WUPJ Library

Rabbi Yuval Keren | Southgate Progressive Synagogue, London, UK Whenever we think of a Biblical role model for a leader – we think of Moses, our teacher. Yet even Moses was not entirely flawless, and even Moses sometimes needed help and guidance, and even Moses sometimes failed. When he first received his mission as he […]

Rabbi Becky Hoffman | Associate Rabbi and Religious School Director, Kol Tikvah, Woodland Hills, CA We know the end of the story. Despite the size and power of the Egyptian army, the Israelites will become a free people. The victim will become the victor. The weak will defeat the mighty. But there is one odd […]

Rabbi Joseph Edelheit | founding Rabbi of Associação Israelita Norte Paranaense (Beit Tikvá), Maringa, Brazil Whenever the Sidre Bo approaches, I always remember what I learned when I was a first-year rabbinic student, 1968-69, HUC-JIR-LA, studying up-on-the-hill! The course on commentaries was taught by Rabbi Dr. Stephen M. Passamaneck, z”l whose pedagogical presence was transformative. […]

Rabbi Rami Shapiro | One River Foundation The opening verses of our parasha reveals the true nature of God; a revelation that invites us to grow out of the supernatural dualism so many of us liberal Jews reject and to grow into the deep spiritual awakening for which so many of us yearn. The phrase […]

Rabbi David A. Kunin | Jewish Community of Japan, Tokyo, Japan I have always been fascinated by the power both to give and to know names.  Rumpelstiltskin was, as many may recall, defeated when the princess learned his name, and so too did Odysseus suffer as he hubristically revealed his name to the cyclops.  In […]

Rabbi Linda Henry Goodman | Rabbi Emerita at Union Temple of Brooklyn, New York, US As an “only child,” I always have been particularly fascinated by the sibling relationships throughout the Book of Genesis.  I don’t know about all other “only children.”  But in my own fantasizing about what it would have been like to […]

Rabbi Michael Zedek | Emanuel Congregation, Chicago, US In modern “dress,” a wonderful, even smile inspiring midrash offers, “Had Reuben known his actions [in not rescuing Joseph from his brothers’ evil plans] would be in the Torah, he would have behaved differently.” Should you prefer the original text, see/look up/Google, Ruth Rabbah 5:6. Millennia and […]

Rabbi Gersh Lazarow | Temple Beth Israel, St Kilda, Victoria “And Joseph recognised his brothers but the brothers did not recognise him.” In one of the great reversals in Tanakh, Joseph, whom we saw at the end of Vayeshev, languishing in prison, becomes in Miketz, a ruler of Egypt, second only to Pharaoh. It happens […]

Rabbi Rami Shapiro | One River Foundation Too often when reading Torah, we get hooked on the drama and miss the message. Parashat Vayeshev is a case in point. The story is so rich and well known—Joseph and his coat of many colors, Joseph sold into slavery, Joseph falsely accused of rape and thrown into […]

Rabbi Michael Zedek | Emanuel Congregation, Chicago, USA One of my most beloved teachers would offer, “Is the Bible the religious text of Western civilization because it is a great book, or is it a great book because it is the religious text of Western civilization?” Self-evidently, rabbis insist on the former conviction, and the […]

Rabbi Stacey Blank | Kehilat Shir Chadash, Tzur Hadassah (outside of Jerusalem) Theodore Herzl, the founder of Zionism, famously wrote, “If you will it, it is no dream.” The beginning of every great project is a dream. The idea of a Jewish State in the land of Israel had been a dream for almost 2000 years since the […]

Rabbi Dan Moskovitz | Temple Sholom, Vancouver, Canada My wife and I have three children, two boys and a girl. Ever since they were old enough to realize that they outnumbered us — that we were, in sports speak, in a “zone defense” — each one has tried to get over on the other two […]