Vayechi 5784 - Healing Our Generational Trauma
The following is a sermon I delivered at Valley Temple on Friday evening, December 29th, 2023. In my work with wedding couples, I’ve...
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rabbiaustinzoot
Jan 27, 20232 min read
Parashat Bo 5783 - The Invention of Ritual
Ritual is an essential component of Judaism. Zionist essayist Ahad Ha’am famously said “more than Israel has kept Shabbat, Shabbat has...
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rabbiaustinzoot
Jan 6, 20233 min read
Vayechi - Maybe No Happy Ending After All...
Jacob is the last of our major patriarchs in Judaism, and his death closes the book of Genesis. Throughout his story, we see a...
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rabbiaustinzoot
Dec 4, 20223 min read
Vayeitzei - What Are We Supposed to Learn?
Different people approach the Bible with different needs. Some read the book in order to learn the history of our people (reading the...
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rabbiaustinzoot
Nov 1, 20222 min read
Lech Lecha 5783: Abraham as the prototype for the MCU?
What do you create next after you’re done making the greatest cinematic conclusion in the history of entertainment? Marvel Studios is...
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rabbiaustinzoot
Oct 28, 20223 min read
Finding Balance Without Rocking the Boat (or Ark)
Only two weeks into the reading of the book of Genesis, you’d wonder whether or not God had much of a plan when creating humanity. The...
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rabbiaustinzoot
Apr 10, 20227 min read
Treating the Person, Not the Disease
This blog post is the byproduct of a conversation with Rabbi Michael Weiss. Special thanks to him for his wisdom, insight, and...
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rabbiaustinzoot
Feb 18, 20228 min read
Ki Tisa - The Worst Days Can Bring the Best Understanding
When I was a kid, my family used to read the children’s book Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. Needless to...
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rabbiaustinzoot
Feb 11, 20225 min read
Tetzaveh - An Old Symbol in a New Context
One of the biggest dangers of reading our Torah is our inability to put ourselves into the context of the section with which we are...
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rabbiaustinzoot
Feb 4, 20226 min read
T'rumah - Making Space for God
“I begin with a prayer of gratitude for all that is holy in my life. God needs no words, no English or Hebrew, no semantics and no...
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rabbiaustinzoot
Jan 21, 20227 min read
Yitro - Out of Order to Preserve Order
If you were to try to create a ranking of the best Torah portions, it is likely that all Jews would have a slightly different list. (The...
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rabbiaustinzoot
Jan 14, 20227 min read
B'Shalach - Transitioning Perspectives
Throughout the ages, science has attempted to prove the accuracy of the story described in Parashat B’Shalach, at the peril of failing to...
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rabbiaustinzoot
Jan 7, 20225 min read
Parashat Bo: The Invention of Ritual
At the beginning of Parashat Bo, God is preparing to bring about the worst, most impactful plague upon Egypt. Knowing that the Israelites...
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rabbiaustinzoot
Dec 16, 20215 min read
Vayechi - Setting the Standard of Disruption
From the origins of creation to the creation of Am Yisrael, the book of Genesis has endeavored to explain the inception of the world as...
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rabbiaustinzoot
Dec 9, 20216 min read
Vayigash - Owning Our Trauma
Joseph would have had every right to punish his brothers. After reuniting with the men who had tried to kill him, sold him into slavery,...
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rabbiaustinzoot
Nov 25, 20216 min read
Vayeishev - Risk for Reward
Thanks to Donnie Osmond, the world is quite familiar with the story of Joseph and his brothers. While we know the exquisite details of...
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rabbiaustinzoot
Nov 18, 20217 min read
Vayishlach - What to Do With the Silence...
We have been reading the Torah for over two thousand years. The beauty of such a long relationship with a text is that we have poured...
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rabbiaustinzoot
Nov 3, 20216 min read
Toldot: Family Systems at Work
One of the most damaging notions when thinking about our Torah is to assume the perfection of the characters described. It is not an...
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