Tzedakah

December 25, 2025

The Ice Bucket Challenge and the Menorah: Sustaining Light (Shabbat Chanukkah 5786-Parashat Mketz)

This was my D’var Torah for Shabbat Chanukkah coinciding with Parashat Miketz in 5786 (December 20, 2025). Do you remember the Ice Bucket Challenge? In the summer of 2014, people began sharing videos of themselves getting ice cold water poured over their heads and asking people to donate money to support people with ALS, amyotrophic… Continue reading

Antisemitism, Calendar, Chanuka, Chanukkah, Civil Rights, Current Affairs, Holidays, Miketz, Parashat Hashavua, Torah, Tzedakah, Tzedek
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 12, 2025

Recommended Links of Mine for Purim This Year

Here in one place are links to the pieces I've done related to Purim and our contemporary world that I think are particularly worth a look or listen this year. For reading, listening, or watching. Introducing Adar Conversations: Esther-Informed Spiritual Therapy (read and video) Getting to Mi Yode'a ("Who Knows") — Moral Clarity in a Topsy-Turvy World… Continue reading

Antisemitism, Calendar, Current Affairs, Esther, Holidays, Inclusion, Israel, Jewish Education, Joy, Justice, Leadership, Middot, Midrash, Power, Purim, Shabbat Zachor, Simcha, Terrorism, Tikkun Olam, Tov! Podcast, Tzedakah, Tzedek, USA, Young Jewish Adult, Youth
September 20, 2023

My Rosh Hashanah Sermons (5784/2023)

Read or watch/listen: Click to read the text of the sermons: Day 1 — Glimmers Day 2 — Through Regret Or watch or listen on YouTube: Continue reading

Calendar, Ethics, Foregiveness, High Holidays, Holidays, Hope, Joy, Middot, Peace, Prayer, Ritual, Rosh Hashanah, Spirituality, Tikkun Olam, Torah, Tzedakah, Tzedek, Yamim Noraim, Young Jewish Adult, Youth
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 21, 2022

The Moral, the Political, and the Partisan

This was the D’var Torah I gave for Parashat Behar on May 21, 2022. The original text is below; an adaptation is in the video here, slightly updated in the fall of 2025. Whenever people suggest that Judaism could be separate from politics, I think about this week’s parasha. The Shabbaton and the Yovel (the… Continue reading

Behar, Community Relations, Current Affairs, Election, Ethics, Exodus, Freedom, Justice, Leadership, Middot, Parashat Hashavua, Spirituality, Teshuvah, Tikkun Olam, Torah, Tzedakah, Tzedek, USA
August 8, 2021

Launching Tov! The Podcast About “The Good Place” and Jewish Ideas

If you're a fan of "The Good Place" and at all connected to Jews or Judaism, try out my new podcast that I'm creating with a bunch of colleagues! Tov! is on all the major podcast platforms, and it will be a fun and interesting way to explore some Jewish texts and ideas. Check out the… Continue reading

Calendar, Education, Ethics, Foregiveness, Gossip, Harry Potter, High Holidays, Holidays, Hope, Jewish Education, Lashon Hara, Leadership, Middot, Rosh Hashanah, Soul, Study, Talmud, Television, Teshuvah, Tikkun Olam, Tzedakah, Web/Tech, Weblogs, Yamim Noraim, Young Jewish Adult, Youth
February 25, 2021

Purim Playlist!

I've had fun making these, and hopefully you'll enjoy learning a bit about Purim and the month of Adar, one short bit at a time. A couple more are coming in the next few days. "Hamentashen for thought"! You can click on the video and watch it here, expand it, or click on the three… Continue reading

Antisemitism, Calendar, Community Relations, Coronavirus, Current Affairs, Esther, Food, History, Holidays, Leadership, Middot, Pesach, Purim, Tikkun Olam, Tzedakah, Tzedek, USA
April 7, 2020

My Passover Haggadah Commentary for This Year

I just finished these thoughts. They are a combination of commentaries, reflection pieces, discussion prompts related to the Seder text, the Pesach Haggadah. You could read them before or after a Seder, or even during. Wishing everyone a good festival and a Zissen (sweet) Pesach. https://images.shulcloud.com/544/uploads/Pesach/sederthoughts5780.pdf Continue reading

Calendar, Coronavirus, Current Affairs, Freedom, Health Care, History, Holidays, Holocaust, Jewish Education, Justice, Pesach, Spirituality, Study, Talmud, Theology, Tikkun Olam, Torah, Tzedakah, Tzedek, USA
February 9, 2020

Why I Am Voting for Sen. Klobuchar This Tuesday

#thinkinparagraphs For my NH undecided friends, and for people out there in states voting soon who haven’t picked a candidate: I’m not registered as a member of a political party, but on Tuesday I am going to take a Democratic ballot and vote for Sen. Amy Klobuchar. I didn’t decide finally until about a week… Continue reading

Antisemitism, Calendar, Community Relations, Current Affairs, Election, Ethics, Freedom, Health Care, Islam, Israel, Jerusalem, Justice, Leadership, Tikkun Olam, Tzedakah, Tzedek, USA
February 9, 2020

How I Decide Who to Vote For

This is an attempt to write down something I’ve never written out before: how I decide whom to vote for in elections for national office. This is how I understand what I am doing. There’s plenty here to discuss or argue about. Voting is in one way the most morally consequential thing we do. The… Continue reading

Antisemitism, Calendar, Community Relations, Current Affairs, Election, Ethics, Freedom, Health Care, History, Immigration, Inclusion, Islam, Israel, Justice, Leadership, Money, Peace, Tikkun Olam, Torah, Tzedakah, Tzedek, USA
April 22, 2019

Seders Are Done, But Passover Isn’t!

My column for the April 2019 bulletin for Temple Beth Abraham: One way to experience Pesach (Passover) is: Two nights of Seder, followed by a week of matzah. Two nights of a unique happening – around a table, with people very familiar and/or new to you, part recitation and part roleplaying, with symbolic foods and… Continue reading

Antisemitism, Books, Community Relations, Current Affairs, Ethics, Food, Freedom, Gossip, Holidays, Jewish Education, Justice, Lashon Hara, Sefirat Ha-omer, Soul, Spirituality, Study, Tikkun Olam, Tzedakah, Tzedek