This Weeks Torah

Lightness and Darkness

druskay@jcastnetwork.org (JCast Network) — Wed, 04 Dec 2019 15:00:10 +0000

A sermon by Rabbi David Ingber on Bereshit.

For more information please visit romemu.org.

How do you listen to A Taste Of Romemu? You have a lot of options you know? iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, Stitcher, RSS, it’s your choice!

Who Knows Eleven? Eleven Are The Stars/Martyrs

druskay@jcastnetwork.org (JCast Network) — Fri, 29 Nov 2019 15:00:36 +0000

A sermon by Rabbi David Ingber on Bereshit.

For more information please visit romemu.org.

How do you listen to A Taste Of Romemu? You have a lot of options you know? iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, Stitcher, RSS, it’s your choice!

Are We Focused On The Right Story?

druskay@jcastnetwork.org (JCast Network) — Mon, 11 Nov 2019 15:00:50 +0000

Welcome to Sermons, from Rabbi David Seth Kirshner. This episode is a special episode focusing on Bereshit.

How do you listen to Sermons? You have a lot of options you know? iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, Stitcher, RSS, it’s your choice!

Bereishit: Help, I Need Somebody

druskay@jcastnetwork.org (JCast Network) — Tue, 22 Oct 2019 14:00:30 +0000

From the very beginning of creation we were meant to be in a relationship of helping one another. Unfortunately, we seem to have lost sight of this.

For more information about Rabbi Danny, please visit www.RabbiDanny.com

The opening and closing music for this podcast is Coming Out of the Dark by Matt Stamm.

How do you listen to Two Minutes of Torah? You have a lot of options you know? iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, Stitcher, RSS, it’s your choice!

Shabbat Morning: Text Study for Parshat Bereshit

druskay@jcastnetwork.org (JCast Network) — Sat, 08 Dec 2018 17:00:19 +0000

Rabbi David Ingber leads a text study for Parshat Bereshit.

For more information please visit romemu.org.

Kabbalat Shabbat: Parshat Bereshit

druskay@jcastnetwork.org (JCast Network) — Fri, 07 Dec 2018 12:00:09 +0000

A sermon by Rabbi David Ingber on Bereshit.

For more information please visit romemu.org.

Bereishit: A Help And A Challenge

druskay@jcastnetwork.org (JCast Network) — Tue, 02 Oct 2018 11:00:44 +0000

What is the lesson from the beginning of Torah about the way that men and women should relate to each other and work together?

For more information about Rabbi Danny, please visit www.RabbiDanny.com

The opening and closing music for this podcast is Coming Out of the Dark by Matt Stamm.

Start Up Start Over

druskay@jcastnetwork.org (JCast Network) — Wed, 08 Nov 2017 12:00:19 +0000

A sermon by Rabbi David Ingber on Bereshit.

For more information please visit romemu.org.

Bereishit: Divine Image

druskay@jcastnetwork.org (JCast Network) — Tue, 10 Oct 2017 11:00:39 +0000

What is the key lesson from the story of creation? What should we take away from the account of how humanity was created?

For more information about Rabbi Danny, please visit www.RabbiDanny.com

The opening and closing music for this podcast is Coming Out of the Dark by Matt Stamm.

Bereishit: No More Competition

druskay@jcastnetwork.org (JCast Network) — Tue, 25 Oct 2016 11:00:47 +0000

What do Cain and Abel have to do with the Rio Olympics? The two brothers serve as a cautionary tale about viewing life as a competition.

For more information about Rabbi Danny, please visit www.RabbiDanny.com

The opening and closing music for this podcast is Coming Out of the Dark by Matt Stamm.

Bereishit: Be Careful With Our Words

druskay@jcastnetwork.org (JCast Network) — Tue, 06 Oct 2015 11:00:51 +0000

The misunderstanding of words is what leads Adam and Eve to eat from the tree in the Garden. How different things could have been with a more careful use of words.

For more information about Rabbi Danny, please visit RabbiDanny.com

The opening and closing music for this podcast is Coming Out of the Dark by Matt Stamm.

From Ferguson to West Africa, Who is My Brother?

druskay@jcastnetwork.org (JCast Network) — Fri, 24 Oct 2014 11:00:09 +0000

Rabbi Knopf’s Saturday message for Parashat B’reishit (October 18, 2014): Why being our brothers’ and sisters’ keeper is more important now than ever.

