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Hearing the Cry: Miriam, Pharaoh鈥檚 Daughter, and Moral Courage

Jan 9, 2026 By Naomi Kalish | Commentary | Shemot

At times of difficulty, uncertainty, and strife, I often find comfort and courage in stories, especially stories about people who connect and transform or resolve conflict. This week鈥檚 parsha, Shemot (Exodus 1:1-6:1), gives me such a story of hope in its portrayal of the relationship between two people from groups in conflict.

Pictures at a Benediction: Envisioning Jacob鈥檚 Blessing of his Sons

Jan 2, 2026 By Eliezer B. Diamond z”l | Commentary | Vayehi

what did Jacob鈥檚 bedchamber look like when the brothers came to receive their final blessings鈥攁nd curses? (Gen. 49) I have found numerous artistic renderings, but two in particular caught my attention because of how differently they paint the scene.

A Song of Hope

Dec 26, 2025 By Burton L. Visotzky | Commentary | Vayiggash

In a curious foreshadowing of the book of Exodus, in this week鈥檚 Torah reading (Gen. 46:8) we read, 鈥淰e鈥檈leh shemot鈥擳hese are the names of the children of Israel who came into Egypt . . .鈥� This is verbatim the same report as the opening verse of the book of Exodus. But there, the names are limited only to Jacob鈥檚 actual sons, and the full enumeration of their own offspring is absent.

A Light for One, a Light for a Hundred

Dec 19, 2025 By Marcus Mordecai Schwartz | Commentary | Miketz | Hanukkah

When I look at the Prato Haggadah in our exhibition at the Grolier Club, I think of the man who once protected it. His name was Ludwig Pollak. Born in Prague in 1868, Pollak became one of Rome鈥檚 leading Jewish scholars of classical art. He directed the Museo Barracco, advised the Vatican鈥檚 archaeological collections, and […]

Judah and Tamar: Writing the Story

Dec 12, 2025 By Judith Hauptman | Commentary | Vayeshev

One of the most gripping stories in the entire Bible appears in this week鈥檚 parashah. Chapter 38, a self-contained unit, interrupts the ongoing Joseph saga to tell the story of Judah and Tamar.

The chapter opens with the somewhat strange statement that Judah leaves his brothers, meets up with Hirah the Adulamite, and there, in Adulam, finds himself a wife of Canaanite stock. He thereby violates God鈥檚 warning to the patriarchs to avoid Canaanite women (Gen. 24:3,28:1). Judah鈥檚 wife bears him three sons. He marries off his first son, Er, to Tamar. No information is provided about her lineage. Er dies because he was 鈥渄ispleasing to the Lord鈥� (v. 7).

Jacob鈥檚 Fear

Dec 5, 2025 By Arnold M. Eisen | Commentary | Vayishlah

The Torah wants us to identify with the ancestors we meet in the book of Genesis; indeed, Abraham and Sarah and their children become our ancestors when we agree not only to read their stories, but to take them forward. Abraham 鈥渂egat鈥� Isaac in one sense by supplying the seed for his conception. He 鈥渂egat鈥� him as well by shaping the life that Isaac would live, setting its direction, digging wells that his son would re-dig, making Isaac鈥檚 story infinitely more meaningful鈥攁nd terrifying鈥攂y placing him in the line of partners with God in covenant. So it is with us. Nowhere is this impact of the ancestors more obvious than in the case of Jacob, who in this week鈥檚 parashah receives the name by which we heirs to the covenant call ourselves to this day: Israel. The ancestors are us, if we accept the Torah鈥檚 invitation to make them so. We are them: the latest chapter in the story that they lived and bequeathed to us, and which we have chosen to live and bequeath to others.

The Monumental Act of Listening

Nov 28, 2025 By Jessica Fisher | Commentary | Vayetzei

Parashat Vayetzei brings us to a climactic moment of a 20-year conflict between Jacob and Laban. When Jacob came to Laban鈥檚 house after tricking his own father and brother, Laban made him work for seven years to earn the right to marry Rachel, only to be tricked into marrying Leah. So he worked seven more years and finally married Rachel. More hiding and trickery ensued, until finally Jacob decided it was time to leave this toxic dynamic and he snuck away with his family. But Laban caught up to them and, after years of deceit, they had it out with each other, putting everything on the table once and for all: Laban was hurt that Jacob had left without giving him a chance to say goodbye to his children and grandchildren; Jacob was resentful for the years of hard labor, lies, and harsh treatment. (Gen. 31:26-42)

Finding Our Way (and God鈥檚) in the World

Nov 21, 2025 By Daniel Nevins | Commentary | Toledot

What do you make of our matriarch Rebecca? Certainly she is the boldest and most independent of the mothers. When as a girl she sees a stranger at the well, she rushes to water his caravan of thirsty camels, and then invites him to stay at her house. When offered the chance to travel with this man back to a distant land and a mysterious husband, she volunteers without hesitation. When her pregnancy becomes difficult, she seeks out God and challenges God with the bold question, 鈥淲hy do I need this?鈥� When her husband seems ready to bless the wrong son, she quickly conspires to rearrange the action so that Jacob will receive the primary blessing. In all of these actions, Rebecca is seen as a woman of strength and decisiveness.

