Darchei Noam דרכי נועם

In the old time cheders of Europe, the first book of Torah taught to boys was sefer Vayikra.  With so many statutes and laws, Vayikra afforded a fresh start ...

אוֹי מֶה הָיָה לָנוּ! Oy, what has befallen us! Tisha B'Av Kinnah #1 רִאשׁ֥וֹן לְצִיּ֖וֹן הִנֵּ֣ה הִנָּ֑ם וְלִירוּשָׁלִַ֖ם מְבַשֵּׂ֥ר אֶתֵּֽן׃ The things...

Dvar Torah Parshat Yitro 5780 Feb 15, 2020 Ed Rapoport Our parasha is named for Yitro, Moshe’s father-in-law who in the parasha becomes a Jewish communal man...

Shana tova and Gmar Tov. I want to begin by talking a bit about Gematria. The word Gematria means “an alphanumeric code assigning a numerical value to a word...

Source sheets for Great Jewish Questions Series IDS Tower Lobby, Av 5779 Mazal tov! מזל טוב! A. Melachim (Kings) II 23:5 And he (King Yoshiyah) suppressed ...

When Bruce invited me to give the Dvar Torah today, I was a bit dismayed because by the seventh day, I must admit I’m a little sick of Pesach. So I decided t...

As someone who gets paid to talk about people, I am keenly aware of the importance and impact of words. Throughout the Torah, we are often reminded of the pow...

How much attention do we pay to the Haftorot? I know of some people in this shul who leave the premises during the Haftorot for an early Kiddush. But the Haf...

Dvar Torah Pekudei When I started medical school at the Mayo clinic in the late 1970’s we were told the story of a second-year med student, a product of the ...

Parshat Noach, 5779 – Anniversary of #Metoo Movement Noach comes out of the teivah to a virtually desolate wasteland of a world. It’s enough to drive anyone ...

Reflection Prior to Kol Nidrei 5779 Rabbotai v’Chaveirai, No holiday reminds us that ‘We’re all in this together’ quite like Yom Kippur. Increased shul atten...

About this time on Yom Kippur, I start to feel hungry. My usual response is to check my watch, count the pages in the mahzor, think about my menus for Sukko...

Rosh Hashana 2- Dvar Torah- September 11, 2018— Shana Tova. It’s pretty intimidating to be invited to give a Dvar Torah on Rosh Hashana: I feel like the bar ...

Shabbat shalom. Parshat “Ki Tavo” has some interesting instructions for the Jews to carry out upon arriving in Israel. One on which I’d like to focus has to ...

Dvar Torah: Parshat Eikev. August 4, 1018 Eikev is the kind of Parsha that make it hard to believe in God. It opens with the message that if we hearken to G...

AREI MIKLAT Several months ago, as I usually do, I spent Shabbos afternoon on the sofa in our living room catching up on New Yorker magazines. I tip my hat ...

What does it mean to accept the Torah? To what extent is a knowledge of the natural world a part of accepting the Torah? The Maharal wrote in 1588 “The grass...

Shabbat HaGadol 5778 I. Background A. Mishnah, Pesachim 10 [Then] they set [food] before him. He dips the lettuce before he reaches the course following th...

Dvar Torah 3/17/18 Judy Snitzer Its two weeks before Pesach, Today is rosh chodesh Nisan and I have come to understand that Pesach has a central role in our ...