Corporate Torah

Shabbat Ki-Tetzei Dvar Torah – Building Welcoming Homes This week’s portion is notable for having 74 Mitzvahs (commandments), the most of any portion and a full 12% of all the Mitzvahs in the Torah One of these is the biblically mandated building code of fencing the roof of our home. ”When you build a new house, you shall make a parapet for your roof, so that you do not bring bloodguilt on your house if anyone should fall from it” (Deu. 22:8). This applies specifically to a flat roof which is likely to be used for domestic purposes. The modern commentator the Netziv notes that while the verse gives the example of a “new” house, this Mitzvah actually applies to any house. In fact, Halacha (Jewish law) forbids us from dwelling in any home until the roof’s fence is constructed. He suggests the insight that the Torah is accentuating that when building new homes, they should be infused with Mitzvahs from the get-go, hence the primary example is a “new” home. Not only does the roof ...

Shabbat Shoftim Dvar Torah – Navigating Ambiguity with Wholeness In this week’s portion the Torah enumerates several ancient practices of witchcraft, fortune-telling, and necromancy, strictly forbidding engagement with them. In ancient (and even modern) societies these practices offered the illusion of clarity and certainty. However, Maimonides famously teaches that the Jewish people are meant to be wiser than this. Having experienced the ultimate truth of hearing the spoken word of G-d, we possess the spiritual and intellectual maturity to see past these superficial superstitions. This passage concludes with a powerful summarizing directive: Tamim tiheyeh im Hashem Elokecha – "Thou shalt be whole-hearted with the Lord thy G-d." (Deut. 18:13) The classic commentator, the Ohr Hachaim, notes a double entendre embedded in this verse which serves as both a commandment and a promise. We are instructed to be wholly with Hashem, and conversely when we are with Hashem, we wi...

Shabbat Re’eh Dvar Torah - Radical Responsibility This week the Torah introduces to the mitzvah of  Tzedaka  (charity). Embedded within the narrative of this commandment is a paradox. On the one hand the Torah promises that "there shall be no needy among you," but just a few verses later states that "the needy shall never cease from the land." How do we reconcile this? The 19 th century commentator Rav Shimshon Rephael Hirsch explains that the phrase "from the land" refers to the natural order of the world. Even if two people begin life with the exact same resources, variables like health, family circumstances, and personal abilities will inevitably create disparity. Left to its own devices, the natural course of a society guarantees that some people will live in poverty. However, the Torah does not want us to simply accept this natural order, but highlights what happens in "the land" generally, versus what is incumbent on us in "y...

Shabbat Eikev Dvar Torah – Blessing our Opportunity for Impact In this week’s Torah portion, Eikev , we encounter the source for the Mitzvah of reciting grace after meals, telling us that we shall eat, be satisfied, and bless G-d specifically for "the goodly land" He gave us (Deu. 8:10). Why focus on the land rather than the food on our plate? This obligation touches on a core theological question of how we balance G-d’s ultimate control against our own will and creativity. One direction for understanding this is through the lens of mankind being G-d’s partner in creation. Consider a simple loaf of bread. G-d creates the fertile soil, rain, and natural laws that make growth possible. But He doesn't drop finished bread from the sky. Humans must plow, harvest, grind, and bake. G-d provides the canvas, but expects us to build, discover, and work. This idea is woven into the human story from the very beginning. In Genesis, G-d places Adam in the Garden of Eden with...

Shabbat Vaetchanan Dvar Torah: The Power of Prayer At the start of this week’s portion, Vaetchanan , we meet Moses at his most human and vulnerable. He reveals to the people that even after it was decreed that he wouldn't cross into the Promised Land, he refused to give up and prayed that G-d let him in anyways This entreaty is consistent with a famous principle of prayer taught in the Talmud (Brachot 32b) that even if our prayers are refused, we should not give up, but double down. When we talk to G-d, tradition gives us license to refuse accepting a "no" as final. And yet, the door still remained closed. My father often pointed out a haunting nuance in the text. Moses recounts "Vaetchanan” lit. "And I pleaded" in the singular. Moses was the only one begging. In another famous passage, the Talmud (Brachot 8a) explains that there is a theological "time of favor" for prayer. This moment is not random but created when we come together as ...

Shabbat Devarim Dvar Torah This week we begin the Book of Deuteronomy, which opens with Moses delivering his final address to the people on the banks of the Jordan. Before they cross into the Promised Land, he reviews with them the whole of their journey and the Torah given until that point, preparing a new generation for the life ahead. At the start of this address is an extensive treatment on our legal system where we are taught "Ki hamishpat leilokim hu" - for justice belongs to G-d. The classic commentator Rashi, quoting the Midrash, explains that when we distort justice, we do more than wrong one another; we do God a disservice, for He must then intervene to correct the corruption and restore what was lost to its rightful owner. Justice is literally his and He is its guarantor. The Psalms teach that "the heavens are G-d's heavens, and the earth has been given to mankind." The world is ours to shape. When we uphold truth, we honor that trust; when we...