Weekly On-line Rabbi's D'var-Torah November 27, 2025 7 Kislev 5786 Parashat Vayetzei In October 1863 (that’s eight score and two years ago!), right in the middle of the US Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation designating the final Thursday of November as a day of thanksgiving. It’s really remarkable. As President Lincoln himself noted, despite the ongoing war, there were still blessings for which people should give thanks. He went on to say: “I do, there

Weekly On-line Rabbi's D'var-Torah November 20, 2025 29 Cheshvan 5786 Parashat Toldot Maya Angelou famously taught us, “When people show you who they are, believe them the first time.”  The problem is that many people try very hard to hide who they really are. We see two instances of it in this week’s Torah portion.  First, in Genesis 26:7, Isaac told Rebecca to pretend that she was his sister instead of his wife.  It’s a little trick he learned from his father Abraham who as

Weekly On-line Rabbi's D'var-Torah November 13, 2025 22 Cheshvan 5786 Parashat Chayei Sara As soon as it’s November, I can’t help but start thinking about Thanksgiving. I have always loved Thanksgiving. I’m sure that food has played a large part in my love affair with Thanksgiving—after all, I do love the food of Thanksgiving. But there’s more to it than that. Thanksgiving is the one American holiday on which Jews are the same as every other American. Many other so-called Ame

Weekly On-line Rabbi's D'var-Torah November 6, 2025 15 Cheshvan 5786 Parashat Vayera We may not be able to agree as to whether we should be happy or sad about the election results from Tuesday. However, we can ALL agree on one thing—we are all grateful that the political ads will finally stop (at least for a while!). As we all know, political campaigns go negative because the negative ads seem to work. Anger motivates people to vote more than any other emotion. Campaigns try

Weekly On-line Rabbi's D'var-Torah October 30, 2025 8 Cheshvan 5786 Parashat Lech Lecha Warren Buffet is well known for being a contrarian investor. His famous advice is, “Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful.” Needless to say, he’s done pretty well with that strategy of not just following the crowd. In this week’s Torah portion, we are introduced to another well-known contrarian—our patriarch Abraham. When everyone else was worshiping idols, h

Weekly On-line Rabbi's D'var-Torah October 23, 2025 3 Cheshvan 5786 Parashat Noach So, the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas seems to be holding. It’s not exactly peace, but it’s not war either. It reminds me of the end of the Great Flood about which we read in this week’s Torah portion. After 150 days on the Ark, God took note of Noah and all the creatures with him. And then the Torah tells us that “the waters subsided (Gen. 8:1).” The earth was still covered in water, ever

Weekly On-line Rabbi's D'var-Torah October 16, 2025 24 Tishri 5786 Bereshit I downloaded a new book to my iPad about two weeks ago, but I haven’t read a single word yet. I have two pretty good explanations for why that is. First of all, I have been greatly distracted by the events in Israel leading up to the ceasefire and the release of the last living hostages. Second, there have been a few Jewish holidays recently that have kept me pretty busy. But the truth is that I have

Weekly On-line Rabbi's D'var-Torah October 9, 2025 17 Tishri 5786 Intermediate Day There’s a beautiful tradition of welcoming special...

Weekly On-line Rabbi's D'var-Torah September 25, 2025 5 Tishri 5786 Shabbat Shuvah Parashat Vayeilech It was great to be together with so...

Weekly On-line Rabbi's D'var-Torah September 18, 2025 25 Elul 5785 Parashat Nitzavim I have to admit that I didn’t watch the Emmys, but...

Weekly On-line Rabbi's D'var-Torah September 11, 2025 18 Elul 5785 Selichot Parashat Ki Tavo Like many others, I have some very specific...

Weekly On-line Rabbi's D'var-Torah September 4, 2025 11 Elul 5785 Parashat Ki Teitze Earlier this week, an organization called the...

Weekly On-line Rabbi's D'var-Torah August 28, 2025 6 Elul 5785 Parashat Shoftim Happy Birthday, “Born to Run!” Bruce Springsteen’s...

Weekly On-line Rabbi's D'var-Torah August 21, 2025 29 Av 5785 Parashat Re'eh Over the past couple of weeks, it has become clear (or at...

Weekly On-line Rabbi's D'var-Torah August 16, 2025 22 Av 5785 Parashat Eikev Sports allegiances are a funny thing.  I haven’t lived in my...