Rabbi Leah R. Berkowitz

Rabbi Leah Rachel Berkowitz is the spiritual leader of Congregation Kol Ami in Elkins Park, PA and the Immediate Past President of the Women's Rabbinic Network. She is the author of two children's books: The World Needs Beautiful Things (Kar-Ben 2018) and Queen Vashti's Comfy Pants (Apples and Honey Press 2021), as well as the middle-grade midrash collection Maybe It Happened This Way: Torah Stories Reimagined with co-author Erica Wovsaniker (Behrman House 2022). You can find her on social media @rabbilrb or online at leahrachelberkowitz.com.

Maybe It Happened This Way book cover
books

Rereading – and Reimagining – Sacred Story

Rabbi Leah R. Berkowitz
Erica Wovsaniker
 October 3, 2022
"Tell me a story" is a constant refrain for those of us with children in our lives. Almost as often, when the last page is turned, the child looks up and asks, "again?" Sometimes, this is a joy. Sometimes, re-reading, and re-reading some more, becomes a burden.
Rabbi Leah R. Berkowitz holding book Queen Vashti’s Comfy Pants
books

When the Queen Says No

Rabbi Leah R. Berkowitz
 March 4, 2022
I had been wanting to write about Queen Vashti for a while. A big part of my rabbinate and my writing focuses on uplifting the stories of women in the biblical narrative, especially those who do not get enough attention.
Torrah and Kippah
Vayeira

Hospitality: Can We Do Better?

D'Var Torah By: Rabbi Aaron D. Panken, Ph.D.

 October 22, 2014
Biblical stories often form prototypical frameworks that define and shape later Jewish behaviors. The hospitality of Abraham and Sarah in Parashat Vayeira, for example, becomes for later commentators the quintessential moment that defines how Jews ought to welcome their guests. The moving scene of their hospitality to three messengers (really...