Shabbat

April 12, 2018

Reverend King and the Rabbis — Fifty Years Later

My D'var Torah of April 7, 2018: Fifty years ago last month, ten days before he was assassinated, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., appeared before the national convention of the Rabbinical Assembly, the annual gathering of Conservative rabbis. It turned out to be Rev. King’s last interview. He was greeted, for the first time… Continue reading

Community Relations, Conservative Judaism, Current Affairs, Freedom, Holidays, Inclusion, Interfaith Dialogue, Justice, Leadership, MLK Day, Shabbat, Tikkun Olam, Tzedek, USA

January 12, 2018

Why Exodus Is the Most Important Book of All Time

My D’var Torah at Beth Abraham on Shabbat morning, Saturday, January 6, 2018. Today we begin reading the most important book in human history — Sefer Shmot, the book of Exodus. This is the book that transformed what was possible in the world and what was imaginable in the world. You can divide human history… Continue reading

Books, Current Affairs, Ethics, Exodus, Freedom, Leadership, Pesach, Prayer, Revelation, Shabbat, Shmot, Spirituality, Theology, Tikkun Olam, Torah, Tzedakah, Tzedek, Va’era

May 11, 2017

Forward This to Your Rabbi or Pastor

There are a lot of important things happening in the real world this week. Still, you should forward the following to whoever delivers sermons in your place of worship, whatever their title and whatever scripture they preach about. It's a scene from the West Wing TV show, and it's a withering critique of sermons. I… Continue reading

Current Affairs, Prayer, Rabbi, Shabbat, Spirituality, Study, Television, USA

October 6, 2016

Rosh Hashanah Sermons 5777

Here are my two Rosh Hashanah sermons from this week: 1st Day — How Good Do I Have To Be? 2nd Day — Hope In An Uncertain World Continue reading

Foregiveness, High Holidays, Holidays, Middot, Patience, Rosh Hashanah, Shabbat, Torah, Yamim Noraim, Yom Kippur

September 19, 2016

Tech Tashlich

Tashlich (pronounced tash-leech, with the Hebrew-sound 'ch' at the end) is the ceremony of throwing bread into a river on Rosh Hashanah, symbolically washing away our wrongs and bad habits. "Tech Tashlich" is an annual practice of taking one day in the month before Rosh Hashanah to focus specifically on technology in our lives. What… Continue reading

Calendar, Elul, High Holidays, Holidays, Middot, Rosh Hashanah, Shabbat, Spirituality, Television, Teshuvah, Yamim Noraim

January 11, 2013

In honor of Shabbat Rosh Chodesh, when we sing Hallel, including the words Pitchu Li Sha'are Tzedek, Avo Vam Odeh Yah — "Open for me the gates of justice, I will enter them and thank God" — which are over the entrance to our synagogue. Courtesy of IKAR, a synagogue in Los Angeles, and my… Continue reading

Shabbat, Soul, Spirituality

April 15, 2010

Heschel This Week — More on Shabbat

There is a word seldom said, a word for a condition almost too deep to be expressed: the love of the Sabbath. The word is rarely found in our literature, yet for more than two thousand years the emotion filled our songs and moods. It was as if a whole people were in love with… Continue reading

Heschel, Shabbat, Spirituality

January 21, 2010

Heschel This Week on Shabbat

To receive a weekly quote from Heschel by e-mail, send a message to me with Heschel in the note or the subject. The Sabbath as a day of abstaining from work is not a depreciation but an affirmation of labor, a divine exaltation of its dignity. Thou shall abstain from labor on the seventh day… Continue reading

Heschel, Shabbat, Spirituality