Parashat Ki Tisa: Joining the Celebration or Not (delivered on 2/18/2022 by Student Rabbi Maayan Le) Shabbat shalom everyone. It’s so great to be here tonight with you all. Believe it or not, until tonight, I have never led a Shabbat service for a synagogue before on my own. So before we talk about […]
Parashat T’rumah: Giving, Not Taking, Leads to Love (delivered by Rabbi Sacks on February 4, 2022) Rabbi Eliyahu Dessler[1] was an important figure of the twentieth century. A Talmudic scholar and Jewish philosopher, he served as the mashgiach ruchani, “spiritual counselor,” for the Ponevezh yeshiva, located in B’nei B’rak, a center of ultra-Orthodox Judaism just […]
Parashat Yitro: Nostalgia, Memory and the Building of Judaism (delivered by Rabbi Sacks on January 21, 2021) I am not sure how many of you are familiar with Manhattan. For some 13-14 years, I lived in Manhattan and right next door to it, in Jersey City, New Jersey, just across the Holland Tunnel. Tonight […]
Parashat Vayechi: Loving Parents and Not Getting Weighed Down By Them delivered on December 17, 2021 by Student Rabbi Maayan Lev This week’s Torah portion, Vayechi, is about the death of Jacob, and the expectations he sets for his children while on his deathbed. A lot about the parent-child relationships can be learned from […]
TORAH STUDY for VaYishlach–Jacob as “Jews”; Esau as “non-Jews” (taught by Rabbi Sacks on November 20, 2021) In today’s haftarah, the prophet Obadiah uses what is called typology. Typology is the doctrine or study of types or prefigurative symbols, especially in scriptural literature. That is, Obadiah presents Jacob and Esau, he does not see […]
Parashat Lech Lecha: Let G!d Judge Between You and Me Student Rabbi Maayan Lev (delivered on October 15, 2021) This week’s Torah portion is Lech Lecha, a portion so rich, so full of many stories, that it is hard to know what to focus on. There is so much to pull from! Fortunately, the triennial […]
Parashat Re’eh: Giving and Relatedness Delivered by Student Rabbi Maayan Lev on August, 6, 2021 Shabbat shalom everyone. For those who don’t know me, my name is Maayan Lev, and I am Am HaYam’s rabbinic intern. I work with Rabbi Sacks. This is my first time in the building, and I am so happy to […]