Divrei Torah - Guests and Members
Author | |
Date Added | |
Automatically create summary | |
Summary |
These talks were delivered by members and guests on Shabbat and holidays.
Other talks by members, including some High Holyday talks, are available in Members’ Writings (members only).
Read more...Toledot 5785
Ellie Goldberg
Author | |
Date Added | |
Automatically create summary | |
Summary |
Sometimes I feel that reading the Torah should come with a trigger warning, a statement that alerts us that the content may be disturbing or upsetting. This is true for me in reading this portion. It includes examples of painful dysfunctional family dynamics and truly disturbing values and behavior leading to conflict, deception, and betrayal.
God tells Rebecca, who is having a difficult pregnancy after her distress at her...Read more...
Andy Stefano's Jewish Journey — Yom Kippur 5785
Andrew Stefano
Author | |
Date Added | |
Automatically create summary | |
Summary |
In order to understand my journey towards Judaism and CDT, you need to understand my parents and grandparents and their journeys as well.
My mother's family were Scottish and English immigrants to the new world in the late 17th century. One of my ancestors is buried in the Granary burying ground on the Freedom Trail in Boston. Another founded an Episcopalian church in Flint Michigan in the 1880's. My father's grandparents were...Read more...
Parashat Sh'lach L'kha Haftarah: Rahab the Harlot
Rahab Hiram Webbe
Author | |
Date Added | |
Automatically create summary | |
Summary |
In this week's parsha, Shlach Lkha ("Send for yourself"), we read about Moshe sending twelve spies into the land of Canaan, the despair-inducing report ten of them relay upon their return, the contrasting hopeful report that the other two give, and the divine consequences dealt to Moshe and his people as a result of losing their faith and succumbing to their fears despite what God Itself has promised them. The parasha concludes...Read more...
Parashat Terumah D'var Torah by Phillys Kantor
Phillys Kantor
Author | |
Date Added | |
Automatically create summary | |
Summary |
Today’s Parsha is one that is close to my heart. Terumah Exodus 25 -27. This portion of the Exodus story is about the building of the Mishkan and goes into minute detail. It can be tedious for some, but is very important to me, as it influenced my work and my career as a Judaic Weaver. It begins this way:
God spoke to Moses, saying: “Tell the Israelite people to bring me gifts; you shall accept gifts for...Read more...
Thoughts on participating in CDT's first Learner’s Minyan
Mark Schafer
Author | |
Date Added | |
Automatically create summary | |
Summary |
In my late forties, I began making short visits to the city where my grandparents grew up: a city in Poland or Latvia. I’d only been there briefly as a child, so the smells, sounds, and look of the place felt familiar, but I had no idea where anything was or how to get around. All the street signs and the names on the bus routes were in a language I barely knew and could barely read. As I walked around the city, the sound of people speaking...Read more...
MLK Shabbat D'var Torah 2022
Rabbi Mordechai Liebling
Author | |
Date Added | |
Automatically create summary | |
Summary |
Click "READ MORE" below for the link to the video recording.
Shabbat Shalom, thank you for inviting me, I wish that we were in person even so it is a true pleasure to be with you.
In today’s parsha we celebrate crossing the Red Sea, so it seems appropriate to begin with these words of Dr King from 1967, the last speech that he gave to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference
“And so we still have a...Read more...
Earth Day D'var 2021
Ezra Hausman
Author | |
Date Added | |
Automatically create summary | |
Summary |
This week's Torah portion concerns a mysterious affliction called tzara'at that apparently can afflict the skin of an individual, the clothing, or even a house. We don't know what this affliction was, and I think it is pretty clear that the authors of the text didn't know either - except that it appears to have been pervasive and scary, but not irreversible. Many commentators have taken it to be a spiritual ailment as much as a physical one,...Read more...
Rabbi Everett Gendler Shabbat Shuvah 2020
Rabbi Everett Gendler
Author | |
Date Added | |
Automatically create summary | |
Summary |
Audio File included.
Toba, thank you so very much. It was a beautiful service. Both of you and all of you who are present are very generous in welcoming me to your community. You know, in some sense, I haven't the proper qualifications to be speaking to you right now. After all, I'm not physically present, though, I suppose none of us is in that sense, but I've not had the pleasure of actually visiting your...Read more...
From Priests to Maskilim - What does dress matter?
Dr. Frances Malino
Author | |
Date Added | |
Automatically create summary | |
Summary |
Shabbat shalom!