Light It Up

druskay@jcastnetwork.org (JCast Network) — Thu, 23 Oct 2014 11:00:48 +0000

Rabbi Knopf’s Friday message for Parashat B’reishit (October 17, 2014): The opening chapter of Genesis, teach the rabbis, is an extended metaphor about the nature of the world and the Jewish mission in it. Rabbi Knopf unpacks the metaphor, and charges us with the mission.

Want To and Have To- The Morning After: בראשית – Bereshit

druskay@jcastnetwork.org (JCast Network) — Mon, 20 Oct 2014 11:00:34 +0000

A sermon by Rabbi David Ingber on Bereshit.

For more information please visit romemu.org.

Bereishit: God’s To Do List

druskay@jcastnetwork.org (JCast Network) — Tue, 14 Oct 2014 11:00:14 +0000

Perhaps God didn’t get to quite everything on the to do list, so what does that mean for us?

For more information about Rabbi Danny, please visit RabbiDanny.com

The opening and closing music for this podcast is Coming Out of the Dark by Matt Stamm.

Bereishit: Don’t Get Your Fingers Burnt

druskay@jcastnetwork.org (JCast Network) — Fri, 27 Sep 2013 11:00:05 +0000

When God placed the tree in the garden was God placing an irresistable temptation in front of Adam and Eve? Did God have bigger plans of which this was a necessary stage in our human growth and development?

For more information about Rabbi Danny, please visit RabbiDanny.com

The opening and closing music for this podcast is Coming Out of the Dark by Matt Stamm.

No Utopia

druskay@jcastnetwork.org (JCast Network) — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 17:00:54 +0000

A sermon on Breshit.

Moving into the places of fear – Beresheit בראשית

druskay@jcastnetwork.org (JCast Network) — Sun, 14 Oct 2012 22:52:41 +0000

A teaching in memory of Azriel Cohen z”l on fear, faith, heaven, healing, endings, beginnings and the dance of life. Rabbi David Ingber on Parshat Beresheit.

For more information please visit romemu.org.

Good (Genesis/B’ereshit)

druskay@jcastnetwork.org (JCast Network) — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 17:00:26 +0000

The annual Torah re-run series begins Today, October 12th 2012. Follow the journey with WORD, Amichai Lau-Lavie’s newest one-year-long podcast. Subscribe to get 52 weekly posts and/or podcasts from the road, with 52 Biblical words – each one a password to the riddles of our lives.

Bereishit: What’s In A Naming?

druskay@jcastnetwork.org (JCast Network) — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 15:00:48 +0000

Parents give their children names, and this week Adam names all of the animals. What is the significance of Adam, in the first human action, giving a name to all of the animals.

For more information about Rabbi Danny, please visit RabbiDanny.com

The opening and closing music for this podcast is Coming Out of the Dark by Matt Stamm.

Torah Commentary – B’reishit

druskay@jcastnetwork.org (JCast Network) — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 19:20:00 +0000

The Talmud teaches that “All beginnings are arduous.” (Mechilta Yitro) The beginning Torah Portion, B’reishit; our world’s Beginning; our Beginning; the Beginning of our relationship with God – all certainly “arduous” (as well as wondrous) on many levels. From the first resoundingly simple seven Hebrew words, B’reishit bara Elohim et ha shamayim v’et ha-aretz,we recognize the intellectual effort, spiritual commitment, and energetic embrace of complexity that the mitzvah La’asok b’dvrei Torah (to engage in the study of Torah) demands.

I have open before me three different Judaic Torah commentaries and one Christian version of the Tanach. Each presents a different English translation of the first seven Hebrew words of B’reishit. Each Judaic commentary offers an explanation of its translation – and this is just the first line in the first of 54 Torah Portions in the yearly cycle! Already, there are questions raised, ancient and modern commentaries to consider, personal connections and conclusions to be drawn – a year’s worth of intense study, discussion, and reflection in the first seven Hebrew words of the Torah.

We have yet to even encounter the moon and sun, the Garden of Eden, the animals, Adam, Shabbat, Eve, the snake, banishment from the Garden, Cain and Abel and their many descendents. The drama of Creation swings from God’s approval on the Sixth Day, “God then surveyed all that [God] had made, and look – it was good!” (Genesis 1:31)* to God’s regret hundreds of generations later “When the Eternal saw how great was the wickedness of human beings in the earth, that the direction of their thoughts was nothing but wicked all the time, the Eternal regretted having made human beings on earth, and was heartsick.” (Genesis 6:5-6)*
From primordial chaos to rampant wordly corruption – “arduous,” definitely arduous!

