Striking the Egyptians: The Incomplete Redemption (delivered by Rabbi J.B. on January 21, 2023) Every year at the Passover seder everyone dips a finger in their cup of wine and spills one drop for each of the ten plagues. Why do we spill wine at the mentioning of plagues? Today...

Parashat Va’era: How We’ve Evolved Since The Exodus (delivered by Maayan Lev on January 20, 2023) This week’s parashah is Va’era. This Torah portion is one that many people know well, even if not by name, as it contains seven of the Ten Plagues, and is often depicted on screen...

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...

Parashat Vay’chi: The Problem of White Lies (delivered by Rabbi J.B. Sacks on January 6, 2023) For me, among the more amusing commercials running on television are those by GEICO. Do you know them? One series of ads began with the question, “Would switching to GEICO save you money on...

Hanukkah and Assimiliation: Ba-yamim Ha-em U-vaz’man Ha-ze (a discussion led by Maayan Lev on December 17, 2022) This week’s parashah is Vayeshev, which begins the story of Joseph. But on top of what’s happening in the Torah this Shabbat, it’s also Hanukkah tomorrow night. So what do these two narratives...

Parashat Vayeshev: The Bullies Among Us (delivered by Rabbi J.B. Sacks on December 16, 2022) Tears can be good or bad. The worst tears of all accompany a child’s death. In this week’s portion, Vayeshev, Jacob experiences such tears when his older sons bring him the blood-soaked “coat of many...

Parashat Vayeitzei: Lions And Tigers And Bears, Oh My (Haftarah study led by Student Rabbi Maayan Lev on December 3, 2022) In this week’s Torah portion, Jacob accidentally marries Leah instead of Rachel. He was in the dark about the swap made by his uncle Laban, quite literally. He could...

Parashat Vayeitzei: The Torah Meets Greek Mythology (delivered by Student Rabbi Maayan Lev on December 2, 2022) Chanukah will soon be upon us. It is the story of our victory against the Greeks. The story recounts that we successfully resisted the urges of assimilation, and retained our Jewish identity. To...

Parashat Chayyei Sarah: All Years Are Equal (Torah study led by Rabbi J.B. Sacks on November 19, 2022)   We do not have a lot of time, but it’s important for us to share words of Torah. So let me speak briefly on today’s Torah reading. The first verse we...

Parshat Chayei Sarah: “Bring Your Days with You” (delivered by Rabbi J.B. Sacks on November 18, 2022)  Old age takes away from us what we have inherited and gives us what we have earned.[1] Let me repeat these important words from Gerald Brenan. Old age takes away from us what...

Parashat Vayera: The Trials And Tribulations Of Sarah (Torah Study delivered by Maayan Lev on November 5, 2022)   “Marriage. Marriage is what brings us together, today.” These are the words of one of my favorite clergy members in history, albeit a fictional one, from the movie The Princess Bride....

Parashat Lech L’cha: Lot’s Got Plenty o’ Nuttin’ (delivered by Rabbi J.B. Sacks on November 4, 2022) I remember the thrill of seeing Porgy and Bess for the first time. It was a 1935 English-language tragic opera by George Gershwin.[1] It features a cast of classically trained African-American singers, a...

Parashat B’reishit: The Story of Cain (Torah Study led by Student Rabbi Maayan Lev on October 22, 2022)  This week’s Torah portion is Bereshit (Genesis), which is best known for the days of creation, and also for the Garden of Eden. But there is another well-known story in this week’s...

Shabbat Breishit: Mistakes–A Gift From G!d? (Delivered by Student Rabbi Maayan Lev on October 21, 2022) We’ve made it. The High Holy Day season is over, and we are now returning to our regularly scheduled programming. This week, we have scrolled the Torah back to the beginning, and start over...

Shabbat of Sukkot: Kohelet Through The Lens of Yizkor (Delivered by Student Rabbi on October 17, 2022) Over the course of our lives, the number of people we carry with us grows and grows. Sometimes that number starts when we are very young. Some of us find healing. Some of...

Sh’mini Atzeret: Reconsidering Our Relationship to Time (Delivered by Rabbi Sacks on October 16, 2022) If you were alive in the early days of television, you might remember one of the first television game shows, “Beat The Clock.” It actually began as a radio show in 1948 called Time’s A’...

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...

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...

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...

Parashat Ha’azinu: Living Out the Poetry of Torah (Delivered by Rabbi Sacks on October 7, 2022)  I studied in a program in Jerusalem. We traveled in the Galilee and came to the mystical city of Tz’fat in Israel’s Northern District. There our guide and teacher asked our group of young...

Yom Kippur Yizkor: Finding Life Again After Tragedy (Delivered by Rabbi Sacks on Wednesday, October 5, 2022) It was an ordinary day. Grandma Suzie had taken Greta, her two-year-old granddaughter, out for a walk in her Upper West Side neighborhood. She babysat at least once a week, and tonight was...

