Drops of Torah from our members

We all have the capacity to share our wisdom and reflections about the Torah texts we read each week. The Congregation Beth Israel Drops of Torah project provides an opportunity for people to share a brief reflection or short insight about the week's Torah portion. These short pieces are written by our members with support from our rabbis (as needed). Our plan is to have members reflect on 1/9 of a Torah portion each week so that in nine years we will have commented on the whole Torah! Beth Israel follows the Israeli Torah reading calendar which sometimes differs from the Conservative and Orthodox Torah reading calendar outside of Israel but will always sync up before the end of the Torah reading year. Consider signing up for a drop of Torah. For more information, contact Rabbi Nathan Martin.

Drops of Torah from Prior Years

1.  A Drop of Torah From Rabbi Elyse
2.  Shabbat Noach by Rabbi Elyse
3.  Lekh Lekha by Amy Strauss
4.  A Drop of Torah From Mark Rosenberg
5.  Hayyei Sarah by Lynn Cashell
6.  Toldot by Rabbi Nathan
7.  Vayetzei by Rabbi Elyse
8.  Vayishlach by Rabbi Nathan
9.  Vayeshev by Rabbi Nathan
10. Vayigash by Rabbi Nathan
11. Vayehi by Rabbi Nathan
12. Sh'mot by Marion Hamermesh
13. Vaera by Me'ira
14. Bo by Rabbi Nathan
15. Beshallah by Rabbi Nathan
16. Yitro by Randi Raskin Nash
17. Mishpatim by Marion Hamermesh
18. Terumah by Sebastian Mann
19. Tetzaveh by Laura Lee Blechner
20. Purim by Rabbi Nathan
21. Vayakhel by Rabbi Nathan
22. Pekudei by Rabbi Nathan
23. Vayikra by Me'ira
24. Shabbat Hagadol by Rabbi Nathan
25. Shemini by Rabbi Nathan

A Drop of Torah From Rabbi Elyse

Intention
As we begin again, reading from the first verses of the Torah, let us remember that every day, every moment, we have the opportunity to start anew in our lives.

Commentary
Shabbat Bereishit, the Sabbath on which we start reading the creation story, always feels odd.  We’ve just finished the celebration and observance of so many important holidays marking so much: the beginning of the year, the opportunity to atone and become absolved of our wrongdoings, the celebration of the harvest, and the celebration of the Torah itself.  After all that, a regular Shabbat can feel somewhat dull and uninspiring. But this week, we read some of the most extraordinary words in the Torah, “In the beginning, God created….” The creation of the world and all its potential is everything.  Everything!  And everything includes the mundane and the ordinary.  Our liturgy reminds us that “God renews creation every day.”  That means that the awesomeness of creation is always present - including in the mundane and ordinary - like eating a regular meal not in a Sukkah, washing and putting away our holiday linens, and showing up for an ordinary Shabbat. With the beginning of our ordinary reading of the Torah, we have the opportunity to see awesomeness and glimpses of holiness everywhere. (Return to Top)

Shabbat Noach by Rabbi Elyse

Intention
May we see in the rainbow, set as a sign of God’s covenant with all of humanity, that no one is unworthy or undeserving of the opportunity for a safe and prosperous life. Whenever we see or imagine a rainbow, we remember that no one should be left behind. 

Commentary
At the end of the flood story, God makes a covenant with humanity to never again destroy God’s creation. As a sign of this covenant, God places a rainbow in the sky.  Why a rainbow of all things?  In our contemporary world, rainbows are associated with diversity and pride, particularly in the LGBTQ community.  It turns out that this modern understanding is not foreign to Jewish thought.  Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch (19th century Germany) suggested that each color of the rainbow represented a different kind of person. Put together, the rainbow colors make pure white light, representing God’s purity. The only way humanity can create a close connection with God is if all of us, every kind of person on the planet, is present.  (Return to Top)

Lekh Lekha by Amy Strauss

Intention
May we be open to moving from a place of comfort to try something new

Commentary
In this Torah portion, God told Abraham to leave his home and place of birth and go to the land of Caan. Lecht -lecha comes from the Hebrew word meaning “go” or “leave”. This portion teaches us that sometimes you need to go from a place you feel comfortable with and try something new. It is often easy to stay with something you are familiar with even if it is not a good space. But sometimes it is advantageous to go into unknown territory. I tend to stay with the familiar, but instead I will try new places and adventures. (Return to Top)

A Drop of Torah From Mark Rosenberg

Intention/Kavannah
Just like Abraham and Isaac - may we also bring deep faith with us as we face trials and uncertainty

Commentary
Isaac requests that Abraham bind him tightly so he does not seek to escape, thereby not counting it as a real sacrifice.  The faith that Isaac has in God is most similar to the faith Abraham has.  Isaac had no fear and wished to show God and his father that he was ready to be sacrificed for God.  I am inspired by both men’s devotion to God. (Return to Top)

Hayyei Sarah by Lynn Cashell 

Intention
May our lives be remembered for how we made people feel, not for the possessions they leave us.

