Pesach Yizkor: Empty Chairs at Empty Tables (delivered by Rabbi J.B. Sacks on April 30, 2024)   (Singing:)         “There’s a grief that can’t be spoken There’s a pain goes on and on. Empty chairs at empty tables Now my friends are dead and gone”……  Eight days ago we all sat around our seder tables where […]

Yom Kippur: The Power of Postcards (delivered by Rabbi J.B. Sacks on September 25, 2023) American poet Elaine Equi[1] speaks of her relationship to postcards: “The postcard is sacred to me. It makes me sad that no one sends them very much anymore because of email and texting. I still like to buy them, but […]

The Book of Lamentations: Ten Responses to Tragedy & Grief[1] (A Torah Discussion led by Rabbi J.B. Sacks on July 22, 2023) Our primary text for Tishah B’Av is the biblical book of Eichah, named Lamentations in English. The book contains five poems (one chapter each), each written by different anonymous authors in the aftermath […]

Consider Roddie Edmonds and So Consider Your Mortality (A Yizkor sermon delivered by Rabbi J.B. Sacks on May 27, 2023)  On this Memorial Day weekend, I’d like to recall the life of Master Sgt. Roderick “Roddie” Edmonds from Knoxville, Tennessee, who enlisted in the United States Army in 1941 and served in the 106th Infantry […]

Eighth-day Pesach: The Tale of The Four Mourning Children (Yizkor d’var Torah delivered by Student Rabbi Maayan Lev on April 13, 2023)  Remembrance. We’re all here today to remember. In Judaism, we have an obligation to remember. The Haggadah teaches that in every generation, we’re all obligated to see ourselves as though we had personally […]

Parashat T’tzaveh: Remember to Forget (delivered by Rabbi J.B. Sacks on March 3, 2023)   Psychologists, neurologists, and cyberneticians all study memory and forgetfulness. They seek to learn and explain the “how” of these processes–the dynamics. But these processes constitute the substance of spiritual life. We are more familiar with mitzvot about remembering. For example, […]

EIGHTH-DAY PASSOVER YIZKOR: Shirah Chadasha–New Songs (presented by Rabbi Sacks on April 23, 2022) We just chanted a selection from the Song of Songs. We read:  Arise my darling, my fair one, come away! For now the winter is past…the blossoms have appeared in the land, the song of the turtledove is heard in our […]

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 […]