Corporate Torah

Shabbat Acharei-Mot Kedoshim Dvar Torah Breaking from routine, this week’s Dvar Torah will be a re-run from last year which resonated deeply with me In this week’s double-header Parsha, the Torah commands us to be “ Kedoshim ” (lit. holy). Nachmanides explains this means that while the Torah explicitly forbids us from specific acts (e.g. theft), there are some places which are not explicitly forbidden but where we are expected to draw the line ourselves – for example foul speech or glutenous consumption. We can suggest that there are two powerful messages nested within Nachmanides’ commentary. Firstly, G-d trusts us. He believes that we have the intellect, moral sense, and if necessary, the courage to do what’s right even without being told precisely what it is or how to do it. Secondly, drawing boundaries is a positive “do” commandment. When contrasted with negative “don’t-do” commandments (e.g. don’t gossip, don’t eat on Yom Kippur), here we are actively choosing to be something. ...

Yom Haatzmaut - Israeli Independence Day Dvar Torah Ben Gurion famously reflected that to be a realist in Israel you have to believe in miracles. Indeed, the list of miracles is so long and “normal” that we’ve almost gotten use to them. Yom Haatzmaut is a day to reflect on these miracles, be thankful for the past, and optimistic for the future. I’d like to take a moment to dwell on one of them - the ingathering of the exiles. After two thousand years in the Diaspora, Jews from around the world have come home. In my apartment building alone live immigrants from the US, Ethiopia, Canada, the UK, and Argentina. We all speak to each other in our ancestral language of Hebrew - revived as a spoken language from millennia of slumber. Every day here is a living fulfillment the prophecy that the Jewish people would once again walk this Land and that the elderly would look on at the young children playing in the streets of Jerusalem. While Israel is not a simple place to live (particularly in t...

Shabbat Tazria-Metzora Dvar Torah – The Power of Words This week, we read a double Torah portion, Tazria-Metzora , which dives into a concept that often puzzles the modern reader: Tzara’at . While often mistranslated as "leprosy," the Torah makes it clear that this wasn't a physiological disease. You couldn't catch it from a virus or a bacterium. Instead, it was a physical wake-up call for a spiritual lapse—specifically, Lashon Hara (harmful speech or slander). In ancient times, if someone consistently used their words to tear others down or cause social discord, a physical mark would appear on their skin, their clothes, or even the walls of their home. The "cure" wasn't a cream or a pill; it was a period of isolation. The idea was simple: If you use your speech to isolate others, you must spend some time in isolation to reflect on the power of your words. The laws of Tzara’at remind us that our words and expressions create the world we live in. In Pir...

Shabbat Shemini Dvar Torah – Holiness through the mundane In the portion of Shemini , we encounter a striking transition between two very different types of spiritual experiences. The first half of the portion is the climax of a long narrative: the inauguration of the Tabernacle . It is a moment of pure, awe-inspiring drama. The Divine Presence, the Shechina , descends in a visible way, connecting the heavens and the earth. It is the pinnacle of holiness. The entire second half of the portion, by contrast, feels relatively mundane. It moves away from the Tabernacle and introduces the laws of keeping Kosher —the technical details of which animals, fish, and birds may be eaten. At the end of this second section on kashrut we find a verse that we would have actually expected to follow the first section on the Tabernacle: “ You shall embrace holiness, and become holy, because I am holy ” (Ex. 11:44) The Talmud (Yoma 39a) teaches a profound lesson about the phrasing of this verse. It sugges...

Seventh Day of Passover Dvar Torah - Embracing the Point of No Return On the seventh day of Passover, we stand at the shore of the Red Sea, commemorating perhaps the greatest miracle of our nation. Yet, a cursory glance at any map reveals a puzzling truth: the Israelites took the long way. The coastal road to the Promised Land was shorter and more direct, so why detour into a dead end? The Torah addresses this outright, explaining that Hashem feared the people would retreat at the first sign of conflict. Slavery, it turns out, is a bondage with two locks—one held by the master, and the other by the slave themself. To someone born into slavery and knows nothing else, it is easy to fall into the trap of romanticizing our familiar sorrows rather than face the unknown. By leading them to the water’s edge, G-d was forming more than a miracle; He was establishing a point of no return. As the sea parted and then crashed closed behind them, the bridge to the past dissolved. The Israelites were...