Kol Nidre: Do I Really Sound Like That? (Delivered by Student Rabbi Maayan Lev on Tuesday, October 4, 2022) On the first day of Rosh HaShanah I spoke about the importance of listening to other people’s voices, and other people’s needs. It was a nod to Sh’ma Koleinu, which most...

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...

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...

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...

Coming to Pray These High Holy Days (A text journey & sermon delivered by Rabbi Sacks on Saturday, September 17, 2022) Some years ago Israeli archaeologists were cleaning a wall in the remains of a fourth or fifth century synagogue they had uncovered in Meroth in Upper Galilee. Suddenly a...

Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word (Delivered by Student Rabbi Maayan Lev on September 16, 2022)  I know that as Jews, we say this pretty much all year round, but it’s that time of the year again. We are in the month of Elul. The High Holy Days are...

Haftarat Shoftim: Do You Hear The Herald? (A discussion led by Student Rabbi Maayan Lev on September 3, 2022)   This week’s haftarah is the fourth of the seven haftarot of consolation following Tish’ah B’Av. Like the others, it comes from Deutero-Isaiah.[1] The text comforts the exiled Israelites, telling them...

First Shabbat in Elul: An Accounting of the Soul (delivered by Rabbi J.B. Sacks on September 2, 2022)   Author Linda Weltner wrote an interesting essay about her brother Kenneth, who visited her on the East Coast from California. Since Kenneth was spending a month with her, she asked him...

Haftarat Eikev: The Evolution of G-d (as We Know Them) (A discussion led by Student Rabbi Maayan Lev on August 20, 2022) We just read this week’s haftarah,[1] the second of the Seven Haftarot of Consolation, read during the seven weeks following Tishah B’Av. The Haftarah opens in Isaiah 49:14...

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...

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 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...

Parashat Balak: What Hardship Have I Caused You? (Torah Study led by Rabbi Sacks on July 16, 2022)  We just read today’s haftarah from the prophet Micah, who lived roughly between 740 BCE and 690 BCE. Micah, like Amos, is from a small southern town in Eretz Yisrael, evident in...

Parashat Balak: Know that We Don’t Know (delivered by Rabbi J.B. Sacks on July 15, 2022)  A friend of mine in Manhattan told me about an encounter she recently had on the bus. She has a chronic, but “silent,” illness. It is often debilitating, but you wouldn’t know that by...

Parashat Korach: Considerations of Leadership (led by Rabbi J.B. Sacks on July 2, 2022)  Last night I spoke of the difference between Moses’ leadership and Korach’s leadership, which we read about this morning in the Torah reading. Korach’s style was self-serving and preyed upon the hurts, fears, vulnerability, powerlessness, and...

Parashat Korach: Moses and Korach, Without and Within (Delivered by Rabbi J.B. Sacks on Friday, July 1, 2022)   In this week’s reading, we witness three dramatic power struggles that have national repercussions! Korach, a fellow Levite, leads a struggle against Moses’ religious authority. Datan and Aviram, descendents of Jacob’s...

Parashat Beha’alotcha: When It’s Not Too Late (Delivered by Student Rabbi Maayan Lev on Friday, June 17, 2022)   Shabbat shalom everyone. It is so good to be with you all tonight on Zoom. I am sorry I wasn’t at CAH for Shavuot, but I was not feeling well. I...

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...

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...

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...

Parashat B’har Sinai: The Repetition of the Command to Not Wrong Others A Shabbat Torah Study led by Rabbi Sacks on Saturday, May 21, 2022 Last night I spoke about the command to not wrong one another, we read twice this morning. I spoke of its implications for building and...

Parashat B’har Sinai: The Task of Peace-Building delivered by Rabbi Sacks on May 20, 2022 We are nearing the conclusion of the book of Leviticus. The book, especially in the latter half, makes clear that extraordinary action is called for as part of our people’s calling to be kadosh l-d-nai...

Parashat K’doshim: The Holiness Mirror delivered by Student Rabbi Maayan Lev on Saturday, May 7, 2022   We just finished reading this week’s Torah portion, K’doshim. K’doshim is about holiness. Its passages form the core of what is referred to as the Holiness Code. K’doshim begins, “You shall be holy,...

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...

Seventh Day Passover: Crossing the Red Seas of Life (delivered by Rabbi Sacks on April 22, 2022) Today we read the unforgettable, thrilling episode of the crossing of the Red Sea. The Israelites, in great haste, cast off the chains and shackles of their servitude when Pharaoh, finally, granted Moses...

