Found In Translation: Weekly Divrei Torah and Sermons from the BJ Rabbis and Guest Teachers

Kabbalat Shabbat Kavannah | Rabbi Becca Weintraub | October 16, 2026

What happens when we value the project more than the person? In her Kabbalat Shabbat kavannah on Parashat Noah, Rabbi Becca Weintraub turns to a midrash on the Tower of B

Parashat Noah | Rabbi Felicia Sol | October 17, 2026

In her D’var Torah on Parashat Noah, Rabbi Felicia Sol examines midrashic and rabbinic texts on the ark to explore what it means to build refuge, enter it, and eventually

Parashat Bereshit | BJ Rabbinic Fellow Iliana Brodsky | October 10, 2026

What do we lose when knowledge becomes instant? In her D’var Torah on Parashat Bereshit, BJ Rabbinic Fellow Iliana Brodsky draws a connection between the tree of knowledg

Sukkot & Shabbat (First Day) | Rabbi Alex Braver | September 26, 2027

What can a fragile sukkah teach us about what it means to feel held? On the first day of Sukkot, Rabbi Alex Braver contrasts the Torah’s image of the all-encompassing clo

Sukkot (Second Day) | Rabbi Becca Weintraub | September 27, 2026

After Yom Kippur, how do we begin living the life we said we want to live? On the second day of Sukkot, Rabbi Becca Weintraub reflects on the physical mitzvot of the holi

Parashat Ha’azinu | Rabbis Felicia Sol, Alex Braver, and Becca Weintraub | September 19, 2026

What does it actually mean to do teshuvah? On Shabbat Shuvah, Rabbis Felicia Sol, Alex Braver, and Becca Weintraub together discuss the many ways Jewish tradition imagine

The Quieter, Harder Kind of Courage | Rabbi Alex Braver

As the gates of Yom Kippur begin to close, how do we turn infinite possibility into choices about how we will actually live? In his Ne’ilah sermon, Rabbi Alex Braver exp

Gesher L’Hayim: A Bridge to Life | Rabbi Felicia Sol

Yom Kippur confronts us with mortality so that we might learn how to live. In her Ne’ilah sermon, Rabbi Felicia Sol reflects on Yom Kippur as a rehearsal for death and o

There Is Never Just One Way | Rabbi Becca Weintraub

In her annual Yom Kippur letter to her children, Rabbi Becca Weintraub reflects on the creativity children bring to figuring things out and what that can teach us about J

The Holiness of Not-Knowing | Rabbi Alex Braver

What might become possible if we loosen our need to be certain? In his Yom Kippur morning sermon, Rabbi Alex Braver begins with the ancient ritual of the Kohen Gadol, th

The Possibility of Change Starts When Certainty Ends | Rabbi Felicia Sol

What if doubt is not the opposite of faith, but the opening through which transformation becomes possible? In her Yom Kippur morning sermon, Rabbi Felicia Sol explores t

Our Multiplicity Is Our Jewish Identity | Rabbi Becca Weintraub

In her Kol Nidre sermon, Rabbi Becca Weintraub begins with the exhausting calculations many Jews make about when it feels safe to reveal who we are—and asks what becomes

Let Us Remember Who We Are | Rabbi Felicia Sol

On Kol Nidre, Rabbi Felicia Sol reflected on what happens when fear, shame, polarization, and communal litmus tests pressure us to hide or to reduce Jewish identity to a

The Antidote to Despair Is Human Possibility | Rabbi Alex Braver

In a world increasingly shaped by despair, polarization, and binary thinking, Rabbi Alex Braver asks what Rosh Hashanah, the birthday of humanity, can teach us about recl

Alive With the Possibility of Newness | Rabbi Alex Braver

Rabbi Alex Braver offers a blessing for renewal in all its forms. Some of us enter the new year amid exciting changes; others face new challenges, losses, or absences; an

The Extraordinary, Complicated Gift of Being Human | Rabbi Felicia Sol

On Rosh Hashanah, the rabbinic birthday of humanity, Rabbi Felicia Sol asks a question that feels especially urgent: Can we still have faith in the human project? Drawin

American, Jewish, and Unfinished | Rabbi Felicia Sol

What does it mean to be an American Jew at a moment when our deepest commitments can seem to pull us in opposing directions? Beginning with BJ’s founding in 1825, Rabbi

25 Years Later: Remembering September 11 | Rabbi Felicia Sol

On Erev Rosh Hashanah, 25 years after the attacks of September 11, 2001, Rabbi Felicia Sol remembers the nearly 3,000 lives lost and reflects on BJ’s experience of that d

At the Threshold of a New Year | Rabbi Felicia Sol

On Erev Rosh Hashanah, Rabbi Felicia Sol reflects on the threshold between the year that has ended and the one that has yet to be written. Drawing on a Talmudic teaching

Why Were Human Beings Created? | Rabbi Becca Weintraub

In her Rosh Hashanah sermon at the family service, Rabbi Becca Weintraub explores an ancient rabbinic debate over whether human beings should have been created at all, an