Parashat Hashavua
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A Year of Jewish Ethics #6: Ownership
In chapter 23 of Bereshit Sarah dies and in order to bury her, Avraham makes his first purchase of land. Burial is such an important mitzvah, and it’s important that a mitzvah becomes the context for the first purchase recorded in the Torah. What does this teach us about a Jewish ethic of ownership? Avraham… Continue reading
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A Year of Jewish Ethics #5: The Binding of Yitzchak
It’s impossible to talk about Jewish ethics and the book of Bereshit without addressing the story of the binding of Isaac, Akedat Yitzchak or simply the Akedah (found in Genesis 22:1-19). Avraham hears a call from the Divine to take his son to the top of a mountain and offer him as an offering.… Continue reading
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A Year of Jewish Ethics #4: Are You Responsible for Your Group?
What responsibility does an individual have for the faults of a whole group? In the first part of Bereshit, the book of Genesis, there are at least two stories that touch on this question directly. One is the story of the Flood, the Mabul in Hebrew, and the other is the situation in Sodom and… Continue reading
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Avraham: Extraordinary Compassion and Justice in the Same Chapter
This is the draft of my D'var Torah for tomorrow, focusing on Genesis 18 within Parashat Vayera. One afternoon when Avraham did not feel at all great, two things happened. First, he saw three strangers going along their way and he ran out to them to bring them home. Second, and right after, he had… Continue reading
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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
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Diversity as a Tikkun and a Curse: The Tower of Babel
Here is my current draft of a D’var Torah for this coming Shabbat, when we read Parashat Noach and in particular the story of the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11. The story of the Tower of Babel teaches that diversity is both a tikkun and a curse. A tikkun, a fix for some problem of humanity,… Continue reading
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A Year of Jewish Ethics #2: Moral Psychology (and Good Enough?)
Image of superhero is designed by Freepik This series of short teachings about Jewish ethics is mostly about the “what”, the principles of action. But that can’t be disentangled from moral psychology, which is the inner experience of trying to do the right thing. Torah discusses moral psychology as well as moral principles. As the… Continue reading
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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
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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
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Herds, Hearts, and Hashgacha: A D’var Torah on Mattot-Masei
Here is a D'var Torah for Parashiyot Mattot-Masei, the end of the book of B'midbar (Numbers), specifically chapter 32. The best two-word opening to a story probably in the whole Bible is cattle — lotsa! ומקנה רב umikneh rav. To me it’s right up there with “In the beginning” and “God tested Avraham.” The first… Continue reading
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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
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The Grape Cluster and the Two Who Carry It: A D’var Torah for Pride
This is the D'var Torah I gave for Pride Shabbat 5781/2021, for Parashat Sh'lach L'cha (Numbers 13:1-15:41). I love this parasha about the scouts, the m’raglim, and the fact that the Torah is so brutally honest about how hard it is to go forward even to a land of milk and honey, even when the… Continue reading
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