91快活林

Death and Dignity

Nov 14, 2025 By Gordon Tucker | Commentary | Hayyei Sarah

Parashat Hayyei Sarah begins with the death of the matriarch Sarah. Interestingly, it is the first time that a death enters into the Torah鈥檚 narrative. In all of the genealogies from Adam and Eve through the lives of Abraham and Sarah, deaths were matter-of-factly recorded with the simple word 讜讬诪转. And of course, there was the global death and destruction during the Flood. But the death of Sarah is the first one that generates a story, and a template, as it were, for how to deal with death鈥攂urial, eulogizing, mourning, and the subsequent continuation of life.

Rachel Cohn – Senior Sermon (RS ’26)

Nov 14, 2025 By 91快活林 Senior Sermon | Commentary | Senior Sermon | Hayyei Sarah

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Recasting Lot’s Wife

Nov 7, 2025 By Rabbi Ayelet Cohen | Commentary | Vayera

In difficult times it鈥檚 natural to want to look back. Our memories can have a way of blurring the edges, so we remember things the way we have categorized them in our minds, without the details that don鈥檛 fit our story. If we鈥檙e remembering warmly, we may blur outthe parts of the story that don鈥檛 hold up; if it鈥檚 a bitter memory we may leave out the parts that included kindness or helpfulness.

Zachary Bernstein-Rothberg – Senior Sermon (RS 鈥�26)

Nov 3, 2025 By 91快活林 Senior Sermon | Commentary | Senior Sermon | Vayera

Reflecting on Ibn Ezra鈥檚 reading of the Akedah, Zachary Bernstein-Rothberg reimagines Abraham and Isaac鈥檚 journey as a model for healing and solidarity, urging us to walk together through pain and renewal.

Claiming Our Ancestors: The Case of Terah

Oct 31, 2025 By Eliezer B. Diamond z”l | Commentary | Lekh Lekha

For all of us, there is no going without leaving; and so it was for Abraham: 鈥淕o forthfromyour land, your birthplace, and the house of your fathertothe land that I shall show you鈥�(Gen. 12:1) [emphasis added]. And when we leave places, we leave people as well. When Abraham departed for Canaan he left behind, among others, his father Terah. And it was always thus: 鈥淭herefore shall a man leave his father and mother鈥� (2:24).

Sara Birnbaum – Senior Sermon (RS 鈥�26)

Oct 31, 2025 By 91快活林 Senior Sermon | Commentary | Senior Sermon | Lekh Lekha

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Species Purity and the Great Flood

Oct 24, 2025 By Daniel Nevins | Commentary | Noah

Omnicide is a dramatic move, on that we can all agree. But what causes the Creator to grow violently disgusted with the creatures that had just recently been praised as 鈥済ood鈥� and blessed with fertility? 91快活林 Bible Professor Emeritus Alan Cooper has suggested that it was interspecies breeding of human women with divine creatures that angered God, and that it was Noah鈥檚 pure genealogy (鈥減erfect in his generations鈥�) that set him apart for salvation. The ancient Rabbis had a similar idea鈥攊t was crossbreeding between species that angered God and caused God to reboot with specimens that were still arranged 鈥渁ccording to their families鈥� (Gen. 8:19; see Midrash Tanhuma, Buber ed., Noah 11).

Noa Rubin 鈥� Senior Sermon (RS 鈥�26)

Oct 23, 2025 By 91快活林 Senior Sermon | Commentary | Senior Sermon | Noah

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Making Meaning From Chaos

Oct 17, 2025 By Mychal Springer | Commentary | Bereishit

The opening words of B鈥檙eishit are exhilarating. 鈥淚n the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.鈥� Each day, as God creates the world and everything in it, we are told that it is good. On the sixth day, when God creates people, we are told that it is very good. From the chaos comes order, goodness, and endless possibilities. But the parashah ends with the world on the verge of destruction: 鈥淭he Lord saw how great was man鈥檚 wickedness on earth, and how every plan devised by his mind was nothing but evil all the time. And the Lord regretted that He had made man on earth, and His heart was saddened鈥�

Sarah Rockford 鈥� Senior Sermon (RS 鈥�26)

Oct 16, 2025 By 91快活林 Senior Sermon | Commentary | Senior Sermon | Bereishit

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Impermanence, Empathy, and the Shadow of Faith

Oct 10, 2025 By Yitz Landes | Commentary | Sukkot

It can feel odd that just as it begins to get chilly, and just after the long High Holiday prayers may have left us wanting to simply stay home, we must go outside to sit in the sukkah鈥攁n impermanent dwelling that brings us closer to the elements. And it may seem odd that precisely at this moment of impermanence, the Jewish tradition places extra significance on the welcoming in of guests鈥攈akhnasat orhim. Why is it that that we must now enter a place of discomfort? And why is it that we must be extra careful to welcome in guests at this time? In order to answer these questions, we can turn to the representation of Sukkot and its rituals in the Jewish mystical tradition, beginning with the Zohar.

Our Very Life

Oct 3, 2025 By Lilly Kaufman | Commentary | Ha'azinu

At the end of his life, with Joshua by his side, Moses begins his great, thunderous poem, Ha鈥檃zinu, summoning the heavens and the earth as witnesses to his powerful, angrymessage, as God commanded him to do in the preceding parashah, Vayelekh. And yet, in a one-versereshut, a prayerful, wishful intention, preceding the central portion of his sermonic poem, hesays that he wantshis words to land lightly: 鈥淢ay my discourse come down as the rain, my speech distill as the dew, like showers on young growth, like droplets on the grass鈥�(Deut. 32:2). Then suddenly, thecentralangry themeemerges, and he calls the people 鈥渦nworthy of [God], crooked, perverse鈥� (32:5), 鈥渄ull and witless鈥� (32:6).