It is an especially joyful Shabbat for me today for along with my Dorshei community I am also surrounded by members of my family.
As I read today’s parasha in preparation for my d’var, I smiled to myself. My d’var comes a day after my birthday—often a time when memories of our parents come to mind. And my mother—of this I have no doubt-- would have taken great delight in today’s...Read more...
Dr. Lawrence Rosenwald on January 25th, 2020
Author | |
Date Added | |
Automatically create summary | |
Summary |
On va’era and Name
Va’era was my bar mitzvah portion. That isn’t to say that I learned it when I was thirteen, since at that time I had no Jewish community or Jewish knowledge. Rather I learned it when I was on my way to turning sixty-four. In the intervening years I’d become moderately observant, I’d often been called to the Torah, I’d led services, but I hadn’t leyned. ...Read more...
My Jewish Journey - Rosh Hashanah day 1, 2019
LilyFish Gomberg
Author | |
Date Added | |
Automatically create summary | |
Summary |
Good Morning! If you haven’t yet met me, my name is Lily Fisher Gomberg, I go by LilyFish & I use she and they pronouns.
This is my eighteenth time attending Rosh Hashannah services at Dorshei Tzedek, so I know that these Jewish Journeys usually end with; “and that’s how I ended up here.” But- I’m only 21. I didn’t end up here, I started here.
My mom, Diana, and my dad, Richard, joined...Read more...
The Gifts We Bring
The Rev’d. Gretchen Sanders Grimshaw
Author | |
Date Added | |
Automatically create summary | |
Summary |
The Gifts We Bring
February 9, 2019
Terumah
The Rev’d. Gretchen Sanders Grimshaw
Congregation Dorshei Tzedek, West Newton , MA
Exodus 25.1-19
25The Lord said to Moses: 2Tell the Israelites to take for me an offering; from all whose hearts prompt them to give you shall receive the offering for me. 3This is the offering that you shall receive from them: gold, silver, and bronze, 4blue, purple, and crimson yarns...Read more...
Poetry from Yom Kippur 5779
Ben Newman, Josette Akresh-Gonzales, and Jo Radner
Author | |
Date Added | |
Automatically create summary | |
Summary |
5779
On Yom Kippur, Dorshei Tzedek members and poets Ben Newman, Josette Akresh-Gonzales, and Jo Radner explored the Avodah service, a part of the traditional Yom Kippur liturgy, to find their own meaning of Yom Kippur. They shared original poems- beautiful, powerful, relatable and diverse- to invite us to reflect on our own experiences of the day. You can read their poetry at the links below.
The Trumpet Player
by...Read more...
Violent Death, Violent Birth
Matilda Bruckner
Author | |
Date Added | |
Automatically create summary | |
Summary |
5779
Violent Death Violent Birth.pdf
Violent Death, Violent Birth
D’var Torah on Sh’mot, Exodus 1:1 – 6:1: Israel in Egypt, the beginning of their exodus and the story of Moses
Dedicated to Ruth Bruckner, my mother-in-law—her yahrzeit coincides this year with the date of her death on New Year’s Eve, 1969
Matilda Tomaryn Bruckner
29 December 2018
In last...Read more...
Kol Nidre Sermon
Rabbi Shahar Colt
Author | |
Date Added | |
Automatically create summary | |
Summary |
“When a person departs from the world, all their deeds come and present themselves to him one by one, saying: “This is what you did on day X. Do you believe it?” The person responds: “Yes, I do.” The deed then says: “Sign!” — and the person signs. Then the person vindicates God’s judgment, saying: “You judge me correctly.”
This ancient midrash from the sifre, a rabbinic commentary on the book of Devarim,...Read more...
D’var Torah B’ha’alot’kha
Dr. Judith Kates
Author | |
Date Added | |
Automatically create summary | |
Summary |
5778
D’var Torah B'ha'alotkha 2018.pdf
Summertime brings us every year in our cycle of Torah readings to a difficult place called in Hebrew “midbar” which I’ll translate as ‘wilderness.’ The entire book of the Torah read in synagogue through these lovely months called reassuringly the book of Numbers in English, has a more ominous name in Hebrew- sefer b’midbar- the book in the wilderness. Playing on that name,...Read more...
So that I may Dwell among Them (parshah Terumah)
Stan Fleischman
Author | |
Date Added | |
Automatically create summary | |
Summary |
5775
So That I may Dwell among Them.pdf
Where does God Live?
