Friday Shabbat Shalom

Why do the Rabbis feel it is important to know that creation happened on Rosh Hashanah? By linking the creation of the world in the macro sense, with our own personal stock-taking in the micro sense, we are all given the opportunity to understand our infinite potential as human beings and recreate ourselves anew year after year.

This Dvar Torah on Parashat Ki Tavo was written by the Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom Ephraim Mirvis in tribute to the legacy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

Moving against our nature, especially lifting ourselves beyond our natural impulses and desires, is a struggle, a fight with our “yetzer hara” or “evil inclination”. The Ramban tells us that this struggle to keep mitzvot is ultimately our method of refining our souls…

This week’s Torah portion (Parashat Shoftim) is a touchstone text within Jewish environmentalism, as it contains the commandment “not to destroy” trees in the field (“bal taschit”).

In the opening verse of this week's parsha, Re’eh, Moses speaks to the Jewish people and says: "See (re'eh), I have set before you today a blessing and a curse" (Devarim/ Deuteronomy 11:26). Why does the Torah present this information in terms of "seeing," when it would have made more sense to use the idea of "hearing"?

If you do as God tells you to do, then God will reward you. But that is only half of the story: if you don’t do what God tells you to do, God will punish you severely... As much as the rabbis try to mitigate the intensity of the portion with their various explanations of the title, it does not appear to be the loving portion we would prefer.

In this week’s Torah portion, Vaetchanan, Moses continues to deliver his final words to the Israelites, recalling the joys and the oys of their wilderness journey. Throughout the text the command to listen, Shema, is repeated on four different occasions...

"These are the words, the words that brought us here, the words that shaped this hard place we have come to know and yet, in this place words escape us." - Rebecca Minkus-Lieberman | Tisha B’Av/ The 9th day of the Hebrew month of Av marks the day of destruction of both the 1st and 2nd Temples and many other disasters that have befallen the Jewish people. This weeks Dvar is a kavannah for Parshat Devarim, and Tisha B'av (observed this coming Sunday).