Hope – Rabbi Jon 's Website and Blog

October 21, 2026

The Moral Dilemma of Exit vs. Voice (Parashat Lech L’cha 5778/2017)

This was my D’var Torah for Parashat Lech L’cha on Shabbat morning, October 28, 2017 (5778). I have been thinking about two things this week that present in a way the same moral dilemma. For the past couple of weeks, the revelations of sexual harrassment and assault from Harvey Weinstein, the movie executive, have sparked… Continue reading

Abuse, Anger, Current Affairs, Equality, Ethics, Feminism, Hope, Justice, Leadership, Lech L’cha, Middot, Midrash, Parashat Hashavua, Power, Tikkun Olam, Torah, 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

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

June 12, 2026

Kalev — Like a Heart But Even More (Parashat Sh’lach L’cha 5785)

This was my D’var Torah for Parashat Sh’lach L’cha on June 21, 2025. As I publish this a year later (5786/2026), I plan to iterate on very same focus in the synagogue this Shabbat. It’s early summer; Year 2 in the wilderness, the midbar. It’s been some weeks of the nation moving forward, and also… Continue reading

B’midbar, Calendar, Current Affairs, Gaza, GLBT, Hope, Immigration, Interfaith Dialogue, Israel, Jerusalem, LGBTQ+, Numbers, Parashat Hashavua, Patience, Sh’lach L’cha, Soul, Torah

December 14, 2025

Hope From the Pits

This is the D’var Torah I shared on Shabbat, December 13, 2025, for Parashat Vayeshev just before the first candle of Chanukkah 5786. On Thursday, I spent a good part of an hour staring at images of specific chanukkiot. It’s a bit early to be doing that — Chanukkah doesn’t start until tomorrow evening —… Continue reading

Calendar, Chanuka, Chanukkah, Holidays, Hope, Parashat Hashavua, Prayer, USA, Vayeshev

October 23, 2025

During the Flood, Inside the Ark — Learning From Bonhoeffer and the Freiburg School

This was my D’var Torah about Parashat Noach in 5783 (2022). This Torah reading centers on the Flood. This teaching here is about “during the Flood”, and at the end I discourage us from seeing our era as sliding toward the Flood. If we do see it that way, we still might ask the question… Continue reading

Current Affairs, Economics, Ethics, Holocaust, Hope, Inclusion, Interfaith Dialogue, Justice, Leadership, Noach, Noah, Parashat Hashavua, Tikkun Olam, Torah, Tzedek

December 25, 2024

A Message for the Start of Chanukkah 5785 (2024)

This is the note I sent our synagogue community today, before the first candle of Chanukkah. Chag Urim Sameach! Dear Friends: Tonight begins Chanukkah, the festival of light and miracles and hope. This year Chanukkah comes at a time of ongoing war in Israel, and at the end of a difficult year for Jews everywhere.… Continue reading

Antisemitism, Calendar, Chanuka, Chanukkah, Community Relations, Current Affairs, Holidays, Hope, Israel, Jerusalem, Power, Young Jewish Adult, Youth

December 23, 2024

When the Oil Is Still Hidden: A Chanukkah Perspective on Hope

I shared this D’var Torah on Shabbat morning, December 14, 2024, about a week and a half before Chanukkah. Muhammed Asefi is a physician from Afghanistan, who is an artist-in-residence this year at Arizona State University. Dr. Asefi, before he was a medical doctor, wanted more than anything to be a painter. So he did… Continue reading

Calendar, Chanuka, Chanukkah, Holidays, Hope

October 9, 2024

A Year Later, Back to Moshe’s Final Words of Blessing — Rosh Hashanah 5785 (2024) Day 1

On Simchat Torah morning, after we parade with the Torah scrolls, we gather around to read the very last words of Moshe Rabbenu, Moses our teacher. The man who could hardly speak departs with an original song – his words, not God’s. And his last sentence in life begins: Ashreicha Yisrael, Mi Chamocha. Happy… Continue reading

Antisemitism, Calendar, Community Relations, Current Affairs, Gaza, High Holidays, Holidays, Hope, Interfaith Dialogue, Israel, Leadership, Moshe, Power, Rosh Hashanah, Terrorism, Torah, Yamim Noraim, Young Jewish Adult, Youth

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

January 22, 2024

Exaggerating the Exodus: The Siddur Is the Opposite of the “Slave Bible”

This is a slightly revised version of a D'var Torah I gave on the Shabbat that was the last day of Pesach in 5782 (2022). Right before Pesach in 2022, a bunch of people mentioned to me an article they had seen from the New York Times by Rabbi Sharon Brous. Her piece referenced… Continue reading

Books, Calendar, Exodus, Freedom, History, Holidays, Hope, Justice, Pesach, Prayer, Spirituality, Theology, Tikkun Olam, Torah, Tzedek

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