Torah (RH1 5773)
Welcome, everyone, to Shomrei Torah 5773! But more than just make you feel welcome, let me point out that WE are Shomrei Torah 5773!! Each of us individually contributes to the collective whole that is Shomrei Torah. For the non-Hebrew speakers in the crowd, and I understand that we have a few, Shomrei Torah means "Guardians of the Torah" that is what each of us here today is called upon to do, we are each of us...Read more...
Change (RH2 5773)
Rosh Hashanah means "Head of the Year" and the Jewish New Year is all about beginnings. But for us beginnings is not a one shot deal, but rather Judaism has created a system that allows us to begin again every year. We are here celebrating the Jewish New Year now as we do every fall, but why Rosh Hashanah is in the fall came up as a subject of a recent D'var Torah by Henry Ramer. You see the rabbis in the Talmud...Read more...
Israel (KN 5773)
Tonight I want to talk to you about Israel. Some of you might be wondering why it is that I and so many other rabbis return to the subject of Israel year after year, the answer simply is because Israel is so important, so essential to the Jewish people that I want all of you love and care about Israel as much as I do, to be as concerned with her welfare as I am and to pray for her future as Jews have done for...Read more...
Time (YK 5773)
If your life is anything like my life, then you are constantly checking the time and then rushing from place to place, from this activity to that activity. There do not seem to be enough hours in the day to get everything done. Time is such an interesting phenomenon. There is nothing obvious or rational about time, it is simply a convention that we invented to help us – what? What does knowing the time help us...Read more...
Teshuvah (RH2 5772)
Shanah Tovah! I'm very happy to see all of you again. This is one of my favorite times of the year, when I look out from the Bima and see all of your faces. I can remember when I first came and it was so overwhelming to see all these faces and not know who you were, but now when I look out I see familiar faces, faces with stories; faces that I've laughed with and cried with; faces that I have come to love. As we...Read more...
Kehilla Kedusha (KN 5772)
Yom Kippur is at once both a very personal day and a very public communal day. On Yom Kippur each of us fasts, we confront our own shortcomings and sins, we search for, and if we are so blessed we face, God on this most holy of days; in that way each of us has our own individual Yom Kippur experience. This is a common religious theme. Catholics confess individually, one person enters the confessional, speaks with...Read more...
Mortality & Meaning (YK 5772)
There's a story told of a rabbi who served his congregation for many years. He was a wonderful pastor and a great teacher. The congregation had only one complaint: every year he would give the same High Holy Day sermon. After so many years, the people would roll their eyes, take a deep breath and half listen as the he delivered his sermon.
The board finally decided to address...Read more...
The Akedah & Israel (RH2 5771)
Every year on the second day of Rosh Hashanah we read the Akedah, the Binding of Isaac. It remains one of the most powerful and yet troubling of all Torah readings. Traditionally, we are taught that it is a story of Avraham’s steadfast loyalty and faith in God, but many rabbis over the generations have been troubled by this story and have seen our ancestor as having failed God’s test. The very ambiguity of the...Read more...
Ron Wolfson's 7 Questions (KN 5771)
Kol Nidre night – there is something magical about it! There is no other night on the Jewish calendar that affects me this way. Forty days of preparation all leading up to my Yom Kippur experience. On this day I will fast and pray together with all of you wearing white and canvas sneakers. On Yom Kippur we confront our mortality, we judge ourselves and we ask God to forgive us our shortcomings and to help us...Read more...
Faith (YK 5771)
Rabbi Mark Robbins, who has started a website, jewishlifestory.com, has written, "We remember today loved ones who have passed. Though they are gone, their stories, their lessons and their legacies remain -- as an inspiration to us, our children, and our grandchildren. As we consider on this Yom Kippur how we will be remembered, consider the following. The more we tell, the more we preserve...Read more...
