Category: Character

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

9/11/2026

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 inherit amazing superpower tools – if we choose to use 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.

When We Assume... (P. Nitzavim-Vayeilekh)

8/30/2026

In just a matter of days, Jews here and around the world will gather in groups large and small – connected across distance but close in heart – to bring in a new year and a next turning of soul.

Always, but especially when times are tough, we stand together. It's an especially fitting time to consider to how we see each other – and try to remember how often we get it wrong.

Later Life Superpower: From Hindsight to Foresight (P. Ki Tavo)

8/23/2026

We usually imagine that our experience of time is steady and linear – but it's not always so.

Extraordinary moments seem to slow or even freeze in our awareness. As life progresses, we all collect those moments in the hindsight of our mind's eye. They live on as hyper-real memory.

It is precisely our hindsight – richly layered by life experience – that gives elapsed time its meaning.

Spiritual life invites us to inhabit wise hindsight, then pivot our adult wisdom into foresight.

Insides to Match Our Outsides (P. Ki Teitzei)

8/16/2026

Kol Nidre night is on its way. Just one month from now, we will stand together – whether in a shared sanctuary or collectively across time and space – in a timeless ritual of releasing ourselves and each other from vows we were unable to keep despite our best efforts.

Maybe that's why Torah this week uplifts the spirituality of integrity and keeping our word.

Three Traps for the Justice Unweary (P. Shoftim)

8/9/2026

The holy preparatory month of Elul begins. The inner shofar begins to sound, calling us ever more to inner attention. Rosh Hashanah will follow so very soon.

So it's precisely now that Torah echoes the shofar call with a resounding bellow through the ages: "Justice, justice shall you pursue."

The path beckons us, with three traps to avoid.

The Mitzvah of Crossing Our Inner Jordan (P. Re'eh)

8/2/2026

We haven't yet reached our destination. We still act like travelers battling traffic, anxiety, regrets, cruelty, endless customer-service hold times, and whatever else we carry within.

We'll be our best when we reach our destination, we tell ourselves. But what are we waiting for? Isn't the destination we await already within?

Rabbi's Corner: August 2026 & High Holy Days: #RenewingBalance

7/30/2026

As August begins, already we're on the High Holy Day runway. It always feels too soon, and this year the holidays come "early."

In the last two years, our holiday seasons explored themes of love and strength. The world has needed both, and so have we.

For 5787, it's time to renew balance.

About the Blocked Heart (P. Eikev)

7/26/2026

Living with a fully open heart all the time can be uncomfortable – even risky. Anyone reading this probably knows this truth from life experience.

Most humans learn to protect their hearts. We learn so well that the feeling of a closed heart can be instinctive, automatic, effortless. We can become so inured that we might not know just how closed our hearts have become.

Maybe that's why, precisely now in the Jewish year, Torah calls us to open our hearts wide.

Gently Grasping Spirit (P. Vaethanan)

7/19/2026

Perhaps you've experienced the "beach wisdom" that the tighter we grasp dry sand in our hand, the more likely the sand will fall through our fingers. The way to hold sand is to cup it gently.

Lots of things work that way. (For instance, wise parents know that about their adult children.)

It's not exactly the same with what we call holy – the sacred, spirit, God – but it's close.

<<Previous

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

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

When We Assume... (P. Nitzavim-Vayeilekh)

Later Life Superpower: From Hindsight to Foresight (P. Ki Tavo)

Insides to Match Our Outsides (P. Ki Teitzei)

Three Traps for the Justice Unweary (P. Shoftim)

The Mitzvah of Crossing Our Inner Jordan (P. Re'eh)

Rabbi's Corner: August 2026 & High Holy Days: #RenewingBalance

About the Blocked Heart (P. Eikev)

Gently Grasping Spirit (P. Vaethanan)

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