Vayera

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
November 21, 2024

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

A Year of Jewish Ethics, Current Affairs, Ethics, Middot, Parashat Hashavua, Tikkun Olam, Vayera, Young Jewish Adult, Youth
November 15, 2024

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

Current Affairs, Election, Justice, Love, Middot, Parashat Hashavua, Tikkun Olam, Torah, Tzedek, USA, Vayera
November 2, 2023

41 Thoughts on Genesis 18

This is not the D’var Torah I will be speaking from the pulpit, even though Genesis 18 is in this week’s Torah reading, Vayera. I’ve been making these tentative notes through the week, reading the chapter with the actuality of Israel and Gaza ever present. H/t to Rabbis Tali Adler and Aryeh Klapper, of whose… Continue reading

Antisemitism, Current Affairs, Ethics, Gaza, History, Israel, Midrash, Parashat Hashavua, Tzedek, Vayera
November 2, 2023

41 Thoughts on Genesis 18

This is not the D’var Torah I will be speaking from the pulpit, even though Genesis 18 is in this week’s Torah reading, Vayera. I’ve been making these tentative notes through the week, reading the chapter with the actuality of Israel and Gaza ever present. H/t to Rabbis Tali Adler and Aryeh Klapper, of whose… Continue reading

Antisemitism, Current Affairs, Ethics, Gaza, History, Israel, Midrash, Parashat Hashavua, Tzedek, Vayera
October 29, 2020

The Sacrifice of Yitzchak: Remembering Rabin on the Anniversary of His Assassination

October 29, 2020 is by the Jewish calendar the 25th anniversary of the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin z"l, by a Jewish religious extremist opposed to Rabin's peacemaking with the Palestinians. This is the D'var Torah I gave five years ago for Rabin's yahrzeit. This is the week of the 20th yahrzeit for… Continue reading

Calendar, Community Relations, Current Affairs, Gaza, History, Holocaust, Israel, Jerusalem, Justice, Leadership, Parashat Hashavua, Peace, Terrorism, Tikkun Olam, Torah, Tzedek, Vayera, Yom Haatzmaut
October 21, 2010

Parashat Vayera: A Spiritual Lens for Election 2010

Parashat Vayera opens with two scenes in chapter 18 of Bereshit. First, Avraham and Sarah open their homes to three travelers whom Avraham notices in the distance. Immediately after, Avraham and God engage in a discussion about the fate of the evil city of Sodom and the other cities around it, and whether the overall… Continue reading

Current Affairs, Election, Parashat Hashavua, Vayera
November 2, 2009

Parashat Vayera: Peace and Service, In Family and The World

This past Shabbat, many of the discussions in shul about Avraham centered on his contradictions. We tell stories about how Avraham stood up to his father who sold idols, to the powerful king of Ur, to God God-self over the fate of Sodom and Gomorroah. Yet he was willing to put his wife Sarah at… Continue reading

Parashat Hashavua, Peace, Tikkun Olam, Vayera