Found In Translation: Weekly Divrei Torah and Sermons from the BJ Rabbis and Guest Teachers

In a moment when the world feels profoundly broken, Rabbi Felicia Sol reflects on how Jewish tradition teaches us to respond: by gathering together, giving to one another, and searching for sparks of light even in the darkest times.

Some truths lie beyond reason. Through the strange ritual of the red heifer, Rabbi Shuli Passow invites us to see mystery not as a problem to solve, but as a path toward faith and peace of mind.

How do we preserve our humanity when the primal fear of an existential threat drives us to blot out our enemies? Rabbi Becca Weintraub explores this crucial and delicate balance urging us not to abandon our moral clarity and succumb to our darkest impulses.

In this week’s D’var Torah, Rabbi Felicia Sol reflects on the tension between the sanctuaries we build and the sanctuaries we are meant to become. She challenges us to consider whether our institutions expand our moral imagination or quietly make us too comfortable in narrow places. The Mishkan, she teaches, was both gift and concession: the truest dwelling place for the divine is the fragile, ope...

Rabbi Roly Matalon reflects on moments when fear and moral truth collide, drawing a powerful parallel between the awe and terror of revelation at Mount Sinai and the unsettling realities of our own time.

Rabbi Becca Weintraub’s sermon this past Shabbat centers on intergenerational belonging and sacred responsibility, arguing that when children are held at the heart of community, we are better able to meet a fractured world with care and moral clarity.

This past Shabbat, Rabbi Deena Cowans reflected on BJ's recent Teen Civil Rights Trip and Parashat Bo, urging us to resist spiritual numbness and to choose solidarity and moral courage even in moments of darkness.

When people can’t tell the truth about power, they turn on one another. This past Shabbat honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., guest speaker Eric Ward explored how anti-Blackness and antisemitism operate together to weaken democracy—and what it will take to safeguard against it.

Rabbi Felicia Sol reflected on the challenge of living through a time marked by rage, despair, and moral uncertainty. She asks us to consider how we might deepen our understanding of redemption seeing it not as a reward for suffering, but as a call to renewed moral responsibility.

We live in a moment that mirrors Yosef’s contradiction: a time in which we are both vulnerable and powerful, both threatened and influential, both capable of grace and capable of harm. We know about pits, betrayal, exile, suffering, and survival. We know that antisemitism is alive and on the rise. And we also know what Jewish power and rage can do. We know what it means to be part of systems that...

In this sermon, former BJ Senior Rabbinic Fellow and current Director of Rabbinic Leadership Programs at the Shalom Hartman Institute, Rabbi Sarit Horwitz explores hunger, brokenness, and hope in Parashat Miketz, showing how physical and spiritual longing are deeply intertwined—and how hope can emerge even when we feel utterly shattered.

As we kindle our menorahs this year, Rabbi Becca Weintraub reminds us that even in the depths of despair -- whether that is Joseph in the pit or the Beautiful Six in captivity in Hamas tunnels -- sacred light still has the power to shine.