Synagogue

October 12, 2025

Why Our Jewish Community Should Be at the CROP Hunger Walk

If you’re in our area, I hope you will be part of next Sunday’s interfaith CROP Hunger Walk. Here is why I think that’s important always, and especially for all of us thinking about the place of Jews in America right now. Continue reading

Antisemitism, Calendar, Community Relations, Current Affairs, Equality, Ethics, Food, Gaza, Interfaith Dialogue, Israel, Jewish Education, Justice, Peace, Synagogue, Tikkun Olam, Tzedakah, Tzedek, USA, Young Jewish Adult, Youth
March 21, 2024

Purim: The Buddy Film

This was my D’var Torah for Shabbat morning, March 16, 2024, Parashat Pekudei. which fell this year about a week before Purim. It’s already after the Oscars, but I have a pitch for a new movie — it could even be a franchise! It’s about a pair of young friends who travel the world together. Continue reading

Books, Calendar, Current Affairs, Esther, Film, Friendship, Harry Potter, Holidays, Immigration, Inclusion, Joy, Leadership, Midrash, Movies, Parashat Hashavua, Pekudei, Purim, Shabbat, Synagogue, Tikkun Olam, Torah, Young Jewish Adult, Youth
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
December 5, 2022

Hope, Chanukkah, and the Dreidel

This is one version of a D'var Torah I have given in a few variations at different times, around Chanukkah and even once on Rosh Hashanah! I have only a couple of Chanukkah sermons, and in fact you may have heard me give a version of this in years past and even on a Rosh Continue reading

Calendar, Chanuka, Chanukkah, Current Affairs, History, Holidays, Hope, Joy, Patience, Prayer, Shabbat, Synagogue, Temple Beth Abraham, Tikkun Olam
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 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
August 18, 2022

Your Unorthodox Theology Won’t Break Judaism

My D’var Torah from July 30, 2022 * 2 Av 5782 One of my favorite anecdotes about morning davvening (praying) comes from the Babylonian Talmud. Rabbi Chanina went to shul one day. This was some 1700 years ago, give or take, and at the time there were no siddurim (written prayerbooks). People who led knew the Continue reading

Calendar, Elul, High Holidays, Holidays, Jewish Education, Prayer, Rabbi, Revelation, Rosh Hashanah, Spirituality, Synagogue, Theology, Tisha B’Av, Torah, Yamim Noraim
July 4, 2022

Inheriting America, Choosing America

This is another take on something I've written and spoken about before, how and why I chose to stay in America because of my engagement with quintessential American themes of freedom and individuality. I spoke about this last Shabbat, in anticipation of Independence Day 2022. It's published here at the Times of Israel. Continue reading

#integratingamerica, Calendar, Community Relations, Conservative Judaism, Current Affairs, Election, Ethics, Exodus, Freedom, History, Holidays, Inclusion, Jewish Education, Justice, Study, Synagogue, Talmud, Tikkun Olam, Tov! Podcast, Tzedakah, Tzedek, USA, Young Jewish Adult, Youth
June 20, 2022

In the Midst, All at Once: A Torah for Pride 5782

This was the D'var Torah I gave for Parashat B’haalotcha on June 18, 2022. When the same passage of Torah comes at you from four different sources the same week, you have to pay attention. I always look forward to Parashat B’haalotcha because it’s the start of the frisky Torah, the Torah of complaining. It’s Continue reading

B’haalotcha, Conservative Judaism, Current Affairs, Education, Equality, Ethics, GLBT, Inclusion, Jewish Education, Justice, LGBTQ+, Parashat Hashavua, Synagogue, Temple Beth Abraham, Teshuvah, Tikkun Olam, Torah, Tzedek, USA, Young Jewish Adult, Youth
February 1, 2022

Na’aseh V’Nishma Meets Yes-And

This was my D'var Torah on Shabbat morning, Saturday, January 29, on Parashat Mishpatim. When I was trying to decide whether to apply to rabbinical school, as a senior in college, I gave myself an ultimatum: I would not apply until I was putting on tefillin every day. Tefilllin are basically mezuzas but for the Continue reading

Education, Freedom, Holidays, Jewish Education, Midrash, Mishpatim, Parashat Hashavua, Patience, Prayer, Rabbi, Shabbat, Spirituality, Study, Synagogue, Tefillin, Temple Beth Abraham, Theology
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 15, 2021

A Year in the Desert — Reflections One Year Later

This was my D'var Torah on Saturday, March 13, 2021. Shabbat Ha-Chodesh is the name for the Shabbat that precedes the start of the month when Pesach occurs. These are some of my reflections on the past year of the Covid-19 pandemic; one piece can hardly say it all. Shabbat Ha-Chodesh, this day in the Continue reading

Calendar, Coronavirus, Current Affairs, Election, Health Care, History, Holidays, Jewish Education, Justice, Leadership, Parashat Hashavua, Pekudei, Prayer, Shabbat, Shabbat Hachodesh, Spirituality, Synagogue, Temple Beth Abraham, Torah, Tzedek, USA, Vayakhel, Web/Tech, Youth