Voices of WRJ
By Linn Ullenbrauck, 12/06/2019
“Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.” -- Harriet Tubman. Parashah Vayetzei starts with a dream as Jacob left Beersheba and sets out for Haran to his Uncle Laban. He came upon a certain place and stopped for the night. He finds a stone and used it as a pillow to lay his head and then had a dream. In his dream, there was a stairway reaching to the sky and angels of God were ascending and descending from it. God was standing beside him and said, “I am... Read More
By Dr. Madelyn Katz, 11/29/2019
Fifty-one years ago this week, I became a bat mitzvah. Fifty-one years ago, I read from the Torah, and the parashah was Tol’dot – the same words that we read this Shabbat. Being a “saver,” I still have the composition notebook in which my rabbi had me work on everything for my Bat Mitzvah. As I read through it recently, I realized that my “take” on the verses I was reading was, in fact, what he told me it was. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience of becoming a Bat Mitzvah – the studying, the learning, and the “presenting” – so I never felt that my rabbi had imposed his opinion of the... Read More
By Deborah Radin, 11/22/2019
Chayei Sarah begins with the note that Sarah’s lifetime came to 127 years. Although the rest of the parshah focuses solely on post-death events, the parshah is titled “The Life of Sarah” and not “The Death of Sarah.” While this imbalance puzzled me at first, I now understand that despite the focus on post-death, the parshah, in fact, is about how Sarah lived. If we have 127 years, what kind of impact can we make? In all of those years, will how we spend those days, hours and minutes matter and be enough to matter as much as Sarah’s life mattered? I have the privilege, as an estate and... Read More
By Carol Chaykin , 11/15/2019
Do you believe in angels? Our ancestors did. This week’s Torah portion, Vayeira, is replete with divine beings. In the opening lines of the portion, three divine emissaries arrive at Abraham’s tent by the oaks of Mamre to announce the implausible news that 90-year-old Sarah will become pregnant and bear a son within a year’s time. In fact, Sarah gives birth to Isaac, but Abraham is commanded by God to offer his son Isaac as a burnt offering on a mountain in Moriah. In the climax of the narrative – as Abraham, knife in hand, is about to slay Isaac and set him afire on a sacrificial pyre – a... Read More
By Rosanne Selfon, 11/08/2019
“The Eternal said to Abram, ‘Go forth from your land, your people’s land, your father’s house, to the land that I will show you.’” Genesis 12:1 Go forth…just do it…move on… How many times have you been stuck, whether physically, emotionally, or spiritually? You might have been so stuck that you felt like your feet were wedged in cement, your heart had been broken into a million pieces, or your faith was tested beyond repair. Or, just imagine, on the other hand, that life was marvelous, and suddenly you were commanded, by some unseen source only you heard/believed in without hesitation,... Read More
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