Rabbi Esther Hugenholtz

Parashat Vayechi 2017, Rabbi Esther Hugenholtz Of Good Endings and Beginnings There has been no shortage of seasonal idyll this last week with a White Christmas and what looks to be a White New Year’s Eve also. Every family is bound to have their own seasonal traditions during this time of year and one of ours has been to see Star Wars – and I suspect some of you have done too. I’m not going to talk about ‘The Last Jedi’ in great detail because I want to make sure I don’t spoil anything for those of you who haven’t seen it, but suffice to say, it is a subversive but classic tale of rebellion, repentance and redemption. Despite the Zen flavors of the Jedi cult, this Star Wars felt very Jewish in some of the themes it explored: the choice between good and evil, the balance between sacred tradition and disruptive innovation and the belief that any human being, even the most morally compromised, can still do t’shuvah and pivot towards the good. Adde...

Parashat Vayechi 2016 Rabbi Esther Hugenholtz Future Questions of Personhood There were two recent newspaper articles that prompted me to think deeply, and perhaps by my own admission, conservatively, about the issues they raised. Both dealt with cutting-edge technological advancement that challenge our deepest-held notions of what it means to be human. The first article discusses the future of fertility treatments through in vitro gametogenesis (IVG) . In contrast to the conventional technology of IVF in which a woman’s ova are used, IVG uses generic tissue cells (such as skin) engineered into reproductive (sperm and egg) cells. The consequence of this new technology is that instead of having a few embryos available for implantation, a woman could have an unlimited amount of embryos at her disposal. To be able to generate embryos cheaply could be a blessing, democratising fertility treatments and help those after chemotherapy. Ethicists warn, however, of a morally fr...

Parashat Vayechi Rabbi Esther Hugenholtz Family Matters Death and life are closer than you think. In our human experience, they are so close that many cultures have created rituals to stave off our fear of death in the darkest of Winter’s days, when the veil between life and death seems thin. Now that I’ve moved to the north of England, I appreciate that impulse all the more so. Every culture has its own way of doing so. The Pagans of yore burnt Yule logs and the Romans enjoyed a week of revelry during Saturnalia. The Midrash and Talmud (Avodah Zarah 8b) state that there’s a link between Chanukkah, the Solstice and a story of Adam, the first Man, who created fire on the darkest day. And then, of course, there is Christmas, a holiday superimposed on older, primordial pagan practices, in which we welcome light and cheer. Christmas and Chanukkah, however, don’t only allow us to light a candle against the dark but also bring us together to enjoy family time. Y...

Parashat Vayechi  Rabbi Esther Hugenholtz  Finishing Well  Now that the chanukkiyot are packed away, the candlewax has been scraped from window sills, the dinners, the Season’s post cards, the gift wrappings, champagne corks and fireworks are behind us, what we have left to reflect on are not only our expanded waistlines but the family relationships we built during the winter Holiday Season.  There’s a certain greyness to early January. The festivities have died down and this could be a time of quite reflection, of acknowledging our mortality in deep winter, alongside icy roads and bare branches. Reflecting on endings and death, even of a cyclical nature, allows us to shape our own response to it. It’s OK, I suppose, to embrace the darkness a little, to acknowledge the coldness in our bones and to feel the tilt of the world towards decay. The question then is how we relate to these relationships around us.  Many of us have spent time with family...

Deze d'rasha was geschreven voor Sjabbat Vayechi en moest op 18 december 2010 gegeven worden bij Beit ha'Chidush te Amsterdam. Helaas was dit niet mogelijk door reis- en weersomstandigheden en stel ik de d'rasha zo ter beschikking. Bereisjit 50:17 – 26, Parasjat Vayechi Tot wasdom komen Het einde van het begin en het begin van het einde. Ze vloeien in deze parasja, Vajechi, moeiteloos in elkaar over. Geruisloos als een schaduw bekruipt de Egyptische slavernij de Israëlieten. Vajechi is het slotakkoord van de veelstemmige en tegelijkertijd dissonante symfonie van het boek Beresjiet (Genesis) voordat er een nieuwe aanhef plaatsvindt in Sjemot (Exodus). Het einde van het begin is ook het einde van het einde. Voor Josef, althans. Josef, de kleine jongen met de grote dosis gotspe . Wij maken Josef maar liefst dertien hoofdstukken mee en bespeuren al snel irritatie bij onszelf. Wie is die jongen met zijn brutale dromen? Intens gewenst door zijn gefrustreerde moeder, voorgetrokke...