Parashat Vayera: The Trials And Tribulations Of Sarah (Torah Study delivered by Maayan Lev on November 5, 2022) “Marriage. Marriage is what brings us together, today.” These are the words of one of my favorite clergy members in history, albeit a fictional one, from the movie The Princess Bride. In all seriousness though, this […]
Sh’mini Atzeret: Reconsidering Our Relationship to Time (Delivered by Rabbi Sacks on October 16, 2022) If you were alive in the early days of television, you might remember one of the first television game shows, “Beat The Clock.” It actually began as a radio show in 1948 called Time’s A’ Wastin and later called Beat […]
Sukkot First Morning: Judaism and Environmentalism: An Obvious Sermon (Delivered by Rabbi Sacks on October 10, 2022) Chag Samei-ach I’m Rabbi Obvious, and this morning I’d like to give an obvious sermon. A sermon is a speech in which a rabbi tells people what they already know. Do I really have to tell you to […]
Parashat Ha’azinu: Living Out the Poetry of Torah (Delivered by Rabbi Sacks on October 7, 2022) I studied in a program in Jerusalem. We traveled in the Galilee and came to the mystical city of Tz’fat in Israel’s Northern District. There our guide and teacher asked our group of young seekers, “What is the most […]
Yom Kippur Yizkor: Finding Life Again After Tragedy (Delivered by Rabbi Sacks on Wednesday, October 5, 2022) It was an ordinary day. Grandma Suzie had taken Greta, her two-year-old granddaughter, out for a walk in her Upper West Side neighborhood. She babysat at least once a week, and tonight was going to be a sleepover, […]
Kol Nidre: Do I Really Sound Like That? (Delivered by Student Rabbi Maayan Lev on Tuesday, October 4, 2022) On the first day of Rosh HaShanah I spoke about the importance of listening to other people’s voices, and other people’s needs. It was a nod to Sh’ma Koleinu, which most congregations recite on Yom Kippur. […]
Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word (Delivered by Student Rabbi Maayan Lev on September 16, 2022) I know that as Jews, we say this pretty much all year round, but it’s that time of the year again. We are in the month of Elul. The High Holy Days are almost upon us. Tomorrow night, […]
Haftarat Shoftim: Do You Hear The Herald? (A discussion led by Student Rabbi Maayan Lev on September 3, 2022) This week’s haftarah is the fourth of the seven haftarot of consolation following Tish’ah B’Av. Like the others, it comes from Deutero-Isaiah.[1] The text comforts the exiled Israelites, telling them that the day is coming […]
First Shabbat in Elul: An Accounting of the Soul (delivered by Rabbi J.B. Sacks on September 2, 2022) Author Linda Weltner wrote an interesting essay about her brother Kenneth, who visited her on the East Coast from California. Since Kenneth was spending a month with her, she asked him if he would spend some […]
Shabbat Chazon: Isaiah Readies Us for Tishah B’Av and Beyond (A community study session led by Rabbi Sacks on August 6, 2022) Tishah B’Av begins tonight at sundown. Questions to Consider As We Begin: What is Tishah B’Av? Why do we have it? How do we observe it? This Shabbat prepares us for Tishah […]