Youth

January 14, 2026

Exodus Is the Foundation of Everything (Parashat Shmot 5786)

This was my D’var Torah on Shabbat for Parashat Shmot, January 10, 2026. It has been a week, from Iran to Venezuela to my hometown the Twin Cities. And it has also been the week of Parashat Shmot, the opening of the book of Exodus, the most important book in human history. If you have… Continue reading

Antisemitism, Books, Current Affairs, Equality, Exodus, Freedom, Holidays, Parashat Hashavua, Pesach, Shmot, Tikkun Olam, Torah, Young Jewish Adult, Youth
January 6, 2026

Brotherhood, Evolving (Parashat Shmot, MLK Weekend 5783/2023)

This is excerpted and adapted from a D’var Torah I gave in January 2023, when MLK Weekend began on Shabbat with Parashat Shmot, the opening reading in the book of Exodus. Here I’ve omitted the (long) opening, which is very similar to most of the other words I have posted about those opening chapters of… Continue reading

Civil Rights, Community Relations, Current Affairs, Equality, Ethics, Exodus, History, Inclusion, Justice, MLK Day, Moshe, Parashat Hashavua, Shmot, Tikkun Olam, Torah, Tzedek, USA, Young Jewish Adult, Youth
January 1, 2026

Carrying on After the Golden Age (Parashat Vayechi)

I wrote this D’var Torah in the early 2000s originally for a Jewish website called socialaction.com, whose weekly Torah teachings I helped edit and sometimes wrote. All of that content including this teaching is now at myjewishlearning.com, which you should make sure to have bookmarked for all things Jewish. This is about Parashat Vayechi, the… Continue reading

Civil Rights, Current Affairs, Parashat Hashavua, Tzedek, Vayechi, Young Jewish Adult, Youth
December 31, 2025

Across the Generations (Parashat Vayechi 5785)

This is the D’var Torah I gave for Parashat Vayechi, the last reading in Genesis, on January 11, 2025. This is an original first album of Peter, Paul and Mary from 1962. Does anyone else here have one of these? I would say if you listed the release years of the music that was played… Continue reading

Education, History, Jewish Education, Parashat Hashavua, Serach bat Asher, Torah, Vayechi, Young Jewish Adult, Youth
December 25, 2025

When Life Is Commodified (Parashat Vayiggash 5779)

This is my D’var Torah for Parashat Vayiggash in 5779, December 15, 2018 — during thick of the season of gift giving and shopping. In 1912, Francis Collins published The Boys’ Book of Model Airplanes: How to Build and How to Fly Them. It was about a decade after Kitty Hawk, the first successful flight… Continue reading

Calendar, Chanuka, Chanukkah, Economics, Money, Parashat Hashavua, Torah, Vayiggash, Youth
October 31, 2025

One More Course This Term

My last “first” college entry of this semester – Science A-22: Chance, Necessity, and Order. This was a philosophy of science class as well as a conceptual introduction to 20th century physics. So not the typical “Physics for Poets” class, with non- or low-math versions of basic topics in physics. In that sense, different from… Continue reading

College, Education, Science, Young Jewish Adult, Youth
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
October 17, 2025

What Vivian Paley Taught Me About Parashat Bereshit

Here is my D’var Torah for Parashat Bereshit back in 5782 (2021). ***** This is the book of the stories of humanity — on the day God created humanity, in the divine image did God create it, male and female God created them. (Genesis 5:1) “We must talk about cleanup,” I say one day at… Continue reading

Bereshit, Education, Equality, Ethics, Parashat Hashavua, Teacher-Student Relationship, Youth
October 17, 2025

Hava Amina: What Tzelem Elohim (Image of God) Is Rebutting

This is the D’var Torah I gave in 2022 for Parashat Bereshit, the opening chapters of the Torah in the annual weekly cycle. I am leaving it here with one contemporary reference I made at the time that might sound different today. I also may update this as my D’var Torah for this Shabbat (I… Continue reading

Bereshit, Equality, History, Midrash, Parashat Hashavua, Youth
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
July 13, 2025

Finishing My First Year of College (Part 1)

I did finish looking at my class notes for the second semester of my first year of college a while ago, but haven’t written about it yet. Here’s a bit on one of the courses – Empire and Art. The last few weeks were not as distinctive as the earlier part of the class. The… Continue reading

Art, College, History, Young Jewish Adult, Youth