The Election and Our Shared Resilience

As I’ve written about before, to be Jewish, to be in relationship to the Jewish people, entails a Jewish identity that is concerned not exclusively with traditionally “religious” considerations, but with the grand sweep of history, too: with the way in which the Jewish people and the loved ones in relationship with them find themselves […]

Shabbat as Our Anchor and Honoring Our Community

We’re in the middle of a trying week, with a highly consequential election nearly upon us, settling down from the rhythms of the Jewish holiday season back into the traditional rhythms of our year where, week in and week out, the primary anchor we have as a spiritual community, to quiet the outside noise, to […]

Sukkot, Voting, and the Call to Build a Better World Together

We are amidst the joyous season of Sukkot — Sukkot is Zman Simhatenu (literally: the time of our joy), the season which immediately follows the Yamim Nora’im, the Days of Awe, or, alternatively, the Days of Intensity.    Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are days that are felt intensely: we gather, we pray, we repent, nourishing […]

God’s Humanity: Strengthening the Relationship

Yom Kippur Sermon 5785 I want to share with you one of my favorite, and one of the most personally impactful, rabbinic teachings that I’ve ever encountered. An allusion is made to it in the final blessing of services today, and if you were reading closely just now in the margins of the page, you […]

Discerning the Call. And Following Through.

Kol Nidrei 5785 For me, becoming a rabbi was a calling. I can still remember a moment that I unequivocally felt the call. I was a college senior, out for a meal with my cousin who was a college junior, and she asked me that most obvious question that is asked of all soon-to-be-graduates: what […]