Sermon Archives

Last week Elishva Appelbaum taught a great Netziv on this week’s parsha that I want to revisit. He asks why Rivkah is afraid of Yitzchak, as evidenced by her reaction to him the first time that she seems him. This is much different than the dynamic of the marriages of Avraham his father, and Yaakov his son; only Yitzchak’s wife is afraid of him. The Netziv answers that Rikvah had to be afraid of Yitzchak to ensure that...Read more...

So, let’s be real, why are we waving a Lulav and Etrog in the air?  

Truthfully, I have always loved the ritual of arbah minim and I look forward to it with great excitement every year.  It has never bothered me at all or felt strange, but I know that not everyone feels the same way.  Some people in this room have told me that it strikes them as weird and makes them slightly uncomfortable to pick up fruits and...Read more...

I recently had an experience which helped me think differently about keeping kosher.  

I was invited to a well-known upscale restaurant called The Inn at Little Washington.  For what its worth it’s a Michelin Three Star restaurant, which of course means nothing to me as it's not a kosher restaurant.  Still, for very important reasons, I felt it was essential for me to attend.

The organizers insisted...Read more...

Two weeks ago we celebrated our new Torah scroll with a hachnasas Sefer Torah, aka, a Torah parade.

At the parade a person was watching me celebrate and without realizing who my wife was, she approached my wife and told her, “That man always looks happy, but this is the happiest I have ever seen him.”

Indeed, aside from some amazing life moments, like my wedding, births and b’nai mitzvah of our children, I don’t...Read more...

Ohev bat mitzvah celebrations are opportunities to celebrate the accomplishments of girls who grew up in our community, and we know each work super hard for this day. Their commitment is inspiring. What a blessing to be celebrating with these girls and their families!
 
These bat mitzvah girls will all lead Women’s Tefillah services in the main Sanctuary on the morning of their bat mitzvah. Since we are...Read more...

Some of you might have noticed my new shoes.  I bought them in Pastores, a small village in Guatemala, which specializes in making shoes.  I bought them to support the local Guatemalan economy and also to remember our trip to Guatemala.  They are a conversation starter and I want people to ask about the shoes so that I can tell them about our very special experience in Guatemala.

In total there were 30 of us in our...Read more...

So I recently finished writing a Torah scroll, and I delivered the Torah to an expert sofer in Brooklyn for finishing touches.  For me it was a big project in many ways, but having finished the Torah scroll, I turned my attention to writing mezuzot.

There are a few reasons why I want to write mezuzot.

First and foremost, it is a mitzvah.  It says in the Torah, “u-ketavtem al mezuzot beitekhah, and you shall write...Read more...

This week as we were studying the daf yomi, we came across a text so shocking that when I first saw it my jaw dropped so much that it nearly hit my shtender.

We are studying tractate Bechoros and the text says:

“The dulfanin (dolphins) reproduce like humans.  What are dolphins? Rav Yehuda said: The benei yama (the people of the sea)” (8a).

This is the version of the text of the Talmud as we have it...Read more...

This week I had the honor of writing column 213/248 in the Torah.  This passage contains the holy passage of Shema Yisrael.  As I wrote the words of Shema, my heart trembled as I thought of all the souls that had uttered these words at the most precious and perilous moments of life.  I thought of all the parents that recited these words with their children as they said good night.  I thought of all the children that...Read more...

There is a joke that has emerged in American Jewish society in the past few decades - that every Jewish holiday can be summarized as follows “They tried to kill us, we won, let’s eat!” Pesach is “Pharaoh tried to destroy us, we won, let’s eat.” Chanukah is “The Greeks tried to obliterate us, we won, let’s eat.”

I’ve been thinking about this joke the past few days and I’ve realized that, while funny, it isn’t...Read more...

Many rabbis feel that Terumah is one of the toughest parshiot to speak about - our job is to take the parsha, find something that we find especially interesting, and speak about it in a way that connects to our lives. And so a parsha that contains almost exclusively information about how to build the mishkan is known affectionately as one of the more challenging parshiot, and one that in theory we may want to try to avoid. And somehow,...Read more...

When I was looking at this parsha last week and trying to decide what to teach for my parsha class - which you are all invited to! - I decided that we would study Yaakov’s last Testament to his brothers, often referred to as Yaakov’s blessings to his children (though they aren’t actually blessings). The language is some of the most obscure and difficult to understand language in the whole Torah, and everyone from the Anchor Bible...Read more...

The story of Yaakov and Esav is a tragic story of conflict. They struggle while they are still in the womb, and this struggle continues throughout their lives. We have the story of the lentil stew when they are young men, followed by Yaakov stealing the blessing from Esav, and then years later they reunite but separate again, never to reunite. It is a story of twin brothers who never appear to have a positive relationship, and it is painful...Read more...

I want to discuss an extraordinary point.  I know that sometimes I am prone to hyperbole, but in this case I promise you I am not exaggerating at all.  

I literally want to discuss an extraordinary point.

Here is how I noticed this extraordinary point in the first place.

I was writing our Torah scroll when I came to the following verse in this week’s portion:

“Vatomer sarai el avram, chamasi...Read more...

Here is what Yom Kippur means to me: Our past should not define our future.  Just because we did something in the past –made a mistake, got into an argument, did something we weren’t proud of—that’s not who we are.  We can be different moving forward.

I am really glad that this Yom Kippur, on our holiest night of the year, we are joined by Joshua Lopez.  I am proud that he accepted my invitation to sit next to...Read more...