by Sarah Pincus, Class of ‘26 A few months back, I was at shiva house and one of the aveilim remarked, “I’m finding I don’t really like when people say, ‘May her memory be for a blessing.’ Turning her life into a memory makes her feel like something of the past. In her living and in her death, may her life be for a blessing.” When I began reading this week’s parsha, Chayei Sarah, those words immediately came to mind.  After Sarah Imeinu’s full life of 127 years, the Torah tel

by Rabbi Yali Szulanski, Class of ‘25 Three times in Parshat Vayera, the Torah pauses to tell us, “Vayashkem Avraham baboker”—“Avraham rose early in the morning.” It seems like a small detail, yet it appears at decisive moments. It appears before he stands at the edge of Sodom and sees the aftermath of destruction. It appears before he sends Hagar and Ishmael into the wilderness, a moment of profound heartbreak. It appears before he sets out with Isaac toward Mount Moriah, un

by Rabbi Rina Krautwirth, Class of ‘23 In this week’s parsha, we encounter the origin story of the Jewish people. In a powerful display of faith, Abraham leaves his homeland and sets out for the Land of Israel, in response to the word of God. The story of the Jewish people begins with God’s commandment to Abram (later renamed Abraham): “And God said to Abram go for yourself from your homeland and from your birthplace and from the house of your fathers to the land that I will

by Rabbi Arielle Krule, Class of ‘25 What happens after your world as you know it ends? When you, as you know yourself, radically change?  Parashat Noach is a story about what it means to live after everything falls apart. Noah is someone who sees the world destroyed—everything literally flooded. It’s almost impossible to imagine what that was like. But Noah’s story is about more than survival; it is a spiritual map for what comes next. It teaches that after the flood—after t