Sukkot: Everything is Breath (d’var Torah delivered by Rabbi Sacks on September 30, 2023) Admiral James Stockdale was the most senior officer in the United States Navy. He led a torpedo squadron during the Vietnam War. On September 9, 1965, while flying on a mission over North Vietnam, Stockdale ejected from his Skyhawk, which had […]

Swaddled by G!d (delivered by Rabbi J.B. Sacks on September 29, 2023) We dwell in temporary structures in order to remember, as the Torah depicts G!d explaining, “that I caused the Israelites to live in sukkot when I brought them out of the land of Egypt.”[1] In a famous rabbinic debate,[2] Rabbi Eliezer explains that […]

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 […]

Erev Sukkot: The Three Jewish Pigs (Delivered by Student Rabbi Maayan Lev on October 9, 2022) Chag Samei-ach! It’s a great joy to be together tonight in the sukkah, a sukkah whose invisible branches criss-cross for miles around, creating a web-based canopy above our heads. But is this just a joke? Does an online sukkah […]