I never thought that I would be delivering a d’var Torah, with so much of a focus on God, since “God language” makes me uncomfortable. But, when Matilda asked me if I would deliver a d’var Torah and told me the possible dates, I said to myself, “Hmm I’ll give myself a few days to research the parshiot for those dates and come up with a...Read more...
Living in Two Worlds: The Legacy of Vayikra
Deborah Waber
Author | |
Date Added | |
Automatically create summary | |
Summary |
5774
Vayikra.pdf
Living in Two Worlds: The Legacy of Vayikra
Deborah Waber
Shabbat Vayikra (March 16, 2013)
This week, we began reading the book of Vayikra, or Leviticus. Although sometimes characterized as the “priestly instruction manual,” it also contains ritual commands for the laity, including dietary and...Read more...
History and Memories: Past and Present
Fran Malino
Author | |
Date Added | |
Automatically create summary | |
Summary |
5774
History and Memories d'var Torah.pdf
History and Memories: Past and Present
As an historian, and especially as a Jewish historian, I have often wrestled with the dialogue between history and memory. For perhaps in no religious tradition are memory and history more interwoven than in Judaism. When God...Read more...
Advocacy and Hard Hearted Pharaoh
Ellie Goldberg
Author | |
Date Added | |
Automatically create summary | |
Summary |
Parshat Va'era 5774
Va'era
D’var on Parshat Va’eraBackground: God has finally heeded the cries of the Israelites and calls Moses to go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out to a land flowing with milk and honey.
Moses is the reluctant advocate but teams up with Aaron, and after God tells Moses the script of how God is going to direct the action, we see the play unfold.
Shmot...Read more...
Parashah Terumah
Cindy Rivka Marshall
Author | |
Date Added | |
Automatically create summary | |
Summary |
Feb 1, 2014/5774
PDF version
Picture us, the Israelites, at the foot of the mountain. The smell of smoke lingers in the air. The trembling of the mountain still has us trembling. We have received the 10 commandments. Here we are, saying yes to Adonai, yes to agreeing to live by the Torah and to teach our children the Torah. Our first instruction is we must remember our past and have compassion for the stranger, for others. We,...Read more...
VA-YETSE: (And He Went Forth)
Linda Yael Schiller
Author | |
Date Added | |
Automatically create summary | |
Summary |
5773
VA-YETSE: (And He Went Forth)
Linda Yael Schiller
Davar Torah
11/24/12
VA-YETSE:
(And He Went Forth)
Marsha Norman tells us that “dreams are illustrations… from the book your soul is writing about you”, and the Talmud...Read more...
Shabbat HaChodesh: Reconstructing Passover
Author | |
Date Added | |
Automatically create summary | |
Summary |
Pesach 5772
Reconstructing Passover, by Rabbi Mordechai Liebling
Shabbat shalom, it is an honor, a privilege and a pleasure for me to be here; a wonderful occasion to celebrate. This is Shabbat Hachodesh and our extra torah reading is from Exodus, the initial commandment and description for observing Passover. The rabbi’s inserted this reading to remind us to prepare for the holiday. Today I am suggesting some...Read more...
Vayyetze
Louise Enoch
Author | |
Date Added | |
Automatically create summary | |
Summary |
5771
Vayyetze
In this week’s parsha, Jacob starts out on a journey. This is not just a geographic journey, but one that begins his transformation from deceitful young man to revered patriarch of the Children of Israel. Before I share with you what I have learned during this journey with Jacob, let me first review the action that takes place between Jacob’s departure from Beer Sheba and his leave taking of Laban many years...Read more...
Process Theology and the story of Bilam and his Donkey
Stan Fleischman
Author | |
Date Added | |
Automatically create summary | |
Summary |
5771
Process Theology and the story of Bilam and his Donkey
Process Theology and the story of Bilam and his Donkey
Stan Fleischman
June 26, 2010
Parshah Balak is about a talking donkey and its owner, the non-Israelite prophet Bilam, who utters the words “How Fair are your tents, O Jacob, Your dwellings, O Israel” which made it into the Jewish liturgy, and which we read at the very...Read more...
D'var S'phirat Ha-Omer: Counting of the Omer
Esther Kohn
Author | |
Date Added | |
Automatically create summary | |
Summary |
5771
S'phirat Omer 2010.pdf
I am in awe of the spring. For some reason it seems more miraculous this year. I’ve already bonded with my garden, sinking my hands deep into the soil, raking the dirt to wake it up. I uprooted a dying shrub and planted a lilac sapling that my neighbor gave me. I think it worked, it’s actually starting to bud. Each day our devoted perennials, the irises, the lilies, the tulips, they’re all...Read more...
