Hazzan Basya and Kohenent Elana Brody singing from our Yom Kippur 5782 services.

Hazzan Basya and Kohenet Elana Brody singing from our Kol Nidre 5782 services.

Matot-Masei is a double parsha which brings us to the completion of the Book of Numbers (Bamidbar). In her sermon, Rabbi Cohler-Esses explores reckoning with difficult passages in the Torah, with texts that are violent or patriarchal. Focusing on the laws of women and vows she suggests a methodology for approaching problematic texts by highlighting larger Biblical principles that can take us on a path to honoring those that have been diminished in the Torah.

Five sisters in the Torah portion of Pinchas, known as the Daughters of Zelofchad, stand up to the leadership of the Israelite community. Their father died in the wilderness and they don't have brothers, meaning they don't have inheritance rights. These sisters stand before the entire community and ask to inherit their family's land. God responds affirmatively, and as a result an entire system shifts and inheritance law is rewritten. Listen to this sermon and be inspired by the Daughters' of Zelofchad to take a stand and ask for what you want.

Rabbi Cohler-Esses' sermon addressed the Kabbalistic notion of small mind and large mind -- "mochin de-katnut and mochin de-gadlut" -- and shows how Bilaam, the Ancient Near Eastern prophet, is given lessons by his donkey, by God, and by the wilderness about what it means to make the shift from a narrow to a more expansive consciousness.

Rabbi Dianne explores the ongoing tragedy of gun violence and turns to the Torah to see if there are lessons there to help us as we face the unthinkable.

The Children of Israel turn from grief at the punishment of having to wander the desert for forty years in the parsha/portion of Shelach Lecha to grievance in the parsha of Korach. Korach and his cohort challenge Moshe's power by saying - rav lecha - you have taken too much. In her sermon, Rabbi Dianne Cohler-Esses explores the role of grief in our lives and the potential it has to prepare us for activism.

Rabbi David Ingber on Parshat Shelach, 5782 by Romemu: Jewish Life, Elevated

Rabbi David Ingber on Parshat Beha’alotekha, 5782 by Romemu: Jewish Life, Elevated

Rabbi David Ingber on Parshat Kedoshim, 5782 by Romemu: Jewish Life, Elevated