Category: Year
-
Lekh Lekha 5775: “To a Land That I Will Show You”
Without question, the best job in all of Jewish folklore was the job of being the wagon driver of the Baal Shem Tov. Rabbi Yisrael Baal Shem Tov, the founder of the Hassidic movement, was a…
-
Noach 5775: “The Inclination of the Human Heart is Towards Evil”
It has been noted that in ancient times, people were more bothered by the philosophical challenge of “rasha v’tov lo” the prospering of the wicked. In modern times, we tend to be more bothered by the…
-
Bereishit 5775: “Islamic Terrorism & the ‘Shabbos App’”
A biology course that I took in college taught me something important about religion. Steven J. Gould, the great evolutionary biologist, taught a survey course at Harvard which he ambitiously called “A History of Life.” Professor…
-
Yom Kippur 5775: “Love in a Time of Cholera”
Following Shacharit on Yom Kippur of 5610, in September 1849, Rabbi Yisrael Salanter, the famous and pious Vilna rabbi – founder of the Mussar Movement, dedicated to injecting the pursuit of ethical excellence into traditional Jewish…
-
Rosh Hashanah Day 2 5775: “To Conquer Time”
This was a difficult sermon to write. I had cleared a few hours one afternoon to write. I thought leaving the office and heading to a nearby coffee shop would present me with fewer distractions. I…
-
Rosh Hashanah Day 1 5775: “The Palace is in Flames”
Rabbis share professional advice with each other. There are “tricks of the trade” and received wisdom that we pass to each other from rabbi to rabbi, from year to year. One such professional rule of thumb is…
-
Re’eh 5774: “If You Talk Here, Where Will You Pray?”
Some of you may remember the group of Christians who visited our shul before Tisha b’Av from Living Water Bible Camp in rural Wisconsin. This Christian camp had a summer program devoted to comparative religion and…
-
Eikev 5774: “We Must Love One Another Or Die”
Three or four years ago, our community in Princeton had difficulty finding a babysitter for the last days of Pesach. Pesach coincided with Easter that year and our usual babysitters for Shabbat morning were all celebrating one of…
-
Devarim 5774: “Family History and National History”
I want to begin by thanking all of you for your sympathy and support following the death of my grandmother last week. Sara and I are very grateful. I’m returning to New York on Wednesday and our…
-
Ma’asei 5774: “Reflections from Uganda”
I. The Uganda Plan is one of the most derided episodes in the history of Zionism. Stymied in his initial attempts to receive international backing for a Jewish national home in Palestine, Theodor Herzl pushed instead for…