How could I hope to effectively introduce my Sixth Grade students to their first Torah Study experience in just twenty minutes of Hebrew School time? I found a solution in a new resource called Experiencing the Torah by Joel Lurie Grishaver, published by Torah Aura Productions www.torahaura.com This book presents sections of the Torah Portions in the form of short plays, using the actual Torah Text (in English translation) as narration and dialogue.
After a brief rehearsal, my students performed expressively as Narrators, Adam, Eve, the Snake, and the most prized role – God!

They giggled a bit as “Adam” recited, “I heard you [God] in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.”
We paused in the performance and discussed that this is exactly what the Torah text says and that Adam’s embarassment reveals to God that Adam has indeed eaten from the tree that God had forbidden.
The students excitedly finished performing just in time for dismissal. As I straightened up the classroom, I noticed that one student had spelled out in magnetic English letters on the chalkboard, “God was here!” While the student was referring to himself in his role as “God,” the words resonated. Isn’t that what Torah study is – a way to bring God into our midst as we struggle to understand how we can live according to the Torah’s teaching?

In the Portion B’reishit, Torah begins with seven immensely powerful Hebrew words, and like the Mobius strips which my students made in celebration of Simchat Torah,** Torah never ends. God is here!

Resources:
*Translations are from The Torah: A Modern Commentary, W. Gunther Plaut, General Editor
**This activity is one of several presented in the book, Experiencing the Jewish Holidays by Joel Lurie Grishaver, Torah Aura Productions

Verse Per Verse Episode One: Breshit

druskay@jcastnetwork.org (JCast Network) — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 15:00:10 +0000

The annual cycle of the reading of the torah is beginning again, as it has for thousands of years. In the first episode of Verse Per Verse, Amichai Lau Lavie explores two verses from the first parsha (section) of the first book of the torah. In Breshit (Genesis) Chapter 2, Verse 20 and 21, the torah tells the story of the creation of Sela and the creation of woman. But why do three different versions of the same text read soo differenet? Was the first woman created from just any rib, from the 13th rib on the right side, or just from the side of man? And, perhaps we should reconsider taking the idea of the rib so literally, perhaps it is just a metaphor.

Two Bereshit Limericks

druskay@jcastnetwork.org (JCast Network) — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 21:52:49 +0000

The Cycle Begins again. God creates – not once but twice – in 6 days and in the Garden. We are tested. We fail. So what else is new?

Preceding the act of Creation
There was darkness and desolation
The Divine spirit hovered
Over depths that were covered
By the promise of new population

“just take a bite,” said the snake.
“Who cares if a rule you might break?
The fruit that you’ll eat
Is so juicy and sweet
Think of the pies you could bake!

Words of Wisdom for Shabbat – B’reishit

druskay@jcastnetwork.org (JCast Network) — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 11:10:00 +0000

We enter the new cycle of Torah reading with B’reishit, the Creation Story. The words of the Torah are unchanging, but we can never remain the same. As we begin a new year of Torah study, we strive for greater understanding, deeper commitment, and active fulfillment of Mitzvot.

The following is my translation from Hebrew of a Midrash for B’reishit which appears in an Israeli public school textbook for the study of Torah by upper elementary grade students.

Once David, the king of Israel, was sitting in his garden. He saw a hornet eating a spider.
David said, “Ribono shel Olam [Master of the World], what use are these [creatures] that are in Your World?”
“The hornet – it has no honey and it has a sting. It is of no benefit.”
“The spider – it weaves webs all year and [yet] has no clothing.”
Elohim said,” David, you mock my animals. The day will come when you will need them.”
The day came. King Saul was pursuing David.
David hid from Saul in a cave.
Elohim sent a spider to help him.
The spider spun a web on the entrance to the cave and closed it.
Saul came and saw.
“The entrance to the cave is woven [over] with webs,” he said. “Certainly, no person could have entered here. If a person had entered, he would have torn the web.”
Saul went away and did not go in there.
David came out of the cave. He saw the spider.
He said, “Blessed is the One Who Created you and blessed are you.”

Shabbat Shalom – Rest and renew.