Rosner’s Torah Talk: Parashat Chayei Sarah with Rabbi Deborah Bravo

Our guest this week is Rabbi Deborah Bravo, the spiritual leader and founder of Makom NY: A New Kind of Jewish Community. Prior to creating Makom NY, Rabbi Bravo served several congregations across the East Coast. Ordained from HUC-JIR in 1998, Rabbi Bravo also holds a Master in Education from Xavier University. She is a Rabbis Without Borders member and a member of the Hakhel 2^nd Incubator Cohort. She also participated in the VIA Institute and CLAL partnership on Flourishing and was in the first cohort of the Spiritual Entrepreneurs program through Columbia Business School and CLAL. Rabbi Bravo volunteers her time in the greater Jewish and secular world, having chaired national conventions for CCAR and WRN, currently serving on the executive board of the NYBR.

This week’s Torah portion — Parashat Chayei Sarah (Genesis 23:1-25:18) — features the death of Sarah, Isaac’s marriage to Rivka, and the death and burial of Abraham. Our talk focuses on Sarah’s life, Abraham’s eulogy and the rituals around death and mourning.

Our past discussions of Chayei Sarah:

Wendi Geffen on Rivka as the dominant figure of the 2^nd generation of the covenant

Rabbi Ranon Teller on Eliezer’s prayer and the role of prayer in our lives

Rabbi James Gibson on the significance of the story of Abraham going abroad to find Isaac a wife

Rabbi Alan Henkin on the shift from the generation of Abraham and Sarah to that of Isaac and Rebecca