Rabbi Natasha Mann

If you asked me how long it is until, God willing, I will be a rabbi, I might answer by saying: It is day 1,682 of my studies toward ordination. The likelihood is good that you would find that an odd answer, and not only because I know the exact number of days. When we are counting towards an important date, we usually count down , not up – so it might sound more natural to you if I said, ‘It is 394 days until my ordination.’ However, in this period of Counting the Omer – of counting every day between the second day of Passover until Shavuot – we count upwards. We start at Day 1 of the Omer, and we count every day until Day 49. But why not start at Day 49 and count downwards? If we counted downwards, we would always know how many days until the arrival of Shavuot, the holiday celebrating the giving of Torah. It would be dramatic and effective. And instead, we declare that today is Day 21 of the Omer, and even though we are counting towards Shavuot, we’re left to do the maths ou

This D'var Torah was given to Temple Beth Abraham, Oakland, by student rabbi Natasha Mann. The parashah was Parashat H ayyei Sara. This was the week after the Pittsburgh Tree of Life Synagogue shooting. Resistance and Healing in the Wake of Tragedy This is a hard week to be at shul. Last Shabbat, just one week and yet somehow an eternity ago, eleven of our brothers and sisters were shot down between the walls of a sanctuary not unlike our own. They were killed because of sinat chinam – baseless hatred. They are no longer with the Jewish family to share their wisdom, and their laughter, and their tears, because of the actions of one sick and hateful man. Their lives have been cut short. I cannot even imagine what this time must be like for their families, for having to bury them, or for the community of the Tree of Life Synagogue, who are reeling from this attack within their walls. This week, I have found myself struggling to explain to non-Jewish friends and loved ones

This D'var Torah was given to Herzl-Ner Tamid Synagogue, WA, for Parashat Bo, by Rabbinic Intern Natasha Mann. The Paradigm of the Self I used to have a great answer for the question, ‘So why do you want to be a rabbi?’ None of you have ever heard that answer, but I promise you, it was a good one. It was funny, and it was polished; it had a story about my home rabbi, and a story about my college friends, and it was always met with a smile. And somewhere between my beginning to craft that response and making it so good, it stopped being true. Because I changed, and the response didn’t. That’s why, when any of you have asked why I want to be a rabbi, I stumble through a response that I refuse to prepare in advance. It turns out that my slow, frowning response filled with ‘um’s and ‘wait, let me say that a different way’ is much more true to reality. So why did it take me so many years of retelling the same story to realise that it wasn’t true? The human brain loves narrat

This short D'var Torah was given to Herzl-Ner Tamid Synagogue, WA, for Parashat Bo by Rabbinic Intern Natasha Mann. Seeing God in Pharaoh The biggest disservice that the classical rabbis did to our tradition was to demonise some biblical characters and make others into saints. The most obvious and painful example to me is that they demonised Eisav (Esau), whose most significant action was one of profound forgiveness, and they turned lying, cheating Ya’akov into a saint. It’s a disservice because lying, cheating Ya’akov is an interesting character with a tremendous amount of character growth, and the saintly version which the rabbis insist upon makes very little sense at all. Pharaoh is easily the most despicable character in the Torah. There’s no need to demonise Pharaoh beyond the biblical account. After all, among Pharaoh’s sins are slavery and mass infanticide. And yet the opening line of this week’s parashah should give you pause. The opening line is God saying to

This D'var Torah was given to Herzl-Ner Tamid Synagogue, WA, for Parasha Sh'mot 5778, by Rabbinic Intern Natasha Mann. Go Ahead and Change the World My mother recently finished watching the second season of The Blue Planet. If you’re not familiar with The Blue Planet, it is a British nature documentary on marine life. It is breathtakingly beautiful, and also breathtakingly depressing, especially when the focus shifts to the impact humans are having on the ocean and its life. My mother was almost in tears as she described a scene where a parent albatross confused a plastic toothpick for food, and took it back to feed to her baby. The albatross then held her baby as the baby died. This particular scene had a big impact on my mother, and as a result, she has become more dedicated to avoiding purchasing or using single-use plastic products which cannot be recycled. A part of this has meant that she no longer uses the plastic cutlery in her workplace, and instead brings h

This short D'var Torah was given to Herzl-Ner Tamid Synagogue, WA, by Rabbinic Intern Natasha Mann. Keva, Kavanah, and the Paradox of Prayer There is a classic argument in Jewish law and values which has its roots in the least seemingly-contentious verse I can think of. The root is this verse: ‘And Avraham got up in the morning’. You might think, ‘What could possibly be contentious about this verse?’ Well. Let it never be said that Jews cannot find places for tension in the seemingly-innocuous. The rabbis read this verse as Avraham getting up in the morning to pray. This verse is therefore where the rabbis read the obligation to daven Sha h arit, to say our morning prayers. There’s another verse for Yitz h ak to prove Min h a, and another for Ya’akov to prove Ma’ariv. We are sitting here tonight, doing the set prayers at the set time, because the rabbis read Ya’akov as praying in the evening. And not only do we have specific times to say specific texts, but we even have