D'var Torah

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,...

In this week’s d’var torah on Parshat Mishpatim, Judith Plaskow notes that it is easy to focus on those passages in the Torah that are inspiring and uplifting, or to depict US history as a continuing march toward equality and freedom, passing over in silence the aspects of both narratives that are troubling or oppressive.

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...

Chester Hollman III understands what it means to endure the trials and tribulations of the wilderness while dreaming of the Promised Land.

In a d’var Torah for Parshat Bo, Rabbi Ari Lev Fornari suggests teshuvah may provide a framework for thinking about reparations.

In this week’s d’var torah on Parshat VaEra, Bard College President Leon Botstein asks just what kind of freedom Moses was demanding.

In this week's d'var torah on Parshat Shemot, NYC Councilman Brad Lander draws connections between patterns of oppression and resistance then and now.

Joy Ladin applies the 'art of losing' to Joseph, his brothers, and religious nationalists in this d'var torah for Parshat Vayechi.

Abby Leibman analyzes our attitudes towards hunger in this d'var torah on parshat Vayigash.

Jeremy Ben-Ami of J Street offers a small candle of hope (originally published in 2019).