2022 Yom Kippur Morning: It’s About Time
My two-and-a-half year old son, Aaron, has a new morning routine. Upon waking up, he excitedly opens his bedroom curtains and exclaims, It's daytime!
Tag: High Holiday · 32 sermons
2022 Yom Kippur Evening: Regret is Holy
Ashikaga Yoshimasa was a shogun, living in the 15th century. One of his favorite possessions was a Chinese tea bowl. A story suggests that he accidentally dropped it on the floor, and immediately It shattered into many…
2022 Rosh Hashanah Morning: Changing How We Think About Change
This is a story about a town not too different than ours. Its citizens were generally friendly, good, menschy people, but over the past few years, their demeanor changed. No one knows the exact cause: It could be the…
2022 Rosh Hashanah Evening: “It is Good”
1968 was a difficult year. Racial discord and foreign conflicts created an atmosphere of tension and anger. Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy were both assassinated. The United States was embroiled in the war in…
Stand with Other Tribes (Yom Kippur 5780/2019)
אַתֶּ֨ם נִצָּבִ֤ים הַיּוֹם֙ כֻּלְּכֶ֔ם לִפְנֵ֖י יְהוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֵיכֶ֑ם רָאשֵׁיכֶ֣ם שִׁבְטֵיכֶ֗ם זִקְנֵיכֶם֙ וְשֹׁ֣טְרֵיכֶ֔ם כֹּ֖ל אִ֥ישׁ יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃
Ecclesiastes and Job Are True (Kol Nidrei 5780/2019)
There is a time for everything, a time for every experience under heaven. A time to be born and a time to die, a time for planting, and a time to uproot the planted.
We Are All Below the Mountain (Rosh Hashanah Morning 5780/2019)
Earlier this summer, an email exchange between a High School principal and a parent became national news. William Latson, the principal of Spanish River High School in Boca Raton, Florida, was communicating with a…
There Is No Messiah … and You're It (Rosh Hashanah Evening 5780/2019)
Hey Rabbi, who is drinking that wine? Congregation Rodeph Shalom is located on the Upper West Side in New York City. Every year during Passover, the synagogue partners with Harlem’s Memorial Baptist Church for what they…
The Roseto Effect (Yom Kippur Evening 2018)
In a small borough in Northampton County, lies a town called Roseto. Roseto was founded in 1882 by a group of Italians sailing from their home province of Foggia. Since that time, Roseto's citizens are mostly the…
Happiness Is a Choice (Yom Kippur 2018)
Dr. Laurie Santos teaches one of the most popular courses in the history of Yale University. It's so large, in fact, that the class meets in Battell Chapel, a church that's been converted into a lecture hall. Over 1200…
Abraham Failed the Test (Rosh Hashanah Morning 2018)
Our tradition teaches that the Akeidah highlights the pinnacle of Jewish faith. God commands Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac, and the Torah tells us that Abraham was so eager to carry out God's command that he awoke…
Indictiveness, Thou-Ness, and Matters of Substance (Rosh Hashanah Evening 2018)
Buenas noches y feliz ano nuevo. Good evening and Happy New Year! This summer, I started to learn Spanish. I'm using a free app, Duolingo. It can help you learn over 30 different languages, including French, German,…
Safe Spaces, Holy Spaces (Yom Kippur 2017)
Three months ago, 1500 people marched in Chicago. The march was a women's gay rights march. As it gathered support, it seemed to be a proclamation for acceptance and diversity of all orientations, sexual and otherwise.…
You Want It Darker (Kol Nidrei 2017)
If you are the dealer, I’m out of the game If you are the healer, it means I’m broken and lame And thine is the glory, then mine must be the shame You want it darker, we kill the flame.
Let Truth Spring Forth from the Earth (and From Us) (Rosh Hashanah Morning 2017)
When God was about to create human beings, a midrash shows that God formed an ad-hoc creation committee meeting. God invited the ministering angels to help decide whether or not to create humanity. The angels were…
Look at Your Steps & Then, Look Up! (Rosh Hashanah Evening 2017)
Where have you been? What have you done? These are essential questions on our High Holidays. The prayers we recite tonight and tomorrow will help us to reflect on the past year as we engage in Chesbon HaNefesh, the self…
Yom Kippur Morning 5777: 1, 2, 3 … Smile!
