Rabbi Ellen Weinberg Dreyfus

Rabbi Ellen W. Dreyfus

Rabbi Ellen Weinberg Dreyfus served as the chair of the Task Force on the Experience of Women in the Rabbinate. She was one of the first-ever women rabbis, the second female president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, and she is rabbi emerita at Shir Tikvah in Homewood, Illinois.

Learning Lessons From and With God

D'Var Torah By: Ellen M. Umansky, PHD

In many ways , Parashat Noach is filled with as many theological problems as answers. Chief among them is why after creating the world and all living things, God destroys "all that lives under the heavens" (Genesis 6:17). The reason that God gives is the "violence" or "lawlessness" ( chamas) of humankind. Yet what about such godly virtues as patience, love, and forgiveness? Apparently, God possesses less of them than one might wish. Does saving Noah, his family, and a male and female of all living species in order to ensure continued reproduction make up for God's actions? Is saving them a sign of mercy or of pragmatism?

What the Records Reveal

D'Var Torah By: Rabbi Ellen Weinberg Dreyfus

In Parashat P'kudei, the last section of the Book of Exodus, there is a rather tedious repetition of the inventory of all the equipment used in the building and decorating of the Tabernacle, the place of worship for the Israelites during their sojourn in the wilderness after they left Egypt

What the Records Reveal

D'Var Torah By: Rabbi Ellen Weinberg Dreyfus

This week, we read the double portion, Vayak'heil/P'kudei. In Parashat P'kudei, the last section of the Book of Exodus, there is a rather tedious repetition of the inventory of all the equipment used in the building and decorating of the Tabernacle, the place of worship for the Israelites during their

Shabbat: Positives and Negatives

D'Var Torah By: Rabbi Ellen Weinberg Dreyfus

The last instruction that Moses receives on Mount Sinai, before God gives him the inscribed tablets, before the incident of the Golden Calf, is the reminder about the importance of the sabbath. Like the story of Creation, which culminates in the day of rest, so the blueprint for the creation

Bringing Light to Torah

D'Var Torah By: Rabbi Ellen Weinberg Dreyfus

T'tzaveh was my bat mitzvah portion . . . 50 years ago. It's hard to believe that it's been that long, and that I'm old enough to say things like that. I am told that mine was the first bat mitzvah ceremony at K.A.M. Temple (now KAM Isaiah Israel Congregation)