Community Blog

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

Shabbat Shalom! This week’s Torah portion is Parashat Vayera, which includes the tale of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Isaac’s birth and near-sacrifice, and an odd sidequest between Abraham and Abimelech about the ownership of land. 

Read more...

          Shabbat Shalom v’Yom Tov. This morning, we read the words of Deuteronomy 30, “I have put before you life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life – if you and your offspring would live.” Rabbi Eliezer Davidovitz, an early 20th century Slovakian rabbi, asked, “Is there a person who would choose death?” In our new prayer books, Rabbi Josh Zweiback, a...Read more...

Shabbat Shalom! This week’s Torah portion is Parashat Ha’azinu, Moses’s final song as he signs off his last shift as leader of the Israelites. At the end of the parasha, he is called up to Mount Nebo by God and he dies quietly and alone, so that none may find his grave and turn it into an idol...Read more...

Shabbat Shalom! This week we read the double portion of Parashat Nitzavim-Vayelech, and it is our final Shabbat before the new year. Nitzavim is one of my favorite Parshiyot (here’s a challenge for every week Shabbat attendees - count how many times I say that in a Torah cycle), as...Read more...

Shabbat Shalom! This week’s Torah portion is Parashat Shoftim, in which we learn about some of the establishments of legal proceedings in Judaism. Shoftim means “judges” and much of the parasha is dedicated to explaining the strata and hierarchy of leadership in the Jewish community, and how we...Read more...

Shabbat Shalom! This week’s Torah portion is Parashat Ekev, which continues Moses’s teachings to the people of Israel as they prepare for the next chapter on their journey. 

On Sunday, our Religious...Read more...

As a part of my Masters in Jewish Studies, I took an online class called Ethical Dilemmas, which was about exploring modern social norms through traditional Jewish ethical lenses. There were some annoying debates in the class forums about acceptance of LGBTQIA Jews, egalitarian Judaism, and...Read more...

Shabbat Shalom! This week’s Torah portion is Parashat Pinchas, which includes the blessing of the priest Pinchas, who is being rewarded for murdering some interfaith couples (Big Yikes), then discusses the Daughters of Tzelophechad (Yay Feminism), moves on to Moses appointing his successor (hooray...Read more...

Shabbat Shalom! Tonight is the 46th night of the omer - shisha v’arba’im yom, sh’haim shisha shavuot v’arba’ah la’omer. The Kabbalistic realm of this day of the omer is Netzach (persistence, eternity) within Malchut/Shekhina (sovereignty, queendom). This week’s Torah portion is Parashat Bamidbar, my...Read more...

Shabbat Shalom. Today is Day 25 of the Omer, chamisha v’esrim yom, sh’heim shalosh shavuot v’arba’ah yamim laomer. The Kabbalistic realm for this day of the Omer is Netzah (persistence, eternity) within Netzach. This week’s Torah portion is Parashat Emor, which starts out with more...Read more...

Shabbat Shalom. This week’s Torah portion is Parashat Tazria, which deals with ritual impurities, especially those which come from childbirth. I don’t know that I’ve ever noticed before this year how much of the Torah really deals with pregnancy and childbirth, both physical...Read more...

            Shabbat Shalom! This week’s Torah portion is Parashat Pekudei, in which the priestly vestments are described once again, as the priests finally done them, and Moses anoints the finished Tabernacle and the dressed-up priests. We don’t often get to learn about Pekudei on it’s own, since it is the second of a double portion most years, and we tend...Read more...

            Shabbat Shalom! This week’s Torah portion is Parashat Ki Tisa, the story of the infamous Golden Calf. In this week’s (M)Oral Torah from T’ruah opens with a story from Rabbi Andrea Goldstein recalling a Bar Mitzvah student who compared the Golden Calf to a small child’s security blanket. Just like this other Rabbi Goldstein, I also feel struck...Read more...

Shabbat Shalom! This week’s Torah portion is Parashat Bo, the last of the plagues and the beginning of the flight from Egypt into the wilderness. It contains some key verses that appear in our Passover Haggadahs, not just because Passover commemorates this story, but because the Torah itself...Read more...

          Shabbat Shalom! This week’s Torah portion is Parashat Shemot, the beginning of the Book of Exodus. In Hebrew, Shemot actually means Names because it starts out with a listing of the sons of Jacob, the predecessors of the Tribes of Israel. Parashat Shemot is a surprisingly jam-packed Torah portion, with so much happening somehow despite the huge time jumps. The Israelites are enslaved,...Read more...