Current Affairs

November 6, 2025

Before the Flood: A D’var Torah About Noach

This was my D’var Torah a couple weeks ago, about Parashat Noach and the lead-up to the Flood, on October 25, 2025. I’m late in sharing it. One way to look at the big arcs of the Torah is as a series of thought experiments. Each big story is a version of the world or… Continue reading

Current Affairs, Ethics, Midrash, Noach, Noah, Parashat Hashavua, Speech Ethics, Torah, Yonah
October 23, 2025

During the Flood, Inside the Ark — Learning From Bonhoeffer and the Freiburg School

This was my D’var Torah about Parashat Noach in 5783 (2022). This Torah reading centers on the Flood. This teaching here is about “during the Flood”, and at the end I discourage us from seeing our era as sliding toward the Flood. If we do see it that way, we still might ask the question… Continue reading

Current Affairs, Economics, Ethics, Holocaust, Hope, Inclusion, Interfaith Dialogue, Justice, Leadership, Noach, Noah, Parashat Hashavua, Tikkun Olam, Torah, Tzedek
October 17, 2025

College: Beginning Economics

I thought I had lost my Ec 10 notebook (introduction to economics) but I found it! I would never in a million years have taken the course, but it was one of the only standard required courses in my Social Studies concentration. I checked the current department requirements, and it remains that way, even though… Continue reading

Adam Smith, College, Current Affairs, Economics, Young Jewish Adult
October 12, 2025

Why Our Jewish Community Should Be at the CROP Hunger Walk

If you’re in our area, I hope you will be part of next Sunday’s interfaith CROP Hunger Walk. Here is why I think that’s important always, and especially for all of us thinking about the place of Jews in America right now. Continue reading

Antisemitism, Calendar, Community Relations, Current Affairs, Equality, Ethics, Food, Gaza, Interfaith Dialogue, Israel, Jewish Education, Justice, Peace, Synagogue, Tikkun Olam, Tzedakah, Tzedek, USA, Young Jewish Adult, Youth
September 26, 2025

Rosh Hashanah D’var Torah Day 1 — Moral Autobiography

This is my D’var Torah from the first day of Rosh Hashanah 5786 (2025). One of the best questions I was asked all year came at a training in April with an organization called Resetting the Table. Resetting the Table teaches people how to transform toxic divides into a shared future, and one of the… Continue reading

Current Affairs, Education, Ethics, High Holidays, Holidays, Israel, Jewish Education, Justice, Lech L’cha, Middot, Rosh Hashanah, Teacher-Student Relationship, Tikkun Olam, Torah, Tzedek, USA, Vayera, Yamim Noraim, Young Jewish Adult, Youth
September 26, 2025

Rosh Hashanah D’var Torah Day 2: The Power of Kindness in a Brutal World

This was my D’var Torah for the second day of Rosh Hashanah 5786 (2025). In a piece in Slate about the TV show Ted Lasso, Amanda Prahl wrote: Kindness is the vanilla of emotional concepts. It has the reputation of being safe, two-dimensional, passive, and utterly bland. Ask any culinary expert, though, and they’ll tell… Continue reading

Anger, Antisemitism, Current Affairs, Gaza, Gratitude, High Holidays, Holidays, Immigration, Inclusion, Israel, Justice, Leadership, Middot, Rosh Hashanah, Tikkun Olam, Torah, Tzedek, USA, Vayera, Yamim Noraim
September 8, 2025

Finally Finishing Freshman Year!

My final post on the courses of my first spring in college are on Professor Bartal's class on the emergence of the State of Israel. These aren't particularly organized by significance, just maybe by new thoughts I'm having now. As I read the notes on the period from 1904-1949, I am most struck for some… Continue reading

College, Current Affairs, History, Israel, Young Jewish Adult
September 8, 2025

Finishing My First Year of College (Part 2)

I'm about to start year 2 of my project of rereading my college notes, but I didn't finish up putting down some last notes on year 1. The part of Gov 1170 that really struck me in my final read had to do with political parties and their role in enabling social conflicts to be… Continue reading

College, Current Affairs, History, Inclusion, Terrorism, Young Jewish Adult
March 14, 2025

Yasher Koach

Here is the draft of my D'var Torah for tomorrow, when we read Parashat Ki Tisa and the story of the Golden Calf. When someone has an honor to the Torah, we say to them: Yasher koach. This is a Yiddish-y inflection for yishar kochacha. Koach is strength and there are two views of what… Continue reading

Current Affairs, Ki Tissa, Parashat Hashavua, Purim, Torah, USA
March 12, 2025

Recommended Links of Mine for Purim This Year

Here in one place are links to the pieces I've done related to Purim and our contemporary world that I think are particularly worth a look or listen this year. For reading, listening, or watching. Introducing Adar Conversations: Esther-Informed Spiritual Therapy (read and video) Getting to Mi Yode'a ("Who Knows") — Moral Clarity in a Topsy-Turvy World… Continue reading

Antisemitism, Calendar, Current Affairs, Esther, Holidays, Inclusion, Israel, Jewish Education, Joy, Justice, Leadership, Middot, Midrash, Power, Purim, Shabbat Zachor, Simcha, Terrorism, Tikkun Olam, Tov! Podcast, Tzedakah, Tzedek, USA, Young Jewish Adult, Youth
March 12, 2025

Antisemitism, Our Security and Our Souls — Wisdom From the Book of Esther

This was Dvar Torah for Shabbat Zachor last weekend, March 8, 2025. Last year at this time, I coined a term for a brand-new approach to wellbeing. I called it EIST, for “Esther-Informed Spiritual Therapy.” The big idea is that the Purim story is the best mirror in entire Tanakh, the whole Bible, for Jews… Continue reading

Antisemitism, Community Relations, Current Affairs, Esther, Holidays, Jewish Education, Leadership, Parashat Hashavua, Patience, Power, Purim, Shabbat Zachor, USA, Young Jewish Adult, Youth
February 13, 2025

Lessons For Our Moment, From When the Ten Commandments Were Individually Delivered

This is a version of the D'var Torah on Parashat Yitro that I gave in 2021/5781. I've lightly updated it to reflect the changes in the pandemic and the presidential administration since then. It centers a midrash I've linked, and my own take on that midrash. The midrash called Shir Ha-Shirim Rabba takes the opening… Continue reading

Current Affairs, Middot, Parashat Hashavua, Revelation, Torah, Yitro