1/ Chevre, this week’s parsha is Shemot (שמות). We start with a Paro that doesn’t know Yosef and what he did for Egypt. The Jews are enslaved and forced to do labor. The males are to be killed.

1/ Chevre, this week’s parsha is Vayechi (ויחי). This week we finish Sefer Beresheit. Yaakov is about to pass on. He has Yosef bring Menasheh and Ephraim to him and he gives them berachot. He puts his right, stronger hand, on the younger.

1/ Chevre, this week’s parsha is Vayigash (ויגש). The parsha starts with the brothers (most of them) standing in front of Yosef, who is the manager of Egypt. And we see Yehuda, have some backbone and disagree with Yosef. He tells Yosef that they did everything he asked.

1/ Chevre, this week’s parsha is Miketz (מקץ) and it’s Shabbat Chanukah AND it’s Rosh Chodesh Tevet. Our family usually goes Shabbat Chanukah to cousins that live on a Moshav outside of Teveria.

1/ Chevra, this week’s parsha is Vayeshev (וישב). This week the parsha takes a deep dive into a number of family problems within the family of Yaakov. We have Yosef’s dreams, the hatred of the other brothers towards him, the whole plot to throw him into a pit and ...

1/ Chevre, this week’s parsha is Vayishlach (וישלח). This week we have Yaakov about to meet up with Esav, his brother. He prepares his family and splits them up. He sends gifts to Esav ahead of time. He’s done everything he can to get ready and then it’s the night before they’ll meet.

1/ Chevre, this week’s parsha is Vayetze (ויצא). This week we have a deep dive into Yaakov’s life. He flees his brother and goes to Haran. He meets Rachel, but marries Leah by accident. By the way, this is why Jewish Weddings have a Bedekin, where the groom verifies the woman is the right woman.

1/ Chevre, this week’s parsha is Toldot (תולדות). This week we have a lot of family drama. We have the birth of Yaakov and Esav. Esav sells his birthright to Yaakov for a bowl of lentils (soup). And we have the deception of Yitchak.

1/ Chevre, this week’s parsha is Chaya Sarah (חיי שרה). There is an interesting passage toward the end of our parsha. Avraham remarries a woman who is named Keturah. The meforshim (the commentators on the Torah) disagree if he remarried Hagar or if this is a different woman.

1/ Chevre, this week’s parsha is Vayeira (וירא). The parsha starts with the 3 visitors, we can call them VPs or VIPs, they show up in the middle of Avraham recovering from his Brit Millah (Circumcision), the important people always show up at the worst times.

1/ Chevre, this week’s parsha is Lech Lecha (לך לך). The idea of leaving your home and going to your homeland makes this parsha very special to Olim. For me this week, this is a very poignant parsha. I was reflecting on my path of Teshuva.

1/ Chevre, this week’s parsha is Noah (נח). HaShem destorys the world this week. Seemed like something similar happened on Monday. The sign that HaShem won’t destroy the world again is the rainbow. The sign that AWS will do it’s best to not do the same is the public 6-pager explaining what happened.

1/ Chevre, this week’s parsha is Beresheit (בראשית). Again we have the story of the creation of the world. There is a Midrash (I found Midrash Tehillim 90:13 in my internet searching) that talks about the creation of over 900 worlds.

1/ Chevre, we are currently ending Sukkot and tonight will enter Simchat Torah. Just as our hostages this morning came out of the field out of captivity into the joyous embrace of their families, Am Yisrael will come out of their Sukkot, back into their homes and ...

1/ Chevre, there is no parsha this week. But it is Shabbat Chol HaMoed Sukkot, we will read from the Torah and from Nevi’im. And we will read Megillat Kohelet. I’ve been reading Zot HaBracha this week in preparation for Simchat Torah, mid next week.

1/ Chevre, tonight starts Chag Sukkot (סוכות). We leave our comfortable homes and sit in booths as a reminder to what our ancestors did on their journey to Eretz Yisrael. This is the first time in many years I had to extricate the succah from the attic and put it up by myself.

