WUPJ Library

Recent Issues By: Rabbi Dr. Edgar Nof , Rabbi of Kehillat Natan-Ya , Natanya and Rabbi and Program Director for Bridges for Hope – Gesharim LeTikva Why Did God Reveal Himself to Abraham? Several years ago, a synagogue member asked me: Why did Abraham plead so much with God to help the foreign people of […]

Recent Issues The Morning After: Iran, Ishmael, and Isaac By Rabbi Mark L. Winer, President of FAITH : the Foundation to Advance Interfaith Trust and Harmony since 1995. MBE PhD DD is a British/American interfaith scholar and leader. In 2014 Queen Elizabeth II appointed him a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) […]

Recent Issues By: Rabbi Morley Feinstein, Senior Rabbi of University Synagogue in Los Angeles, and Ari Feinstein, 3rd year Masters in Jewish Education student, HUC , Los Angeles. Abraham the Empathic Listener The beginning of Parashat Vayeira is often recalled as the narrative of Abraham bargaining with God, but let’s analyze that perception. After all, […]

By: Rabbi Sue Levy member of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association Isaac’s Bar Mitsvah Some time afterward, God put Abraham to the test. God said to him, ‘Abraham,’ and he answered, ‘Here I am.’ And God said, ‘Take your son, your favored one, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer […]

By: Rabbi Tirzah Ben-David, Shir Hatzafon Progressive Congregation , Copenhagen, Denmark The Edge of Understanding Whether we are Reform or Orthodox, or anything in between, the Jewish Bible is the raw material of our religious imagination, and Genesis in particular is our great storybook. This week’s parashah , Vayera, narrates the key story of the […]

By: Rabbi Ann Blitzstein Folb , Temple Sholom , Galesburg, IL “The Progeny of Abraham” Parashat Vayera is rich with stories that are well known to us and which teach us many lessons, although to be sure, they do not always seem to tell us consistent things about either God or Abraham.  The same Abraham […]

By: Rabbi Rich Kirschen, Director, Anita Saltz International Education Center , World Union for Progressive Judaism Recent Issues “The Best Lack All Conviction, While the Worst are Full of Passionate Intensity” So this is the parsha that we think about every Rosh Hashanah, the one that they drilled into our heads in rabbinical school, that […]

By: Rabbi Uri Lam, Congregação Israelita Mineira (CIM), Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil I have read and meditated on the midrashim so many times that I can no longer imagine the Torah without the rich many interpretation of our brilliant Rabbis, continuing to multiply from the Talmudic times to our days. They go so far […]

Recent Issues By: Rabbi Joan Glazer Farber , is Co-director of Hevreh : A Community of Adult Jewish Learners A Journey of a Lifetime In my family, it has been a time of journeys and transitions. Our daughter and son-in-law became parents and then moved back to New York. Our son had been touring with […]

Recent Issues “Where are you going?” It was a question I was asked by many of my friends. And each time, the answer was the same. “I don’t know. But something is compelling me. I just have to go.” Invariably, when I returned, the first question was the same as the first, “Where did you […]

By: Rabbi Jeffrey Kamins, Emanuel Synagogue Sydney “ Lech lecha ”, go forth, comes the call from God to Avram, and with that begins a journey that, to paraphrase Neil Armstrong thousands of years later, was “one small step for a man, one giant leap for humanity”. Even more than humanity’s conquest of space and […]

by Rabbi Joan Glazer Farber, Adult Learning Specialist, Union for Reform Judaism Preparing for a journey of any kind can be daunting. So many questions guide our steps: With whom will I be travelling? What is the purpose of the trip? What will I need for my journey? What will the weather be like? Should […]