Hashem the Healer: Commentary on Parashat Beshalach 5783, originally printed in Chicago Jewish News in 2016
By Rabbi Dr. Douglas Goldhamer, z”l
In this week’s Torah portion, Beshalach, God tells Moses, “if you will heed the Lord your God diligently, doing what is upright in His sight, giving ear to His commandments and keeping all His laws, then I will not bring upon you any […]
Worst Locusts Ever: Commentary on Parashat Bo 5783
By Rabbi Jonah Rank, President and Rosh Yeshivah of Hebrew Seminary
Locusts plagued the lands of our ancestors. But a few books in our TaNaKh (תַּנַ״ךְ)—the Hebrew Bible—debate what the greatest horror was that locusts ever inflicted.
Jews in the diaspora, many of whom read the Passover haggadah (הַגָּדָה) on the first nights of Passover, become most acquainted with […]
Barriers and Abilities: Commentary on Parashat Va’era 5783
By Rabbi Dena Bodian, Hebrew Seminary alum, ordained 2010; College Chaplain and Campus Rabbi at Wellesley College
When I was growing up, a popular children’s Haggadah featured a skit to be acted out at the seder table. In the skit, Moses is depicted as having a lisp, which was clearly intended to be a comedic moment. While […]
What Is In A Name? Commentary on Parashat Shemot 5783
By Rahmiel Hayyim Drizin, Professor of Kabbalah
וְאֵ֗לֶּה שְׁמוֹת֙
“And these are the names etc…” (Exodus 1:1.)
What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet.
– William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, Scene 2
William Shakespeare uses this line in his play […]
Memory: How Do We Want To Be Remembered? Commentary on Parashat Vaichi 5783
By Rabbi Dena Bodian, Hebrew Seminary alum, ordained 2010; College Chaplain and Campus Rabbi at Wellesley College
2023 seems to have started as The Year I Officially Became Part Of The Sandwich Generation. Neither my parents nor my in-laws seem to be getting any younger, nor do they seem to have any plans […]
Joseph, Fully Remembered: Commentary on Parashat Vayyiggash 5783
By Rabbi Jonah Rank, President and Rosh Yeshivah of Hebrew Seminary
“Can you take your mask off?”
Not only is this a question many, if not all, of us have been asked at some point or another—it is also a question I have been asking myself through the recent round of quarantine in my own home. As of this […]
Eight Days of Internal Light: Commentary on Parashat MiKetz and Chanukkah 5783
By Rabbi Dr. Rivkah Glick, Hebrew Seminary alum, ordained 2019; Educator, Orot
I have a coat of many colors I wear this time of year. Why? It reminds me of the Joseph story. This week’s parashah, MiKetz, is part of the famous long story about Joseph and his brothers—a tale that has inspired plays, […]
Silent Dreaming for the Silenced Life: Commentary on Parashat Vayyeshev 5783
By Rabbi Jonah Rank, President and Rosh Yeshivah of Hebrew Seminary
I’ve learned to listen through silence.
– Sara Bareilles, “Between the Lines” (Little Voice, 2007)
Approximately a quarter of the Book of Genesis relays tales from the generation of Joseph—him, his eleven brothers, and their sister—devoting more words to Joseph and his […]
Changed by Oppression: Commentary on Parashat Vayyishlach 5783
By: Rabbi Jonah Rank, President and Rosh Yeshivah of Hebrew Seminary
Make me a grave where’er you will,
In a lowly plain, or a lofty hill;
Make it among earth’s humblest graves,
But not in a land where men are slaves.
So begins the poem, “Bury Me in a Free Land,” written by Frances […]
Resting Before Peace: Commentary on Parashat Vayyetze 5783
By Rabbi Jonah Rank, President & Rosh Yeshivah of Hebrew Seminary
At some early point of the 20th century, the American Jewish community summarized its own cautiousness by telling this classic joke:
What does a Jewish telegram say?
“Worry now. Details to follow.”
Anxiety has haunted us, the modern-day children of Israel, at least since […]