Sermons & Divrei Torah

Trouble for the Kohen with Trouble

Trouble for the Kohen with Trouble

  This Shabbat we read parashat Emor, which includes a discussion about certain physical conditions that disqualify a kohen from performing his sacrificial duties. Leviticus 21:17-23 list these conditions–blemishes, limps, a hunchback, a broken arm or leg, and a...

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Tazria-Metzora, Life In The Balance

Tazria-Metzora, Life In The Balance

One of my favorite TV shows is the BBC’s “Call The Midwife,” and waiting until October for the next season to start is a bit excruciating for me. Set in the late 1950s and 1960s, the show focuses on a group of women who serve as midwifes for an underprivileged...

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Breaking Free, Breaking News?

Breaking Free, Breaking News?

  “We interrupt this program to bring you this special bulletin….” Remember those? And in the days before DVRs,you couldn’t get back what you missed of the show! This Shabbat, we interrupt your annual Torah reading cycle for a special reading. Instead of moving...

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Don’t Be A Slave To The Text!

Don’t Be A Slave To The Text!

If you go to the terrific website, haggadot.com, you can download and customize hundreds of Haggadot for use at your seder, or just for fun. There’s a Schitt’s Creek Haggadah, a 10-Minute Dayenu Seder for use with young children, coloring pages and yes, traditional...

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The Year of Narrowing

Mitzrayim, “the narrow places.” In our Torah reading cycle, we left Mitzrayim, the Hebrew word for the lands of Egypt, weeks ago, but in our calendar, we’re just two weeks away from retelling the story of Yetziat Mitzrayim, the “Going out of Egypt,” and our redemption...

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Anne, Martin and the Golden Calf

Anne, Martin and the Golden Calf

This week, the Malverne School District hosted a live program from the Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect called “Letters from Anne and Martin,” where actors read excerpts from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr’s “Letter From A Birmingham Jail” and "The Diary of Anne...

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The Kindness of Our Hearts

The Kindness of Our Hearts

This year, National Random Acts of Kindness week leads up to one of my favorite Torah readings, Terumah. Teruma means “gift,” or “donation.” As the Israelites are traveling in the wilderness of Sinai, they’re receiving the commandments from God and from Moses. They’re...

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The Rules We Live By

The Rules We Live By

Divin In this week’s Torah reading, Mishpatim, the Torah enumerates many, many laws governing human behavior and actions. Amazingly, the very first ordinance has to do with the proper treatment of Hebrew slaves; they can only work for six years and must go free in the...

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Good Advice?

Good Advice?

I grew up listening to Allen Sherman’s records, and they’re as funny to me today as they were back in the 60s. One song, that I discovered as an adult, is called “Good Advice.” In it, he cites a man named Otis who had invented a room that “goes side to side.” Sherman...

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All We Need Is A Miracle?

All We Need Is A Miracle?

Sam prays for years to win the lottery, and it never happens. As time goes on, his prayers to God become more fervent, until finally, a heavenly voice booms, “Sam, meet me halfway, buy a ticket.” Ba dump bump. It seems like this week’s Torah reading, Beshallach, is an...

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Pharaoh’s Buyer’s Remorse

Pharaoh’s Buyer’s Remorse

It’s really hard to be wrong, to have regrets, to be on the “losing” side of something. Making (and acknowledging) mistakes is also hard, if not harder. When I’m knitting, and realize there’s a mistake in the piece, perhaps several rows back, I often dig in and...

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“Ko-vid-26*” and Covid-19

“Ko-vid-26*” and Covid-19

Last year at this time I was happily making initial preparations for the Malverne Jewish Center’s third annual Community Passover Seder. Well, you know what they say about “the best laid plans.” I tried to hold out hope that the novel coronavirus that had reached our...

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Dissenting: SCOTUS and the Talmud

Dissenting: SCOTUS and the Talmud

On January 5th, I marked one year of Daf Yomi, the practice of studying one page of Talmud per day, every day. Now before you get overly impressed, keep in mind that I often read the page in English, or the summary from My Jewish Learning. Some days I get behind and...

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Lighting Up The Darkness

Darkness and light are motifs that have been around since, well, the beginning. Coming as it does at the darkest time of the year in the northern hemisphere, Hanukkah–the Festival of Lights–acknowledges the very human desire and need for illumination. If the heavenly...

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Vayera, Putting God On Hold

Vayera, Putting God On Hold

What happens when two things of equal importance are put before you? How do you decide which to focus on? Our Torah reading this week, Vayera, opens with just such a dilemma, “The LORD appeared to [Abraham] by the terebinths of Mamre; he was sitting at the entrance of...

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Latest Sermons

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,...

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...

Eikev: Mindfully Eating Our Fill
Eikev: Mindfully Eating Our Fill

Photo credit: Rabbi Susan Elkodsi, 2021 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...

Latest Midrash HaZak

Tetzaveh: Geometric Shapes, Inner Spaces, and Shared Remembrance
Tetzaveh: Geometric Shapes, Inner Spaces, and Shared Remembrance

Tetzaveh: Geometric Shapes, Inner Spaces, and Shared Remembrance By Peninnah Schram Two geometrical shapes jumped off the pages in this technicolor parasha, Tetzaveh: frames of gold and pomegranates. What often happens when we read and study the richly textured layers...

M’tzora: If Walls Could Talk
M’tzora: If Walls Could Talk

Dirty Concrete Wall | Rough surface of dirty concrete wall. … | Flickr M'tzora: If Walls Could Talk Reb Carl Viniar Many of us still remember our parents saying, “just wait until you’re older!” I thought they were talking about being able to do more things. Now that I...

Terumah: Bringing The Gifts Of Your Life
Terumah: Bringing The Gifts Of Your Life

Terumah: Bringing The Gifts Of Your Life Rabbi Jill Berkson Zimmerman One day, I was perusing my dear friend Karen’s bookshelves because I was always interested in what new finds she had acquired. She commented to me that she had stopped purchasing new books, and...

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