Coronavirus

December 25, 2025

Negotiations and Love Songs (Parashat Vayiggash 5782)

This was the D’var Torah I gave for Parashat Vayiggash in 5782, on December 11, 2021. Some of what I said then was specific to that moment in the Covid-19 pandemic, but I’m leaving that in now as an example of the broader themes and messages of my D’var Torah. On Paul Simon’s 1983 album… Continue reading

Anger, Coronavirus, Current Affairs, Negotiation, Parashat Hashavua, Speech Ethics, Torah, Vayiggash
December 15, 2023

D’var Torah: Dreaming Even In These Times

This is the D’var Torah I plan to share at Shabbat morning services on December 16, 2023 for Parashat Miketz. It’s related to this one I gave in late 2020, when we could begin to think about reality after Covid vaccines. I want to start by misquoting someone, specifically Dr. Tal Ben-Shahar, on the subject of dreamers and cynics:… Continue reading

Chanuka, Chanukkah, Coronavirus, Current Affairs, Dreams/Dreaming, Holidays, Hope, Israel, Leadership, Miketz, Parashat Hashavua
October 1, 2022

My Rosh Hashanah Sermons From Last Week

Here are my sermons from Rosh Hashanah 5783: First day:Help Me Talk About What I've Been Through and Who I Am Second day:Right-ology: How to Be Right Better in the New Year Wishing everyone a Shana Tova Umetukah, a good and sweet new year! Continue reading

Calendar, Coronavirus, Current Affairs, Election, Elul, Ethics, Gratitude, Hakarat Hatov, High Holidays, Holidays, Hope, Middot, Midrash, Prayer, Rosh Hashanah, Soul, Speech Ethics, Spirituality, Synagogue, Talmud, Teacher-Student Relationship, Television, Teshuvah, Theology, Torah, Tov! Podcast, USA, Yamim Noraim
September 8, 2022

Best of My Past High Holy Day Sermons

These are to me the best of my Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur sermons from years past. I'm collecting them here because you find them useful to read and think about in Elul. They aren't in chronological or any particular order. Hope In An Uncertain World (5777/2016)What the Chanukkah dreidel can teach us about four… Continue reading

Calendar, Coronavirus, Current Affairs, Election, Ethics, Gratitude, Hakarat Hatov, High Holidays, Hope, Justice, Leadership, Middot, Patience, Ritual, Rosh Hashanah, Shabbat, Teshuvah, Tikkun Olam, Torah, Tzedek, USA, Yamim Noraim, Yom Kippur, Youth
March 31, 2022

Don’t Strike the [R]ock — Reflections on the Oscars

Head over to my blog at the Times of Israel. Continue reading

Chukkat, Coronavirus, Current Affairs, Education, Ethics, Exodus, Jewish Education, Moshe, Movies, Pesach, Shmot, USA
March 22, 2022

Learning From Leviticus Again

This is the D’var Torah I gave in the synagogue on Saturday morning, March 12, 2022, for Parashat Vayikra. Even though it’s of a specific time and makes reference to that over and over, I read it again after a few years and find that my teachings here still speak. Most years I trot out… Continue reading

Calendar, Coronavirus, Current Affairs, Parashat Hashavua, Ritual, Spirituality, Vayikra
March 17, 2022

The Power of Purim (Reflecting Just in the Moment)

The power of Purim: On Tuesday and yesterday, I spent several hours in total shopping for and making my do-it-yourself costume. There was the regular work I do, which I did; and the world to attend to with its craziness, which I check in on regularly. And I learned of a sudden death in… Continue reading

Calendar, Coronavirus, Current Affairs, Esther, Ethics, Holidays, Purim, Rabbi
March 10, 2022

How to Start Another Pandemic Year: Learning from Leviticus

This is the D'var Torah I gave a year ago in our Torah reading cycle, March 20, 2021. It was by the Torah reading calendar the first reading of the second year of pandemic restrictions. I read it now and so much of how I'm reflecting is the same. When we last checked in at… Continue reading

Calendar, Coronavirus, Current Affairs, Ethics, Parashat Hashavua, Patience, Shabbat, USA, Vayikra
January 11, 2022

Rechavia, Sabba Moshe, and the Night Before Leaving Egypt: A Midrash

I wrote this midrash on the 5th of Sheva 5782 (January 8, 2022) as my Dvar Torah for Parashat Bo, and in particular chapters 11-12 of Exodus, which introduce and lead into and through the last of the ten plagues in Egypt. I was thinking about issues of collective accountability and responsibility, which are the ethical… Continue reading

Antisemitism, Bo, Books, Calendar, Coronavirus, Current Affairs, History, Holidays, Hope, Justice, Leadership, Midrash, Parashat Hashavua, Pesach, Shabbat Hachodesh, Tikkun Olam, Torah, Tzedek, USA
July 20, 2021

Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy — A Map of Spring and Summer 2021

I've been wanting to get this down for weeks…. I’ve been very affected since March by Torah time – by how the cycle of reading the Torah in synagogue has mapped onto our experience of the pandemic since its one-year anniversary. The first anniversary of the formal declaration of the pandemic and the massive shut-downs… Continue reading

B’haalotcha, B’midbar, Behar, Calendar, Coronavirus, Current Affairs, Elul, High Holidays, Holidays, Ki Tetze, Ki Tissa, Korach, Leadership, Mas’ei, Mattot, Metzora, Naso, Numbers, Parashat Hashavua, Patience, Pekudei, Pinchas, Re’eh, Rosh Hashanah, Shmini, Shoftim, Study, Tisha B’Av, Torah, USA, Vayakhel, Vayikra, Yamim Noraim
June 28, 2021

Ships, Planks, and Storms — Looking Back and Ahead

These were my words of Torah at the start of Temple Beth Abraham's annual congregational meeting on June 15, 2021. Though they refer specifically to that occasion in places, I think the Torah here is apt for all of us as we reflect on the past fifteen months and the transitions we in, each in our own… Continue reading

Calendar, Coronavirus, Current Affairs, Hope, Middot, Patience, Prayer, Soul, Spirituality, Study, Synagogue, Talmud, Temple Beth Abraham, Torah, USA
March 26, 2021

Pesach Community Message 5781

This is the note I sent out to our congregation on Friday, March 26, 2021 as we get ready for Pesach to begin. Dear Friends: I have a short Pesach agenda to share with you below, but first: I realized a couple days ago how much I want Pesach this year to be like Chanukkah. There's no way, at… Continue reading

Calendar, Coronavirus, Current Affairs, Food, Freedom, History, Holidays, Jewish Education, Justice, Pesach, Ritual, Study