Judy Davis D’var 2016 (Ki Tissa, Sh’mot Exodus 33:12-34:26 (D’vorim/Deuteronomy 16:13-17) Hope in the Desert Good Shabbos, everyone. This is the third time I’m speaking on this special parashat for…
On Responsibility I wasn’t always a rabbi. I used to be a child, and when I was a kid, the High Holiday services I went to were very long. We…
On Purity This is a tale of the Kotsker Rebbe, may his memory be a blessing. In a little Jewish town, in a ramshackle hut by the river, there lived…
On Fear I begin with my standard Akedah disclaimer. I know that the story we read this morning, on the face of it, is disturbing, and even obscene. When we…
On Laughter This year, in the droughty Pioneer Valley, it has been a little easier than usual to imagine what Israel looks like at Rosh Hashanah. In the Middle East,…
Shabbat shalom and happy New Year. What I’ll be talking about is the enigmatic episode in parshat Shemot of Hatan Damim, the “Bridegroom of Blood,” which appears at Exodus 4:24-26….
The early mornings have become our time, though we approach them differently, each according to his station. I usually wake just before dawn, to the sound of the roosters. My…
Of all the animals on my farm, only the bees cannot truly be called domesticated. I don’t have to wear a protective suit when I milk the goats, or puff…
This story is based on Genesis Chapter 22: http://www.mechon-mamre.org/e/et/et0122.htm Vayehi ahar had’varim ha’eleh… (Genesis 22:1) And it was after these things that Efraim woke up from his nap one Sunday…
Here is the d’var Torah that Robbie Friedman offered on February 14, 2015, to mark six months since the passing of his mother, Gale Friedman, of blessed memory. In honor…