Reflection
Abraham left everything he had to Issac, not his first born son, Ishmael, or his 6 more sons after Sarah died, yet during his lifetime, Abraham demonstrated many acts of generosity to others. Abraham tested his faith by obeying God to sacrifice his son, Issac, and also challenging God to save 10 righteous people at Sodom and Gomorrah.. We remember Abraham for the strength of his faith, his leadership, and his humility. How did Isaac remember his father? As one who gave him riches or the one whose faith was so strong, he was willing to sacrifice him? (Return to Top)

Toldot by Rabbi Nathan

Intention
May we bring flexible thinking and prioritize relationship both at the Thanksgiving table and beyond

Commentary
This week's Torah portion Toldot is replete with sibling rivalry between Jacob and Esau, exacerbated by Rebecca's scheming to ensure that Jacob received Isaac's blessings. This led to significant ruptures in the family. May we be able to use our creative thinking to address rivalry today without necessarily sacrificing any relationships in the process. (Return to Top)

Vayetzei by Rabbi Elyse

Intention/Kavannah
Though our journey into the unknown is often overwhelming and full of fear, we can also recognize moments of holiness along the way. 

Commentary
Jacob flees from the wrath of his brother Esau, from whom he stole the birthright.  Their mother, Rebecca, tells Jacob to head to her brother Laban for safety until Esau can calm down.  Along the way, Jacob sleeps, using a rock as a pillow.  He dreams of angels ascending and descending a ladder - going up and coming down.  Jacob blesses the place when he wakes and says, “There is holiness here in this place, and I did not know it.” The vision of angels is one of frantic activity, of coming and going.  Jacob is on a frenzied journey, escaping his brother's wrath and not knowing exactly where he is headed.  Don’t we often find ourselves on similar journeys - between one thing and the next, not exactly sure where we might land?  How comforting to know that even there, in the most frantic and unsettling moments of our lives, we too can look and find holiness and God’s presence. (Return to Top)

Vayishlach by Rabbi Nathan

Reflection
May we learn to wrestle with and embrace our fears as we strive to become our fullest selves

Commentary
In this week's Torah portion Jacob divides his household into two camps before meeting his brother Esau with the idea that if Esau were to attack one camp the other might be able to escape. And in a gesture carrying out parental favoritism that we have seen earlier in Genesis, he sends the children of Leah and her concubines ahead to face the potential danger of Esau before sending Rachel and her children. While we might be quick to criticize Jacob, it also behooves us to remember that fear can drive irrational decision-making. But even Jacob gives us hope, for before encountering his brother he does wrestle all night with an unknown man (perhaps himself) willing to face his fear rather than run away - a positive signal of growth. (Return to Top)

Vayeshev by Rabbi Nathan

Intention
May we use all the tools we have available to move our families toward good and right behavior

Commentary
The Joseph saga starts with Joseph sharing "malicious reports" about his brothers to his fathers. The Medieval commentator Rashi suggests, drawing on midrash, that he was sharing about the brothers' egregious and immoral behavior. This though, along with his dream telling, leads to a cascade of distrust and ill will eventually ending in Joseph's enslavement. And it raises the real and difficult question of when we encounter poor behavior in our families what is the best way to change people? Is it through enforcement (turning to an authority figure) or could dialogue have been more effective? (Return to Top)

Vayigash by Rabbi Nathan

Intention
May the hard moments we experience in our lives ultimately help lead us toward compassion rather than bitterness

Commentary
In the beginning of this week's Torah portion we encounter the climactic moment of reconciliation where Judah acknowledges the wrongs his brothers did to Joseph and Judah pleads to have himself incarcerated rather than put his youngest brother Benjamin in danger. This act of selflessness and care finally triggers Joseph to break down and reach out to his brothers. He further is able to take the "high road" by saying that all his travails were for the purpose of saving lives. This too signals an evolution of perspective away from the narrow and toward the spacious. (Return to Top)

Vayehi by Rabbi Nathan

Intention
May we remember that we still hold the possibility to be bringers of change and healing to unhealthy family dynamics!

Commentary
In this week's Torah portion Jacob appears to continue the topsy-turvy nature of family leadership that we have seen earlier in Genesis by giving his main birthright blessing to the younger of Joseph's two sons Ephraim (not the elder Menashe as would be standard), adopting them, and also elevating the two of them to senior status among the sons (later tribes). But rather than allowing yet another round of anger and hurt to fester from this move, Joseph is able to, before his death, help bring peace in the family by publicly forgiving his brothers, promising to sustain them, and thereby mitigating the fear of retribution against them. (Return to Top)

Sh’mot 1:1- 6:1 by Marion Hamermesh

Intention
May we discover within ourselves our one particular strength among all our talents and passions and may we have the courage to use that to make “good trouble.”