The One Who Redeems Our Children[1] (Study led by Rabbi Sacks on Shabbat, the first morning of Passover, April 16, 2022)   At our Passover seder, we use a Haggadah. The word Haggadah means “a telling.” But whose story do we tell on Passover? One obvious answer: Our people’s. We...

Pesach Passages: A Pre-Passover Haggadah Study (Taught by Student Rabbi Maayan Lev on Saturday, April 2, 2022)   As Passover (Pesach) draws near, it is not uncommon for people to make preparations for the holiday days in advance. For some of us, we must figure out logistics such as cleaning...

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...

Parashat Tzav: Telling It Like It Is: A Haftarah Study on Jeremiah 7-8 (led by Student Rabbi Maayan Lev on March 19, 2022)  This week’s Haftarah selection comes from the Prophet Jeremiah (7:21-8:3, and 9:22-23). It is a lecture that he gives to the Israelites shortly before the destruction of...

Parashat Tzav (delivered by Student Rabbi Maayan Lev on March 18, 2022)  Purim has come and gone, and, oh, what fun we had! It was so great to see everyone’s costumes, to hear the Megillah, and to sing songs together. I think it’s important to have time to relax and...

Parashat Pikudei: The Holy Vessels in the Temple and Within Us (Haftarah Study led by Rabbi Sacks on March 5, 2022) Today we read the haftarah that Sephardic Jews read for this week’s portion, Pikudei, from I Kings 7:40-50. As it happens, Ashkenazic Jews read the same passage as the...

Shabbat Pikudei: The Invasion of Ukraine–Where Is G!d? (Delivered by Student Rabbi Maayan Lev on Friday, March 4, 2022)   For those of us in the building with me, it is so great to be together in our sanctuary once again. There is still great value in having hybrid services....

Selections from Parashat Ki Tisa: Equality, Sin, and Atonement A Torah study led by Maayan Lev on February 19, 2022) Because we did not have a Torah scroll for our online services this Shabbat weekend, there was a need to temporarily depart from the usual format of our Torah service....

Parashat Ki Tisa: Joining the Celebration or Not (delivered on 2/18/2022 by Student Rabbi Maayan Le)   Shabbat shalom everyone. It’s so great to be here tonight with you all. Believe it or not, until tonight, I have never led a Shabbat service for a synagogue before on my own....

Parashat T’rumah: G!d’s Need for a Dwelling (A Torah study led by Rabbi J.B. Sacks on February 5, 2022) Our reading today mostly contained a detailing of the command to build the mishkan, a portable sanctuary, that our ancestors would carry throughout their desert wanderings. With our reading as background,...

Parashat T’rumah: Giving, Not Taking, Leads to Love (delivered by Rabbi Sacks on February 4, 2022) Rabbi Eliyahu Dessler[1] was an important figure of the twentieth century. A Talmudic scholar and Jewish philosopher, he served as the mashgiach ruchani, “spiritual counselor,” for the Ponevezh yeshiva, located in B’nei B’rak, a...

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...

“He–and We–Live”–A Torah Study for Parashat Vay’chi Led by Rabbi J.B. Sacks on December 18, 2021   Today’s Torah reading is Parashat Vay’chi. “Vay’chi” means, “And he lived,” and this portion ends the book of Genesis. It records a lot. Try to take in this listing: The last years and...

Parashat Vayechi: Loving Parents and Not Getting Weighed Down By Them delivered on December 17, 2021 by Student Rabbi Maayan Lev   This week’s Torah portion, Vayechi, is about the death of Jacob, and the expectations he sets for his children while on his deathbed. A lot about the parent-child...

Hanukkah and Parashat Mikketz 2021: The Importance of 2025 (delivered by Rabbi Sacks on December 3, 2021, the Shabbat of Hanukkah)   Our Sages made sure that this week’s portion Miketz is read during or in immediate proximity to Hanukkah. They did so because of larger truths. Here the Rabbis...

TORAH STUDY for VaYishlach–Jacob as “Jews”; Esau as “non-Jews” (taught by Rabbi Sacks on November 20, 2021)   In today’s haftarah, the prophet Obadiah uses what is called typology. Typology is the doctrine or study of types or prefigurative symbols, especially in scriptural literature. That is, Obadiah presents Jacob and...

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...

Parashat Lech Lecha: Let G!d Judge Between You and Me Student Rabbi Maayan Lev (delivered on October 15, 2021) This week’s Torah portion is Lech Lecha, a portion so rich, so full of many stories, that it is hard to know what to focus on. There is so much to...

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...

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...

­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,...

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...

Parashat Re’eh: Giving and Relatedness Delivered by Student Rabbi Maayan Lev on August, 6, 2021 Shabbat shalom everyone. For those who don’t know me, my name is Maayan Lev, and I am Am HaYam’s rabbinic intern. I work with Rabbi Sacks. This is my first time in the building, and...

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...