Blessing for the Month of Shevat: On Allowing the Hard Places to Soften

Pharaoh will not be able to open his heart until he can acknowledge his own embodied humanity. As long as he is attached to the fantasy of an impervious self, his heart will indeed remain impervious to the pleas of others, to the suffering of those whose shared humanity he has denied.

Spiritual Growth: Hebrew College Ordination Programs Receive $150K Grant from The Covenant Foundation

Hebrew College is excited to announce that we received a Signature Grant from the Covenant Foundation to continue the Rabbinical School grow spiritual formation education work. The College received a Covenant Foundation Ignition Grant last year to begin this work.  

“The spiritual resources required to do the essential rabbinic work of caring for congregants, helping them find their path in Jewish living, and building communities, can only be present if rabbis learn to cultivate their own inner lives,” said Rabbi Daniel Klein, Hebrew College Dean of Students and the project co-director with Hebrew College Vice President Dr. Susie Tanchel.

"The Covenant Foundation is a very important, impactful, and prestigious Jewish foundation supporting leading and innovative Jewish educational institutions," said Tanchel.

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Hello, Pharaoh, My Old Friend

Parashat Va’era (Exodus 6:2-9:35)

By Rabbi Yael Werber `22
Assistant Rabbi, Congregation Beit Simchat Torah in New York, NY

Last night, I put a record on while I cooked dinner. Wednesday at 3AM by Simon and Garfunkel, their debut album, featuring "The Sounds of Silence," an acoustic version. The album was recorded and released in 1964 and was initially a flop. Both Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel were in their early twenties at the time, and after this failed release, went their separate ways until a remixed version featuring additional tracks with overdubbed electric instruments took off on radio stations.

Remarking on the origin of the song, Art Garfunkel said it was written about "the inability of people to communicate with each other[...]so what you see around you are people unable to love each other." I’m not sure I can think of a better tagline for Parashat Va’era. 

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Kavanah for Tu Bishvat

By Chaim Spaulding, Hebrew College Rabbinical Student

In the Northeast U.S., winter is long and slow, and everything turns inwards and gets quiet: the silence of the insects at night, the slow drip of sap, the muffling of sounds under snow. The trees look still and bare.

Talmud Rosh Hashanah teaches that Tu Bishvat, the New Year of the Trees, occurs at the point of the winter when most of the rains have already fallen, but most of the growth of the trees as a result is still to come.

On this holiday, we eat fruits with different combinations of soft and hard insides and outsides—we notice what comes easily at first but contains a difficult core, and what is hard to get into but soft and sweet at its center.

If Rosh Hashanah is our dramatic New Year, our spiritual fresh slate, Tu Bishvat is our quiet New Year, when we recognize delayed reactions and long cycles of change.

What rains, either nourishing or destructive, fell on you last year? And what slow growth might be happening underneath the surface for you now?

Wishing you a sweet Tu Bishvat.

Listen to more of Chaim's writing on the Hebrew College Speaking Torah podcast episode "Writing as Spiritual Practice." And visit our Kavanah in 60 page for more kavanot from our rabbinical students.