TBE Richmond Podcast
Season 3
by Rabbi Michael Knopf
Inspired by Parshat Miketz, Hanukkah, and Rosh Chodesh (December 24, 2022), TBE member Josh Jeffreys shares a d’var torah on the blessing of darkness, power of dreams, and importance of (re)dedicating ourselves to spreading light amidst dark times.
The Rabbis explicitly call Joseph “righteous,” but his early life seems to be anything but. What can we learn from Joseph’s experiences and growth to find righteousness in our own lives?
Inessa Nosenko, Director of JCC "Mazel Tov" in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine (Richmond's sister city), joins us in person to share stories from the ever- changing war zone in Ukraine.
In his Dvar Torah for Parashat Va-yeitzei (Saturday, December 3, 2022), TBE conversion student Stan Jett explains that the portion beings and ends with piles of stones that endorse a newfound mindfulness of the Divine. We can enshrine the stones of difficult growth with the words of our prayers and blessings.
The harder one looks for the patriarch Isaac in the Torah, the harder he is to see. In his Dvar Torah for Parashat Toldot (November 26, 2022), TBE member Larry Wieder, explains that Isaac is an invisible man, who shows himself only through the agency of others, as the means to an end.
In this Dvar Torah for Parashat Valera (November 12, 2022), in honor of our "Climate on the Bimah” Shabbat (in partnership with Virginia Interfaith Power & Light), TBE member Dr. Gary Goldberg asks, “what is the dream for what Jews can do together to address the climate crisis?”
Families are complex with many competing needs. In this Dvar Torah for Parashat Lekh-Lekha (November 5, 2022), TBE Executive Director Damien Timms examines how we can look at the goings on in Abrahams’ family and see how it eludes to our community.
In this Dvar Torah for Parshat Bereishit (Saturday, October 22, 2022), TBE member Tiffany Washington shares how we were created to be creative beings and how honoring our need and desire for creativity brings us closer to ourselves, each other, and the Infinite.
In his message for Shemini Atzeret (Monday, October 17, 2022), Rabbi Knopf explores the meaning of the Shemini Atzeret holiday, and what it teaches us about life and death.
The Torah tells us that the descendants of those who do wrong will be punished “to the third and fourth generation.” In a Dvar Torah for Shabbat hol ha-mo’ed Sukkot (October 15, 2022), TBE member Brandon Metheny asks: how do we square this seemingly unfair outcome with the season of mercy and forgiveness, and what lessons can we take from this statement?