D'var Noach
Susan Nitkin
Author | |
Date Added | |
Automatically create summary | |
Summary |
5770
noach - susan nitkinl.pdf
“Adonai remembered Noach and all the beasts and all the animals that were with him in the ark, and Adonai caused a spirit to pass over the earth, and the waters subsided. The fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed, and the rain from heaven was restrained. The waters then receded from upon the earth, receding continuously, and the waters diminished at the end of a...Read more...
Parshas Vayeshev
Lisa Port White
Author | |
Date Added | |
Automatically create summary | |
Summary |
December, 2009/5770
mamas dvar
I began thinking of this Torah portion two years ago, or so, when we decided that this would be the date of my daughter Nellie’s bat mitzvah. The date for her birthday weekend was taken, so we thought, why not pick a cool portion and, heck, get a Hallel service to boot? And the cake possibilities for Vayeshev were just too good to pass up.
Until about three months ago, I was...Read more...
Tim Gunn meets the Prophet Elijah
Susannah Zisk
Author | |
Date Added | |
Automatically create summary | |
Summary |
Tim Gunn meets the Prophet Elijah
April 3, 2010
Read more...
Drawing Closer - Dvar Torah on Vayikra (Leviticus 1:1–5:26)
Stan Fleischman
Author | |
Date Added | |
Automatically create summary | |
Summary |
5769
Vayikra
I. Introduction
Today we started reading the third book of the Torah, called Vayikra. This is also the name of the first parsha in this book. The name derives from the first Hebrew word in the parsha “And He called” – referring to Adonai calling out to Moses from the tent of Meeting (Mishkan).
Vayikra is commonly known by its Greek name, Leviticus, so called because it contains the...Read more...
Tue, February 18 2025
20 Shevat 5785
Upcoming Learning Opportunities
-
Tuesday ,
FebFebruary 18 , 2025Reconstructing Judaism: Writing Disability Torah
Tuesday, Feb 18th 1:00p to 2:30p
-
Thursday ,
MarMarch 6 , 2025Rediscovering "Mazaltob," A Century-Old Feminist Sephardi Novel with Frances Malino
Thursday, Mar 6th 7:30p to 9:00p
-
Saturday ,
MarMarch 8 , 2025Shabbat Morning Torah Study with Rabbi Toba Spitzer
Shabbat, Mar 8th 9:00a to 9:45a
-
Tuesday ,
MarMarch 11 , 2025The Trouble with Sacred Text with Rabbinic Intern Beck
Tuesday, Mar 11th 7:00p to 8:15p
-
Tuesday ,
MarMarch 18 , 2025The Trouble with Sacred Text with Rabbinic Intern Beck
Tuesday, Mar 18th 7:00p to 8:15p
-
Sunday ,
MarMarch 23 , 2025Jewish Parenting Workshop Series: Supporting Meaningful Friendships between Kids with and without Disabilities
Sunday, Mar 23rd 11:00a to 12:00p
-
Sunday ,
MarMarch 23 , 2025Kantika: A Sephardic Journey — Book Talk with Author Elizabeth Graver
Sunday, Mar 23rd 4:30p to 6:00p
-
Tuesday ,
MarMarch 25 , 2025The Trouble with Sacred Text with Rabbinic Intern Beck
Tuesday, Mar 25th 7:00p to 8:15p
-
Sunday ,
AprApril 6 , 2025Preparing for Passover Workshop with Rabbi Toba Spitzer
Sunday, Apr 6th 11:00a to 12:00p
-
Saturday ,
AprApril 19 , 2025Shabbat Morning Torah Study with Rabbi Toba Spitzer
Shabbat, Apr 19th 9:00a to 9:45a
Zmanim
Alot Hashachar | 5:14am |
Earliest Tallit | 5:46am |
Netz (Sunrise) | 6:38am |
Latest Shema | 9:18am |
Zman Tefillah | 10:12am |
Chatzot (Midday) | 11:59am |
Mincha Gedola | 12:26pm |
Mincha Ketana | 3:07pm |
Plag HaMincha | 4:14pm |
Shkiah (Sunset) | 5:21pm |
Tzeit Hakochavim | 6:03pm |
More >> |