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

Parashat Bemidbar | Rabbi Roly Matalon | May 16, 2026

Rabbi Roly Matalon asks: what must die in the wilderness before something new can emerge? Drawing on the painful wandering of Bemidbar, he reflects on what it means to hold onto moral seriousness when everything around us is eroding, and why Torah is given not in moments of clarity, but precisely here, in the chaos of now.

Kabbalat Shabbat Kavannah | Rabbi Roly Matalon | May 15, 2026

The Torah isn't given only once. Each year, a new unfolding arrives, one that speaks to this particular moment in history, and to each of us at our particular moment in our lives. But to receive it, we have to be standing in our own place. As Shavuot approaches, Rabbi Roly Matalon draws on a Hasidic teaching to ask: what does it mean to inhabit your own truth so that when the Torah is given again, it finds you home?

Parashat Behar-Behukkotai | Senior Rabbinic Fellow Joe Blumberg | May 9, 2026

Senior Rabbinic Fellow Joe Blumberg reflects on the Torah’s radical vision of the Jubilee year: a system that resets the economy every fifty years. More than freeing the enslaved and forgiving debts, the Jubilee year is a powerful reminder that in a world driven by achievement and accumulation, we are ultimately caretakers, not owners.

Parashat Emor | BJ Rabbinic Fellow Iliana Brodsky | May 2, 2026

BJ Rabbinic Fellow Iliana Brodsky takes a troubling passage from Leviticus and turns it into something beautiful — a reflection on what allows us to truly trust and connect with one another, even across every difference.

Kabbalat Shabbat Kavannah | Rabbi Felica Sol | May 1, 2026