Parashat Ha’azinu: Living Out the Poetry of Torah (Delivered by Rabbi Sacks on October 7, 2022)  I studied in a program in Jerusalem. We traveled in the Galilee and came to the mystical city of Tz’fat in Israel’s Northern District. There our guide and teacher asked our group of young seekers, “What is the most […]

Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word (Delivered by Student Rabbi Maayan Lev on September 16, 2022)  I know that as Jews, we say this pretty much all year round, but it’s that time of the year again. We are in the month of Elul. The High Holy Days are almost upon us. Tomorrow night, […]

Haftarat Eikev: The Evolution of G-d (as We Know Them) (A discussion led by Student Rabbi Maayan Lev on August 20, 2022) We just read this week’s haftarah,[1] the second of the Seven Haftarot of Consolation, read during the seven weeks following Tishah B’Av. The Haftarah opens in Isaiah 49:14 with the words: וַתֹּאמֶר צִיּוֹן: […]

Parashat Eikev: Hearing The Silent Shema (delivered by Student Rabbi Maayan Lev on August 19, 2022)  It’s so wonderful to be with you all once again after a meaningful summer break in Israel. While Rosh HaShanah is over a month away, this begins my second year as the student rabbi at Am HaYam. While I […]

Parashat Balak: What Hardship Have I Caused You? (Torah Study led by Rabbi Sacks on July 16, 2022)  We just read today’s haftarah from the prophet Micah, who lived roughly between 740 BCE and 690 BCE. Micah, like Amos, is from a small southern town in Eretz Yisrael, evident in his use of imagery borrowed […]

Parashat Balak: Know that We Don’t Know (delivered by Rabbi J.B. Sacks on July 15, 2022)  A friend of mine in Manhattan told me about an encounter she recently had on the bus. She has a chronic, but “silent,” illness. It is often debilitating, but you wouldn’t know that by looking at her. She was […]

Parashat B’midbar Sinai: Counting Ourselves As Israel (delivered by Rabbi Sacks on Saturday, June 4, 2022)  We begin reading the Book of Numbers this week. It opens with the taking of a census. After the rather arcane matters we have been reading about in recent weeks—the sacrificial cult, laws of purity and impurity, skin eruptions, […]

Selections from Parashat Ki Tisa: Equality, Sin, and Atonement A Torah study led by Maayan Lev on February 19, 2022) Because we did not have a Torah scroll for our online services this Shabbat weekend, there was a need to temporarily depart from the usual format of our Torah service. I used that need to […]

“He–and We–Live”–A Torah Study for Parashat Vay’chi Led by Rabbi J.B. Sacks on December 18, 2021   Today’s Torah reading is Parashat Vay’chi. “Vay’chi” means, “And he lived,” and this portion ends the book of Genesis. It records a lot. Try to take in this listing: The last years and death of Jacob; Jacob’s request […]

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 […]