Bereshit – Rabbi Jon 's Website and Blog

October 17, 2025

What Vivian Paley Taught Me About Parashat Bereshit

Here is my D’var Torah for Parashat Bereshit back in 5782 (2021). ***** This is the book of the stories of humanity — on the day God created humanity, in the divine image did God create it, male and female God created them. (Genesis 5:1) “We must talk about cleanup,” I say one day at… Continue reading

Bereshit, Education, Equality, Ethics, Parashat Hashavua, Teacher-Student Relationship, Youth

October 17, 2025

Hava Amina: What Tzelem Elohim (Image of God) Is Rebutting

This is the D’var Torah I gave in 2022 for Parashat Bereshit, the opening chapters of the Torah in the annual weekly cycle. I am leaving it here with one contemporary reference I made at the time that might sound different today. I also may update this as my D’var Torah for this Shabbat (I… Continue reading

Bereshit, Equality, History, Midrash, Parashat Hashavua, Youth

February 10, 2025

A Year of Jewish Ethics #10: Teshuvah

One of the most fundamental Jewish ethical practices is teshuvah. Teshuvah is the word that’s often translated as “repentance” and is too often just associated in people’s minds with the season of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the Yamim Nora’im or Days of Awe. The word teshuvah has a broader meaning of “going back” or… Continue reading

A Year of Jewish Ethics, Bereshit, Ethics, Maimonides, Middot, Miketz, Parashat Hashavua, Teshuvah, Vayeshev, Vayiggash, Young Jewish Adult, Youth

October 29, 2024

Cookbook, Scrapbook, Big Story — What Is the Torah?

This was my D'var Torah for Parashat Bereshit 5785 (October 26, 2025), the start of the new Torah reading cycle. Here's a short video that does some of this from a similar angle. Some of the best cookbooks are mostly not recipes. Each dish is the occasion for a story – of someone special in… Continue reading

Bereshit, Calendar, Parashat Hashavua, Torah

October 22, 2024

A Year of Jewish Ethics #1: Speech

Last Shabbat I spoke among other things about the imperative this year in particular that Jews immerse ourselves in our own teachings about ethics. To be connected and grounded as we deal with issues in the American and Jewish worlds, we need to make Jewish ethics a core of our Jewish selves. To help,… Continue reading

A Year of Jewish Ethics, Bereshit, Current Affairs, Ethics, Middot, Parashat Hashavua, Speech Ethics, Torah

October 13, 2023

Two Kinds of Darkness, Two Kinds of Light, Two Kinds of Torah

This is (I think) the D'var Torah I have for services this Shabbat tomorrow. The Torah reading begins with the very beginning of the Torah. It's one week since the Hamas atrocities began. Thank you to Rabbi Rebecca Rosenthal and Rabbi Aryeh Klapper for helping me unlock this, though if anything is off it's on… Continue reading

September 30, 2021

So What Exactly Is The Torah?

We start the annual cycle of reading and studying Torah once again this week! So, what is the Torah when you zoom out and think about it as a whole, and not just story by story or teaching by teaching? Continue reading

Bereshit, Books, Calendar, Education, Parashat Hashavua, Simchat Torah, Study, Theology, Torah

June 18, 2018

How to Use and Not Use Biblical Verses in Politics

This was my D'var Torah last Shabbat (June 16, 2018), in response to the back-and-forth between religious groups and Attorney General Jeff Sessions about what the Bible says about the policy of separating parents and children when families are suspected of crossing the U.S. border illegally. One afternoon a young yeshiva bocher, a student immersed… Continue reading

Bereshit, Community Relations, Current Affairs, Heschel, Immigration, Inclusion, Interfaith Dialogue, Justice, Leadership, Parashat Hashavua, Study, Tikkun Olam, Torah, Tzedek, USA

October 27, 2016

Starting Over: What Is the Torah?

What is the Torah? This week we start reading it from the beginning on Shabbat. We usually think about the Torah one story at a time, or one teaching at a time. What is the Torah when we zoom back? If you've got seven and a half minutes to listen, here are some thoughts on… Continue reading

Bereshit, Calendar, Jewish Education, Parashat Hashavua, Rabbi, Revelation, Torah

October 19, 2011

Parashat Bereshit: Why Do We Begin Again?

I love the few moments on Simchat Torah when we read the end of the Torah, and then read the beginning. One minute Moses is on top of a mountain, surveying the whole Land of Israel, the Torah is recounting all the wonders and teachings, and the people are getting ready for the exciting next… Continue reading

Bereshit, Parashat Hashavua

September 29, 2010

Parashat Bereshit: Why Stephen Hawking Doesn’t Rock My World

I recently heard a radio program about Stephen Hawking's new book, The Grand Design. Written together with physicist Leonard Mlodinow, the book accounts for why things in our universe are so beautiful ordered. Why the laws and conditions of our universe are suited for the development of life and human life. Everything can be explained… Continue reading

Bereshit, Parashat Hashavua, Science