Torah Reflections
Each week, Rabbi Olivier prepares a written reflection on the weekly Torah portion. These provide yet another way to discover the texts sacred to Judaism and to prepare for Shabbat each week.
Breaking Free From the Great Teachers
Toldot: Genesis 25:19 - 28:9 "Breaking Free From the Great Teachers" At the opening of our Torah portion, we find Isaac pleading with God, in the presence of his barren wife Rebecca, that she might— after twenty years of waiting— finally bear a child. God hears...
Seeing Through the Veil of the Mind
Chayei Sarah: Genesis 23:1 - 25:18 "Seeing Through the Veil of the Mind" The unfolding of the biblical narrative brings us to the close of one chapter—that of Abraham and Sarah’s journey—and the opening of a new one—that of their son Isaac and soon-to-be wife:...
Beyond our Ego’s Idea of Justice
VaYera: Genesis 18:1 - 22:24 "Beyond our Ego's Idea of Justice" In his life's storyline, Abraham did not always rise to the occasion of his ethical challenges. Yet this aspect of his story is worthy of praise: his standing up to God in the episode of Sodom and...
Heading Home
Lech lecha: Genesis 12:1 - 17:27 "Heading Home" Lech Lecha marks the beginning of the Patriarchal story in the Book of Genesis. We have traveled through the confusion of Creation and the Flood, and now we are about to embark on our spiritual journey as the...
A World Filled with Violence
Noah: Genesis 6:9 - 11:32 "A World Filled with Violence" Our, then, 10-year-old daughter, Amalya came home one day from the Jewish day-school she attended, with an assignment: to write a short essay about the first verses of Noah, this week’s Torah portion....
The Kabbalah of Creation
Bereishit: Genesis 1:1 - 6:8 "The Kabbalah of Creation" I love the esoteric interpretation by Nachmanides—Rabbi Moses ben Nachman, born in Spain (1194-1270)—on the first verse of Genesis: In a beginning God created the heaven and the earth. Nachmanides helps us...
The Chutzpah of the Separate Self
Ha'azinu: Deuteronomy 32:1 - 52 "The Chutzpah of the Separate Self" Chutzpah. Whether Jewish or not, most everyone knows this Hebrew/Yiddish word. The dictionary defines it as “unmitigated effrontery or impudence, gall, nerve, courage bordering on arrogance.”...
Giving up the Future
VaYelech: Deuteronomy 31:1 - 30 "Giving up the Future" Moses went and spoke these things to all Israel. He said to them: “I am, today, a hundred and twenty years old. I am no longer able to go forth and enter. And the Eternal has said to me, ‘You are not to...
How to Find God
Nitzavim: Deuteronomy 29:9 - 30:20 "How to Find God" The three letters, tzadi, vav, vav, form the root of the word Mitzvah, usually translated as “commandment.” Yet the Hebrew, or the Aramaic in this case, has much more granularity than a one-word translation...
Let Your Heart Crack Open
Ki Tavo: Deuteronomy 26:1 - 29:8 "Let Your Heart Crack Open" This week’s Torah portion begins: When you enter the land that the Eternal your God is giving your as a heritage, and you possess it and settle in it, you shall take some of every fruit of...
On Being Commanded
Ki Teitzei: Deuteronomy 21:10 - 25:19 "On Being Commanded" This week’s Torah portion is the last in Deuteronomy to present us with a collection of laws. With this kind of portion, we find ourselves struggling with some aspects of the text and truly moved by...
The Unexamined Life…
Shof'tim: Deuteronomy 16:18 - 21:9 "The Unexamined Life..." In the middle of this week’s Torah portion is one of the pithiest yet most powerful verses: “Tamim tih’yeh im YHVH Eloheicha – Be whole with the Eternal One your God.” [Deut. 18:13] We have noted...