Haftarah for Lech L’cha 5782/2021 – Torah Study Shabbat Torah Discussion with Rabbi Sacks (given on October 16, 2021) Once again, yasher ko-ach to Maayan on his chanting of today’s haftarah. In the haftarah, Second Isaiah wants us to see ourselves as a people who live and act in the world as Abraham lived […]
Yizkor Sermon for Sh’mini Atzeret: “Tattered Shoes” (delivered on September 28, 2021) We are completing Sukkot, one of our shalosh regalim, our pilgrimage holidays. Shalosh regalim literally means “three feet,” reminding us that since ancient days, three times a year, on Sukkot, Pesach and Shavuot, pilgrims would make a journey to the holy city. The […]
What do we need to remember? Don’t forget that I existed. My time here had a purpose. You know how to love because of me. A beautiful and meaningful sermon shared by Rabbi J.B.Sacks. Yizkor. Yom Kippur.
The Akedah, The Un’taneh Tokef and the Pandemic: Part 2: Lessons Learned and Lived Rosh HaShanah, First Morning 5782 (September 7, 2021) Boker tov. Good morning. L’shanah tovah to all of you. Last night I spoke mainly about the Akedah, the story of the binding of Isaac which we’ll read tomorrow, and a bit […]
The Akedah, The Un’taneh Tokef and the Pandemic: Part 1: “Envisioning” the Akedah Erev Rosh HaShanah 5782 (September 6, 2021) Tonight I share a story that I have never before seen in the light of the High Holy Days. I have told this story during the internment portion at funerals, though I did not learn […]
Sermon originally shared by Rabbi JB Sacks on August 20, 2021 The war tried to kill us in the spring. Those are the opening words of Kevin Powers’s elegiac novel of the war in Iraq, The Yellow Birds. As with all great writing about war and human conflict—such as All Quiet on the Western Front […]
Sermon originally shared by Rabbi JB Sacks on May 22, 2021 Parashat Naso: “Things Fall Apart–Will the Center Hold? “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world” —William Butler Yeats, “The Second Coming” Nearly 25 years ago, Philip Roth was awarded The Pulitzer Prize for American Pastoral, the story […]