Death and Dignity

Nov 14, 2025 By Gordon Tucker | Commentary | Hayyei Sarah

Parashat Hayyei Sarah begins with the death of the matriarch Sarah. Interestingly, it is the first time that a death enters into the Torah鈥檚 narrative. In all of the genealogies from Adam and Eve through the lives of Abraham and Sarah, deaths were matter-of-factly recorded with the simple word 讜讬诪转. And of course, there was the global death and destruction during the Flood. But the death of Sarah is the first one that generates a story, and a template, as it were, for how to deal with death鈥攂urial, eulogizing, mourning, and the subsequent continuation of life.

Rachel Cohn – Senior Sermon (RS ’26)

Nov 14, 2025 By 91快播 Senior Sermon | Commentary | Senior Sermon | Hayyei Sarah

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Recasting Lot’s Wife

Nov 7, 2025 By Rabbi Ayelet Cohen | Commentary | Vayera

In difficult times it鈥檚 natural to want to look back. Our memories can have a way of blurring the edges, so we remember things the way we have categorized them in our minds, without the details that don鈥檛 fit our story. If we鈥檙e remembering warmly, we may blur outthe parts of the story that don鈥檛 hold up; if it鈥檚 a bitter memory we may leave out the parts that included kindness or helpfulness.

Zachary Bernstein-Rothberg – Senior Sermon (RS 鈥�26)

Nov 3, 2025 By 91快播 Senior Sermon | Commentary | Senior Sermon | Vayera

Reflecting on Ibn Ezra鈥檚 reading of the Akedah, Zachary Bernstein-Rothberg reimagines Abraham and Isaac鈥檚 journey as a model for healing and solidarity, urging us to walk together through pain and renewal.

Claiming Our Ancestors: The Case of Terah

Oct 31, 2025 By Eliezer B. Diamond z”l | Commentary | Lekh Lekha

For all of us, there is no going without leaving; and so it was for Abraham: 鈥淕o forthfromyour land, your birthplace, and the house of your fathertothe land that I shall show you鈥�(Gen. 12:1) [emphasis added]. And when we leave places, we leave people as well. When Abraham departed for Canaan he left behind, among others, his father Terah. And it was always thus: 鈥淭herefore shall a man leave his father and mother鈥� (2:24).

Sara Birnbaum – Senior Sermon (RS 鈥�26)

Oct 31, 2025 By 91快播 Senior Sermon | Commentary | Senior Sermon | Lekh Lekha

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Species Purity and the Great Flood

Oct 24, 2025 By Daniel Nevins | Commentary | Noah

Omnicide is a dramatic move, on that we can all agree. But what causes the Creator to grow violently disgusted with the creatures that had just recently been praised as 鈥済ood鈥� and blessed with fertility? 91快播 Bible Professor Emeritus Alan Cooper has suggested that it was interspecies breeding of human women with divine creatures that angered God, and that it was Noah鈥檚 pure genealogy (鈥減erfect in his generations鈥�) that set him apart for salvation. The ancient Rabbis had a similar idea鈥攊t was crossbreeding between species that angered God and caused God to reboot with specimens that were still arranged 鈥渁ccording to their families鈥� (Gen. 8:19; see Midrash Tanhuma, Buber ed., Noah 11).

Noa Rubin 鈥� Senior Sermon (RS 鈥�26)

Oct 23, 2025 By 91快播 Senior Sermon | Commentary | Senior Sermon | Noah

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Making Meaning From Chaos

Oct 17, 2025 By Mychal Springer | Commentary | Bereishit

The opening words of B鈥檙eishit are exhilarating. 鈥淚n the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.鈥� Each day, as God creates the world and everything in it, we are told that it is good. On the sixth day, when God creates people, we are told that it is very good. From the chaos comes order, goodness, and endless possibilities. But the parashah ends with the world on the verge of destruction: 鈥淭he Lord saw how great was man鈥檚 wickedness on earth, and how every plan devised by his mind was nothing but evil all the time. And the Lord regretted that He had made man on earth, and His heart was saddened鈥�

Sarah Rockford 鈥� Senior Sermon (RS 鈥�26)

Oct 16, 2025 By 91快播 Senior Sermon | Commentary | Senior Sermon | Bereishit

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Impermanence, Empathy, and the Shadow of Faith

Oct 10, 2025 By Yitz Landes | Commentary | Sukkot

It can feel odd that just as it begins to get chilly, and just after the long High Holiday prayers may have left us wanting to simply stay home, we must go outside to sit in the sukkah鈥攁n impermanent dwelling that brings us closer to the elements. And it may seem odd that precisely at this moment of impermanence, the Jewish tradition places extra significance on the welcoming in of guests鈥攈akhnasat orhim. Why is it that that we must now enter a place of discomfort? And why is it that we must be extra careful to welcome in guests at this time? In order to answer these questions, we can turn to the representation of Sukkot and its rituals in the Jewish mystical tradition, beginning with the Zohar.

Our Very Life

Oct 3, 2025 By Lilly Kaufman | Commentary | Ha'azinu

At the end of his life, with Joshua by his side, Moses begins his great, thunderous poem, Ha鈥檃zinu, summoning the heavens and the earth as witnesses to his powerful, angrymessage, as God commanded him to do in the preceding parashah, Vayelekh. And yet, in a one-versereshut, a prayerful, wishful intention, preceding the central portion of his sermonic poem, hesays that he wantshis words to land lightly: 鈥淢ay my discourse come down as the rain, my speech distill as the dew, like showers on young growth, like droplets on the grass鈥�(Deut. 32:2). Then suddenly, thecentralangry themeemerges, and he calls the people 鈥渦nworthy of [God], crooked, perverse鈥� (32:5), 鈥渄ull and witless鈥� (32:6).