We find ourselves this week in the midst of the high drama of the Joseph story. The parasha opens with Joseph down in Egypt, having been sold into slavery by his jealous brothers. After being falsely accused by his master’s wife, he finds himself in prison, where through his gift at dream interpretation, he eventually is released and called to Pharaoh’s side to interpret Pharaoh’s dreams.
When to surrender and when to fight?
Thank you, Haile, for your immensely thoughtful and deep d’var Torah. I know we’re all praying for your grandmother’s healing. Thank you for teaching us about her inspiring example. Your theory is that Jacob didn’t intervene in Joseph’s suffering because he trusted God. He trusted that even though Joseph was suffering there must have been some larger plan or greater good, so he waited. And we’ll find out in a few chapters that Joseph trusted God and believed that his brothers’ actions were on God’s behalf.
Antisemitism, Continued
Galit and Samson, what insightful, important divrei Torah you’ve given this morning. I am so impressed with both of you on this day you become bnei mitzvah.
I feel that the fear in this parasha and the wrestling imagery and the anticipated confrontation fits the American Jewish experience of this week and this month very well. This is going to be my third sermon on antisemitism in five weeks. That’s a record.
Just to give you a sense of what has come across my rabbinic field of vision in the last week:
Many people in this room grew up at CBE and are currently in college, which means that many people in this room were once 5th graders in Yachad, which means that many people in this room participated, once upon a time, in the great trial of Jacob versus Esau. You may recall that 5th graders find themselves preparing for months for an elaborate courtroom scene divided between Jacob and Esau, in which every member of the class is defending or prosecuting one brother or the other. They develop legal briefs. Parents come in to adjudicate. It’s the focal point of the year.
Rabbi Timoner uses the relationship of Ishmael and Isaac to discuss Israel–Palestine, Dave Chapelle, and Black–Jewish relations.
Rabbi Kolin discusses what we can learn about giving from Rebecca and the camel test.
On Thursday night, I had the privilege of being in conversation at the public library with Masha Gessen, the brilliant Russian-American journalist and author who, in the pages of the New Yorker and eleven books, has warned us for years about the danger of Vladimir Putin and the threat of autocracy in the United States.
On Saturday, November 5, 2022, Rabbi Timoner addressed the increase of antisemitism, the recent Israeli election, and the 2022 U.S. midterm elections in her sermon, which was mentioned in The New York Times‘ article, “Between Kanye and the Midterms, the Unsettling Stream of Antisemitism.” We are proud to share it with all of you.
Wow, Eliza, you have spoken truth today. This is why it’s so brilliant that we have young people teaching us on Shabbat morning. They see things with fresh eyes that we have grown accustomed to, they say things out loud that we have conspired to keep silent about.
Thank you for that gift.
This week, we have been witness to the shocking details of an unworthy insurrection which resulted in violence, chaos, and misguided actions that were built on a lie. I am of course speaking about this week’s Torah portion, parshat Korach. Sometimes Torah lines it up just right.
I came across a post on Facebook this week that I sat with for a long time and then hesitantly re-posted. It’s by a woman named Leah Solomon who lives in Jerusalem. I don’t know her, I’m not even her Facebook friend. But we have friends in common and she works for Encounter, an organization that brings Jews and Palestinians together to listen to one another. I read her words and I want to share them with you in their entirety.
The best parts of life are the surprises.
Here we have a story of surprise. The scouts are surprised that the Promised Land is a frightening place, with looming giants. Why would Gd, whom they trusted, promise them a land like this, with these terrifying people in it?
