Lech L’cha

October 31, 2025

Parashat Lech L’cha — The Journey and the Destination

This Shabbat in services we will discuss what we think about the oft-cited idea that “life is not about the destination but the journey.” Do we agree? When is or isn’t that true? How does Lech L’cha, the charge to Avraham to go forth, map onto or differ from the conventional journey idea? Here is a study… Continue reading

Lech L’cha, Parashat Hashavua, 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
November 14, 2024

A Year of Jewish Ethics #3: Is Anger a Moral Emotion?

Emotions are a part of ethics. We can’t completely disconnect the principles we want to be guided by from the feelings we experience when someone is living up to those principles or violating them. But does emotion help us act more ethically? I am recording this not long after the 2024 election, when anger… Continue reading

A Year of Jewish Ethics, Anger, Current Affairs, Ethics, Lech L’cha, Maimonides, Middot, Parashat Hashavua, Young Jewish Adult, Youth
July 19, 2024

D’var Torah for Balak: Saying We Are Blessed

It's Friday and here is my current draft of a D'var Torah for Shabbat morning on Parashat Balak, Numbers 22:2-25:9: In the parasha this week, an enemy of the Jews asks a man of powerful words to curse Israel. To say bad things about us in a way to bring us harm. And it doesn’t… Continue reading

Antisemitism, Balak, Community Relations, Current Affairs, Gratitude, Hakarat Hatov, Hope, Israel, Jerusalem, Lech L’cha, Parashat Hashavua, Torah
October 27, 2023

You Are Not Alone, You Are a Blessing

This is the D'var Torah I plan to give tomorrow in services, October 28, 2023 for Parashat Lech L'cha, the opening of the saga of Sarah and Avraham, three weeks after the Hamas attacks of October 7 and as the war continues in Gaza. Who said the Torah had to be divided into 54 roughly… Continue reading

Abuse, Antisemitism, Community Relations, Current Affairs, Gaza, Hope, Israel, Jerusalem, Lech L’cha, Parashat Hashavua, Torah, Young Jewish Adult
October 14, 2010

Parashat Lech L’cha — Why No Jewish Harry Potter?

Today I read an article that had been sitting on desk for awhile, entitled "Why No Jewish Narnias?" It was written by a professor of Jewish Studies named Michael Weingrad in the Jewish Review of Books. Professor Weingrad wonders why there are so many fantasy books with Christian roots, but really none that are rooted… Continue reading

Lech L’cha, Parashat Hashavua
October 29, 2009

Parashat Lech L’cha: What Is a Journey?

God said to Avram: Go, you, from your land, from your place of birth, and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will make your name great…. (Genesis 12:1-2) Avram (the original name of Avraham)… Continue reading

Lech L’cha, Parashat Hashavua