Recent Sermons

Kol Nidre Sermon from B'nai Jacob on Vimeo.

On the first day of Rosh Hashanah, I spoke about how communities such as our synagogue help to foster collective resilience. Tonight I want to address a second important dimension of the work of communities, that is, how communal organizations like churches and synagogues, PTA’s and Lions Clubs, are essential to the wellbeing of democracy.

Over the summer, I attended the...Read more...

Rosh Hashana Day 1 sermon from B'nai Jacob on Vimeo.

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...Read more...

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...

**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...