Sermons

Shabbat Shalom 

     The stories at the beginning of the book of Genesis are all well known. These are some of the first stories we teach our children from the bible. Adam and Eve, the Tower of Babel, and who has not put up a picture of Noah, the ark, and the rainbow in their child’s room at one point or another? These stories we consider as children’s stories.

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Hag Sameach

     After a series of important holidays, the Yamim Noraim, the Days of Awe, where we look into every aspect of our lives and look for ways to improve the essence of who we are; after Sukkot the Harvest Festival, where we show our joy and gratitude for the bounties of nature and food security for the coming winter, we have Shemini Atzeret. Why do we have...Read more...

Hag Sameach

      The Torah teaches (Deut. 13:5) “Follow the Lord your God.” What does this mean? Is it possible for a mortal to follow God’s Presence? The verse means to teach us that we should follow the attributes of the Holy One, may God be praised. As God clothes the naked, you should clothe the naked. The bible teaches that the Holy One visited the sick:...Read more...

Shabbat Shalom

     Rabban Gamliel, the head of the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem during Roman times, had a trusted servant named Tabi. The story goes that Rabban Gamliel sent his servant into the marketplace to bring home the best food he could find. Tabi went out and returned to his master and presented him with a tongue. This, Tabi declared, was the greatest delicacy....Read more...

      I wish everyone a Tzom Kal – an easy fast and a meaningful day of prayer.

     The great storyteller, Robert Fulghum, in his book, Uh-Oh: Some Observations from Both Sides of the Refrigerator Door tells a story of a job he had in 1959 just after he graduated college, at the Feather River Inn, a resort where he helped wrangle some horses and...Read more...

You Came Back!!!  L’shana Tova – May we all have a Good New Year

Zalman Schachter-Shalomi – usually called Reb Zalman, died in 2014. I was aware of his work as a mystic and teacher. I knew he was trained as a Lubavitch Rabbi but left Chabad in the 1960’s to pursue his own spiritual/mystical/experimental path. There were Jews who followed him closely and were devoted to his teachings; I was not one of...Read more...

 Shabbat Shalom,

     As we rapidly approach the end of the Torah, we are only two small parshiyot away, this short parsha, Nitzavim, has the privilege of picking up the speech of Moshe, right after Moshe articulated all the terrible punishments that would come if we did not obey God’s Torah. Last week, in Parshat Ki Tavo, we had that seemingly endless list of...Read more...

Shabbat Shalom,

     We are quickly nearing the end of the book of Devarim, Deuteronomy, and this week our Parsha is indeed kind of a miscellaneous collections of laws that are only loosely connected. There are some 74 mitzvot in this one parsha alone making this the largest collection of mitzvot than any other parsha. Last week there were many rules regarding...Read more...

Shabbat Shalom.

     After the sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, God assigns a curse to both the first man and the first woman. For Adam, growing food will be hard work, no more easy pickings in the Garden but only through sweat and labor will the earth bring forth its bounty. For Eve, the curse is that childbirth will not be easy, it will be hard and...Read more...

Shabbat Shalom – It is good to be back; it was no fun at all being sick.

     My good friend and colleague, Rabbi Mordechai Silverstein of Jerusalem reminded me of a calendar quirk that I have not thought about for some time. He reminded me that the first day of Pesach and the fast of Tisha B’Av always fall on the same day of the week. This year Pesach began on Shabbat and today is the Ninth of Av, but the fast,...Read more...

Shabbat Shalom

     There is a lot that we do not understand about Parshat Hukkat. The biggest mystery of the parsha is the whole concept of the sacrifice of the Red Cow. This purification offering seems to make pure anyone who comes in contact with its ashes but those who prepare it themselves become impure. It is only in modern times that the Biblical scholar,...Read more...

Shabbat Shalom

     We like to think that the entire Jewish world is always on the same page in the Torah. We can look on a calendar and know what the parsha will be anywhere in the world. That is usually true, but not always. There are times when, due to a glitch in the Jewish calendar, Israel can move one parsha ahead of the rest of the world. It does not happen...Read more...

Hag Sameach.

What makes Shavuot and the giving of the Torah important is the fact that it was not given in secret. The Zohar was revealed to Rabbi Moses De Leon in private. Other famous religious texts were revealed to “prophets” who then turned and taught it to those who would follow what had been revealed. But the Torah was given in public. In front of more than two million...Read more...

Shabbat Shalom

     A couple of years ago, BC (Before COVID) our children were coming to stay at our home for a few days. Michelle and I took out an old jigsaw puzzle and spread the pieces on a table in our family room. We got a good start on the puzzle before our children came and they would stop by the table and sit for a while and work on the puzzle. As the puzzle...Read more...

Shabbat Shalom

     We hear about all kinds of denominations in Judaism. There is Conservative, Orthodox, Reform, Reconstructionist, Humanistic, Hasidic, Lubavitcher, several distinct types of Sephardic Judaism, and Spiritual Judaism. Each group practicing Judaism in their own way. But when I was in Rabbinical School, quite a while ago, we were taught that there were...Read more...