Click here to download a PDF of this sermon. Who has seen the movie Toy Story 3? My wife Michelle and I saw it with the kids on the day it came out. There we sat, watching Pixar’s animated film about a bunch of talking toys, when I noticed the tears running down my wife’s …
Each Rosh Hashanah, we read the horrid tale of the Akedah (Genesis 22), the almost sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham. Commentators throughout the ages characterize this story as an example of the heights of faith. Abraham loved God so much he was willing to give up the child he waited so long to bear. But …
Up at the Union for Reform Judaism’s Camp Newman in Santa Rosa, California, nature itself has become the text from which to teach a whole Torah’s worth of Jewish lessons. Daily, the four hundred plus campers, counselors and Rabbinic faculty study the myriad of religious sources to illuminate the religious truths hidden right before our …
How do you raise kids who understand and value being Jewish? Who have a greater chance of giving you Jewish grandchildren? And what is special and Jewish about the number 36.5? Most evidence points to four primary factors: Family affiliates with a synagogue and remains members and involved AFTER the youngest child becomes a Bar/Bat …
Happy (belated) Father’s Day! My day began like many others. I woke up before everyone else, and read the paper on the internet. I watched with a chuckle as the kids woke, groggily gave me a kiss, turned on their computers, read on ESPN website that it was father’s day, and then smiled sheepishly to …
Our Torah teaches that placed before each of us at every moment is a choice. Life or death, blessing or curse. At every moment, with every step we take, we must choose. And those choices determine, literally, whether we, our children, our people and our values will live on. U’vacharta bachaim – choose life (Deuteronomy …
The Baal Shem Tov (founder of Chasidism) urged his followers toward hishtavut, equanimity or levelheadedness. He recognized that powerful emotions of others will sway us in directions that lead us away from emet or truth. As we are assaulted by media messages about the Gaza Flotilla, let us strive for hishtavut (levelheadedness) in our response …
Add this to the list of “Posts I Wish I had Written” This one was written by Frume Sarah The amount of times the Torah commands us to care for, protect, or support the stranger. More than any other mitzvah. When the professor of a class turns to the board (chalk, white, or Smart) and …
We are told to live holy lives, remembering we are created b’tzelem Elohim, in the image of God. What does this mean? Professor/Rabbi Arthur Green in his new book Radical Judaism (pg. 121-2) offers this teaching in the name of Dr. Abraham Joshua Heschel: “Why are graven images forbidden by the Torah?” I once heard …
After a 31 day, 22 state (10 National Parks and 11 baseball parks) road trip in a minivan, I wrote this sermon about how God is everywhere. Read on: The Whole Earth is Filled With God’s Glory, Final
We celebrated Shabbat around a campfire in Old Agoura tonight. 210 of us in a circle, singing, smiling, praising the Holy One. Is it really Jewish to feel so inspired out in the open? Sitting under the stars? Gathering around a campfire? Moses was inspired by flames dancing in a bush in the wilderness. Why …
Five former Or Ami interns – Jordana Chernow-Reader, Ari Margolis, Dan Medwin, Lydia Bloom Medwin, and Sara Mason-Barkin – will be ordained Rabbi this Sunday at Hebrew Union College’s Ordination ceremony. Be sure that I will blog about that on Monday. Also exciting is the ordination of Reuben Zellman, the first transgender Rabbi. The Jewish …
Happy Mom’s Day! (Those are three of the most inspiring women – My Mom, My Wife, My Sister-in-law.) Having finished cooking breakfast, giving my wife a heart-felt mushy Mother’s Day card, taking a nap (I woke up so early, I slid out of bed so as not to wake her), and cleaning the kitchen (imperfectly, …
My wife and I spent last evening at my previous pulpit, Temple Beth Hillel (Valley Village, CA), for a dinner and Havdala service honoring Rabbi Jim Kaufman and Sue Kaufman on the occasion of his retirement. Rabbi Jim stands apart as one of the greatest influences on my congregational rabbinate. Dinner was delicious; the program …
Rabbi Eric Yoffie, President of the Union for Reform Judaism, offered these as six distinctive features of Reform Judaism: We view the Jewish tradition as growing, evolving and always changing, and we celebrate creative change in all areas of ritual and practice. We assert that the equality of women in Jewish life is non-negotiable. We …