分类: High Holy Days

Rabbi's Corner – October 2025: From Sukkot Into Peak Autumn

10/5/2025

R. David re-issues his High Holy Day sermons and covers Shir Ami's October highlights, including Sukkot Shabbat (Oct. 10), Rabbi David's Sukkot Party (Oct. 12), online Yizkor for Shemini Atzeret (Oct. 13), the launch of a feminist year of SoulSpa (Oct. 18), and the return of our regular musical Shabbat services (Oct. 24).

On Paradise Street – Sermon for Yizkor 5786 (2025)

10/3/2025

Our #StrongerTogether journey enters the valley of the shadow: touching mortality can impel us to live now, love now, take leaps of faith now.

There is power in memory, and there also is a power transcending memory, transcending time and place, that suddenly can rivet us in the infinite of now.

Now is one of those moments.

Our Hidden Courage – Sermon for Yom Kippur 5786 (2025)

10/2/2025

We've explored the kinds of strength we need to weather troubled times and better our lives –strength both soft and tough, moral and flexible, personal and communal.

Now we tap into courage, which sometimes seems most hidden when we need it most. The hidden path to our inner courage – to face who we are and truly better our lives – turns out to be
shorter and closer than we might imagine:

As close as our fragile hearts, and as clear as what we most fear to lose.

Our Circle Dance – Sermon for Kol Nidre 5786 (2025)

10/1/2025

For all of modern society's focus on individual rights and choice, even in the internet age, we still are carbon-based creatures who utterly need each other. Community has long been one of Jewish life's superpowers, but today hangs in the balance, buffeted by tides of social change and amnesia about who we really, truly are.

Our Moral Power – Sermon for Rosh Hashanah 5786 (2025)

9/23/2025

The turmoil, hunger and utter devastation in Gaza arouse deep emotions at the heart of Jewish community, identity and morality.

Amidst all the cross currents of confusing information, recriminations and abject suffering, whatever our views and perspectives, we all face common questions. What does it mean for our hearts and souls? How can we stand in our moral power, and be #StrongerTogether amidst it all, and not lose ourselves as a people of integrity?

Our Sovereign Power – Sermon for Erev Rosh Hashanah 5786 (2025)

9/22/2025

What do you make sovereign in your life? What truly rules you? Are you totally satisfied with your answer? If you're human, then probably not – and the Power of Creation imbues us with power to choose, to re-center, to change. After all, we are made "in the divine image," with sacred attributes. If God can create and transform, so can we.

We must start here, with our sovereign powers of choice and change. Otherwise, the travails of the heart and travails of our world can seem beyond our power to repair.

We can do it. We have 3,500 years of tools for wise living and societal repair, and our ancestors' strength courses through us. We are #StrongerTogether.

"Be Strong and Courageous" (P. Vayeilekh)

9/21/2025

In this first Torah portion of the new spiritual year, traditionally read between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur during most years, Moses prepares our spiritual ancestors for transition into new leadership (Joshua) and a new journey (into the Land of Promise).

His way of doing so speaks to us exactly now, as we begin this new year with new journeys of our own.

For Whom We Stand (P. Nitzavim)

9/14/2025

For whom do you stand? I don't mean physically (though we'll get to that shortly). I mean existentially: for whom do you stand?

This week's Torah portion rehearses a pivotal "Stand Together" moment we will experience on Yom Kippur. Now over 700 days post-October 7, its call lands on me very differently.

Truth or Consequences (P. Ki Tavo)

9/7/2025

What we do matters: our choices and behaviors have consequences even if we pretend not.

With Selihot approaching this weekend, Torah bellows this truth like a shofar blast, as if to rivet our attention to the truths of our lives and our power to renew our lives for goodness.

To Kick Bad Habits, Watch Time (P. Ki Teitzei)

8/31/2025

Source: Harvard Health (2022)

We all have impulses and habits that we're not proud of and don't well serve us. Sometimes we can take them on directly. But especially if we load our habits with negative emotions and self-judgments, focusing on our habits and impulses can only reinforce them.

There's another way – and as the holy month of Elul begins, it comes right on time.

<<Previous

Rabbi's Corner – October 2025: From Sukkot Into Peak Autumn

On Paradise Street – Sermon for Yizkor 5786 (2025)

Our Hidden Courage – Sermon for Yom Kippur 5786 (2025)

Our Circle Dance – Sermon for Kol Nidre 5786 (2025)

Our Moral Power – Sermon for Rosh Hashanah 5786 (2025)

Our Sovereign Power – Sermon for Erev Rosh Hashanah 5786 (2025)

"Be Strong and Courageous" (P. Vayeilekh)

For Whom We Stand (P. Nitzavim)

Truth or Consequences (P. Ki Tavo)

To Kick Bad Habits, Watch Time (P. Ki Teitzei)

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