- Sep2022
Building a Sukkah As a Metaphor for Change
September 24, 2022
by Maayan Lev As a child, Sukkot was a very big holiday in my family. In fact, it may have been the biggest holiday of the year for us. This is because we had dinner in the sukkah together every night, usually inviting a different family to join us each...
Remarks delivered by Rabbi J.B. Sacks at the dedication of Congregation Beth Shalom’s new synagogue space in Palm Desert
September 14, 2022
What Today’s Dedication Means (Remarks delivered by Rabbi J.B. Sacks at the dedication of Congregation Beth Shalom’s new synagogue space in Palm Desert on September 11, 2022)[1] Good afternoon! What a wonderful occasion for us to gather, the dedication of a new home for Congregation Beth Shalom, a new home...
- Aug2022
What Am I Afraid Of?–Psalm 27 and the Use of the Month of Elul
August 29, 2022
What Am I Afraid Of?–Psalm 27 and the Use of the Month of Elul One of the ways that our tradition invites us to prepare for the High Holy Days is to recite and reflect upon Psalm 27 twice a day for the High Holy Day season, which leads into...
Tishah B’Av to Rosh HaShanah: What Money Cannot Buy
August 1, 2022
From the Rabbi’s Study Tishah B’Av to Rosh HaShanah: What Money Cannot Buy Business people once met for dinner some years ago and began to discuss money. One successful and aggressive business mogul made the statement that money can buy everything. In fact, he wrote out a check for...
- Jul2022
Rabbi Sacks and the Rabbinical Assembly on the Recent U.S. Supreme Court Decision Overturning Roe v. Wade Rabbi Sacks: Three Reasons Why I Worry about the U.S. Supreme Court Decision (delivered on Friday, July 1, 2022) From the time the news reports broke about an impending U.S....
A Ship’s Waves–Then and Seventy-Five Years Later
July 1, 2022
From the Rabbi’s Study A Ship’s Waves–Then and Seventy-Five Years Later In 1946, a ship, the USS President Warfield, was bought for $8,028 by the Western Trading Company to be used as scrap. She originally carried passengers across the Chesapeake Bay. During much of WWII, she was a training...
- May2022
Writing Our Song: A Reflection on Our Year of Learning (Teaching/D’var Torah delivered by Rabbi Sacks on May 22, 2022 on the occasion of our siyyum, the conclusion of our year of learning) We will be arriving at Mount Sinai spiritually once again as continue our way through the...
Conservative Judaism’s Stance on Abortion
May 9, 2022
Rabbi J.B. Sacks, teaches about the Conservative Jewish movement's history and views on Abortion. Abortion is allowed in Judaism, to protect the physical or emotional health of the mother. Watch and learn.
Remembering the Shoah Eighty Years Later: The Privilege of Survival Rabbi J.B. Sacks April 24, 2022 My family has recorded well over 300 family members who died during the Shoah. So Yom HaShoah has deep importance for me, and being together with you, and commemorating it together adds to...
- Apr2022
The Passion in Compassion
April 22, 2022
From the Rabbi’s Study The Passion in Compassion As a member of the President’s Commission on the Holocaust, Cantor Isaac Goodfriend[1] joined his colleagues in a tour of a number of concentration camps and other sites. During the tour he visited the Polish farmer who had hidden him and...