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In the grand scheme of things, Yitro is actually a pretty minor biblical character. His name is only mentioned 12 times in the entirety of the Torah. Yet for someone as minor as he is, he’s got quite the midrashic backstory. The midrash (Devarim Rabbah 1:5, Kohelet Rabbah 3:11, and elsewhere) states that Yitro sampled all of the...

Before I was a rabbi, I was a lawyer. Most of my legal career was spent assessing almost-inevitably doomed appeals. These were often criminal cases based upon what are popularly called “technicalities.” That work came back to me when I read the story of Nadav and Avihu, to which we return again this week in parshat...

Commentary on Parshat Tazria (Leviticus 12:1-13:59) In the world of Tazria, scaly, raw, and oozing pustules called tzara’at erupt on the skin and spread impurity through the camp. Those who suffer from this illness are isolated. The word used in Leviticus to describe this skin ailment is nega, which specifically means a plague sent by...

Commentary on Parshat Vayechi (Genesis 47:28 – 50:26) This past summer, five participants in a Birthright Israel trip (free 10-day Israel tours offered to young adults) left the tour to visit with Palestinians on the West Bank. Their decision to do so came after receiving a map that made no effort to demarcate the Palestinian...

Commentary on Parshat Vaera (Exodus 6:2 – 9:35) Who deserves human rights? Even the Torah has its blind spots. The Torah portion VaEra describes an escalating cycle. As YHWH predicts, Moses and Aaron confront Pharaoh and he refuses to free the Israelites. A plague strikes, and Pharaoh relents. The plague is removed by divine intervention,...

Commentary on the Torah reading for Shabbat Zachor (Deuteronomy 25:17-19) “We’re all in this thing together  Walkin’ the line between faith and fear  This life don’t last forever  When you cry I taste the salt in your tears”   —Old Crow Medicine Show Memory is at the very core of our identities. Jewish memory is both...

Many years ago I was a guest at a seder in Jerusalem. Around the table, in classic Yerushalmi (Jerusalemite) style, was a sampling of all the typical residents and tourists. Some were American, some native Israelis, some Yemenite immigrants, some religious, some heretics, some crazy. Old, young, and in between. It was a lively scene,...

Rabbi Amy Small asks us to widen the path of justice in this week's d'var Torah on Parshat Shoftim.

A d’var Torah for Yitro (Ex.18:1-20:23) by Rabbi Gordon Tucker. The Book of Eikhah (Lamentations) contains this apparently oxymoronic phrase when speaking of how ancient Judea had lost its moral way: “It did not remember its future” (1:9). What could it mean to remember something that is not in the past? The usual ways of...

A d’var Torah for Terumah (Ex.25:1-27:19) by Caroline Rothstein.  I am an artist. That’s been my identity, purpose, and path since I was three years old and slid on ballet shoes to dance across a recital stage. Then came poetry. And nonfiction prose. Then came singing, acting, musical theater, jazz and modern and hip-hop dance,...