Holidays

October 27, 2026

Tu B’Av and Pride Shabbat

This was my D’var Torah for our Pride Shabbat on August 9, 2025, which was Shabbat Nachamu and Tu B’Av, a celebration and calendar date explained within. I’m publishing it now to catch up on words of Torah I’ve previously taught, in anticipation of our next Pride Shabbat this coming Saturday, October 31, 2026. The… Continue reading

Calendar, Current Affairs, Equality, Feminism, Gender, GLBT, Holidays, Inclusion, Jewish Education, Joy, Justice, LGBTQ+, Love, Midrash, Talmud, Temple Beth Abraham, Tikkun Olam, Tu B’Av, Tzedek, Young Jewish Adult, Youth
October 21, 2026

Moral Adventure

This was my D’var Torah for the second day of Rosh Hashanah in 5776 (2015). Part of the idea I have to credit to Rabbi Sharon Brous for a Rosh Hashanah sermons of her I read sometime before then, called “Moral Conundrum Ahead“, which is where I think I first got the idea of “moral… Continue reading

College, Ethics, High Holidays, Holidays, Justice, Leadership, Lech L’cha, Middot, Money, Parashat Hashavua, Power, Rosh Hashanah, Social Theory, Teshuvah, Tikkun Olam, Torah, Tzedek, USA, Vayera, Yamim Noraim, Young Jewish Adult, Youth
September 16, 2026

Spiritual Finders and Keepers — Rosh Hashanah D’var Torah First Day 5787/2026

What do telephone booths make you think of? Ancient times…. Superheroes? Phone booths make me think of a particular superhero named Joy Cousminer, a Jewish New Yorker who founded a credit union in the South Bronx in 1970 in a phone booth. Joy was teaching single mothers for their GED, and she discovered they had… Continue reading

9/11, Calendar, Civil Rights, Current Affairs, Hashavat Aveidah, High Holidays, Holidays, Hope, Israel, Rosh Hashanah, Talmud, Temple Beth Abraham, Tikkun Olam, Torah, USA, Yamim Noraim
September 16, 2026

Teshuvah, Tzedakah, and… Tefillah (Prayer)? Rosh Hashanah D’var Torah Second Day 5787/2026

I have been responsible for leading High Holy Day services start-to-finish in some way almost every year since 1988, when I was not far from here, south of Worcester in Webster, Massachusetts. So my High Holy Day career is even longer than my rabbinic career. For about the first half of that longer career, the… Continue reading

Calendar, Coronavirus, Dreams/Dreaming, Elul, Ethics, High Holidays, Holidays, Israel, Middot, Prayer, Rosh Hashanah, Spirituality, Theology, Tikkun Olam, Yamim Noraim
September 7, 2026

Looking Up (Rosh Hashanah 5780/2019)

This was one of my Divrei Torah for Rosh Hashanah in 2019 (5780). When I was 22 years old, a man looked up at me, and changed my life. This was connected to the thing that I thought was going to change my life that year, which was a Wexner Graduate Fellowship to go to… Continue reading

Calendar, Equality, Gratitude, Hakarat Hatov, High Holidays, Holidays, Leadership, Power, Rosh Hashanah, Teacher-Student Relationship, Torah, Young Jewish Adult
September 6, 2026

Atalanta (How To Approach the Metaphor of God as King)

This is a D’var Torah I shared in Shabbat services a few weeks before Rosh Hashanah on September 10, 2022. This is a reflection on the metaphor of malchut (kingship or royalty) for the Divine, which features so centrally in the prayers of the High Holy Days. The week I wrote this was also the… Continue reading

Calendar, Feminism, High Holidays, Holidays, Power, Rosh Hashanah, Theology, Yom Kippur
September 3, 2026

What I’ve Learned (So Far) About Teshuvah From “The Good Place”

This is what I said in an episode I recorded for our podcast Tov! about the TV show “The Good Place” and Jewish ideas, just before Rosh Hashanah in 2023. You can listen to this specific episode on the Tov! website here or on YouTube here. Or find Tov! on any favorite podcast app. Hey!… Continue reading

Calendar, Ethics, High Holidays, Holidays, Jewish Education, Maimonides, Middot, Rosh Hashanah, Teshuvah, Torah, Tov! Podcast, Yom Kippur, Young Jewish Adult, Youth
August 18, 2026

Being Here in the Digital Age (Rosh Hashanah 5774/2013)

This was my Dvar Torah for the first day of Rosh Hashanah in 2013. Though some of the specific examples are dated in 2026, it stands up even in the age of Instagram and AI. Over the past couple of years, I have developed a nagging but interesting physical issue. It’s a tingling sensation I… Continue reading

Calendar, Current Affairs, Ethics, Friendship, High Holidays, Holidays, Love, Middot, Rosh Hashanah, Science, Social Theory, Technology, Teens, Young Jewish Adult, Youth
July 17, 2026

Four Takes on the Book of Deuteronomy (Shabbat Chazon, Devarim 5782/2022)

This was my D’var Torah on August 26, 2022 for Parashat Devarim, the beginning of the book of Deuteronomy. When you look at the Torah in the scroll or even in a book, it all looks the same – the stories, the laws, the recipes for meals at the altar, the census lists and travelogues,… Continue reading

Books, Brit, Calendar, Devarim, High Holidays, History, Holidays, Jewish Education, Leadership, Moshe, Parashat Hashavua, Prophets, Simchat Torah, Study, Synagogue, Teshuvah, Torah
July 3, 2026

Celebrating America at 250 — Or, The Daughters of Tzelophechad Meet the Founding Fathers (Parashat Pinchas 5786, the 4th of July!)

This is the draft of my words for Shabbat morning, July 4, 2026, the day of America’s 250th anniversary! The parasha (reading in the Torah) is Pinchas, and my link to that is chapter 27 of Numbers. Chapter 27 of Numbers begins: They came up close, the daughters of Tzeloph’chad, son of Chefer, son of… Continue reading

Calendar, Conservative Judaism, Current Affairs, Equality, Feminism, Freedom, History, Holidays, Numbers, Parashat Hashavua, Pinchas, Power, USA
July 2, 2026

Hope in America — Data Points and Torah (Chukkat-Balak 5786/2026)

This was my D’var Torah for June 27, 2026, a week before America’s 250th anniversary, for Parashiyot Chukkat-Balak. Though I don’t reference it specifically, Parashat Balak is an interlude in the complaints of the wilderness, a reassurance from the outside that despite the challenges the people are experiencing they are fundamentally blessed and their project… Continue reading

Balak, Calendar, Chukkat, Current Affairs, Exodus, History, Holidays, Hope, Leadership, Miryam, Moshe, Numbers, Parashat Hashavua, Power, Torah, USA
July 2, 2026

Partners, Not Guests: Jews Building America, America Building Us (Yom Kippur 5780/2019)

This was my Yom Kippur morning sermon for 5780 (2019). As I generally do, I was jumping off from the spirit of the Haftarah of that day, which is mostly from Isaiah 58, and I conclude quoting the end of those prophetic words. One evening last fall I sat in the auditorium at Nashua High… Continue reading

Antisemitism, Calendar, Community Relations, Current Affairs, Equality, Freedom, High Holidays, Holidays, Holocaust, Inclusion, Terrorism, Tzedek, USA, Yamim Noraim, Yom Kippur, Young Jewish Adult, Youth