Blog Posts

Sick Visits (P. Vayera)

11/2/2025

When the going gets tough, some of us have an instinct to pull in – to self-isolate, even conceal our tough times.

Maybe we resist drawing attention to ourselves or our difficulties. Maybe we feel that stoicism and privacy are the best parts of valor. We cleave to normalcy like it's nobody's business.

For deep reasons, Jewish spiritual life calls us against these instincts. We have duty to visit and help, and we have a duty to allow it. Here's why.

Trust and Verify (P. Lekh Lekha)

10/27/2025

It's okay to be afraid during times of uncertainty, especially when much is at stake.

But when we let fears rule us without lovingly questioning them, we tend to make what we fear more likely to impact us.

And then who are we really?

Between Fleeting and Forever: The Art of Time (P. Noah)

10/19/2025

Our experience of time is not linear. Whatever a clock tells us, long stretches can pass in a blink while some moments seem to last forever.

As we enter our annual calendar's peak autumn and the colder, darker months, perhaps we can open a window on how the Biblical Noah and his family felt aboard the ark. What might we learn about spiritualizing our experience of time?

The Courage to Buck the Patriarchy (P. Bereishit)

10/12/2025

The Torah Cycle begins again. As our ancestors have done for thousands of years, the turning of Torah's scroll aims to teach us partly by eliciting our questions.

But for many centuries, one question apparently was too dangerous to the patriarchy for most to ask – which is why we must.

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).

The Mitzvah of Joy (Sukkot)

10/5/2025

To many moderns, Sukkot is a strange holiday. Our ancestral agricultural days that inspired the harvest festival are long gone. The threat of scarcity that inspired celebration for bounty feels distant in our relative affluence. And yet we are commanded – commanded! – to be joyful.

What is joy if it's commanded, and what kind of command is that?

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.

For Whom We Stand (P. Ha'azinu)

9/28/2025

On this far end of Yom Kippur, we remember in our bones that all life goes the way of all life. It is true that all life ultimately dies, and equally true that all that dies once lived. We also know that in very real ways, all that died lives on in us, through us, in the air we breathe, in the values we uphold.

We who dared to touch death on Yom Kippur rise into new life and new joy as we near Sukkot (Season of our Joy). And then the cycle begins again – exactly as before, and utterly changed.

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Sick Visits (P. Vayera)

Trust and Verify (P. Lekh Lekha)

Between Fleeting and Forever: The Art of Time (P. Noah)

The Courage to Buck the Patriarchy (P. Bereishit)

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

The Mitzvah of Joy (Sukkot)

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)

For Whom We Stand (P. Ha'azinu)

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