Episodes
Sunday Sep 26, 2021
The Halakhah of Zoom Minyan: Adding Windows to the House of Israel
Sunday Sep 26, 2021
Sunday Sep 26, 2021
Synagogues like mine have resorted to making virtual community over much of the pandemic. How do we do a heshbon nefesh of the experience: a reckoning of the pluses and minuses as we enter a new future of self-creation? What is the halakhah of it, what have we learned, what are the issues? In this Kol Nidrei sermon, I address these issues, as we consider who we wish to be as we enter the future.
Friday Sep 17, 2021
Friday Sep 17, 2021
Our society is permeated with a victim mentality that presents itself as prophetic, but is punitive. Caught in the Victim Triangle, everyone must fit into a role of Victim, Persecutor, or Rescuer --both in individual dramas and in societal theory. Change presents itself only in the options of shifting roles in the triangle: persecutors must become victims, victims will fix things by teaching them (and society) a lesson, someone gets stuck in rescuer role. Is teshuvah, repentance, about being forced to experience the karma of society's ills, or is that a blame game? In this sermon, I present an alternative framework, rooted in systems psychology and in Torah: teshuvah is an act of Creation, and when one transcends the triangle, one reaches true authenticity in one's walking with others, walking with oneself, and walking with God.
Friday Sep 10, 2021
Friday Sep 10, 2021
How often do people say to me, "Rabbi, Rosh Hashanah is not about prayers, theology and sermons -- it's about getting together with family!" or "My grandfather was a model Jew because he was committed to his grandchildren" or "One does not know true awe until one has had children." And how often have I as a rabbi said similar things at a bat mitzvah or baby naming from the bimah, or when explaining a prayer like the one that says "You shall love God...through diligently teaching your children..." How does this feel to the unmarried, the willingly child-free, and those whose lives are not geared around children or grandchilden? How do we treat them in our community: as souls committed to covenant (perhaps more than those with children), or as incomplete human beings watching from the outside? Why aren't we talking more about Miriam, who has no husband or children in the Torah? Or about the Mother of Israel, the historical creator of the Israelite nation, the prophetess and leader Deborah? It's time we stop and realize that L'Dor Vador, from generation to generation, does not refer just to one's own children, but to the future of the Jewish people, something the childless and child-free often understand in a way that we can learn from them as our teachers.