Category: History

The Western Wall is Not a Golden Calf (P. Ki Tisa)

3/1/2026

I hadn't planned to write a D'var Torah this week. Rather than write a new D'var Torah this week, I planned to repost last year's teaching about the Golden Calf in civil society. But developments in Israel compel me to speak – clearly and bluntly – to affirm Judaism's core values of pluralism and gender equality. At stake are Israel's identity and the Western Wall's spirituality itself, lest each risk becoming just another Golden Calf.

Hearing the Unheard (P. Vayishlah)

11/30/2025

Sometimes received religious traditions fail to hear the voice of suffering. Even worse, received traditions can suppress the voice of suffering.

It happens because every religion, by definition, titrates high principle through inherently limited and flawed human capacity.

What is our duty in response?

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.

About Our Spring Series: "Community Conversations" About the Mideast

3/19/2025

Israel evokes inspiration, dismay, pride, anger, blessing, suffering, love and hate. The State of Israel and the Mideast, including the ongoing crisis in Palestinian life, deeply touch the heart of everyone in and near Jewish life. Yet rarely do we discuss them openly. Too often such matters are avoided like a Third Rail, or suppressed, or relegated to quiet corners. Let's change that.

The Moral Arc Discovered (P. Vaera)

1/20/2025

No liberation is easy. Each begins with a promise that seems too good to be true. Even a promise can seem fanciful during the squeeze of hurt or bondage – like a fantasy, or a delusion. If there's a moral arc at all, at first it can seem out of reach.

So it was for Dr. King. So it was for Moses. So it is for every liberation and transformation.

Rabbi's Corner – December 2024: The Most Important Light

12/1/2024

December sets Jewish sights toward Hanukkah – a holiday that many of us treat as a minor commemoration suited mainly to children. Even in my early years of rabbinical school, I believed that Hanukkah was no big deal.

How wrong I was – and I want to share my personal story (and Hanukkah's historic story) precisely now, when public visibility and pride in Jewish life both feel especially vital and loaded.

When Places Double (P. Hayyei Sarah)

11/17/2024

What we call spiritual places, holy sites, are more than our consecrated houses of worship or historical touch points. Understood as they truly are, "holy" places can be the most ordinary ... until life, love, experience and memory change them into something more. Those places can transport us in memory and meaning, mind and heart – if we let them.

Our story of "double" places that become holy sites begins with this week's Torah portion, and continues today.

On Love and War – Sermon for Yom Kippur 5785 (2024)

10/12/2024

Opinions and arguments. War. Antisemitism. Elusive hopes for peace. Pride and prejudice. Morality in the crosshairs. What we're about. What we want to be about. What we crave to be about. And back to opinions and arguments, and war, and antisemitism....

Amidst the swirling chaos of the year that's been, and so much hurt still ongoing, what keystones to Jewish spiritual life can secure our foundations? What can help keep our hearts open amidst all?

Rabbi's Corner – August 2024: For the Sake of Ascent

8/1/2024

Our long, luxurious summer continues, yet already change is afoot. This month brings the Great Turning of Judaism's spiritual year. It's something that maybe many of us never knew in our Jewish lives. The Great Turning runs like a background program – just under the surface, animating the flow of spiritual time. It heralds hope from despair and resilience from the bottom of a well ...

... which is exactly what we need right now.

The Western Wall is Not a Golden Calf (P. Ki Tisa)

Hearing the Unheard (P. Vayishlah)

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

About Our Spring Series: "Community Conversations" About the Mideast

The Moral Arc Discovered (P. Vaera)

Rabbi's Corner – December 2024: The Most Important Light

When Places Double (P. Hayyei Sarah)

On Love and War – Sermon for Yom Kippur 5785 (2024)

Rabbi's Corner – August 2024: For the Sake of Ascent

Categories

Archives

Mailing Address

Worship

Contact Us