Rabbi Uhrbach’s Torah
“As someone who doesn't speak or read Hebrew, I find Rabbi Uhrbach's sermons and teachings to be the bridge for my spiritual connection to this particular community. I appreciate the religious, intellectual and moral rigor of her words -- I feel like they disrupt and challenge the normative rhythms of our days, weeks and months, and ask us to consider in ways both large and small how we want to live in the world that is, and how we want to build the world that we all long for.” —Rachel L.
RECENT DIVREI TORAH
November 11, 2023 - Chayei Sarah - Healing Power of Hesed
November 4, 2023 - Vayera - Lot and the Yetzer HaRa
October 14, 2023 - Bereshit - Knowing Good and Evil
October 7, 2023 - Shemini Atzeret - Kohelet: Hope Amidst Despair
YAMIM NORAIM - 2023/5784
Watch Rabbi Uhrbach’s High Holy Day Teachings.
Rosh Hashanah Playlist:
Yom Kippur Playlist:
OTHER TEACHINGS
God’s Partner in Torah: Us
(from the Tikkun Leil Shavuot 2023, jointly with Temple Adas Israel and the Jewish Center of the Hamptons)
The ancient rabbis struggled with the same questions we do: what is the nature of God’s relationship to us? why do humans suffer, and commit evil? what is the basis for the religious authority of Torah, and what do we do when it seems to cause harm? Through juxtaposing a traditional story from the Talmud with a rewriting of it by contemporary Israeli woman scholar, we’re all invited into the conversation.
Download the source sheet.
God of the Faithful, God of the Faithless: Belief and Doubt in Prayer
(a teaching for JTS)
Do we need “faith” in order to pray? Can synagogue services be worthwhile and meaningful even if we’re not sure what we believe? We are hardly the first generation to struggle with contradictions among our intellectual beliefs, traditional Jewish liturgy, and the act of prayer. What do biblical and rabbinic texts about prayer, and the prayerbook itself, teach us about these conflicts, and how can they help us connect to prayer even in times of doubt or faithlessness?
Download the source sheet.
For more of Rabbi Uhrbach’s teachings for the Jewish Theological Seminary:
YAMIM NORAIM 2022/5783
Listen to Rabbi Uhrbach’s
High Holy Days Teachings
Based on the poetry of Joy Ladin, from her book, Shekhinah Speaks.
Click here for a source sheet on the rabbinic concept of Shekhinah.
Hear Rabbi Uhrbach teach at every Shabbat service, and stay for the discussion afterwards.
We are in the process of making the archive of past teachings available.
Check back later for more Torah!
This bridge is under construction.
