Here are the (lightly edited) notes for the sermon I gave on Erev Rosh Hashanah 5787 (2026). Scroll down for the video of how it actually turned out. ~js
Once, when I was just getting my start in...
Dear Family of Friends,
It doesn’t rain in the summer in Israel, where our ancestral religion evolved. And there is no great river, like the Nile in Egypt, or the Tigris and Euphrates in Mesopotamia, so...
Our July newsletter covers the entire summer, and will carry us almost to the beginning of the High Holidays.
“Too soon!” I hear you cry. “The summer has just begun, and already you’re talking repentance?!”
But...
Dear family of friends,
Those of you who come to synagogue often and are familiar with the liturgy may have noticed that I rarely recite the traditional Aleinu prayer at the end of services. We have a...
בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה׳ אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָםאֲשֶׁר קִדְּשָׁנוּ בְּמִצְוֹתָיו וְצִוָּנוּ לַעֲסֹק בְּצָרְכֵי צִבּוּר
Blessed are you, Adonai our God, Sovereign of time and spacefor
for making us holy with...
The heart of the traditional Seder rests on a bunch of puns – which seems particularly appropriate for this year, as our Passover begins on April Fools’ Day.
“They tried to kill us. They failed. Let’s eat!”
If that’s not what all Jewish holidays are about, certainly the two major spring celebrations, Purim and Passover, fit the bill. And yet, we don’t tend...
The book of Exodus presents two models of fund-raising for the building of the Mishkan. In the first, people are called upon to donate what their heart is moved to give. In the other, each person makes...
“If you’re having trouble installing your rabbi, try rebooting the congregation!”
My brother-in-law thinks he’s very clever.
But I have to admit I like his joke better than the more common ones...
I’ve often wondered why Jewish homes are rarely among the most brightly lit this time of year, given that Hanukkah is the “festival of lights.” When I was growing up in Israel, we celebrated with pyrotechnics...
