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.
Lies and Truth
June 10, 2022
We are living in a time when it often seems as though truth lies gasping on the ground. In our haste, we may decide that kol ha-adam kozev, everybody lies. But if we care for this fragile but marvelous creation, democracy, we will interrupt our haste, our rushing around. We will pay attention to the seriousness of this moment in history, and we may be blessed to see the miraculous return of truth imagined in the midrash. Emet mei-eretz titzmach. Truth will sprout forth from the earth.
Backpacking and Braver Angels
May 13, 2022
The temptation is so strong to withdraw, to listen only to music on the radio, and to have nothing to do with the brawling, the name calling, the derision and contempt and demonization that have become the norms in our political discourse. I’m so tired of it. And yet, here we are, trying to create something together.
Choose Life
April 29, 2022
God declares, “if this human being chooses correctly, then this entire creation will endure. But if this human being chooses badly, the heavens and the earth will disintegrate, and return to tohu vavohu, the primordial chaos. In our generation, we have come face to face, at last, with the planetary implications of our life choices.
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.
Reading and Love
February 11, 2022
We heard these stories from our mother’s mouth, three of us children sitting together with her on the sofa, her arms around us, the scent of her perfume in our nostrils. Our mother loved us by reading to us.
Summer of Soul
January 14, 2022
the Harlem Cultural Festival in the summer of 1969 was not an arrival at destination for Black America. There was and there still is such a long journey ahead. But it was a moment of redemption. In that time and place, our black brothers and sisters saw and walked through a parting of the waters. They sang and they danced, and they believed in God’s redemptive power. Yes, they sang. “Oh Happy Day.”
On Suffering
December 10, 2021
the truth is that we are not meant to be happy all the time. There is vast suffering in the world, more than I ever imagined when I was young. And I think that one of our greatest challenges as human beings is to somehow make room in our hearts for both all of the exquisite beauty and joy, and also the suffering that is all around us. Is that even possible?
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.”
Heart Attack
Friday night, January 8, 2021
After the January 6 Capitol riot
Our nation suffered a heart attack this week; can we change our national, political lifestyle? Can we become healthy again? Can we ever hope to create a government with well-functioning institutions, which is more or less trusted by most of its citizens?
Sadness and Hope
October 24, 2020
This is the story that we Jews are telling this week, just as we have told it every year at this time, for three thousand years. I tell it to our kids, and to myself, because it reminds me that I am part of something old and vast. I will tell it even to little children, because this story is a good way to learn that we human beings have seen trouble before; we have experienced countless times in which the world felt strange and unstable all around us.
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.
Pandemic Sabbatical
June 26, 2020
The job of being a rabbi has been the great honor and privilege of my life. But it’s a job that never ends. From early in the morning until late at night. The sadness and the joy, the weight of the past and the questions about the future. And all of the people! tiny children, hormonal teenagers, stressed out parents, aging seniors. All with desires, needs and opinions! There is nothing more exciting, nothing more interesting, nothing more holy than what happens in this community. But a rabbi needs to rest.
Truth, Justice and Peace
Friday night, June 5, 2020
After the murder of George Floyd
Tonight I want to propose that if we hope for a livable world for ourselves and for our children, we must consider Rabban Shimon’s three pillars: truth, justice and peace. In that order.
Singing with the Birds
May 8, 2020
I felt a huge wave of sadness wash over me, as I watched everyone on the screen and heard only myself. That was such a lonely moment, and I thought I don’t know if I can sustain this for months and months and months. If I can’t find people to sing with, I’ll go crazy! Then I went out to my backyard and sat quietly and listened to the birds, and slowly realized that I was surrounded by living, singing, praying voices.
Our Family in Israel
April 24, 2020
This is our family, in Israel, living through the coronavirus. The tiny baby in her flat in Tel Aviv, dreaming and her parents longing for their families. Yishay Ribo, singing for us to the entire world, ancient questions out of our tradition that have come back to life, in our day. What is God teaching us? How do we come back together, and when? And the children of Kibbutz Gezer, singing and dancing with their popsicles on a hot corona day.
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.
What Happens When we Pray?
November 22, 2019
At these times it is best to find a quiet place, to become still and to empty our mind.... of every thought, of every argument. We empty our heart and our mind. Then, in simplicity and sincerity, we ask. We relax. We open ourselves to receive an answer.