Big Read: Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor - Rosh Hashnah Day 2, 5785
Before I begin to speak about this year’s Big Read, I want to step back and take a wider view of my High Holiday sermons this year. Yesterday I spoke about the importance of community, specifically Jewish community and synagogue community as a source of resilience. On Kol Nidre night I will speak about community as a lynchpin of democracy. My sermons today and on Yom Kippur day are about Israel, but also our connection to the greater Jewish...Read more...
Collective Resilience - Rosh Hashanah Day 1, 5785
There is a proverbial Chinese curse, “May you live in interesting times. This seems to be our lot.”
When I think back over the last several years, I am struck by how many assumptions that I held have been upended. I am shocked that once solid institutions seem shaky, that as a nation we have lost so much trust and goodwill, and that we have lost much of the feeling, however illusory it was, that life is at least...Read more...
If I am Not for Myself, Who am I?
Because we had a holiday, because we have had a couple lovely bnai mitzvah, I haven’t talked to you about current events recently. Truly, that has been a blessing, and even this morning, when we have a beautiful aufruf, when we read one of the most important Torah readings of the year, I am reluctant to speak of hard things, especially when we could discuss loving your neighbor and loving the stranger. And yet I feel I...Read more...
High Holiday Sermons 2023/5784
HIGH HOLIDAY SERMONS 2022 / 5783
WHAT LIGHTS WILL YOU LIGHT THIS YEAR?
Hanukkah 2021
**What Lights will You Light this Year?**
In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, I remember that David was more freaked out by the subsequent anthrax scare than he was by the events of 9/11. I remember him saying that a person can tolerate the first hit; it’s the second one that really gets you.
This year, as we go through our second iteration of pandemic holidays, I feel the prescience of his words....Read more...
High Holiday Sermons 2021 / 5782
Real Presence — Art in Vayakhel-Pekudei
**Art and the Imagination**
Real Presence — Art in Vayakhel-Pekudei
It is surprising that after the narrative of the calf, the Torah returns to the mishkan, the tabernacle in the desert. Regardless of whether you hold that the building of the mishkan was a response to the calf or whether you hold that it preceded the calf, either way it is surprising that after the people sin grievously, attempting to locate God’s presence...Read more...
Real Presence — Art in Vayakhel-Pekudei
**Art and the Imagination**
It is surprising that after the narrative of the calf, the Torah returns to the mishkan, the tabernacle in the desert. Regardless of whether you hold that the building of the mishkan was a response to the calf or whether you hold that it preceded the calf, either way it is surprising that after the people sin grievously, attempting to locate God’s presence within a finite human creation, God orders the...Read more...
High Holiday Sermons 2020 / 5781
Tue, October 15 2024
13 Tishrei 5785
Events
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Sukkot Supper Under the Stars
Friday, Oct 18th 6:00p to 9:00p
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SUKKAH HOP
Shabbat, Oct 19th 6:45p to 10:00p
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Lunch with Rabbi Shapiro in the CBJ Sukkah
Tuesday, Oct 22nd 12:00p to 1:30p
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Simchat Torah
Friday, Oct 25th 9:30a to 11:00a
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The Leadership Void in the American Constitution with Stephen Skowronek
Shabbat, Oct 26th 1:00p to 2:30p
