On Nov. 29, 1947, the United Nations approved Resolution 181 calling for the division of the British Mandate for Palestine into two nations – one for Jews and one for Arabs. The leadership of the Jewish community in Palestine, led by David Ben-Gurion, decided that they would declare the establishment of the Jewish state one day before the British finalized their withdrawal. ...
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d'Var Torah
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11/3/24
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Back in the fall of 1994, when I was a relatively impoverished rabbinical student living in Israel, I went to my local Bank Leumi branch to make a withdrawal. After the transaction, I asked the …
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d'Var Torah
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10/8/24
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There was much to see at the summer Olympics this year: Simone Biles’ incredible gymnastics victories, the amazing swimming feats of Katie Ledecky and the Israeli delegation’s achievement …
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d'Var Torah
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9/6/24
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We are now in the midst of the three weeks leading up to Tisha B’Av, the most sorrowful day of the Jewish year. These three weeks are called the t’lat d’furanuta , “the three …
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d'Var Torah
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8/2/24
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We live in an era that represents an epic crossroad of human history on multiple fronts.
Our material successes have created a large human footprint; combined with materialism, and aided by intractable problems of equity, responsibility and collective action, we are in the midst of a silent yet ongoing sixth extinction, with dramatic declines in biodiversity and catastrophic threats to the geological and biological processes that sustain life on earth.
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d'Var Torah
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7/5/24
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“On the first day of the second month, in the second year following the exodus from the Land of Mitzrayim, the Lord spoke to Moshe in the wilderness of Sinai, in the Tent of Meeting, saying…” (Numbers 1:1)
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d'Var Torah
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6/7/24
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The Torah portion is Kedoshim, and the topic is “Holy Things,” laws and regulations that can guide us toward a life that is sanctified and set apart from the ordinary and the mundane. The …
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d'Var Torah
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5/10/24
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Pesach is a joyous celebration of our physical redemption from the land of Egypt. We host or attend sederim, during which we eat foods that connect us to the events of the narrative, we share the …
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d'Var Torah
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4/5/24
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This week’s parashah , Ki Tisa , takes us on a roller-coaster of high highs and low lows as it moves through a series of vignettes depicting the ongoing revelation at Sinai.
The parashah …
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d'Var Torah
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3/1/24
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There are 54 portions in the Torah. Only six of the portion titles include the names of people, three of whom were Israelites (Sarah, Korach and Pinchas) and three of whom were not (Noach, Yitro and …
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d'Var Torah
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2/2/24
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