Parasha Chukat — Building Up or Tearing Down?
This week’s parasha is beloved by rabbis around the world because is so much in it to sermonize about! The parasha opens with the ritual of the red heifer. It…
Parasha Shalakh Lekha: The Rewards and Challenges of Listening to Others
Billy Planer is the director of Etgar, which means “challenge” in Hebrew. I learned about him, online, through his participation in the ELI talks, a Jewish version of the TED…
Parasha Shelakh Lekha — Is a Tree Like a Person?
My father hated to go to the movies. My mother, who loved the movies, would go with friends when she wanted to see a film. I can remember only once…
Parasha Naso: Counting on Us
Last Saturday night, we gathered in the library for our Tikun Lel Shavuot study. Rabbi Edward Friedman of Temple Bnai Israel, and Rabbi Steven Peskind of Elgin joined me and…
Planting a Seed
Tonight I am going to depart from my usual practice of speaking about the Torah portion for the week. Nor am I going to tie my sermon into a holiday…
For Mother’s Day
This coming Sunday we have two special days on the calendar. This Sunday, of course, we celebrate Mother’s Day. That, everyone knows. But this Sunday also marks the newest of…
Coming Home — In Honor of Israel’s 70th Birthday
Today, the 5th of Iyar on the Jewish calendar, marks the 70th birthday of the State of Israel. As we know, for almost 2000 years the Jewish people had been…
Building Bridges
The ancient Romans regarded bridge building as a sacred pursuit. The position of bridge builder was an important one in ancient Rome, a city which spanned the holy Tiber River…
Parasha Vayikra “Food, Glorious Food”
This evening, in honor of the start of the Book of Leviticus in our annual Torah reading, I am going to talk about food. Food, you ask? We thought the…
Parasha Vayahel Pekudai “Raising the Roof”
This week’s Torah portion finds us at the end of the Book of Exodus. Moses returns from his audience with G-d on Mount Sinai with a set of instructions on…