I’m thrilled you are exploring Society Hill Synagogue and have found your way to the page of Divrei Torah, words of Torah, which are part of a generations-long Jewish practice of refracting sacred Jewish teachings through the light of our own day and age.
For me, Judaism is an opportunity to nourish ourselves, grounded in the Jewish story: a story that has unfolded throughout the generations, with twists and turns, tragedy and triumph, serving as a source of life to those who engage with it.
The Jewish People are known as B’nei Yisrael: the people who wrestle with the Divine. The name comes from that moment in our tradition in which it is understood that our ancestor Jacob “wrestled with a figure,” a figure understood to be a manifestation of that very Divine Being (see Genesis 32).
That moment produced a legacy of sacred wrestling; grappling; seeking to make meaning of, and find purpose in, our time on earth.
These Divrei Torah are my efforts, in conversation with the community of Society Hill Synagogue, to make meaning and to find purpose, seeking to serve this community, our broader world, and the Divine.
I hope you find meaning in them yourself, and I encourage you to reach out to me if you would like to discuss their contents or to discuss becoming a part of the Society Hill Synagogue community. Welcome!
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Lingering with the Divine
By Rabbi Nathan Kamesar This past Shabbat we studied Parashat Pinchas (the Torah portion known as “Pinchas,” named after a religious zealot who practices a cruel form of vigilante justice early in the portion). Parashat Pinchas includes the prescribed musaf offering associated with the different holidays, including Shabbat, that are
Understanding Lonlieness Through The Prayers of Kabbalat Shabbat
By Rabbi Nathan Kamesar I was honored to be invited to offer a teaching for My Jewish Learning, the web’s leading pluralistic, nondenominational Jewish educational resource, and I did so on Divine Loneliness and Kabbalat Shabbat, a reflection on the idea that God,
I Before Thou?
By Rabbi Nathan Kamesar This past week’s Torah portion, Balak, finds the Israelites continuing their wilderness journey, circuitously making their way to the Promised Land. (And doesn’t it mirror life’s wanderings, finding periods in our lives as something of a wilderness as we make our way towards
What’s So Special About Aaron?
By Rabbi Nathan Kamesar This past week was Parashat Chukat, the Torah portion from the Book of Be’midbar (known in English as the Book of Numbers, but which literally translates to “In the Wilderness”), in which, as part of the prolonged wanderings in the wilderness, Aaron, the High Priest
Being Grateful for Being In Service
By Rabbi Nathan Kamesar This past week’s parashah (torah portion) Korah is famous for the rebellion that takes place in its opening verses: Korah is the name of a dissatisfied Levite tribesman who feels that too much power has accrued in the hands of Moses and Aaron, and therefore
The Seismic Week That Was
By Rabbi Nathan Kamesar Since the last time I composed a D’var Torah (effectively, sermon) to this community, on June 16, the following seismic events have taken place: in chronological order, An earthquake struck southeast Afghanistan killing approximately one thousand people; The Supreme Court limited the ability of
Uniqueness Does Not Equal Significance; and More Ways of Exploring Torah
By Rabbi Nathan Kamesar Not every Torah portion has us hanging on the edge of our seat with cliffhangers or narrative tension. In fact, while considered a holy document, the text of the Torah can oftentimes feel quite… mundane. So it was in this past
Guns, Continued.
By Rabbi Nathan Kamesar Dear Friends, I can’t believe—or, perhaps by now I can—that I’m writing about gun violence for my weekly D’var Torah for the third time in four weeks, this time for a mass shooting that took place in, essentially, the synagogue’s literal own backyard, and
The Back and Forth of Torah and Our Lives
By Rabbi Nathan Kamesar Some weeks, in our exploration of the weekly Torah portion, we react to the events of the world immediately around us. Other weeks the Torah portion raises themes that apply to our lives or our Judaism on a more subtle, ongoing
Guns.
By Rabbi Nathan Kamesar This week, for my weekly email to the congregation, I was planning to share the remarks I delivered this past Friday evening at TGIShabbat, when I spoke about the racist massacre in a Buffalo, New York grocery store on the basis
Creating a Palace in Time Amidst the Whirlwind of the World
By Rabbi Nathan Kamesar A couple of months ago I underscored the idea, using Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel’s famous turn of phrase, that Shabbat is meant to be a palace in time: immune to the whims and vagaries of the weekday rhythms, the trials and
Reflecting on the Meaning to be Found in Counting
By Rabbi Nathan Kamesar In our Saturday morning Torah discussion last week, held weekly from approximately 10:30-11 am as part of our Shabbat service, having recently been enriched by the additional, weekly participation of our Hebrew School students, we discussed Parashat Emor, the Torah portion known
The Juxtaposition of Yom Hazikaron and Yom Ha’atzmaut
By Rabbi Nathan Kamesar Today marks Yom Ha’atzmaut, Independence Day in Israel, coming on the heels of Yom Hazikaron, shorthand for Yom HaZikaron LeHalalei Ma’arakhot Yisrael ul’Nifge’ei Pe’ulot HaEivah, Memorial Day for the Fallen Soldiers of the Wars of Israel and Victims of Actions of Terrorism, which is
The Future of Reproductive Choices
By Rabbi Nathan Kamesar I don’t need to tell you that the revelation of the draft opinion of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization sent shockwaves through our national environment. The opinion, if the final version holds true to the draft’s core holdings, would overturn a 50-year-old
The Jewish Response to Alienation
By Rabbi Nathan Kamesar I’m left still feeling the high of Friday night’s celebration of the generosity that led to our synagogue expansion. Members from every chapter of this community’s history came together displaying firsthand what intergenerational Jewish community looks like. Those who have been