Corporate Torah

Sukkot Dvar Torah – Putting our Mitzvoth in Action One of the special Mitzvoth of Sukkot is taking the Four Species – the Lulav, Etrog, Hadas, and Arava. While they are all beautiful in their own right, the Etrog (citron) above all possess a truly unnatural splendor and the optimal way of performing the Mitzvah is to pick out the most beautiful etrog we can find, ideally grown to a stately shape, free of any scratches or bruises. After exerting considerable resources procuring a beautiful esrog, we don’t keep it on a shelf but put it to use holding and waving it together with the other species as we recite the Hallel (prayer of thanksgiving) in the synagogue. Naturally, during its usage the etrog starts to accumulate some bruises. With the oxidation of its outer skin there are even some brown spots similar to blemishes which would invalidate an etrog for use in the first place! The 18th century Halachist Rabbi Moshe Sofer (the Chatam Sofer) offers a fascinating observation. Since these...

Yom Kippur Dvar Torah - Living up to Ourselves with Renewed Strength Yom Kippur Eve starts at fever pitch with the dramatic Kol Nidrei service. Once we’ve taken in the majesty of the cantor’s melody, if we pause on the words, it makes you wonder. Why do we start Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year with a legalistic ritual of annulling personal promises we made to Hashem? In the formal sense, it’s not even a prayer but a declaration (see Nedarim 23a and Tosafot ad loc) In his 1947 Kol Nidrei address to his congregation, my grandfather Rabbi Akiba Predmesky proposed that Kol Nidrei “is a confession of the great weaknesses of human beings. It is an admission that our life is but one long chain of hafarat nedarim, of broken promises. What we may be reluctant to confess, Kol Nidrei does for us” Kol Nidrei is an admission that we have not lived up to our own standards. Even things that we ourselves have promised, never mind what is asked of us, have not been fulfilled. It is this powerfu...

Shabbat Haazinu/Shuva Dvar Torah – A Leadership of Blessing This week’s potion features Moses’ parting song to the people before his passing. It is not an upbeat melody nor a heartwarming kumbaya. The song Moses shares is a prophecy of the hardships to come for the Jewish people, culminating in pyrrhic redemption. As Moses concludes his song and urges his people to keep faithful to the Torah, G-d speaks to him and tells him that “on this very day” he shall ascend Mount Nebo and die there. The classic commentator Rashi, notes that “on this very day” is used to indicate divine determinism in the face of human objection across three incidents in the Torah. Noah entered the Arc despite the objections of his generation, the Israelites moved in Exodus from Egypt despite their taskmasters last second objections, and finally, despite the desperate pleas of the people, the very Moses who had led them through the split sea, brought the tablets from Sinai, and oversaw all manner of miracles, tri...

Rosh Hashanna Dvar Torah On Rosh Hashanna, the Torah and Haftorah readings recount our matriarch Sarah giving birth to Isaac and Hanna bearing the great prophet Samuel. Both barren women had longed for children, living in great anguish at their childlessness. Both had their dreams fulfilled and our sages teach that we recount these stories because their prayers were both answered on Rosh Hashana. One of the central themes of the day is the kingship of G-d. As the world enters another year, we gather in the synagogue to actively recognize our creator. This annual re-realization can take many forms. What Hannah and Sarah teach us is that this day is a reminder that what was, does not need to be, that the world has a creator who is listening to our prayers and shofar blasts, and that despite whatever the natural odds may be, there is someone we can turn to – as Hannah exclaims in her song of gratitude “He raises the needy from the dust, from the trash heaps He lifts the destitute” (...

Shabbat Nitzavim-Vayelech Dvar Torah – Looking Out for Each Other A number of years ago I was flying from Paris to New York on a stormy winter Friday. On the approach to JFK we encountered severe crosswinds and our pilot abandoned the landing, informing us instead that we’d reroute to Delta’s hub in Detroit. We were due to land an hour and a half before Shabbat came in. Within about 30 minutes the WhatsApp group “Shomer Shabbat DL405” had been formed and 10 people who didn’t know each other from Israel, Budapest, Paris, and New York were set to be picked up at the airport by people they didn’t know from Detroit and hosted by them for Shabbat. In this week’s portion we are taught about the concept of Areivut , literally that all of the Jewish People are guarantors for one another. In the strictest sense, this means that the covenant between G-d and the Jewish people is not personal but communal and that we hold a communal responsibility to keep it – or in the words of the Medrash...