Sermons
One of the strangest, most difficult and at times most exciting responsibilities of being a rabbi is preparing and delivering a sermon. It is a strange form of communication, almost completely “one way,” with little opportunity for the congregation to respond or for the rabbi to know how it was received. The blank sheet of paper before beginning to write is so daunting: what should I talk about? What should I say about it? How should I say it? But looking back now over forty years of sermons, I realize that being required to stand up in front of the congregation and open my mouth and speak has forced me to think deeply about my own life, Judaism, and our world. Below are many recent sermons and some of the sermons from the past which capture important moments in my life, or the life of our community or the world.
Sacred Empty Space
Yom Kippur, Oct 12, 2024
For the past 47 years, that purpose has been my north star....my primary identity, my work, and my purpose on this earth has been to teach Judaism. Now what? That question is both terrifying and exhilarating. I feel an empty space opening at the center of my life. An empty space that is alive with possibility, and with uncertainty.
Seder for Rosh Hashanah 2024
Rosh Hashanah 2024
Seder means “order.” Tonight I would like to take us through a new version of the old Rosh HaShanah seder, weaving together symbolic foods and questions, to tell the story of the turbulent year that has just ended, and to express our hopes and prayers for the new year being born right now. With this Rosh Hashanah seder, perhaps we may create a tiny bit of order amid the chaos of events swirling all around us.
The Cry in the Night
January 19, 2024
In our Jewish memory, we have stored up both immeasurable pain and also infinite tenderness, beauty and grace. One dark night in Egypt, over three thousand years ago, we heard the terrible, unforgettable cry of suffering innocents and in the very same instant, a nation of loving parents and children, question askers and storytellers, began to be born. May we allow our own hearts to expand, to acknowledge all of the brokenness and all of the beauty of this our only world.
Emotions
December 8, 2023
Our emotions grow and spread. V’yosifu. V’yosifu. Even more. Even more. We know this. This story is for us, right now. We are living in a time of rapidly spreading anger and fear and hatred. In Israel, in Gaza, on our university campuses, on our television screens, on the internet. V’yosifu, v'yosifu. Even more. Even more.
The Master Class
July 14, 2023
if we hope to grow, just like Renee Fleming’s students on the stage in Aspen, we need first to allow the walls of our ego to be torn down. Those students were so brave, stepping out on that stage, knowing that this great opera singer was about to criticize them. She did it with great kindness, but she breached their walls. She forced them to grow, in front of us all.
Who By Fire?
Yom Kippur 5783/2022
Yom Kippur summons us to these truths. We are mashul kacheres hanishbar, we are like broken pottery,…k’avak poreach…like dust, floating.” And Yom Kippur is the holiest day of our lives because on it we declare “af al pi chen. Nevertheless. N’kadesh et shimcha ba-olam. We will sanctify Your name in this world. We reject cynicism and despair. Tonight and tomorrow, we commit ourselves once again to hope, to trust, to goodness and to love.”
Go Down Moses
April 8, 2022
it came to pass that in the middle of the 20th century, American Jews discovered a body of songs which combined both: our ancient Jewish story and one of the richest and most profound forms of American music, the African American spirituals.
Esther and Zelenskyy
Friday night, March 11, 2022
In this moment also, in our own terrifying moment in history, a Jew named Volodymir Zelenskyy is recapitulating Esther’s act of kiddush hashem.
Apology and Forgiveness
Yom Kippur 2021
In one of our religion’s most brilliant flashes of insight, Yom Kippur teaches us the awesome liberating, therapeutic power of a conversation.
Emma Lazarus
August 27, 2021
She wrote “The New Colossus” at age 34 and the poem “The New Year” when she was 33. She passed from this world when she was 38. What profound teachings about the meaning of America were lost to us when Emma Lazarus died? What passionate visions of the Jewish future might she have shown us had she lived?
On Charoset
March 12, 2021
To find the apple in the Exodus story, we need to go deep into Jewish folklore….beyond the written Torah….to stories of Egypt that were told by word of mouth, across the centuries, around campfires, by storytellers. There, in that bottomless well of Jewish memory and imagination, there was an apple tree in Egypt, and it is remembered in a verse from the Biblical book of love poetry, Song of Songs. “Under the apple tree, I aroused you.” Tachat hatapuach orarticha. “Under the apple tree, I aroused you.”
Helplessly Hoping
Yom Kippur 2020
As more and more singers joined their friends, I saw an emotional tsunami gathering force before my eyes: one after another, exquisite voices, hopeful, serious, profound young faces, each one singing out of their isolation, their voices somehow joining together, in heartbreaking harmonies, all against the tragic background of a great country brought to its knees by a terrifying modern day plague. Helplessly Hoping.
Passover and Pandemic
Friday night, March 27 2020
This year the old Passover story, out of our distant past, is suddenly speaking directly to us. Not only to us, the Jewish people, but to all of us, the entire Human Family.
The Voice of the Prophet
Yom Kippur 2019
Malala Yousafzai, Emma Gonzalez and Greta Thunberg have each spoken in a voice that has reached across the entire planet....before reaching the age of 18 years old. Each one of them, sadly but not surprisingly, has thousands of people who hate them and are trying to destroy them. Somehow, fear does not seem to affect them. Like the prophets of ancient Israel, each one of these young women speaks for something far beyond themselves. Something that I believe our ancient ancestors would have understood as the holy spirit.
Sacred Fear
Rosh Hashanah 2019
This, I think, is why Richard Levy emphasized so urgently the importance of balancing our love of God with sacred fear. Richard demanded a religion that feels completely true. Completely honest. Not just the warm and fuzzy side of God, the loveable side of the Creator....but also the God that we experience as cruel, the source of suffering, and the unbearable dimensions of our lives. Today we confront everything we know about God.
The Beginnings of Passover
April 5, 2019
in honor of the new moon, I would like to tell you a story tonight that is as close to the truth as I can possibly make it. It is a story that you may have never heard before. It is the story of how Pesach, that is Passover, how Pesach first came to be a festival of the Jewish people.
Hamilton and Prayer
Yom Kippur, September 29, 2017
For many of our people, just like for Miranda’s young, scrappy and hungry Alexander Hamilton, prayer has never happened before. We do not even know exactly what prayer is, or how to do it, or whether it is still a meaningful experience in our world. These are my questions tonight, on Yom Kippur, our people’s great night of prayer.
My Father
Rosh Hashanah 2016
The silence between parents and children has a purpose. A religious significance. As parents, when our children are small, we fill their lives. We teach our children language, stories, songs, religion and culture, we pour ourselves into them. And then a time comes…right around age thirteen…when we parents step back and simply watch and wonder. We invite silence to enter between us and our children. The silence between parent and child becomes a sacred space, a dwelling place for God. A holy of holies.
What is Revelation?
May 22, 2015
When those two young people opened up to each other, it was revelation! And when they shared their story with me, in all its strangeness and power, it was revelation again! Our souls can meet, in falling in love, or even just in sharing a story. The story of the volcano, and the thunder and lightning, and the voice of God speaking out of the silence, is all a glorious metaphor for the way that something deep and true can rise up within us and erupt in tears, laughter, and powerful words of truth. This is revelation; this is Torah. It is the best thing about being alive. And it takes courage.