Sh’mini Atzeret: Universality, Now Particularity (delivered by Rabbi J.B. Sacks on October 6, 2023) Sukkot represents more clearly than any other festival the dualities of Judaism. Most especially, the holiday holds up the tension between the universality of nature and the particularity of history. The aspect of Sukkot that focuses upon rainfall, harvest, and climate, […]
JEWISH QUOTES TO PONDER AS WE BEGIN A NEW YEAR–PART 2 (A community study period led by Rabbi J.B. Sacks on January 7, 2023) At our first Shabbat services after Yom Kippur Wednesday and before Sukkot began, we took time together to ponder various quotes that could help us to set the tone for the […]
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 […]
Parashat Eikev: Hearing The Silent Shema (delivered by Student Rabbi Maayan Lev on August 19, 2022) It’s so wonderful to be with you all once again after a meaningful summer break in Israel. While Rosh HaShanah is over a month away, this begins my second year as the student rabbi at Am HaYam. While I […]
Parashat Yitro: Nostalgia, Memory and the Building of Judaism (delivered by Rabbi Sacks on January 21, 2021) I am not sure how many of you are familiar with Manhattan. For some 13-14 years, I lived in Manhattan and right next door to it, in Jersey City, New Jersey, just across the Holland Tunnel. Tonight […]
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 […]