Community Blog

Welcome! Check out Rabbi Lizz's divrei Torah and other community updates here.

Shabbat Shalom! This week’s Torah portion is Parashat Vayechi, in which Jacob gives his final blessings to his children. He also declares that Joseph’s sons, Ephraim and Menashe will be inheritors of Israel as equal as any of Joseph’s own brothers. Jacob prophesies that Ephraim, the younger,...Read more...

Shabbat Shalom! As you know, this is our first Family Shabbat of the school year, and since many of our religious school families were not sure they could attend, I wanted to collect some thoughts from our students and their parents to still imbue this service with their presence. This Shabbat is also the reading of Parashat Chayei Sarah, and unknowingly our students and their parents reflected...Read more...

Shabbat Shalom! This week’s Torah portion is Parashat Lech Lecha, in which God calls out to our ancestors Avram and Sarai and tells them to leave the land they have known and travel a great distance to the Promised Land. They bring with them some family and all their wealth,...Read more...

Shabbat Shalom and Chag Sameach! Sukkot is a time for gratitude and joy, focusing on two particular blessings for which we must be grateful and express our joy over. These are the blessings of housing, which I spoke about to some degree on Rosh HaShana, and the blessings of the...Read more...

Tzaharayim Tov! We arc toward the final hours of our holy day and our season of Teshuva, and we remind ourselves once more to choose hope, and as the Torah tells us, to choose life. This afternoon’s Torah portion comes from Parashat Kedoshim, known as the Holiness Code, which details many of...Read more...

Erev Tov. I hope your fasts are starting off easily and meaningfully, and that you are taking good care of your body these next 24 hours. I say that every year, because the emphasis on fasting during Yom Kippur can be dangerous or alienating to some people and I always worry about people who...Read more...

    Shana Tova! Our Torah reading on Rosh HaShana morning is probably the most difficult reading in our liturgical calendar. There are many other pieces of the TaNaKh similarly disturbing, and stories some Biblical scholars call “Texts of Terror,” but the Akeidah is so deeply disturbing on...Read more...

Shabbat Shalom! This week’s Torah portion is Parashat Nitzavim, which we read again on Yom Kippur and will hear more about then. The Haftarah this week, from Isaiah chapters 61-63, is the final of seven Haftarot of Consolation, read in the seven weeks between Tisha B’Av and Rosh HaShana. In it, the prophet tells of the shared pain of God and the Heavenly Hosts along with the people of Israel as they endure the hardships of...Read more...

Shabbat Shalom, and welcome to all our guests! This week’s Torah portion is Parashat Ki Teitze, in which we find more laws than in any other parasha in the whole Torah, even the one named “Laws”. Among the lists of commandments in this portion are the rules regarding...Read more...

Shabbat Shalom! This week’s Torah portion is Parashat Eikev, in which - like most of Deuteronomy - Moses reminds the people of all they have learned in the last 40 years, the commandments they have been commanded to observe, the times they fell short, and what will happen once...Read more...

          Last week, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, withdrawing the already paltry federal protections on abortion rights. Many states already had trigger laws in place and abortion access became unavailable to thousands of people overnight. Congress had 50 years to codify federal legislation to allow reproductive freedom throughout the country. A leak of the...Read more...

Shabbat Shalom! This week’s Torah portion is Parashat Beha’alot’cha, which begins with the instructions and then follow-through of the lighting of the menorot in the Mishkan, along with the initiation ceremony of the Levites. We also read of the Israelites’ constant...Read more...

This Shabbat we celebrated the confirmation of two of our students at Ner Shalom. They prepared this service, not only by reviewing the prayers they learned in their previous 6 years of Religious School, but by applying what we learned about Israel this year and using their increased wisdom of these two more years of Jewish life as they confirm the commitment to their Jewish identities displayed at their B'nai Mitzvah. These original words of...Read more...

The Prince William County Human Rights Commission mission is to eliminate discrimination in our county by enforcing our civil and human rights laws and to establish equal opportunity for all persons within Prince William County through communication, education, and accessibility. To file a complaint or learn more about your Human Rights, please contact the Prince William County Human Rights office or visit our website at...Read more...

Shabbat Shalom! It is time to count the Omer.

BA-RUCH A-TAH ADO-NAI E-LO-HE-NU ME-LECH HA-OLAM ASHER KID-E-SHA-NU BE-MITZ-VO-TAV VETZI-VA-NU AL SEFI-RAT...Read more...