The Torah itself is the mechanism of reviving the dead. When we teach their Torah, then we experience their presence. Moses is in the room with us today, and so too are all of our teachers who have left us in body, but conveyed their messages to guide us in life.
Author: Rabbi Danny Nevins
Chukat 5785: The Torah of Mortals and Machines
Might an obscure ancient ritual that has not been practiced in millennia have relevance for contemporary technology such as artificial intelligence? Let’s consider a curious turn of phrase in Parashat Chukat, “this is the Torah (of) a person who dies” (זאת התורה אדם כי ימות). Numbers 19 describes an unusual ritual to purify a living…
Ki Teitzei 5784: The Extended Effects of Captivity
Danny Nevins, Ansche Chesed, Minyan Maat Shabbat Ki Teitzei 5784 /September 14, 2024 During the 330 days that her son Hersh was held captive, Rachel Goldberg-Polin made dozens of speeches that moved people across the world. From the UN to the Vatican to the DNC, she spoke as a mother in agony, an activist demanding…
Behar 5784: The Blessings of Imperfection (GOA Graduation Address)
In Philadelphia hangs a famous bell with a great crack running down its side. The Liberty Bell is inscribed with the King James translation of a verse from this week’s Torah portion, Behar: “Proclaim Liberty Throughout All the Land Unto All the Inhabitants thereof.” This bell was commissioned in 1752 to celebrate fifty years since…
A Week in Northeastern Poland: Memory, Mourning, and Admiration
A few months ago my father, Michael Nevins, was invited to participate in a commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the Białystok Ghetto uprising on August 16, 1943. This would be his fourth trip to Poland, and for the occasion, he invited his seven grandchildren to come. In the end five were able to go—Andrea…
Eleh Ezkerah: Stepping in and out of the Shadows
Eleh Ezkerah for Minyan Maat Yom Kippur 5784 / September 25, 2023 These I recall and my soul melts with sorrow; for the bitter course of our history, tears pour from my eyes. The pages of Eleh Ezkarah contain a portrait of Jewish suffering over the course of two millennia, from the martyrdom of ten…
Questions of Life and Legacy: VaYehi 2017
This final parashah of Genesis bears a cryptic title: Vayehi, “He (that is, Jacob) lived.” Well, of course he lived, and soon he will die, but how has he lived? What legacy does he bequeath? These are the questions that concern Vayehi. What is the Torah’s final judgment of Jacob, a man who has wrestled, mourned and rejoiced,…
Freewill from Forbidden Fruit: Bereshit 5782
Who wouldn’t want to eat a fruit that makes them smarter? In Chapter 2 of Genesis, God places Adam in the Garden of Eden and invites the first people to taste any fruit in the garden, except for the fruit of one tree: The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Why not? A disturbing…
Humility from Heaven: Pinhas 5781
“And there shall be a sin offering for the Lord” (Numbers 28:15). Did God commit a sin? What? When? We know all about the sin of Adam and Eve, but God is perfect, right? Indeed, the Torah does describe God in Deuteronomy 32:4 as “The Rock, the Perfect One…whose ways are just..who is never false,…
A Better Way to Pay Restitution: Naso 5781
Many years ago my car was stolen from its spot outside our apartment in Michigan. In the middle of the night a police officer woke us up and informed me that someone had been pulled over while driving it with a smashed window down Northwestern Highway—had I by chance lent it to them? I had…
Stand up straight? Behar-Behukotai 5781
Just before the Torah switches from blessing to rebuke in our second portion, Behukotai, God reminds the people that they were removed and liberated from Egyptian servitude in order to walk upright, and without restraint (Levit. 13:13). The word for “upright” קוֹמְמִיּוּת is unusual and ambiguous. As Rashi comments, it means “standing straight,” which is…
Rabbi Danny Nevins 