Sermons & Divrei Torah

Moses & Yitro At The Mountain

Moses & Yitro At The Mountain

Rules and Laws are all well and good, but there’s no point in making them if they can’t be enforced and understood. The Torah brilliantly opens parashat Yitro by (sort of) reuniting Moses with his family, brought to him by his father-in-law, Yitro. I say “sort of,” because the text never tells us that Moses reunited with Tzippora, his wife, and his sons, Gershom and Eliezer, just Yitro!

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Chayeh Sarah-What We Learn From Abraham

Chayeh Sarah-What We Learn From Abraham

This week’s Torah reading is Chaye Sarah, the life of Sarah. However, it begins by telling us she died, and that Abraham was unprepared. It’s questionable as to whether or not he was even present at the time, as the text tells us that she died in Kiryat Arba (now Hebron), and we know from last week’s parashah that Abraham was in Be’er Sheva, where he went after sacrificing a ram in place of his son, Isaac.

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Artificial and Real Intelligence: Rosh Hashanah 5784

Artificial and Real Intelligence: Rosh Hashanah 5784

As we gather on this auspicious occasion of Rosh Hashanah, we celebrate not only the Jewish New Year but also what is often referred to as the “Birthday of the world.” The concept of creation holds a profound place in our faith, and today, I’d like to explore how this ancient belief intersects with our modern reality, particularly in the context of artificial intelligence.

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Mindfulness-Erev Rosh Hashanah 5784

Mindfulness-Erev Rosh Hashanah 5784

A few months ago, a couple of my colleagues mentioned using an app called Ten Percent Happier, by former ABC news anchor Dan Harris, for meditation and mindfulness. No, he’s not paying me to talk about the app, or the benefits of meditation, and even though one of his parents is Jewish, I doubt it ever crossed his mind that some rabbi somewhere would use his app as a jumping off point for a Rosh Hashanah sermon.

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Eikev: Mindfully Eating Our Fill

Eikev: Mindfully Eating Our Fill

One of my first classes in rabbinical school at AJR was “Contemplative Practice” with Rabbi Jill Hammer. One of the assignments had to do with “mindful eating,” where you take a small food item–perhaps a grape or raisin– look at it, touch it, squeeze it, smell it, recite a blessing… you get the picture. Finally, you eat it.

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Yom Kippur: Hope, Despair And A Shining Sun

Yom Kippur: Hope, Despair And A Shining Sun

Like many of the quotes and poems that make their way into use, a poem attributed to an anonymous person in a concentration camp, or in hiding, became somewhat of an urban legend, and has often been taken out of context, as well as not accurately translated. That poem begins, “I believe in the sun, even when it isn’t shining.” 

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Kindness

On Rosh Hashanah, we began our prayers in the hopes of moving God, the Holy Blessed One, from kisei din, the throne or seat of judgment, to kisei rachamim, the throne or seat of compassion. Ten days later, here we are at the eve of Yom Kippur, preparing for the next 25 hours of fasting, prayer and introspection, and hoping that we will be inscribed and sealed for another year of life and blessing.

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Shema: Listening, Hearing and the Shofar

Usually, we think of “The Shema” as the verses we chant or sing from the book of Devarim, Deuteronomy, and in that context, it’s a bold theological statement. It is an idea which goes to the heart of what it means to be a Jew. Once called the watchword of our faith, the Shema traditionally is among the first words we utter in the morning upon waking and the last words we say at bedtime, and from ancient times, we are invited to make these six words the final words on our lips as we pass on from this world.

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A Time For fixing, A Time for Finishing

A Time For fixing, A Time for Finishing

As I sit in my home, I hear things calling to me. Often, they’re coated in chocolate, but not always. More often, they’re unfinished projects, clutter, things that need new homes. I walk by, and they taunt me. I think, “It will take me 5 minutes, I should sit down and do this.” But I don’t. And I know why.

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Shoftim: Can Destruction be Just?

Shoftim: Can Destruction be Just?

The spotted lantern fly, what do we do? Sefer HaChinuchfinds an even deeper teaching embedded in the principle of bal taschit. He (I assume it’s a he) wrote that the purpose of the mitzvah of bal tashchit is to teach us to love that which is good and worthwhile and to cling to it, so that good becomes a part of us and we will avoid all that is evil and destructive.

