From Conflict to Creation: Rebecca’s Question and Our Own

Last updated on: November 26, 2024 at 1:17 am By Hebrew College

Parashat Toldot Genesis 25:19-28:9 In this week’s Torah portion, we encounter Rebecca, our matriarch, in the midst of a moment of deep personal struggle. She is pregnant with twins, and as the children struggle within her, she feels their turmoil and her own pain. In her distress, she asks,“Im ken, lama zeh anochi?” – “If so, why I?” (Genesis 25:22). At first glance, Rebecca’s question might appear to be a cry of frustration or despair, an expression of her physical... Read more

An Appreciation at Our Matriarch’s Burial Place

Last updated on: November 19, 2024 at 12:09 pm By Hebrew College

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Parashat Chayei Sarah Genesis 23:1-25:18 When I read the opening verses of Chayei Sarah, my eyes tear up. With all she has experienced throughout her long life, Sarah’s death is recorded in two sentences, a mere twenty-five Hebrew words: Sarah’s lifetime, the span of Sarah’s life, came to one hundred and twenty-seven years. Sarah died in Kiryat-Arba—now Hevron in the land of Canaan; and Abraham proceeded to mourn for Sarah and to bewail her. (Genesis 23:1-2) Why the redundancies—her lifetime,... Read more

“Say you are my sister…”
In the House of Abimelech

Last updated on: November 12, 2024 at 5:24 pm By Hebrew College

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By Rav Rachel Adelman, Hebrew College Faculty Parashat Vayera Genesis 18:1-22:24 This is a dark time so I feel compelled to look to darker times in Torah to find a source of light. Three obscure stories, all what Phyllis Trible calls ‘texts of terror’, punctuate the patriarchal and matriarchal narratives. They are known collectively as the ‘wife-sister tales’: Abraham and Sarah (then named Abram and Sarai) in Egypt in Pharaoh’s court (Genesis 12:1-10); Abraham and Sarah in the House of... Read more

They Say: There is a Land

Last updated on: November 5, 2024 at 11:47 am By Hebrew College

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Parashat Lech Lecha Genesis 12:1-17:27 The land that I imagine when I read God’s promise to Avraham doesn’t match up with the Israel I see today. In Lech Lecha, God says, “Go forth from your native land and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you.” Later in Exodus, God adds detail to this promise, describing it as “a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey.” When I think of the land... Read more

Asking More of Noah

Last updated on: October 30, 2024 at 10:43 am By Hebrew College

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By Rabbi Frankie Sandmel ’22 Parashat Noach Genesis 6:9-11:32 In 5785, a story about a world so full of evil that God sees no other path beyond total destruction is hard to handle. As our own world feels on the precipice of chaos, it is painful to imagine reaching a point where, as in the time of Noah, even HaShem gives up. In the story of Noah, the only source of hope that God found in humanity was our title... Read more

Beginnings: Divine & Human

Last updated on: October 21, 2024 at 8:18 pm By Hebrew College

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Parashat Bereshit Genesis 1:1-6:8 This is a season of beginnings. Not only did we just complete the High Holy Days—marking the start of the new Jewish year—but as we finish the festival of Sukkot—marking the fall harvest and the biblical account of God’s care for our ancient forebears in the wilderness—we also begin the annual cycle of Torah readings on Simhat Torah. Because the fall Jewish holiday season is so full, it can be difficult to maintain one’s spiritual focus... Read more

Finding the Etrog’s Beauty

Last updated on: October 15, 2024 at 9:43 am By Hebrew College

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By Rafi Ellenson Sukkot For many years, I could hardly stand to enter a synagogue on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Overwhelmed by the intensity of the High Holidays, its liturgy demanding that I declare myself of little merit, and its incredible emphasis on mortality; I spent several rounds of the yamim nora’im in solitude, contemplation, and protest. Only outside the bounds of prayer and community would I consider the year that was, and anticipate the year to come. This... Read more

Teshuvah Through Tears

Last updated on: October 9, 2024 at 9:29 pm By Hebrew College

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By Rabbi Jessica Spencer ’24 Yom Kippur The Talmud tells a story of a rabbi who wanted to repent, to make teshuvah. Rabbi Elazar ben Durdaya hears that he has sinned so badly that his teshuvah will never be accepted. He asks the mountains and hills to seek mercy for him, but they reply that they are too busy praying for mercy for themselves. Then he asks Heaven and Earth, but they too will only pray for themselves. He asks... Read more

Meditation on Wild Things

Last updated on: October 1, 2024 at 10:33 am By Hebrew College

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By Naomi Gurt Lind, Hebrew College Rabbinical Student Parashat Ha’azinu Deuteronomy 32:1-32:52 The night Max wore his wolf suit and made mischief of one kind and another, his mother called him WILD THING! And Max said, I’LL EAT YOU UP! So he was sent to bed, without eating anything. For decades, Maurice Sendak’s perfect book, Where the Wild Things Are successfully disguised itself to me as a children’s book. Lately I have come to realize it is a work with... Read more

The Prophecy of Writer’s Block

Last updated on: September 24, 2024 at 1:37 pm By Hebrew College

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Parashat Nitzavim-Vayelech Deuteronomy 29:9-31:30 It is the season of rabbinic writer’s block. Each year, those of us who give sermons for the High Holidays jump on to Whatsapp groups and listservs, commiserating about the pressure and challenge of speaking our truth during Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services. This year, the task feels harder than ever. As we speak to a community rocked by the events of October 7th, the ongoing devastation in Gaza, rapidly spreading violence throughout the Levant,... Read more