Tag Torah sparks by Rabbi Schell

If you have missed the last “Devotion” by Rabbi Schell at Radio Today, or if you like to hear it again, you may find the Podcast here:  the sermon focus on the lesson we can derrive from the Golden Calf…

In Parashat “Bo”(Go) Moses and Aaron continue to plead with Pharaoh to let the Israelites go free. Because Pharoah refuses, God is is co-erced into raining down the last plagues onto the Egyptians: the plague of locusts, darkness, and finally,…

In parashat Va’era („And I appeared“) we learn more about the relationship between God and the Jewish people and about the promise to give the Land of Israel to the people. God tells Moses that the time has come to…

A few weeks ago, the film Exodus – Kings and Gods was launched and, in anticipation of the upcoming Torah readings about the liberation of the Israelites from slavery, I decided to watch the movie. I wanted to see how…

Year 3 Genesis 49:27-50:26 (Plaut p 313; Hertz p 187) Haftarah I Kings 2:1-12 (Plaut p 323; Hertyz p 191) Jacob’s final blessing to his children and grandchildren precedes demand that he be buried in the ancestral grave in Hebron…

Year 3 Genesis 46:28-47:27 (Plaut p 293; Hertz p 174) Haftarah Ezekiel 37:15-28 (Plaut p 302; Hertz p 178) The great re-union of Joseph and his aged father Jacob/Israel lead to a welcome for all of Bet Yisraeil—the House of…

Stories have great power. We tell stories about ourselves and about our communities because they give our lives meaning, and they help us navigate between the past and the future. We use stories to help us make sense of the…

Genesis 39:1-40:23 (Plaut p 252; Hertz p 147. ) Haftarah Amos 2:6-3:8. (Plaut p 263; Hertz p 152) The parashah tells the stories of how Jacob’s other sons sold Joseph into captivity in Egypt, of how Judah wronged his daughter-in-law…

Genesis 21:1-22:24 (Plaut p.132; Hertz p.71) Haftarah Second Kings 4:1-37 (Plaut p.149; Hertz p.76) Parashat Vayera includes the well-known report of Abraham’s plea to God to save the lives of the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah. While the effort that…