The following dvar Torah originally appeared March 6, 2024 in the Philadelphia Jewish Exponent. Click here to subscribe. Parshat Vayakhel Last week’s Torah portion, Ki Tisa, featured the golden calf disaster: a story of fear, betrayal, misguided impulses and, ultimately, Divine forgiveness. This week, in Vayakhel, with the golden calf
Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan once taught that religious identity is based on the “three Bs” of believing, belonging, and behaving. Most religious traditions begin with a foundation of believing. Christianity, for example, is based in large measure on a belief in Jesus as the son of God, and the savior of
Up until this week’s portion, the Israelites are generally referred to as “b’nei Yisrael,” the Children of Israel. Only once had we been called, “beit Yisrael,” the House of Israel. It is with the completion of the Mishkan, the traveling sanctuary, that the people are generally called beit Yisrael, the
Traditionally, as we end a book of Torah, we both congratulate ourselves and resolve to study even more diligently in the future. We say hazak, hazak, v’nitkhazek: be strong, be strong, and strengthen one another. This seems like a particularly fitting ending to the book of Shemot in which we
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