1/ Chevre, this week’s parsha is Haazinu (האזינו). In case you didn’t have enough shul yesterday, we’re back to shul (every day), but we are heading into Shabbat. And, of course, next week is the start of Sukkot. This is the last full parsha of the Torah.

1/ Chevre, we have arrived at Yom Kippur. While this is the peak of the Teshuva season, it’s not the end. We say LeDavid (Psalm 27) from Rosh Chodesh Elul (a month before Rosh Hashanah) until Hoshanah Rabbah (the last day of Sukkot, Shemini Atzeret/Simchat Torah is a different holiday).

1/ Chevre, this week’s parsha is Vayeilech (וילך). I’m going to be honest with you, I’ve been going through the parsha, like normal, but I’m really not connecting with it this week. It’s extremely short and nestled inbetween Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

1/ Chevre, tonight and for the next 2 days it’s Rosh Hashanah (רֹאשׁ הַשָּׁנָה). I learned recently why we don’t bless the new month in Elul before Rosh Hashanah. Of course, there are many reasons, but the one I liked the most was that the whole year relies on Rosh Hashanah.

1/ Chevre, this week’s parsha is Nitzavim (נצבים). The parsha this week is pretty short and a lot of the focus of Am Yisrael at this point is on Rosh Hashanah, which is next week.

1/ Chevre, this week’s parsha is Ki Tavo (כי תבוא). Last week’s parsha started with going out to war. This week’s parsha starts with “when you come into the land”. We will be blessed with new fruits and we will bring them as an offering to the Mishkan and later The Temple.

1/ Chevre, this week’s parsha is Ki Teitzei (כי תצא). A huge part of the parsha this week is talking about relationships. There is one section on marriage and divorce. It says that if someone no longer loves his wife, he can divorce her.

1/ Chevre, this week’s parsha is Shoftim (שופטים). This week’s idea came from Becky Weiss. Thank you. At the very end of the parsha we have the Egel Arufah. This is the case where a corpse is found in the wilderness between 2 cities.

1/ Chevre, this week’s parsha is Re’eh (ראה). There is a lot of discussion with Re’eh and the blessings and curses on Har Gerizim and Har Eival. What is striking, having been there, is that 1 mountain is lush and green with trees and the other, right next to it, is empty and barren.

1/ Chevre, this week’s parsha is Eikev (עקב). There are a bunch of interesting things in this week’s Parsha, many of them I’ve spoken about in years past. Toward the end of the Parsha, there is a section that talks about you seeing the miracles that HaShem performed for the Jewish People in Egypt ..

1/ Chevre, this week’s parsha is VeEtchanan (ואתחנן). I’m writing a day early this week because I’m going on vacation and didn’t want to bring my laptop with me.

1/ Chevre, this week’s parsha is Devarim (דברים). We always read this parsha before Tisha BeAv (the 9th of Av), which is Sunday. Tisha BeAv marks a number of calamities in Jewish History including the destruction of the 2 temples (which happened on the same day of the Jewish Calendar), ...

1/ Chevre, this week’s parsha is Matot-Masei (מטות-מסעי). I heard an interesting Dvar Torah this morning that I’m going to build on. My wife’s uncle started sharing videos by Noam Jacobson (www.youtube.com/@Noam.jacobson) which

1/ Chevre, this week’s parsha is Pinchas (פנחס). We pick up where we left off last week, right after Pinchas killed some offenders in front of the Mishkan. Pinchas, the grandson of Aaron, is made a Cohen (priest) along with all his offspring. A new census is taken.

1/ Chevre, this week’s parsha is Balak (בלק). Balak was the king of Moab and they saw what happened to the Amorites and were afraid. So Balak went to a prophet Bilaam to request Bilaam to curse Am Yisrael. Bilaam refused several times until finally saying I can only say what G-d puts in my mouth.

