I’m thrilled you are exploring Society Hill Synagogue and have found your way to the page of Divrei Torah, words of Torah, which are part of a generations-long Jewish practice of refracting sacred Jewish teachings through the light of our own day and age.
For me, Judaism is an opportunity to nourish ourselves, grounded in the Jewish story: a story that has unfolded throughout the generations, with twists and turns, tragedy and triumph, serving as a source of life to those who engage with it.
The Jewish People are known as B’nei Yisrael: the people who wrestle with the Divine. The name comes from that moment in our tradition in which it is understood that our ancestor Jacob “wrestled with a figure,” a figure understood to be a manifestation of that very Divine Being (see Genesis 32).
That moment produced a legacy of sacred wrestling; grappling; seeking to make meaning of, and find purpose in, our time on earth.
These Divrei Torah are my efforts, in conversation with the community of Society Hill Synagogue, to make meaning and to find purpose, seeking to serve this community, our broader world, and the Divine.
I hope you find meaning in them yourself, and I encourage you to reach out to me if you would like to discuss their contents or to discuss becoming a part of the Society Hill Synagogue community. Welcome!
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What Covenant Can Mean To Us • Boundaries, People!
I want to share the D’var Torah I delivered this past Friday night on the week’s parashah, on the eve of our student Alex Howe’s Bar mitzvah: I was drawn to a very specific part of this week’s parashah, this week’s Torah portion. Perhaps you’ll
Earthquake Response
What a devastating week it’s been around the world. The numbers of dead and missing coming out of Turkey and Syria as a result of the earthquakes there are overwhelming. At the time of this writing the death toll has surpassed 15,000, with many more
Refugee Shabbat • Song of the Sea
I know I say this to all the B’nei Mitzvah students, Yul, but you really have a special parashah. So much so that your shabbat has a special name—Shabbat Shirah, the Shabbat of Song. Named, of course, after Shirat Hayam, the Song of the Sea—the
What Can the Plague of Darkness Teach Us?
This week, during Shabbat morning’s Torah discussion, we studied the ten plagues, and in particular the plague of darkness. The conversation centered around how to understand what took place during the plague of darkness and what the Torah is trying to teach us in its
Rest as a Form of Sacred Offering
There is a phrase that comes from the silent amidah, the silent standing prayer at the core of our worship service on Shabbat that has become something of a mantra for me as I seek to navigate Shabbat each week. That phrase is found on
The Four Types of Freedom
When the Israelites are down, God says to Moses, “Say, therefore, to the Israelite people: I am יהוה. I will free you from the labors of the Egyptians and deliver you from their bondage. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and through extraordinary chastisements. And I will take you to be
What Does it Mean to Be “Redeemed”?
I wanted to begin by sharing with you the d’var torah (Torah-based teaching) I offered this past Friday night at Shabbat services, something that I do most every Friday night mixed into our musically-infused service, which is always followed by a community dinner and always preceded by
The “Uniquely-American Problem”
One core element of freedom, by any definition, is the freedom to not be in perpetual fear for one’s safety and the safety of one’s loved ones. The week-in-week-out—often day-in-day-out—episodes off mass gun violence we’ve seen in this country so far this year, capped off
Cries for Help Can Help: How We Shape Our Vessels
This week’s parasha [Torah portion], is shemot, the first portion of the Book of Exodus. The book begins by letting us know that the individual family with whom we became deeply acquainted in the Book of Bereshit, the Book of Genesis, has now blossomed into a people, an am, a nation,
Nose to the Grindstone/Head to the Stars • the Love of Grandparents
This week’s parasha is vayehi. “He lived.” Jacob lived seventeen years in the land of Egypt, the Torah portion tells us, after he had migrated there with the rest of his family to be reunited with Joseph—Joseph the eldest son of Jacob’s beloved late wife Rachel, Joseph whom
Shame as a vessel for transformation?
At this past week’s Torah discussion, we discussed a heavy topic: shame. It came up in the context of the week’s parashah (Torah portion), Vayigash, meaning, “he approached.” The older brother Judah approached the younger brother Joseph, decades after Joseph’s older brother’s had sold him to
Wrestling with Where We Come From
This past Shabbat on Zoom — an experience we will have one more time this coming Shabbat to give our staff time off during this holiday season; I hope you’ll join us — we studied Parashat Miketz, the portion of the Book of Bereshit (Genesis)
The Source of Gift-Giving on Hanukkah
We are so grateful to so many of you who have answered the call to give financial support to your synagogue community during this season of giving, the Festival of Lights: Hanukkah. There is speculation about the proliferation of the tradition of giving Hanukkah gelt. The now-ubiquitous chocolate coins
How To Wrestle with God
What a joy to be celebrating Noah Schindler becoming Bar Mitzvah with you all. Noah’s Torah portion is vayishlach, and while of course all 54 Torah portions are equally sacred, there is something pretty special about this one, because it’s the one that gives us our
How Not To Measure Our Self-Worth | Investigating Our Own True Motivations
Last week, we celebrated the Bat Mitzvah of Sarah Tobacman. Sarah’s parashah (Torah portion) was Vayetze a phrase which literally translates to “he left,” as in Jacob, our ancestor, left his hometown of Be’er Sheva—fled it, is more accurate—after purloining the patriarchal blessing of his father Isaac, a blessing