![](https://truah.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/mara-nathan-1012x1024.jpg)
Building Beloved Community…Creating Rewarding Conclusions
In Parashat VaYechi, Jacob is reaching the end of his life, yet the opening words quantify his life. “Jacob lived seventeen years in the land of Egypt, so that the span of Jacob’s life came to one hundred and forty-seven years.” (Genesis 47:28) Most commentators see this statement as a recognition that finally, Jacob is...
read more
![Photo of the author, Rabbi Michal Woll](https://truah.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Rabbi-Michal-Woll-Portrait-Sizer.jpg)
Bechukotai: God and Us Under Stress
[Unders stress,] we are often functioning far from our cores, where we can access our unique strengths and talents, offer our best selves, and hear – and perhaps even seek – other voices.
read more
![](https://truah.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/TfT-logo-600x600-e1525114857372.png)
The Torah of Criticism
Rabbi Micah Liben calls us to resist complacency and to remain vigilant when our rights are in danger.
read more
![](https://truah.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/torah-2020-image-60-1024x536.png)
Not Just Chance: Intentional Choice
When a particular word occurs only seven times in the entire Bible, and all seven occurrences are in one chapter, we pay attention.
read more
![](https://truah.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/lezak-e1482380276406.jpg)
Peering Outside the Camp
“Joseph’s master had him put in prison…but even while he was there in prison, God was with Joseph.” -Genesis 39:20-21 Bulletproof glass separates me and my congregant. David [not his real name] and I sit opposite one another, in identical, soundproof, cinder-block visiting cubicles at a prison an hour’s drive from my home. He’s wearing...
read more
![](https://truah.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/TfT-logo-600x600-e1525114857372.png)
Every Person Counts? (Parshat Bamidbar)
Commentary on Parshat Bamidbar (Numbers 1:1-4:20) Our Torah portion opens with the taking of another census of B’nai Yisrael – the Children of Israel – this time “listed by their clans, ages 20 years and up, all those in Israel who are able to bear arms…” (Num. 1:2) This is census number three since the...
read more
![](https://truah.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/TfT-logo-600x600-e1525114857372.png)
Those who served their time deserve a second chance (Shabbat Nachamu)
A d’var Torah on Shabbat Nachamu Clarence Office, Jr., of Miami, FL, served in the U.S. Army for three years in the 1970s and was honorably discharged. Like many veterans, Clarence tragically fell into drug use and was arrested for drug offenses. He served a prison term and paid his debt to society. Clarence now...
read more
![](https://truah.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/TfT-logo-600x600-e1525114857372.png)
Each Person, A Letter of Torah
Rabbi Kimberly Herzog Cohen writes on Bamidbar and making every person count.
read more
![](https://truah.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/torah-2020-image-3-1024x536.png)
A Commitment to Justice Means Remembering Our Tribes
But whether or not the Sinai wilderness was ever ownerless as the midrash suggests, in North America, the so-called wildernesses never have been. Those places — and indeed every square mile of North America — have always been, and continue to be, the home of specific tribes of Indigenous peoples.
read more