Category: Dvar Torah

Commanding Joy When the World is a Mess? (P. Terumah)

2/15/2026

Nobody needs me to confirm that vast swaths of our world burn like a raging dumpster fire.

Judaism is about reality-based reality. We do not pretend away trouble or turn a blind eye. We certainly do not fiddle while Rome burns.

Yet even so – precisely so – the Jewish calendar encodes a radical and wise spiritual practice starting now, linked to this week's Torah portion, that at first blush can seem oddly un-real and ill-fitting when the world is a dumpster fire.

The practice is one of Judaism's sometimes overlooked superpowers: elevating joy amidst all.

Justice and a World Blind and Toothless (P. Mishpatim)

2/8/2026

In a world of passive aggression, physical and emotional aggression, and mounting societal outrage, there can be instinctive allure to Torah's "eye for an eye" maxim about justice.

Except it doesn't mean what the millennia made it out to mean. What principles should guide us in addressing bad behavior? When – if ever – does "like" merit "like"?

"The Way They Will Walk" (P. Yitro)

2/1/2026

When I was a Harvard graduate student lo many years ago, person-sized Biblical words about law looked down on me every day from atop one of the academic buildings.

They look down on me still – and on you, and on our country.

The Bittersweet Fickleness of Faith (P. Beshallah)

1/25/2026

Even the most faithful among us have times of forgetting, doubting and disbelieving. Lifelong learning, gratitude and perspective suddenly can fly out the window.

Even the most faithless among us have times of belief that challenge rationalism, atheism and all other -isms. Clutched certainty of disbelief, and with it clarity about how life is, suddenly can fall like a castle of sand.

Our bittersweet fickleness of faith, faithlessness and everything in between is eminently human. What if we lean into them – all of them?

Gifts of Foresight (P. Bo)

1/18/2026

How do we perceive the world – as it is becoming or as a projection of ourselves?

How do we perceive the future? Do we see the future merely continuing a past or present, or brimming with possibility?

A rare few among us – the prophets of old, and modern visionaries like Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. – get out of their own way, defy inertia and see a becoming world long before the rest of us can.

Often society ignores them or mocks them. What if instead we listened and dreamed?

What's In a Name? (P. Vaera)

1/11/2026

We call our beloveds by many names. Whether a given name, an adopted name, a "pet" name or something else, each name encodes a special relationship and a story about it.

Why should it be different for the Beloved that we call God?

It's not. "God" isn't a Name but a role, a function. As for the Name of God – the One goes by many names.

And each Name tells a profound story. That story is worth telling.

The Angelic Art of Redemption (P. Vayehi)

12/28/2025

Before it's all said and done, what do we make of the dust-ups, hurts, disappointments and dramas of our messy lives?

it's tempting to answer that we bear them as best we can, and even make meaning of them – and hopefully we do. But is there more?

Is there a way to redeem what happens in our lives? Is there a way to bless others by what we ourselves have become?

That's Jacob's last blessing, and ours – with bonus content from one of my students.

Subverting Absolute Power (P. Vayigash)

12/21/2025

We live in an era of rising global strongmen and eroding guardrails for democracy.

Judaism has seen much in its 3,500 years, including the rise and fall of many strongmen.

Effective frontal confrontations are rare against absolute power and its penchant for corruption. Such powers tend to entrench themselves by means as damaging and corrupt as they are.

More common are less attention-grabbing ways to subvert absolute power. These tend to be less frontal, less direct, maybe less effective taken one by one. But together, they make the difference.

Out of the Darkness (P. Mikeitz)

12/14/2025

During this Hanukkah week – and now in the wake of the attack on a Hanukkah celebration in Australia – we kindle candles of hope, continuity and community.

We participate in an extraordinary collective act of hutzpah.

We've all known the darkness before the dawn, the anxiety before the knowing, the gauntlet before the triumph. There have been times so dark that we could never imagine light ever penetrating.

And yet.

The Amazing Technicolor Hindsight Stories We Tell Ourselves (P. Vayeishev)

12/7/2025

Joseph's coat of many colors has become the stuff of art, parenting books, spiritual seeking and a now-timeless Broadway musical.

And wow, is it loaded! Perhaps Joseph's coat became such a Biblical icon precisely because it is so loaded.

Stitched into its amazing technicolor weave is a deep teaching about how we make meaning in our lives – and the stories we tell about what happens. In the process, this essentially human (and Jewish) project can't help but play a time-traveling trick on us that hides in plain sight.

It's worth revealing that hidden story (with bonus content from "The West Wing").

<<Previous

Commanding Joy When the World is a Mess? (P. Terumah)

Justice and a World Blind and Toothless (P. Mishpatim)

"The Way They Will Walk" (P. Yitro)

The Bittersweet Fickleness of Faith (P. Beshallah)

Gifts of Foresight (P. Bo)

What's In a Name? (P. Vaera)

The Angelic Art of Redemption (P. Vayehi)

Subverting Absolute Power (P. Vayigash)

Out of the Darkness (P. Mikeitz)

The Amazing Technicolor Hindsight Stories We Tell Ourselves (P. Vayeishev)

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