1/ Chevre, this week’s parsha is Chukat (חקת). The parsha starts with the laws around The Red Hefer. Miriam dies and there is a lack of water followed by the error of Moses and Aaron along with their punishment. Amalek attacks and the parsha ends with the battles of Sihon and Og.

1/ Chevre, this week’s parsha is Korach (קֹ֔רַח). Last week we had the scouts and the story of them coming back with the ill report on Eretz Yisrael. And the punishment of 40 years in the desert.

1/ Chevre, this week’s parsha is Shelach Lecha (שלח לך). The majority of this week’s parsha is taken up with the scouts and the fall out from their, mostly, ill report. I heard this week a Dvar Torah that talked about the word ממנו, usually translated as from us.

1/ Chevre, this week’s parsha is BeHaLotcha (בהעלותך). In light of what is going on in the world (writing this Friday the 13th of June 2025, Israel attacked Iran last night), I’m going to try to find some positive things to share.

1/ Chevre, this week’s parsha is Naso (נשא). In the parsha this week we have the priestly blessing. In Israel this happens in shul at least once a day, outside of Israel, this happens only during the holidays.

1/ Chevre, tonight and tomorrow is Shavuot (שבועות). We celebrate the receiving of the Torah. There are no dietary restrictions (like there are for Passover or Sukkot, what to eat or where to eat it). It is a strong Minhag to eat dairy on Shavuot. There are a number of reasons for this.

1/ Chevre, this week’s parsha is Bamidbar (במדבר). I have been at AWS for over 7 years and to say that we are a data driven company would be a understatement. The parsha this week starts up again where we left off at the end of Shemot. The Mishkan has been built and we are continuing our story.

1/ Chevre, this week the parsha is BeHar-BeHukotai (בהר-בחוקתי). This week we complete the book of Vayikra. Towards the end of the parsha we learn about tithes from the land and tithes regarding animals.

1/ Chevre, this week’s parsha is Emor (אמור). There are 2 sections in this week’s parsha that stood out to me today. There is a section on blemishes in the priest that is bringing the sacrifice to the temple. So the person that brings a sacrifice gives it to the priest and the priest ...

1/ Chevre, this week’s parsha is Achrei-Mot - Kedoshim (אחרי מות-קדושים). We are in the story of the death of Aaron’s sons and this is what happens afterwards. The parsha starts with The Temple Service performed on Yom Kippur.

1/ Chevre, this week’s parsha is Tazria-Metzora (תזריע-מצורע). This week’s parsha dives deep into the subject of impurity. Of people, objects and houses. Some of the things described could almost come out of a medical journal.

1/ Chevre, this week’s parsha is Shemini (שמיני). This week I was playing with some new software I heard about online. I spun up a small virtual machine in my home lab, ran all the updates, and installed the docker container. The containers were running, but I couldn’t access the software.

1/ Chevre, there is no parsha this week, it’s Shabbat and the 7th Day of Pesach (Passover). The major event that happened on the 7th Day of Pesach is the Splitting of the Sea. It’s now become a saying that something may be hard, but it’s not the splitting of the sea.

I know that in GenAI MCP == Model Context Protocol but for me, MCP will always be from Tron, The Master Control Program

1/ Chevre, this week’s parsha is Vayikra (ויקרא). First off, I need to appologize that this is coming out much later than normal. I ran the 1/2 Marathon this morning in Jerusalem with my son. He finished a full hour before me. #DvarTorah #Shabbat

Let's get ready to rumble Jerusalem 1/2 Marathon

Hello Ben Gurion my old friend. It's been a while

1/ Chevre, this week’s parsha is Pekudei (פקודי). We finish the book of Shemot (Exodus) and we have the final touches of the creation of the vestments for the Cohanim (Priests). Followed by the actual construction by Moshe of the Mishkan. #Shabbat #DvarTorah

6/ On a personal note, I learned this parsha in-depth last year as part of a town siyum in memory of Efraim Jackman z”l, who fell fighting in Gaza. May his memory continue to inspire. Shabbat Shalom. Archive: https://t.co/T0AoWGZstf