JEWISH QUOTES TO PONDER AS WE BEGIN A NEW YEAR–PART 1 (A community study period led by Rabbi J.B. Sacks on October 8, 2022) As we have just completed Yom Kippur Wednesday and are about to begin Sukkot tomorrow night, I thought we should take time to ponder various quotes that could help us to […]
Rosh HaShanah Second Day: The Tree and You (A Community Discussion led by Rabbi J.B. Sacks on September 27, 2022) We just put the Torah away, and the last words we sang were the Eitz Chayyim Hi. It is actually sung whenever we read the Torah. The chumash that we usually use to follow […]
Rosh HaShanah First Morning: Listening to All Our Voices (Delivered by Student Rabbi Maayan Lev on September 26, 2022) It’s so wonderful to be with all of you in this new year, the year 5783. This is my first time being at Congregation Am HaYam for Rosh HaShanah, and it’s so wonderful to start the […]
Erev Rosh HaShanah: Rekindling Our Pintele Yid (Delivered by Rabbi Sacks on September 25, 2022) My practice on Erev Rosh HaShanah is to tell a story and to see what lessons it might yield. Tonight’s story is a true account, a travel story from a professional traveler. Some of you may remember the Birnbaum […]
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 […]
Shabbat Chazon: Moses’ Lessons As We Head into Tishah B’Av (delivered by Rabbi Sacks on Friday, August 5, 2022) The Torah has a sense of humor. Tomorrow we read from Deuteronomy, the fifth and final book of the Torah. It begins,[1] אֵ֣לֶּה הַדְּבָרִ֗ים אֲשֶׁ֨ר דִּבֶּ֤ר מֹשֶׁה֙ אֶל־כׇּל־יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל בְּעֵ֖בֶר הַיַּרְדֵּ֑ן These are the words that Moses […]
Shavuot Yizkor (delivered by Rabbi Sacks on June 5, 2022) We are all reeling from the tragedy at Uvalde. It’s a lot to process and a lot of issues have rightly captured public attention. Yet now I hone in on one overlooked piece.. When the detailed official timeline of the shooting emerged, Texas Department of […]
Parashat B’midbar Sinai: Counting Ourselves As Israel (delivered by Rabbi Sacks on Saturday, June 4, 2022) We begin reading the Book of Numbers this week. It opens with the taking of a census. After the rather arcane matters we have been reading about in recent weeks—the sacrificial cult, laws of purity and impurity, skin eruptions, […]
Parashat B’midbar Sinai: Is the United States, “All For One” or “None For All,” and, if the Latter, Do We Deserve to be a Country? (delivered by Rabbi Sacks on Friday, June 3, 2022) When Shabbat ends tomorrow night, we begin a very special celebration in the Jewish world, the birthday of the Torah, Shavuot. […]
Parashat Taz-ri’a: A Shift in Power from Biblical Text to Rabbinic Perception (delivered by Rabbi Sacks on April 1, 2022) This week’s Torah reading, Taz-ri’a, portrays the Priest as a physician, and it portrays spiritual blight as medical malady. The text focuses on scaly skins and malignant discolorations, but simmering beneath the surface is […]