Parashat Va-yak-hel - Pekudei

Parashat Va-yak-hel - Pekudei

Main Commentary

Meaning in Métier
by Rabbi Abigail Treu
Rabbinic Fellow and Director of Planned Giving

Along with many at my stage of life, I have been following with great interest the spate of articles ruminating on work, family, and the formula for living a meaningful life. From US Department of State Director of Policy Planning Anne-Marie Slaughter’s piece questioning how working parents can “have it all” to the notes on the anniversary of writer-activist Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique; from the deep need for job creation, on the one hand, to the need for the caregiving of children and aging parents on the other; from the book tour for Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead to Yahoo President and CEO Marisa Mayer’s controversial decline of her own maternity leave and recent revocation of Yahoo’s telecommuting...
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A Taste of Torah

Of Leadership and Investment: A People Engage
by Rabbi Matthew Berkowitz

Parashat Va-yak·hel-Pekudei continues the building of the Tabernacle—detailing the materials, craftsmanship, appurtenances, and its completion. Far from being the domain of the elite, the building of this dwelling place for God represents an endeavor undertaken by the entire people. We read that

Moses then gathered the whole Israelite community and said to them: These are the things that the Lord has commanded you to do.

Service of the Heart (עבודת הלב): Exploring Prayer

by Rabbi Samuel Barth

Last week we took a brief look at the balance between the majestic theological description of God with which Adon Olam opens, and the more intimate, even tender recounting of the poet’s relationship with God in the final stanzas. These final verses begin with two short words that articulate a quite extraordinary claim: “Vehu Eli” (For He is my God).

The three opening stanzas are theologically majestic and poetically lyrical, but they...
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Previous Commentaries

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