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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Listening at Sinai
by Rabbi Nathan Kamesar Last week’s Torah portion was Parashat Yitro, the portion in which the Israelites receive the revelation of Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai. Here at Society Hill Synagogue we spoke last Saturday morning about what the nature of that revelation
Welcoming Guests, Welcoming Ourselves
by Rabbi Nathan Kamesar This past Shabbat, we celebrated all the new members who have joined this community in the last year or so. In honor of our growth as a community, I offered the following teaching on what it means to make
Building New Worlds with our Torah
by Rabbi Nathan Kamesar One of the core features of the Bar Mitzvah is when a student offers his own teaching, his own D’var Torah—words of Torah reflecting his interpretation of his Torah portion after a period of wrestling with it. As Rabbis Arthur Waskow
The Holiness of Place
by Rabbi Nathan Kamesar I made a pilgrimage this week. Not to Mecca, or even to Jerusalem, but to La Jolla, California. La Lolla, if you don’t know, is an idyllic seaside village just north of San Diego, and it’s where I
Finding God in Alienation
By Rabbi Nathan Kamesar Dear Friends, About a month after October 7, my wife Caroline, stretching to find something with which to introduce the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — and, more precisely, a pathway through it to a better future — to our daughters Lila, 4 (and
Thank you, and upcoming events
By Rabbi Nathan Kamesar Dear Friends, I want to start by saying thank you. Thank you so much for your collective response to our call for contributions at the end of the year to help us meet this community’s needs. We exceeded our ambitious goal
Gut-Wrenching Reporting
By Rabbi Nathan Kamesar Dear Friends, It is heartbreaking to continue to reflect on the war flowing out of the October 7 massacre. I wrestle with whether ongoing commentary from me is worthwhile or whether we all just need a break. Of course
A Different Kind Of Hanukkah
By Rabbi Nathan Kamesar You all think you know the story of Hanukkah, don’t you? You think it’s about that little vial of oil that was only supposed to be enough to keep the temple menorah lit for one night and yet lasted for eight.
Three Really Hard Incidents in Philadelphia This Week
By Rabbi Nathan Kamesar Dear Friends, The reverberations and fallout from the October 7 massacre persist. Of course within Israel—victims and hostages and their families, soldiers and their families, and really every citizen of Israel experiencing their world turned upside down; for residents of the
Pain, Heartbreak, and the Voices of our Parents
By Rabbi Nathan Kamesar This week’s parashah is action packed. It begins with our ancestor Jacob preparing to meet his twin brother Esau for the first time since Jacob deceived their father Isaac and stole the sacred blessing from him; it also includes
The Return of Hostages: Where Do We Go From Here?
By Rabbi Nathan Kamesar Dear Friends, This has been both an inspiring and continuously heartbreaking week; the latter word—heartbreaking—I’ve been using so often lately as to put it in danger of becoming trite, and yet that is the effect of the images we
Reflections on the Israel March in DC
By Rabbi Nathan Kamesar Dear Friends, I joined over 290,000 people at the National Mall in Washington DC on Tuesday for the March for Israel, March to Free Hostages, and March Against Antisemitism. While I did not agree with everyone that was selected to be
The Role of Siblings
I have the privilege now of offering some words of Torah, reflecting on the same parashah, the same Torah portion Alexander and Jenavive will speak about tomorrow, as they share with you all — their family, their community — the results of their process of Yisrael,
Questions — and an attempt at answers — on the ongoing war
By Rabbi Nathan Kamesar Each week I wrestle anew with the events unfolding in Israel, Gaza, and around the globe, thinking about them in different ways. This week, is strikes me that the national and international discourse about Israel and the war between Israel and
How We Show Up For Each Other
By Rabbi Nathan Kamesar I have the privilege now of offering some words of Torah, reflecting on the same parashah, the same Torah portion Bjorn will speak about tomorrow, as he shares with you all, his community, his process of Yisrael — of wrestling with