Category: Dvar Torah

Reclaiming the Spirituality of Food & Omer Week 3 (P. Shemini)

4/20/2025

A special teaching for Earth Week.

Emerging from Passover, whose most outward manifestation is foods we eat and don't eat, maybe it's inevitable that the "food" part of this week's Torah portion stands out. "Kosher" and "not kosher" categories emerge from Torah's traditional list of what one does and doesn't eat.
Turns out, though, that the spirituality of food is far deeper than whether we eat shellfish or pork.

The real question is whether we can reclaim the spirituality of food – for ourselves, for core values, and for our planet.

You Are the High Priest – and Omer 5785 (P. Tzav & Passover)

4/6/2025

The matzah that is the Passover bread is about many things. Amidst the crunch and crumbles we might find humility, ancestry, community and reminders of liberation.

Hidden in matzah's layers of meaning (and this week's Torah portion) is one more thing – a profound empowerment and call to each of us.

A "Small" Teaching on Humility for the Chosen (P. Vayikra)

3/31/2025

Open any Torah and you'll see in the first word of Leviticus a letter written in tiny superscript.

It teaches us about what healthy humility is really all about.

The Sense, and Senses, of Making Holy (P. Pekudei)

3/23/2025

As we round the corner toward Passover, in Torah the Mishkan is finished and activated as Western life's first holy place crafted with human hands. What first made the Mishkan holy wasn't God. What first made the Mishkan holy was a human act. Which begs the question about what "holy" is, and how we humans can make anything holy.

Turns out, in very real ways, there's no other way.

After the Breaking, the Building (P. Vayakhel)

3/16/2025

After community conflict, there are exactly two choices. One option is to stew in it, holding onto the conflict's source or how people acted during the conflict.

The other option is to heal by building a worthy future together.

Actually, when it comes to spiritual community, there is only one real choice.

Unbend the Knee (P. Ki Tisa)

3/9/2025

I rarely engage with artificial intelligence, but recently I asked ChatGPT to depict the "Golden Calf of modern society." This image was ChatGPT's response.

For Persia in the Purim story we commemorate this week, the Golden Calf was Haman, the xenophobic prime minister. For our spiritual ancestors in Exodus days, it was literally a Golden Calf – a repudiation of the Ten Commandments.

This week's confluence of the two has much to teach us.

Lights On! (P. Tetzaveh)

3/2/2025

As our Northern Hemisphere enters the weeks of fastest increasing daylight and we accelerate into the oncoming spring (not a moment too soon!), this week's Torah portion opens with a command to make eternal light.

The command aims at all of us, and the sudden absence of Moses underscores the message at this important moment.

Giving, Up (P. Terumah)

2/23/2025

In liberal Jewish life, mitzvah often is translated as "good deed" and tzedakah as "charity." To English speakers, both sound optional.

In Jewish life, however, they're not optional. They are mandatory and essential to Jewish continuity and resilience. The whole point is to rise, and lift others as we do, and together raise up the holy.

Wise Restraints and Sapphire Skyways (P. Mishpatim)

2/16/2025

The Judaism of tradition is full of laws. It's easy to get lost in the laws, miss their ultimate point and turn our backs.

But societal moments that spotlight the rule of law often reveal grave risks when folks can accept or reject the role of law as they please. The point of law is to serve causes far beyond the individual.

And spiritually speaking, the point of law's wise restraints that make us free is just that – a profound freedom of soul.

The Eleventh Commandment (P. Yitro)

2/9/2025

Ten Commandments. We've read them. We've seen the art. We've seen the movie.

Jewish continuity, ethical purpose and spiritual becomingness all trace back to the pivotal sense-scrambling scene at Sinai. It is said that each of us was there, the roots of our souls joined in the creation of our collective covenant. On the Ten Commandments would come to rest not only Jewish life but also all Western law and morality.

But what if there weren't Ten Commandments but rather Eleven? And what if this Eleventh Commandment came first? And what if the Eleventh is the one that brings all others alive?

Heads up: the Eleventh aims at us, right now.

<<Previous

Reclaiming the Spirituality of Food & Omer Week 3 (P. Shemini)

You Are the High Priest – and Omer 5785 (P. Tzav & Passover)

A "Small" Teaching on Humility for the Chosen (P. Vayikra)

The Sense, and Senses, of Making Holy (P. Pekudei)

After the Breaking, the Building (P. Vayakhel)

Unbend the Knee (P. Ki Tisa)

Lights On! (P. Tetzaveh)

Giving, Up (P. Terumah)

Wise Restraints and Sapphire Skyways (P. Mishpatim)

The Eleventh Commandment (P. Yitro)

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