Gratitude

March 11, 2026

Breadman, and What Rising Bread Taught Me About Our Inflated Selves

This was my D’var Torah for Shabbat Hachodesh, the Shabbat before the beginning of the month when Pesach occurs, in 5769 (2009). It’s one of my favorites! On Shabbat Hachodesh, we read from Exodus 12 about the preparations for the original Pesach in Egypt. A couple weeks ago, our bread maker gave up the ghost. … Continue reading

Calendar, Exodus, Gratitude, Hakarat Hatov, Holidays, Middot, Pesach, Shabbat Hachodesh
September 26, 2025

Rosh Hashanah D’var Torah Day 2: The Power of Kindness in a Brutal World

This was my D’var Torah for the second day of Rosh Hashanah 5786 (2025). In a piece in Slate about the TV show Ted Lasso, Amanda Prahl wrote: Kindness is the vanilla of emotional concepts. It has the reputation of being safe, two-dimensional, passive, and utterly bland. Ask any culinary expert, though, and they’ll tell… Continue reading

Anger, Antisemitism, Current Affairs, Gaza, Gratitude, High Holidays, Holidays, Immigration, Inclusion, Israel, Justice, Leadership, Middot, Rosh Hashanah, Tikkun Olam, Torah, Tzedek, USA, Vayera, Yamim Noraim
November 28, 2024

Gratitude for Being Together in This Country

These are my words from this past Tuesday's Thanksgiving service with the Nashua Area Interfaith Council. Thank you to Pilgrim Congregational Church for hosting us this year! Let me start my reflection on gratitude for being together in this country with a story about Wolf Landsman, Clarence Stetson, and Eva Castillo. It’s possible I have… Continue reading

Calendar, Community Relations, Friendship, Gratitude, Hakarat Hatov, Immigration, Inclusion, Interfaith Dialogue, Thanksgiving, USA
November 27, 2024

Jewish — Thanksgiving is Actually in Our Name

These are words I shared in 2022 at the Nashua Area Interfaith Council service right before Thanksgiving. The first words a Jew is supposed to say upon waking are: Modah Ani or Modeh Ani, which mean “Thankful am I”. Even before we bring ourselves into focus, we are we are taught to center gratitude, and… Continue reading

Calendar, Gratitude, Holidays, Middot, Prayer, Thanksgiving
July 19, 2024

D’var Torah for Balak: Saying We Are Blessed

It's Friday and here is my current draft of a D'var Torah for Shabbat morning on Parashat Balak, Numbers 22:2-25:9: In the parasha this week, an enemy of the Jews asks a man of powerful words to curse Israel. To say bad things about us in a way to bring us harm. And it doesn’t… Continue reading

Antisemitism, Balak, Community Relations, Current Affairs, Gratitude, Hakarat Hatov, Hope, Israel, Jerusalem, Lech L’cha, Parashat Hashavua, Torah
June 27, 2024

The Grape Cluster and the Two Who Carry It: A D’var Torah for Pride

This is the D'var Torah I gave for Pride Shabbat 5781/2021, for Parashat Sh'lach L'cha (Numbers 13:1-15:41). I love this parasha about the scouts, the m’raglim, and the fact that the Torah is so brutally honest about how hard it is to go forward even to a land of milk and honey, even when the… Continue reading

Calendar, Conservative Judaism, Current Affairs, Education, Equality, Friendship, GLBT, Gratitude, Hakarat Hatov, Inclusion, Jewish Education, Justice, LGBTQ+, Parashat Hashavua, Sh’lach L’cha, Teens, Teshuvah, Tikkun Olam, Torah, Tzedek, Young Jewish Adult, Youth
November 24, 2023

Gratitude Is Our Name (Even Now)

This is my D’var Torah for Parashat Vayetze, “Shabbat Thanksgiving” 5784. I wrote it while feeling grateful for the hostages who have been returned, heartbroken for those still captive and the families not returned whole, and grateful for the naming celebration at services that particular Shabbat. It is Thanksgiving Shabbat and what a better time… Continue reading

Calendar, Current Affairs, Gratitude, Hakarat Hatov, Holidays, Israel, Parashat Hashavua, Patience, Spirituality, Tikkun Olam, Vayetze
December 25, 2022

Being One, Being Two, Being Seven, Being Eight

My D'var Torah for Shabbat Chanukkah 5783 (December 24, 2022). A question I often get around Chanukkah is: Is it true that all the candle hae to be at the same level, other than the shamash? Usually the question comes from creativity — someone who wants to repurpose another item as a chanukkiah, or who… Continue reading

Calendar, Chanuka, Chanukkah, Education, Eight, Gratitude, Hakarat Hatov, Holidays, Leadership, Patience, Ritual, Simcha, Study, Synagogue, Talmud, Tikkun Olam, Torah
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
September 7, 2022

Getting From Here to High Holy Days, Starting With a Party!

This is based on what I said on Shabbat morning, August 27, 2022 at the start of the month of Elul. It was the day of a Bar Mitzvah and an aufruf (blessing to a couple about to get married)! Usually I think of Elul as a time of introspection before we get together in… Continue reading

Calendar, Elul, Ethics, Gratitude, Hakarat Hatov, High Holidays, Holidays, Hope, Joy, Prayer, Ritual, Rosh Hashanah, Shabbat, Simcha, Soul, Spirituality, Study, Synagogue, Yamim Noraim, Yom Kippur
November 30, 2020

Yehudi: Jews Means Thankful When Gratitude Isn’t Easy

This was the D’var Torah I gave on Saturday, November 28, the Shabbat of Thanksgiving weekend 2020. We Jews have three major names in the Tanakh, in the Bible. When other people are around, we’re sometimes called Ivri or Hebrew — the people from over-there, from the other side of the tracks, the parvenu. When… Continue reading

Calendar, Current Affairs, Gratitude, Hakarat Hatov, Holidays, Immigration, Justice, Spirituality, Thanksgiving, Tikkun Olam, Vayetze