EIGHTH-DAY PASSOVER YIZKOR: Shirah Chadasha–New Songs (presented by Rabbi Sacks on April 23, 2022) We just chanted a selection from the Song of Songs. We read: Arise my darling, my fair one, come away! For now the winter is past…the blossoms have appeared in the land, the song of the turtledove is heard in our […]
Seventh Day Passover: Crossing the Red Seas of Life (delivered by Rabbi Sacks on April 22, 2022) Today we read the unforgettable, thrilling episode of the crossing of the Red Sea. The Israelites, in great haste, cast off the chains and shackles of their servitude when Pharaoh, finally, granted Moses permission to take them out […]
Parashat Taz-ri’a: A Shift in Power from Biblical Text to Rabbinic Perception (delivered by Rabbi Sacks on April 1, 2022) This week’s Torah reading, Taz-ri’a, portrays the Priest as a physician, and it portrays spiritual blight as medical malady. The text focuses on scaly skins and malignant discolorations, but simmering beneath the surface is […]
Parashat Pikudei: The Holy Vessels in the Temple and Within Us (Haftarah Study led by Rabbi Sacks on March 5, 2022) Today we read the haftarah that Sephardic Jews read for this week’s portion, Pikudei, from I Kings 7:40-50. As it happens, Ashkenazic Jews read the same passage as the haftarah from last week’s portion, […]
Parashat T’rumah: G!d’s Need for a Dwelling (A Torah study led by Rabbi J.B. Sacks on February 5, 2022) Our reading today mostly contained a detailing of the command to build the mishkan, a portable sanctuary, that our ancestors would carry throughout their desert wanderings. With our reading as background, let’s go to the beginning […]
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 […]
“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 […]
Hanukkah and Parashat Mikketz 2021: The Importance of 2025 (delivered by Rabbi Sacks on December 3, 2021, the Shabbat of Hanukkah) Our Sages made sure that this week’s portion Miketz is read during or in immediate proximity to Hanukkah. They did so because of larger truths. Here the Rabbis and the Masoretes, the people […]
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 […]