By Elisa Gurevitch, co-director of Chabad at UCLA This week’s parashah, Toldot, includes the famous story of Rivkah (Rebecca), who, after many years of marriage, was finally blessed with twins, Yaakov (Jacob) and Esav (Esau). Our Sages tell us that, while…
Taste of Torah: Learning from our ancestors’ mistakes
This week’s Torah portion, Chayei Sarah (“The life of Sarah“) ironically begins after she is already dead. It is our job to reflect on her life and learn any lessons that we can from her actions. Interestingly enough, when one…
Taste of Torah: To be one who binds or one who frees
This week’s Torah portion, Vayera, tells the story of two very different Abrahams. In the first part of the portion, we see Abraham argue with G-d regarding the fate of the people of Sodom (Genesis 18:22). Not long after that,…
Taste of Torah: Secure while leaving the homeland
Written by Sharona Kaplan, Co-Director of the Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus at UCLA
Taste of Torah: A perspective on the biblical story of the Flood and moral purpose
Upon opening up this week’s Torah portion, we come across the famous story of the Flood. While there are many aspects of this story that demand much discussion, such as why a good God would kill the global population and…
Taste of Torah: Parashat Shelach Lecha and shlichut at UCLA
Written by Yair Vardi, Israel Fellow at Hillel at UCLA This week, we read parshat Shelach Lecha — שְׁלַח לְךָ. This is the famous parashah of the spies. Moses chose twelve men, leaders from the twelve tribes of Israel, to…
Taste of Torah: feminist lessons and benefit of the doubt
In honor of my Prodigious Babes series, I wanted to write this week’s Taste of Torah with a focus on the female protagonist of Behaalotecha (Numbers), Miriam. The parashah concludes with a rather bizarre incident: G-d punishes Miriam with tzaraat…
Taste of Torah: Like an arrow
Written by Sharona Kaplan, Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus at UCLA “So, what are you doing next year?!” A simple, yet potentially dreaded question for so many graduates who have yet to concretize their future plans. Silently detracting from the…
Taste of Torah: stand up and be counted
Written by Rebbetzin Elisa Gurevitch, Chabad at UCLA The holiday of Shavuot, which commemorates the giving of the Torah, is always preceded by the Torah portion of Bamidbar (the first chapters of Numbers) — “In the desert.” The reason for…
Taste of Torah: breaking free of the materialistic pursuit
Written by Gil Bar-Or It has been over 3000 years since we were freed from the bondage of slavery in Egypt, but it appears that today we are still bound by another set of shackles. The culture of materialism that…