Sermons

Shabbat Shalom… We made it through another holiday season!

The Torah begins as we all know, with the creation of the world. God uses ten sentences over seven days to create the heavens and the earth and the first holiday, Shabbat. It is a remarkable story as told in the first chapter of Genesis and even more remarkable because in Chapter two, there is another story told from a different point of view.

Read more...

Gemar Tov – May our fasting and prayers today bring us to a good conclusion.
Rabbi Ed Feinstein of California tells the Hasidic story called, “The Storyteller.”
When the Ba’al Shem Tov, the founder of Hasidism died, his disciples gathered to distribute his worldly possessions. One was given his tefillin and another his shtender/lectern. One received his books and another his kiddush cup. 
At the end of the line waited...Read more...

L’shana Tova U’metuka – I wish everyone a happy and sweet new year.
Five years ago, I was watching the news, shortly after Donald Trump became President of the United States. The news commentator had a problem. The President had said that day something that was undeniably false. It could be proven wrong. There was clear evidence that the President had told a lie. The commentator didn’t know what to do. It felt wrong to call the...Read more...

Shabbat Shalom, 
It never ceases to amaze me how simple Halachot/Mitzvot/Laws of the Torah can have significance throughout the ages. Even if we think that they have long ago passed into disuse, somehow, they always find new meaning in a different era. This week’s parsha has no less than 72 mitzvot in it, more than any other parsha. As the Torah comes to its end, this parsha serves as a catch all for the miscellaneous laws that...Read more...

Shabbat Shalom.
Rabbi Mordechai Silverstein is a good friend of mine; we attended Rabbinical School together and have stayed in touch even after he made Aliyah to Israel where he has lived and taught Torah for many years. He now has a Torah Blog that appears in the Times of Israel and this week his insights were not only sharp, but important as well.
In our Parsha, at the very beginning of Chapter 14 of Devarim, there is a commandment...Read more...

Shabbat Shalom.

Ah, look at all the lonely people
Ah, look at all the lonely people
Eleanor Rigby
Died in the church and was buried along with her name
Nobody came
Father McKenzie
Wiping the dirt from his hands as he walks from the grave
No one was saved
All the lonely people
Where do they all come from?
All the lonely people
Where do they all belong?
The Beatles song, “Elinor Rigby”...Read more...

Shabbat Shalom
There are two things that stand out in Parshat Hukkat. One is the law of the Red Cow. It is striking because the law seems to contradict itself. It makes someone ritually pure no matter how severe the impurity might be, and yet, whoever handles the ashes becomes impure. How can something that purifies also be a source of impurity? I will leave that discussion for another day. 
The other part of the text of the...Read more...

The great Rabbi Akiva did not begin his studies until he was 40 years old. He had to go to school with his young son to learn to read. It is not recorded how embarrassed he was to be in an elementary school class at midlife, but he was determined to be something more than an illiterate shepherd. His wife encouraged him to be more than what he was, and as he learned the wisdom inside of him became apparent to all. 

On this holiday...Read more...

Gemar Hatima Tova – May we be sealed for Good in the Book of Life.

The late Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi used to tell a story about a man who heard that Shabbat, in the town of Libush, when its rabbi was still alive, was...Read more...

Hag Sameach

Many years ago, when my children were young, they decided one Sukkot that they wanted to sleep in our Sukkah. The sukkah was in the back yard; there was a solid fence around the yard, and it should have been a pretty safe place for children to spend the night....Read more...

Shabbat Shalom

When I was very young, my family lived just over a half mile from our synagogue. We walked to shul every Shabbat and Holiday. We lived so close that when visiting speakers needed to be housed for Shabbat near the shul, we always offered our home. And yet,...Read more...

Shabbat Shalom
As we returned from our trip to Great Britain, we had a selection of movies to help us pass the time on the long flight across the Atlantic. In the classics section was the famous movie, “Casablanca” with Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. It was a good opportunity to connect with a favorite movie, so Michelle and I settled in to “play it again.”
There is a long set at the beginning of the movie where the...Read more...

Shabbat Shalom

In the Torah, it is called “The Great Rebellion” - Korach and his followers rebel against the leadership of Moshe Rabbenu, Moses our Teacher. There are so many reasons for this rebellion that modern commentators believe that it is a compilation of...Read more...

Shabbat Shalom

Sometimes the Torah surprises us with something that seems so easy and yet it contains a very deep lesson. At the beginning of our Parsha, Aaron is told to go ahead and light the lamp that will burn inside the Mishkan, the central tent of the portable...Read more...

Hag Sameach

There is a very interesting explanation about parshat Bamidbar, the parsha read a couple of days ago. There is a small repetition in the text, when the People of Israel are instructed on how they should march in the desert on their way to the Promised Land....Read more...