Blog Archives

Rabbi's Corner: October 2026 – Forward into Fall

9/27/2026

As I write these words, I look to my backyard spot where my sukkah should have been – and perhaps will yet be when the storm passes.

Lots of gratitudes to share for our High Holy Day journey, and suddenly our synagogue year of gatherings, opportunities and events begins.

Let's keep building community together.

When You Reach a Fork in the Road, Take It (P. V'zot HaBerakhah)

9/27/2026

This weekend's Simhat Torah's end and start of Torah bring us, in joy, to a fork in the road.

One path leads forward beyond Torah into the Land of Promise and new adventures. The other path leads back to a jumbled Beginning shining with primordial light.

As Yogi Berra famously said, when we reach a fork in the road, we take it.

Joy Under a Leaky Roof (Sukkot 2026)

9/22/2026

Have you ever felt so filled with joy that nothing could rain on your parade?

The Jewish calendar has deep spiritual wisdom in positioning Sukkot, Judaism's most joyous time of all, immediately after Yom Kippur. It's not so much a contrast as it is a culmination.

It's a life lesson for me every year, especially now.

Our Wheel of Life – Sermon for Yizkor 5787 (2026)

9/21/2026

Each of us is given the great gift of this precious life. Many of us include in our Yizkor memorial those who gave us life. We all forget sometimes what a gift we received – unbidden, unearned, unearnable, a gift of grace.

We all forget sometimes how the wheel of life connects us all. We all forget, in the words of Pirkei Avot, that this life is a just a vestibule that opens into what is onward from here.

What if we all lived that way?

Balance After Injustice – Sermon for Yom Kippur 5787 (2026)

9/21/2026

From the Holocaust to wrongful convictions to identity-based hate, uncountable wrongs have unfolded all around us.

We needn't personally be the victims of personal wrongs, or large-scale wrongs, to carry them in our hearts. Plus, it's likely that we all carry our own personal hurts from wrongs done to us.

Ideally repentance happens. Ideally there are apologies and, where possible, repair. But if we're not made whole – if recipients of wrongs and injustices aren't validated – what then? How can we re-balance after unrequited injustice?

It's a question for the ages – and for exactly now.

Tug of War and Peace – Sermon for Kol Nidre 5787 (2026)

9/20/2026

We al long for inner peace, yet often inner peace and balance elude us. Some reasons are societal – one public outrage after another flooding the zone with hate, war, corruption and more. Other reasons are intensely personal – challenges we face, hurts we carry, thoughts that don't stop.

Unless we get real about the tug of war and peace that rages within each of us – the ever-shifting tug between head and heart, our human need for purpose, and our tools to modulate challenge into meaning, we cannot hope to build back our capacity for healthy balance in our lives. Kol Nidre is about exactly that.

Unbalanced for a Cause (and Julia Roberts) – Rosh Hashanah 5787 (2026)

9/13/2026

Balance is important enough to be our theme for these High Holy Days.

But balance is not the highest purpose or goal. Understood wrongly, balance can become false or stifling in its own way, and ultimately damage people, community, country and planet.

Turns out, tradition's Torah reading for the second day of Rosh Hashanah is about just about everything except balance. Maybe it comes to teach us that it's okay – sometimes, even urgent – to be unbalanced for a cause.

From the Heartland – Sermon for Rosh Hashanah 5787 (2026)

9/12/2026

On Erev Rosh Hashanah, we began limbering up to our holiday theme, renewing balance, with an expansive spiritual vision. Today we aim that vision at the heartland, front line of grief and joy.

As antisemitism and even antisemitic violence rear their ugly heads, easy talk won't help. For us to maintain a vibrant balance worthy of us and our best selves, we need to answer antisemitism with a pro-semitism we experience in our bones, in our hearts and minds.

We have amazing superpower tools. What if we actually used them?

The Power of 'And' – Sermon for Erev Rosh Hashanah 5787 (2026)

9/11/2026

Rabbi David introduces this year's High Holy Day theme of renewing balance – in Hebrew, Tiferet.

Erev Rosh Hashanah, traditional birthday of the world and new spiritual start for Jewish spiritual life, wends through creation – the awe and majesty of the biggest things humanity ever has seen and the smallest – to limber up our vision.

We need a limbered vision to see more, be more and become more... to surf the world's waves of hurt and hate... to surf our own waves of hurt and misstep... to reach beyond ourselves... to heal... to renew our lives in a world that's lost its balance.

Rabbi's Corner: October 2026 – Forward into Fall

When You Reach a Fork in the Road, Take It (P. V'zot HaBerakhah)

Joy Under a Leaky Roof (Sukkot 2026)

Our Wheel of Life – Sermon for Yizkor 5787 (2026)

Balance After Injustice – Sermon for Yom Kippur 5787 (2026)

Tug of War and Peace – Sermon for Kol Nidre 5787 (2026)

Unbalanced for a Cause (and Julia Roberts) – Rosh Hashanah 5787 (2026)

From the Heartland – Sermon for Rosh Hashanah 5787 (2026)

The Power of 'And' – Sermon for Erev Rosh Hashanah 5787 (2026)

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