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Insights Into Torah and Contemporary Life
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GOD'S SOCIAL CONTRACT WITH HUMANITY (Parshat Bereshiet)According to the Zohar, in creating humankind, God creates a social contract with us. When God says Na’aseh Adam, that We will create humankind, He is referring to us, men and women, as His partners.
Rabbi Dr. Kenneth Brander•755 Views•May 15, 2022•Genesis,Parshat Breishit,Adam,Parashat Bereishit,Breishit
HOW WILL THE WORLD REMEMBER COVID? (Parshat Noach)Will we learn from COVID-19? How we recover from this pandemic will define how transformational this challenge has been. Noach’s righteousness is predicated not on the fact that he does not sin, but rather on his capacity to learn from his mistakes.
A JOURNEY FROM DESPAIR TO ENGAGEMENT (Parshat Lech Lecha)The easiest course of action is to give up on people instead of trying to engage them; to insulate ourselves and withdraw while the world turns around us. The Torah provides us with two paradigms for approaching this issue in the different narratives of Noach & Avraham.
YITZCHAK, YISHMAEL AND THE ROOTS OF THE ABRAHAM ACCORDS (Parshat Vayera)After years of underground contacts, relationships are emerging in full view of the entire world between the descendants of Yitzchak and descendants of Yishmael – all of us the grandchildren of Avraham, Av Hamon Goyim, the “father of many nations".
ELEVATING MARRIAGE DURING A TIME OF CRISIS (Parshat Chayei Sarah)Unfortunately, domestic abuse is on a global rise; a pandemic within a pandemic. What does the Torah think regarding nurturing and strengthening the most important relationship in our lives during times of high stress and anxiety?
Rabbi Dr. Kenneth Brander•669 Views•May 15, 2022•Chayei Sara,Chayai Sarah,Breishit,Genesis,Marriage,Chayyei Sarah
MATCHING OUR ACTIONS AND OUR VALUES (Parshat Toldot)What kind of legacy will we leave for our loved ones? Will they be able to say that we lived a life that matches the ideals that we regularly champion? Or will our children, loved ones and community ultimately see the contradictions that might exist?
UNITY WITHOUT UNIFORMITY: MERGING MANY STONES INTO ONE (Parshat Vayetze)In contrast to Avraham & Yitzchak, each of whom have a particular individual focus (Avraham personifying chesed & Yitzchak exemplifying gevurah), Yaakov, as the father of the twelve tribes, is the personification of tiferet, the result of the merging of various strengths together.
WHY IS RACHEL THE MOST BELOVED MATRIARCH? (Parshat Vayishlach)Each year, tens of thousands of Jews from throughout Israel and all over the world come to Kever Rachel to seek Rachel Imenu's assistance in pleading their cases before God. Why is it that Rachel has attained such a unique place in the Jewish People’s collective consciousness?
THE PROSTITUTE AND THE MESSIAH: REDEMPTION FROM THE MOST UNHOLY OF UNIONS (Parshat Vayeshev)A desperate woman dresses up as a prostitute and seduces her unwitting father-in-law in order to conceive and bear the child that he had promised. And yet this most unlikely of unions produces a succession of generations that leads to King David, and from him, the Messianic line!
THE POWER OF WORDS TO BUILD AND DESTROY (Parshat Miketz]Words matter! Our Mystic Masters taught that words can build worlds, but can also destroy them. They can sever - or reconcile - a family and community. Parshat Miketz has a message for us about the power of words and the need to choose them carefully.
Rabbi Dr. Kenneth Brander•887 Views•May 12, 2022•Genesis,Evil Speech,Parshat Miketz,Breishit,Miketz,Parashat Miketz
SECRET SIGNS: PASSING ON JUDAISM'S CODE OF CONDUCT (Parshat Vayigash)Is there a mandated moral course of action to take in situations where there is no explicit ruling in the Torah? In Parshat Vayigash we find assurances of how this responsibility is part of the Jewish halakhic mandate.
A BRACHA FOR THE COVID VACCINE: A CELEBRATION OF LIFE OVER DEATH (Parshat Vayechi)The focus of this week’s parsha is not on the fact that Yaakov and Yosef died, but rather on the eternal narrative that lives on after their deaths, communicated through the blessings of their children.
