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.
Encountering the Akedah
Rosh Hashanah 2023
The Binding of Isaac is not a story to be understood; it is to be encountered. Like another person. We can never fully understand another person, but we can meet them. We can see them, hear them, feel them and be moved and changed by them. Or God for that matter. Like a person, like God, this story of the Akedah, the Binding of Isaac, is to be encountered.
Exposure
August 25, 2023
Exposure is our human condition, on the mountain trails of the Dolomites and in our offices and bedrooms. This is what Rabbi Nachman of Bratzlav taught in his famous dictum Kol haolam kulo gesher tzar m’od. V’ha-ikar lo l’fached klal. The entire world is a very narrow bridge. A very narrow path, over a yawning abyss. And the only thing that matters is not to be afraid.
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.
Pride
June 9, 2023
Today, as our nation celebrates LGBTQ+ Pride Month, there are many people who, like me, grew up not knowing a single openly gay person. We are the generation born in slavery, and many of my generation, like our ancestors standing on the border of the land of the future, are longing for the past. It is a deeply human, completely understandable, natural impulse….this longing for Egypt.
To be a CBB Member
June 2, 2023
The house we are building together is an invisible, spiritual structure, built of friendships, and memories, shared grief and celebrations, deep learning and thousands upon thousands upon thousands of acts of kindness and connections between one soul and another. That is the house of living Judaism that we are building together.
Intimacy and Physicality
Friday night, March 24, 2023
many traditional Jews to this very day look forward to the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem and the restoration of the sacrifices. I do not. But just as I missed the physicality of being together during the endless zoom gatherings of the Covid lockdown, I miss the physicality of the korbanot. The powerful intimacy that comes from being together, in the presence of fire and smoke and the pleasing fragrance of praying by cooking.
Protect the Shabbat
March 10, 2023
The word v’shamru means “they shall guard.” They shall watch and observe. They shall protect. With this word, the Torah evokes the fragility of Shabbat, it’s vulnerability to all the storms and tides and winds that threaten to erode it.
Our Move to Trinity
February 3, 2023
We are here in a church, Trinity Lutheran Church, whose members have welcomed us into their home. Not just for tonight, but for virtually every Friday night and Saturday morning for the next year and a half. As you can see, the cross--which declares the essence of their faith-- is concealed by this curtain. Our friends here at Trinity have allowed us to obscure their most sacred symbol during our services, so that we can feel at home here. It is a breathtaking, inspiring, heart-warming gesture of hospitality.
Groundbreaking for Building Dreams
January 22, 2023
… it’s not easy getting ready to leave now, for a year and a half, or however long it’s going to take. We had better have a good reason, for all this hassle. I want to say as clearly as possible: We are not going to all this trouble, just to make this place more beautiful. It is already beautiful. We are disrupting our life so that this sacred place can undergo a metamorphosis. The most important transformation of this home of ours since it was first built almost sixty years ago. We are changing what it means to be a synagogue.
Land of the Living, Land of the Dead
Friday, January 6, 2023
As I sat in the theater watching Coco, like people everywhere, I wished desperately to be part of that vibrant Mexican culture. But I also thought to myself: This is very Jewish. “Recuerdame, Remember Me” the song at the heart of the film expresses the deep idea embedded in our Jewish tradition of Yizkor. The redeeming power of memory. Our beloved dead depend upon us, here in the land of the living, to remember them.
Becoming Israel
December 9, 2022
I know that fear is also normal. There are many good reasons to be afraid in this dangerous world. But Tally, and Linda and Ben, like our father Jacob nearly four thousand years ago, each in their own way are teaching us, showing us that it is possible to be unafraid, to step boldly out of our comfort zone, and to increase the peace of God’s world.
The Blessing
November 25, 2022
Before blessing our children on Friday night, we might ask them “come close and kiss me.” And take a deep breath…smelling the odor of their breath and skin, remembering all the times we have kissed them in our lives. And then we might speak their names, since speaking a person’s name can awaken our love for them. And then offer words of blessing. Love first, then bless.
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.”
A Jewish Center
Rosh Hashanah 5783/2022
In the midst of all this living and creating and enjoying, we will also pray together. And sing together. And study our sacred texts. This was Mordecai Kaplan’s vision: a Jewish Center for Culture and Community, with prayer and song and study at its heart.
Gratitude
August 19, 2022
Like “I love you” and “I’m sorry,” if the words “thank you” are forced or faked, then what’s the point? Much more difficult, and much more important than teaching our kids manners, is the question: how do we teach our children to feel honestly grateful? For that matter, how do we bring ourselves to feel honestly grateful?
In the Cave of Lascaux
August 5, 2022
We have not forgotten the entrance to the cave.
We remember how to go in and to bring that cave to life.
Deep in the caves of Lascaux, I discovered that our Jewish tradition is not a lost cause.
The Purpose of a Sermon
July 1, 2022
The purpose of a sermon is to remove our sandals, so that with the sensitive soles of our souls, we may feel all the pain and all the joy of being alive in this beautiful broken world.