of these thousands of Kesherites…

  • Israel: the First and Last Man

    Last week, something shifted in the world. We all knew that Iran preached wiping Israel and the United States off the map, but most of us assumed these were threats that could never actually materialize. After all, the destruction of whole countries and the whole world is the stuff of movies.  Surely a sane adult…

  • Light in the Darkness

    This week’s Torah portion, Beha’alotcha, opens with the command that the Kohen light the menorah in the tabernacle. This command seems out of place here. It follows the account of the gifts brought by the heads of each tribe for the dedication of the altar and precedes the discussion of the sanctification of the Levites.…

  • Celebrating the Material

    This coming week we will celebrate the holiday of Shavuot. The Talmud (Pesachim 68b) states: Rabbi Eliezer says: “On a Festival a person must either eat and drink or sit and learn the entire day.” Rabbi Yehoshua says: “Divide the day, half of it for eating and drinking and half of it for the study…

  • Judaism as a national experience

    I dedicate these words of Torah to the memory of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim who were killed for being Jews here in our own city of Washington.  We mourn for them and pray for their families and all our people.  -Rabbi Shafner We are in the midst of counting the Omer, a 49-day…

  • Lag B’Omer, Politics and Jewish Unity

    This week we celebrate Lag B’Omer, the 33rd day of the Omer. Our tradition is that on the 33rd day, the plague that resulted in the death of Rabbi Akiva’s 24,000 students ceased. The Talmud tells us that the students of Rabbi Akiva all died between the holidays of Passover and Shavuot, “because they did not treat…

  • Gathering and Welcoming

    We have been reading in the last few Torah portions about the limits of who can enter the Tabernacle. For instance, those who are impure due to childbirth or the disease of tzara’at, or a Kohen who is drunk, are not allowed to enter. The Tabernacle was not entirely welcoming and accessible.   Synagogues have some…