My father loves photography. He would lug out his 35 millimeter camera and insist on taking pictures of my mom and me on vacations, hikes, even sometimes just going out to lunch. Now that he has a DSLR, it's even worse;…
Yom Kippur Evening 5777: Now Is the Time
A young boy ran away from home, and was quite far away. In fact, it would take a journey of 100 days to return. He friends beseeched him, Return to your home! He said, I cannot, for I do not have the strength. Upon…
Make Good Art (Rosh Hashanah Morning 5777)
In 2012, Neil Gaiman gave the commencement address at the University of the Arts. Gaimon is a prolific author of fantasy books, including the well-known and critically acclaimed, Coraline, which was made into a…
Rosh Hashanah Evening 5777: Tevye's Other Hand
A new Rabbi comes to the synagogue and leads Shabbat services for the first time. Everything is going well. But just before the Sh'ma, half of the congregation stands up while the other half remains seated.
5776: We Are the Ever-Dying People (Yom Kippur Morning)
Five Jews are sitting on a park bench. Oy, says the first. Oy vey, says the second. Oy vey iz mir, says the third. Oy gevalt, says the fourth. The fifth says, Can we just this once stop talking about the Iran deal?”
Kol Nidrei Is Not About Promises
Kol Nidrei. Tonight's service is named for this prayer that we heard toward the beginning of our service. Kol Nidrei is so powerful, so important, so meaningful - that we stand during its threefold recitation. In fact,…
5776: Sometimes, Being Perfect Is Not Good Enough (Rosh Hashanah Morning)
I've always wanted to be on Jeopardy. I love everything about it - its competitive spirit, the display of lightning like intellectual and physical reflexes that recall all matters of intellectual ephemera, and the…
5776: Rosh Hashanah Is Not a Period at the End of the Year; It's a Semi-Colon
High School. First kiss. Graduation. College. First job. Marriage. Yesteryear. The good ole days. Nostalgia is a booming business. In recent years, social media has popularized what has come to be known as 'tbt' -…
My Homeland of Israel (Yom Kippur Morning)
With the war in Gaza hitting a fever pitch, Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum wrote a prayer for peace. Within the prayer, she recited the names of Israeli soldiers and Palestinian children. She urged her congregation not to harden…
What's Behind the Curtain? (Yom Kippur Evening)
Tonight I ask, what is behind this curtain, the parochet that opens to reveal the insides of our holy ark? Lawrence Kushner, the fantastic kabbalist and author, tells a story from his days as a pulpit rabbi at…
Judaism & the Dark Side of the Subjunctive (Rosh Hashanah Morning)
If you have ever studied Roman mythology, you may recall the god, Janus. Janus is the god of beginnings and transitions. He is also known as the god of doorways and time. Our secular month of January serves as his…
Look Up and See Blessing (Rosh Hashanah Evening)
A zen koan: Lightning flashes, Sparks shower, In one blink of your eyes, You have missed seeing. - Zen Koan Judaism teaches us to see. Abraham looked up to see the ram that he would sacrifice in place of his son, Isaac.…
Yom Kippur Morning 5774: Superman Spends a Lot of Time Being Clark Kent
I was so excited to see the new Superman movie, Man of Steel. A friend and I went to the new movie theatre next to Lowe's, found ourselves seats that weren't too close to the screen ... weren't too far back ... and…
Life is a Pre-Existing Condition (Kol Nidrei 5774)
Life is a pre-existing condition. Back in High School, I read Ovid’s great work of Greek mythology, The Illiad. I devoured the epic poem of Odysseus and his adventures with the pantheon of Greek gods. The stories are…
Rosh Hashanah Morning 5774: The Mandatory Optionals of Judaism
Earlier this summer, I had the privilege of working at our regional URJ camp, Camp Coleman. For one week I networked with colleagues, taught classes, tutored bar and bat mizvah students and led services. I also cheered…
Rosh Hashanah Eve 5774: Michelangelo, a German Photographer and an Israeli Poet Walk into Rosh Hashanah Services
Stop me if you've heard this one before. Michelangelo, an Israeli poet and a German photographer walk into Rosh Hashanah services ...