Reflection
In this first parashat of the book of Sh’mot (Exodus) we find the Hebrews laboring under a cruel Pharaoh who is afraid of their numbers and power. We survived, in part, because of the courage of individuals to use their talents and resources to resist Pharaoh’s edict. The midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, allowed baby boys to live. Jocheved hid Moses, her son. Pharaoh’s own daughter rescued him. Moses struck the man overseeing the laborers. Moses fought off the shepherd disturbing Zipporah and her sisters. And, with G!d’s help, Moses and Aaron had the courage to confront Pharaoh. In the words of Debbie Friedman,

May the source of strength, who blessed the ones before us,

help us find the courage to make our lives a blessing

And let us say, Amen. (Return to Top)

Vaera by Me'ira

Intention
May we turn our inner struggles into a place of peace and gentle listening, leading our inner selves to freedom.  

Comment
This week’s parshah is Va’era, Exodus 6:2 - 9:35. God tells Moshe to speak to the Israelites and tell us that we will be freed from slavery to return to the Land of Israel. It is written that we do not listen as our spirits have been “crushed by cruel bondage.” Rabbi Shefa Gold tells us “When life is experienced as a constant struggle, the barrage of stress prevents us from receiving the flow of grace that might move us out of bondage.” She suggests we “gently let go of those (troubling) thoughts and listen even more deeply.” This “kind of listening… could lead us to freedom.” (Return to Top)

Bo by Rabbi Nathan

Intention
May we remember that even our most stubbornest negative traits are capable of transformation

Commentary
This week's Torah portion begins with the phrase, "Go to Pharaoh for I [God] have hardened his heart (Ex. 10:1)." Commentators do struggle with the question of whether Pharaoh had the capacity to change his mind or whether God was simply using Pharaoh as an instrument to project their will on the world. In an interesting commentary Nachmanides suggest, drawing from Midrash, that Pharaoh hardened his own heart during the first five plagues thereby relinquishing his capacity to change. This is an interesting teaching to suggest that if we don't attend to our destructive patterns they may become embedded or calcified within our personalities, making it seem as if we have no control over our negative traits. But I would argue that this is simply self-perception but not reality. (Return to Top)

Beshallah by Rabbi Nathan

Intention
May we work to hold a big picture of what it means to live in a liberated world, while at the same time acknowledging our personal limitations along that path

Commentary
Our Torah portion begins with a description of the Israelites being led out of Egypt not via the shortest and most direct route through the land of the Philistines into Canaan (this is the area where the Gaza strip is located today) but rather through a much more indirect route. Both the text and many of the commentaries point to God's concern that the people would have a change of heart, get cold feet in their new adventure, and seek to return to Egypt. Hasidic masters such as the Maggid of Kozhnich see the move as recognizing that Israel did not have deep spiritual alignment or the ability to hold a generous expanded awareness of the changes that lay ahead. Whatever the explanation, many comments point to the idea that liberation is not a "one and done" phenomenon; rather it is a process that has ups and downs, advancements and retreats, and that it is important to recognize this even in our own personal lives. (Return to Top)

Yitro by Randi Raskin Nash

Intention
May we see when we are carrying too much alone and reach out for help and may we recognize the same in others and offer help.

Commentary
Yitro (“Jethro”) begins as Moses reunites with his father-in-law Yitro. Yitro sees how much Moses is doing for the Israelites and asks him, “Why do you act alone?” “You will surely wear yourself out.” Moses takes Yitro’s advice and delegates leadership roles. With everything we are all carrying right now, where can we share the load or lighten someone else’s? (Return to Top)

Mishpatim by Marion Hamermesh

Intention
Take a step back. It’s not all about you. 

Commentary
The first time we are told to rest from our labors on the Sabbath it is because G!d rested from the labors of creation, blessed the day, and declared it holy. Here in the desert, among a long list of rules about, for instance, how to treat strangers, debtors, and defilers of virgins, we are told to rest on the seventh day so that our ox and our ass may rest and so that our home-born slave and the stranger may be refreshed. We are thus reminded that we do not act in a vacuum; we must remember G!d’s power of creation and that our behavior has an impact on all those around us and to be mindful of them. (Return to Top)

Terumah by Sebastian Mann

Intention
In our tzedaka may we find ways to connect personally to the causes we care about so that we are truly giving from the heart

Commentary
My Torah portion, Terumah, describes the invitation to the Israelites to bring all kinds of contributions to help construct the Mishkan, the desert tabernacle. The instruction to Moses is "you shall accept gifts for Me from every person whose heart so moves them." The Israelites gave from their most valued possessions. This shows that when our hearts our moved we can be more than generous in our giving. (Return to Top)

Tetzaveh by Laura Lee Blechner

Intention
May we rediscover or create beautiful rituals that we can do daily/regularly to help us appreciate the holiness around us.