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VaEtchanan: Until His Final Breath

VaEtchanan: Until His Final Breath

While reading this week’s Torah portion, VaEtchanan, I was struck by the “white space” in between verses 40 and 41. It seemed as though the Torah simply dropped one subject and picked up another with no segue. But since I know there’s a reason for every stroke and blank space in the Torah text, I knew there had to be some sort of connection.

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Parshat Pinchas: Looking For the Good

Parshat Pinchas: Looking For the Good

My friend Sylvia (who says I’m her favorite female rabbi) is almost 98–may she live and be well–and is often troubled by the harsher judgments and more problematic passages in the Torah. And rightly so; there are plenty of times when our idea of a compassionate God who forgives sin is challenged.

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Shabbat for the 4th of July

Shabbat for the 4th of July

Two hundred and 46 years ago, the Continental Congress approved the final wording of the Declaration of Independence, and in addition to stating a litany of grievances against tyrannical British rule, they declared the 13 Colonies to be an independent union, the beginning of the United States of America.

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Bekhukotai: The God I Believe In

Bekhukotai: The God I Believe In

The yearly Torah-reading cycle is a beautiful thing. Every week, when I look at the parashah for the upcoming Shabbat, I see something I hadn’t noticed before. I also the same words year-after-year, but find different understandings of them, depending on what’s going in the world, the area, my life.

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Latest Sermons

Moses & Yitro At The Mountain
Moses & Yitro At The Mountain

Yitro, this week’s Torah reading, is famous for containing the Aseret haDibrot, commonly translated as “The Ten Commandments.” There’s no question that a law code is necessary for a community to be cohesive, to have a set of principles to guide them, and to create a...

Chayeh Sarah-What We Learn From Abraham
Chayeh Sarah-What We Learn From Abraham

Va y’hihu chayay Sarah may-ah shanah v’esrim shanah v’sheva shanah shnay chayay Sarah And the years of Sarah’s life were 100 years and twenty years and 7 years, the years of Sarah’s life. This week’s Torah reading is Chaye Sarah, the life of Sarah. However, it begins...

Artificial and Real Intelligence: Rosh Hashanah 5784
Artificial and Real Intelligence: Rosh Hashanah 5784

Shalom, dear congregants, As we gather on this auspicious occasion of Rosh Hashanah, we celebrate not only the Jewish New Year but also what is often referred to as the “Birthday of the world.” The concept of creation holds a profound place in our faith, and today,...

Latest Midrash HaZak

Chukat: The Red Heifer and Our Stuff, Rabbi Andra Greenwald
Chukat: The Red Heifer and Our Stuff, Rabbi Andra Greenwald

Photo Credit: Rennett Stowe on Flickr Chukat: The Red Heifer and Our Stuff Rabbi Andra Greenwald Is it sacrilegious to feel that some pieces of the Torah just don’t make sense? In parshat Chukat, the Law of the Red Heifer presents us with one of the statutes for which...

Devarim: The Power of Retelling, Rabbi Jane Rachel Litman
Devarim: The Power of Retelling, Rabbi Jane Rachel Litman

Image from Medfield, MA public library, wallaceshealy-com-OPvCP3-clipart The Power of Retelling Rabbi Jane Rachel Litman A few weeks ago, I was invited to speak to a university class about being one of the first generation of women and queer rabbis. At these kinds of...

Mattot: What Words Can Create, Ilene Winn-Lederer
Mattot: What Words Can Create, Ilene Winn-Lederer

Illustration ©2009-Ilene Winn-Lederer Mattot: What Words Can Create Ilene Winn-Lederer Although I grew up with a strong Jewish identity, I did not experience a traditional Jewish education and came to Torah in my late teens through influential involvement with a...

Latest Personal Blogs

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This past week, I participated in a Ritualwell class with Alden Solovy on "Writing From One Word of Torah." I distilled 3 stream-of-consciousness prompts on the word "Baruch/Berekh," the root of which can mean "blessing' and "knee, into this poem. Blessing my bended...

The Eshet Hayil In Our Lives
The Eshet Hayil In Our Lives

Photo: publicdomainpictures.net The Eshet Hayil In Our Lives An email from My Jewish Learning about “A Woman of Valor” prompted me to pivot the next evening’s planned adult learning session to looking at these 22 verses from Mishlei, the Book of Proverbs. These verses...

Live Long and Prosper?
Live Long and Prosper?

By Oklahoma Heritage Association, Gaylord-Pickens Museum - Author, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25656727 Live Long and Prosper? January 5, 2022 began the third year of the seven and a half-year cycle of Daf Yomi, the practice of...

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