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Anna Urowitz-Freudenstein

Mar 30, 2026, 7:08 AM

Midrash Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer 26 רַבִּי יְהוֹשֻׁעַ בֶּן קָרְחָה אוֹמֵר: (שָׂרָה הָיְתָה אֵשֶׁת פַּרְעֹה,) מֵאַהֲבָתוֹ אוֹתָהּ כָּתַב לָהּ בִּשְׁטַר כְּתֻבָּתָהּ כָּל מָמוֹנוֹ, בֵּין כֶּסֶף בֵּין זָהָב בֵּין עֲבָדִים וְקַרְקָעוֹת, וְכָתַב לָהּ אֶת אֶרֶץ גֹּשֶׁן לַאֲחֻזָּה. לְפִיכָךְ יָשְׁבוּ בְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל...

Mindy Feldman Hecht

Mar 17, 2026, 12:00 AM

Building Connection, Building Holiness

As I begin my role as Interim Executive Director of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance (Jofa), I have been thinking a lot about connection. About how holiness is built not only through grand visions or towering ideals, but through...

Oct 24, 2025, 7:20 AM

Spread Over Us Your Sukkah of Peace

Every night in the Hashkivenu Bracha, we ask God to spread his Sukkah of peace over us: וּפְרוֹשׂ עָלֵֽינוּ סֻכַּת שְׁלוֹמֶךָ. What do you imagine, when you say these words? Do you imagine a Sukkah over you? Do you imagine...

Anna Urowitz-Freudenstein

Oct 13, 2025, 11:08 PM

Introducing an Honorific Title for Biblical Women: Em

In this week’s parsha, we learn about the beginnings of the world and of humankind. In chapter two of Bereshit, when the first human is divinely transformed into the first two humans, they are each designated by gender and...

Sarah Segal-Katz

Sep 27, 2025, 1:48 PM

Vayelech: Moses the Faithful Shepherd — Legacy and Blessing

The one who shepherded Israel for decades is, in our parashah, the very one who takes leave of the role of “the faithful shepherd” as his life draws to a close. Moses—whose very name, in its midrashic reading, points...

Sarah Segal-Katz

Sep 20, 2025, 1:21 AM

Sky and Waters Between Us and Hope (Nitzavim)

This Shabbat we read Parashat Nitzavim, where Moses gathers the entire people: “You stand this day all of you”(Deuteronomy 29:9) —from the greatest to the smallest, from the tribal heads to the water-drawers—into one covenant. Rashi notes that this...

Sarah Segal-Katz

Sep 12, 2025, 11:24 PM

Parashat Ki Tavo: A Heart to Know, Eyes to See, Ears to Hear

Some verses mark a turning point in consciousness. One of them appears near the end of Parashat Ki Tavo, describing a shift in the way Israel understands its past and imagines its future. The book of Deuteronomy repeatedly revisits the...

Sarah Segal-Katz

Sep 4, 2025, 7:32 AM

How Many Years Can Mockery Reverberate? (Ki Teitzei)

Photo: Hila Shiloni

Do Not Ignore It Parashat Ki Teitzei presents us with a clear moral imperative: the prohibition against ignoring the suffering of others: If you see your fellow’s ox or sheep gone astray, do not ignore it; you must take it back...

Sarah Segal-Katz

Aug 29, 2025, 4:12 PM

After October 7: Children and Jewish Mourning

In Elul 5776 (2016), I was ordained at Beit Morasha as a Morat Halakha. The rabbinical faculty asked our group to articulate the directions we envisioned for the future. I suggested that welcoming women's voices (in practices, customs, and...

Daphne Lazar Price

Aug 27, 2025, 8:10 PM

The ‘body in the field,’ and the silence around suicide

The Torah insists we see the death of someone who is abandoned not simply as a personal tragedy, but as a communal failure (Shofetim)

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