Commentary
In parshat Tetzaveh, we learn about making the priestly garments and consecrating the priests, along with additional details about the daily incense ritual. In particular, the altar for burning the daily incense is made of acacia wood, overlaid with gold. Every morning and twilight, Aaron is to burn aromatic incense when he lights the lamps – “a regular incense offering before יהוה throughout the ages…. it is most holy to יהוה” The detailed description of the Mishkan, and how it and the ritual offerings likely engaged all our senses, feels like an invitation to do the same with our daily rituals so that they can feel just as holy. (Return to Top)

Purim by Rabbi Nathan

Intention
May we fully embody our Jewish celebrations as a path to Divine connection 

Commentary
Purim's physicality from the food (hamentashen and other foods), to the costumes, and the general frivolity may seem a light-hearted way to shed some steam from being more cooped up in the winter. And, may we also take the opportunity on Purim to remember that play and joy can deepen our connection to one another, and by extension, our connection to the Divine as well. While the name of God is not written overtly in the Purim story, we can, hopefully, feel the finger of God in the possibilities of salvation and redemption in the Esther story, and in the collaborative work that the Jews of Persia (and by extension ourselves) do to thwart bad intentions to our communities. May we fully embody our celebration and remember our deeper connections to the Divine that always remains inscribed in our neshamot, our inner light. (Return to Top)

Vayakhel by Rabbi Nathan

When the cloud lifted from the Tabernacle, the Israelites would set out, on their various journeys (Ex 40:36)

Intention
Like our ancestors who travelled under the caring protection of the Divine presence (in the form of a cloud), may we to experience the sense of protection and uplift in our life journeys in the form of the unexpected divine presence in our lives.

Commentary
The book of Exodus concludes with a beautiful image of the cloud movement guiding the people of Israel along their journey. Not only is this a beautiful metaphor of our close connection to the Divine presence, perhaps intangible but felt. It can also be a beautiful metaphor for seeking to move in concert with the flows of nature and natural rhythms. May we all be blessed by the possibility of being touched unexpectedly by a divine cloud of love, compassion, and connection in our lives. (Return to Top)

Pekudei by Rabbi Nathan

Intention
May we be inspired to create time and structures for spaciousness in our lives

Commentary
This week's Torah portion ends with a description of the final consecration of all the various parts of the Mishkan, the desert Tabernacle, and it's activation as a holy space. In verses reminiscent of the creation narrative in Genesis, the work of the mishkan is completed and the divine cloud comes down to rest, offering direction and guidance to the Israelites on their journeys. The dwelling of the Divine is thus the final stage of an exacting and painstaking process of creating all of the necessary components of the Mishkan to allow this to happen. (Return to Top)

Vayikra by Meira 

Intention
May we view ourselves and others, with and without disabilities, in a state of perfection, exactly as we are.

Commentary
Many many years ago, my Bat Mitzvah parshah was Vayikra. In this parshah, we are told to repent for all our wrongdoings by sacrificing animals (or grains) without blemish. Later in Leviticus, the same types of restrictions are applied to the offerers of the sacrifices who are told that they should be without blemish (see Lev 21:18-20). This thinking implies to many that the only acceptable way to communicate with God is through perfection. But what about those of us with disabilities? Are we not good enough? Of course we are. (Return to Top)

Shabbat Hagadol by Rabbi Nathan

Intention
May we heed the words of our haftarah this Shabbat Hagadol and work towards intergenerational reconciliation and healing of our planet

Comment
Shabbat Hagadol, the "Great Shabbat" refers to the Shabbat that takes place right before Passover where we traditionally read the haftarah (prophetic reading) by Malachi that includes themes of reconciliation who ends this section with the words, "Behold, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before the coming of the awesome, fearful day of the Lord. He shall reconcile parents with children and children with parents." Rabbi Arthur Waskow suggests that "This passage begs for action to turn the generations to deeply experience each other. In an era when the Earth is indeed tottering on the brink of utter destruction caused by rampant, unrestrained, and wicked action by the Corporate Carbon Pharaohs among us, it seems especially necessary for those who revere the Breath of Life to act." (Return to Top)

Shemini by Rabbi Nathan

Intention
May we seek to make our spiritual practice a container for the holy in our lives

Commentary
This week's Torah portion provides a detailed description of the consecration of the Tabernacle and enabling its use. The work is done well and a miraculous fire of God consumes the offerings. However, not all goes according to plan when the two sons of Aaron go rogue and take their own initiative to bring strange offerings that lead to their demise. While this continues to be a challenging moment of Torah, one take away is that structure and process can be a container for the unpredictable energy of the Divine. (Return to Top)