The Meaning of Kol Nidre: Human Frailty, Inclusive Community, and the Gravity of Words

Sep 26, 2025 By Shira Billet | Commentary | Yom Kippur

The Kol Nidre service, with its solemn choreography and somber traditional melody,[1] ushers in Yom Kippur with a sobering reminder of the gravity of speech and the importance of honoring our words, setting the tone for a long day of fasting, repentance, and communal prayer.

The Blessing of Curses: A Rosh Hashanah Puzzle

Sep 12, 2025 By David Hoffman | Commentary | Ki Tavo | Rosh Hashanah

Here鈥檚 a puzzle for us to think about as we consider the spiritual work that we need to engage in over the remaining days until Yom Kippur: The Talmud tells us鈥攊n the name of Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar鈥攖hat Ezra the Scribe decreed that,for all time, the Jewish people would read the blessings and curses in Leviticus (Parashat Behukkotai) prior to the holiday of Shavuot and those of Deuteronomy (Parashat Ki Tavo) before Rosh Hashanah(BTMegillah 31b). This decree is strange. Reading these graphic and threatening chapters, which detail the good that will come if we are faithful to God and the suffering that will be wrought if we forsake our relationship with God, is difficult at any time. Why insist that we read them publicly as we ready ourselves to celebrate these joyous holidays?

Family Matters

Sep 5, 2025 By Jonathan Milgram | Commentary | Ki Tetzei

Academic talmudists are often asked, 鈥淥f what use are the findings of academic Jewish Studies to lay people? Can historical research inform our contemporary dialogue on the pressing issues of our day?鈥� I propose that developments in family law from biblical to Rabbinic times have much to teach us in our evaluating the rapidly changing values and their accompanying changing laws in our own times.

I begin in an unlikely place: the curious set of verses in this week鈥檚 parashah, Ki Tetzei, about filial favoritism:

Appoint Judges and Officials

Aug 29, 2025 By Marcus Mordecai Schwartz | Commentary | Shofetim

The year was 1752, the place Copenhagen, and Rabbi Yehonatan Eybeshutz, Chief Rabbi of Hamburg, Altona, and Wandsbeck, was on trial before the royal court of Denmark. King Frederick V himself was acting as the presiding judge. Altona was legally a province of Denmark, and the Altona City Council had turned to the king to resolve a controversy among the Jews that was breaking into violence in the streets. They had already tried placing Eybeshutz鈥檚 opponent in the matter, Rabbi Yaakov Emden, under house arrest. Emden鈥檚 escape to Amsterdam under cover of darkness made matters worse. The intensified presence of the city watch among the Jews only increased tensions. In desperation the burghers of Altona had turned to the king of Denmark.

How to Practice Faith

Aug 22, 2025 By Daniel Nevins | Commentary | Re'eh

Why, if this is so obvious, do most people expect that another proficiency will come quickly and without effort? I refer here to faith. Many people think that religious faith is something that one either has or doesn鈥檛 have, and that it is acquired in an instant. You should just feel God鈥檚 presence the minute you open a prayer book or light the candles. We are impatient with faith and don鈥檛 invest the effort needed to develop it. Popular stories of sudden conversions foster the expectation that faith is a gift requiring no effort.

Adhering to God鈥檚 Word

Aug 15, 2025 By Raymond Scheindlin | Commentary | Eikev

In Parashat Eikev, we hear the voice of Moses, that most eloquent of preachers, exhorting the Israelites as to how to behave in the Land that he is never to see. He reminds them of their past misconduct and warns that if it continues, they will not thrive in the Land. He devotes much of his attention to the Land itself.Except for a historical digression on the episode of the Golden Calf and several other occasions of Israelite backsliding, most of the parashah is devoted to describing the excellent qualities of the Land of Israel, foretelling the easy conquest of its inhabitants, promising its bounty, and warning of the consequences of using it badly.

Holding Fast

Aug 8, 2025 By Mychal Springer | Commentary | Va'et-hannan

This week we emerge from the destitution of Tisha Be鈥檃v, the fast day that commemorates the destruction of the Temples, and receive the gift of Shabbat Nahamu, the Shabbat of our being comforted. 谞址讞植诪讜旨 谞址讞植诪讜旨 注址诪执旨讬 讬止讗诪址专 讗直诇止讛值讬讻侄诐, 鈥淐omfort, oh comfort My people, Says your God鈥�(Isaiah 40:1). What is comfort? One way of understanding the essence of comfort is by engaging with Moshe Rabbenu (our teacher, Moses) in this week鈥檚 parashah.

Black North, White West: Color, Grief, and the Geography of the Soul

Aug 1, 2025 By Marcus Mordecai Schwartz | Commentary | Devarim | Tishah Be'av | Yom Kippur

There鈥檚 a tradition in ancient Semitic languages of mapping the world with colors. The north is black. The south is red. The west is white. The east鈥攕ometimes blue, sometimes green. In Arabic, the Mediterranean is still called al-ba岣�r al-abya岣� al-mutawassi峁�鈥攖he White Middle Sea. The Red Sea is to the south. The Black Sea lies to the north.