Parashat Pinchas: “She Never Told Her Love” (D’var Torah delivered by Rabbi J.B. Sacks on July 7, 2023) Henry Peach Robinson was a nineteenth-century English photographer who was best known for pioneering the technique of joining multiple negatives or prints to form a single image. His most famous work, “Fading Away,” is a great example […]

Parashat Vay’chi: The Problem of White Lies (delivered by Rabbi J.B. Sacks on January 6, 2023) For me, among the more amusing commercials running on television are those by GEICO. Do you know them? One series of ads began with the question, “Would switching to GEICO save you money on car insurance?” My favorite in […]

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 […]