Members’ Divrei Torah

We are living through a time of great conflict—a time when sometimes it seems any hope of unity in our nation is out of reach, and factions have become so ...
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Blessings don’t just reflect our experience of the world around us, they shape it. They are a way of exercising discipline over what we notice, what we appreciate, how we ...
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These four years have left us metaphorically, spiritually, and literally breathless. It could be easy to surrender, to permit ourselves to become complacent, stuck, immobilized. But we cannot. Hopelessness is ...
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I stumbled upon this poem in the midst of the oppressive wildfire smoke that seemed to embody the endless, heavy grey period when our world felt paused. Even now, when ...
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Here in our sanctuary, we don’t have open pits, and we don’t have hazardous oxen, but we do know some dangers are likely. It’s 100% guaranteed that there will be another ...
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One thing that is on many of our minds this Shabbat, as we begin a secular new year, is the alarming rise in anti-Semitism and hatred and violence expressed toward ...
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It took months of coming to Torah study before I realized that reading the Torah is not what we’re doing. We are dismantling it and putting it back together, and ...
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I believe the Jews put too much power into the golden calf while our government is putting too much power into a vision of America ...
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I have thought of language as a flock of birds, since like birds our stories transcend borders ...
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To be a Jew, and to participate in this annual ritual, is—I believe--to be able to see our own, as well as others’ humanity, more broadly.  We come together on ...
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It’s a lovely thing to come together under one big tent, but I also value being part of a community that gets to define itself, a community that represents my ...
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Shana Tova! Today I’d like to share with you some of my reflections on “The Diversity of Cultures Within Israel’s Borders.” Our tour began in Jerusalem, a beautiful city, of ...
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There, in the midst of an area that is so sullied by such a hateful and violent past, I saw that arc.  It is long, very long, as Dr. King ...
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Whenever I discuss Israel with anyone, the first thing I say is, “Politics aside, it’s the most dynamic country on Earth.”  Israel invented WAZE, and drip irrigation, and molten salt ...
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Take a moment and think about something that prevents you from forging a new journey with a sense of your own wholeness. Do you pay homage to this thing so ...
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The truth is G-d, I feel that I spend so much of my time trying to “promote” Judaism to others. I’m always trying to get people to “join” our community ...
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We were heavily criticized by some in the Jewish community for meeting with Palestinians and other Arabs, and some of our Arab partners were likewise criticized for meeting with Jews, ...
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As we move forward into the future, whatever it may be, may we remember: to walk uprightly, to act justly; to speak words of truth, to be sincere; to not ...
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Fire has rained down from the heavens. Rivers have run with blood. This is not a baby’s book of cute animals waddling onto the Ark. This is a Torah of Horror ...
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It is only on the condition that we remember that we have been given all of the blessings that come with freedom.  Let us use that freedom, then, to work ...
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God never made sense to me, but religion does. The conversion worked in the end because Judaism is not a dogmatic religion. There is no belief requirement, just belief conversations ...
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It’s not just what we take a stand for, but how we take our stand, how we show up, both physically and metaphorically, that really matters ...
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Like the tallis that we will be wrapped in at death, this ethical fabric we weave will envelop the story of our life. My friends, make it beautiful, a “coat ...
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Journeys are an interesting thing.  Just when you think you’re in a groove, at a safe comfortable cruising speed or altitude, something happens to change it up ...
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Did you know there are five species of dolphins that are found in the Mediterranean Sea? There are bottle-nose dolphins, short beaked dolphins, striped and fiascos dolphins ...
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Wrestling with God, life, ourselves, takes different forms— But whatever it’s pushing through, whether pain in football, pain over the death of someone we love, or pain over political differences, ...
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Even though G-d confronts Sarah, she isn’t punished for laughing. Maybe her laughter made sure she got her baby. Maybe her laugh was like a dare, and the challenge made ...
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The origin of the idea that Abraham and Sarah were so welcoming of guests actually comes from this week’s Torah portion, Vayera.  The portion begins, “And the Eternal appeared to ...
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What would have happened if we all still spoke the same language and lived in the same place? Would there be more peace or less? Would there be no refugees, ...
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“You shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt and, HaShem, your God, redeemed you from there. On account of this I command you to do this thing.” (Deuteronomy ...
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Do it out of inspiration. Or do it out of obligation. Do it because human beings freely choosing mundane obligation is literally the inspiration for our entire Jewish civilization. You ...
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There is no default setting. We have to show up and make our whole selves visible. Once we have found each other, once we have said yes, we are just ...
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Without this commitment to Jewish competence, our re-invented Judaism is in peril of being all head and no body. All gate and no household. If we lose Eshet Chayil, if ...
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For me, my spiritual quest has been searching for The Creative Divine Source, before I could have declared that I believed in God ...
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Abraham takes a position of compassion—a position that values everyone as an equal—it doesn’t matter what they’ve done or what they’re capable of, every life is valuable ...
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My Jewish identity has solidified during my time with this community. For the first time in my life, I don’t hesitate if someone asks me if I’m Jewish ...
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Converts are a critically important part of Judaism because of who we are rather than in spite of who we are. And by that, I mean—all of who we are—not ...
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Teshuva can look like extending joy, not afflicting our souls.  I want to turn our attention to the joyful parts of getting it right, getting in balance ...
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Considering kashrut reminds us that food issues are not only quantitative but qualitative. This is the distinction between the newer and broader concept of “food sovereignty” in contrast to the ...
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I am suggesting we commit ourselves to remembering not just what is written in the Torah, but its impact on us for better or worse, and that much of the ...
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I don’t have to be included, because this community assumes a Judaism that already belongs to me. Here, I was never cast as “other” by the double-edged sword of inclusion ...
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What I do find remarkable is how many non-Jewish partners have chosen to step up and take on actual leadership roles, contributing in such meaningful ways to the essential fabric ...
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Both these practices – the dancing and sexuality in a biblical Judaism that was focused on the body, the prophetic words in a rabbinic tradition focused on words – reached ...
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At one point, our home was filled with flowers you brought, cards you sent and gentle visits from so many of you. And all of that was before the chemotherapy ...
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What if we continued officiating religious marriage—singing joyfully together at the simcha—but we stopped performing the state component of marriage?  What if we refrained from being the conduit for the ...
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What was the sin of the golden calf? We are not meant to set G-d in stone – fix meaning in gold. We are required to engage the tradition, to ...
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“Thou shall not defraud thy neighbor, nor rob him; the employee’s wages shall not abide with you overnight until the morning” (Lev 19:13) ...
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Some would ask G-d: Who shall see a ripe age and who shall not? Hoping that G-d can be implicated and G-d responsible for the deaths, the rapes, the inhumanities ...
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During this remarkable event, full of tradition, I was especially struck by one short line in ceremony: “the blessing we will now say has been said by Jews for 3000 ...
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