Miketz – Rabbi Jon 's Website and Blog

December 25, 2025

The Ice Bucket Challenge and the Menorah: Sustaining Light (Shabbat Chanukkah 5786-Parashat Mketz)

This was my D’var Torah for Shabbat Chanukkah coinciding with Parashat Miketz in 5786 (December 20, 2025). Do you remember the Ice Bucket Challenge? In the summer of 2014, people began sharing videos of themselves getting ice cold water poured over their heads and asking people to donate money to support people with ALS, amyotrophic… Continue reading

Antisemitism, Calendar, Chanuka, Chanukkah, Civil Rights, Current Affairs, Holidays, Miketz, Parashat Hashavua, Torah, Tzedakah, Tzedek

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

December 15, 2023

D’var Torah: Dreaming Even In These Times

This is the D’var Torah I plan to share at Shabbat morning services on December 16, 2023 for Parashat Miketz. It’s related to this one I gave in late 2020, when we could begin to think about reality after Covid vaccines. I want to start by misquoting someone, specifically Dr. Tal Ben-Shahar, on the subject of dreamers and cynics:… Continue reading

Chanuka, Chanukkah, Coronavirus, Current Affairs, Dreams/Dreaming, Holidays, Hope, Israel, Leadership, Miketz, Parashat Hashavua

December 21, 2020

Dreaming of Better Than Normal

(Photo: deviantart.com) This is the Dvar Torah I gave on Saturday, December 19, 2020. It was the Shabbat immediately following Chanukkah. Today is what I call the ninth day of Chanukkah. What do we see after we have finished lighting a full chanukkiah? Do we keep an afterimage, do we see in our mind’s eye… Continue reading

Calendar, Chanuka, Coronavirus, Current Affairs, Holidays, Hope, Leadership, Miketz, Parashat Hashavua, Temple Beth Abraham, Tikkun Olam, USA

December 23, 2011

Shabbat Chanuka: The Kavannah of Giving

Like most rabbis, I dislike the way so much of the focus of Chanuka shifts from the nerot, the lights, to the presents kids receive. But I also know that giving, at any time, is a profound Jewish act. Last week during Shabbat evening services, we davvened in our small chapel. Usually one of the… Continue reading

Chanuka, Holidays, Miketz, Parashat Hashavua, Tzedakah