Shabbat Sermons

Jump to Year: 5777 - 5776 - 5775 - 5774 - 5773

5779/ 2018-2019

Jun. 22 - "Humility is the true sign of greatness" 

Jun. 15 -  "I think I would have been a Nazirite" 

Jun. 8 - "Pride and Peccability"

Jun. 1 - "Yom Yerushalayim: Triumphs and Trials" 

May. 25 - "Mt. Sinai Jews or Mt. Moriah Jews"

May. 18 - "Every Jew is My Sibling" 

May. 4 - "Archarei Poway"

Apr. 6 - "It’s too bad that no one gets tzara’at anymore!"

Mar. 16 - "Haman n the Beit Midrash" Block Quote

Mar. 9 - "“As a Proud American Jew & Zionist, Do I Have ‘Dual Loyalties?’”

Feb. 2 - "An Unhappy Human and an Unhappy Ghost"

Jan. 26 - "Baruch Hashem!"

Jan. 5 - “A Tribute to Amos Oz”

Dec. 22- "The Horseshoe Theory, Christmas, & the Jews"

Dec. 15 - "Fear, Courage, and Forgiveness"

Dec. 8 - "Without Faith We are But Stained Glass Windows in the Dark"

Dec. 1 - “Joseph, Hanukkah, and Us”

Nov. 24 - “Speak Your Gratitude”

Nov. 3 - “Monday Morning in Pittsburgh”

Oct. 27 - “You Can’t Multi-Task Your Judaism”

 

5778 / 2017-2018

Jul. 14 - Parashat Mattot-Mas’ei - Hallowed Ground

Mar. 24 - It's All About the Children

Mar. 10 - Leadership Based on Transparency & Trust

Feb. 24 - God Wears Many Masks; Including one with your face!

Jan. 13- Why the Rebbe Was Right

Dec. 9 - Hoping & Praying for Jerusalem

Dec. 3 – The Conversation We Must All Now Have With Our Children

Oct. 21 – Living in a World of #Metoo

 

5777 / 2016-2017

May 6 – By Laws Sermons

Apr. 8 – Shabbat Ha’Gadol

Mar. 18 – Sometimes It’s Good to Have a Stiff-Neck!

Mar. 4 – I Refuse to Surrender My Joy – Even if I’m not Particularly Happy

Jan. 14 – Parashat Vayechi – Should Any Rabbi Bless this Inauguration?

Dec. 30 – Shabbat Hannukah Parsha Mikketz: The Miracle of Courage by David Helfand

Nov. 18 – Leckh Leckha: Post Election 2016 Rabbi Elson

Oct. 24 – The Power of Intimacy: Our Connection with God

 

5776 / 2015-2016

Aug. 6 – Blogging Baal Teshuvahs and Loving our Fellow Jews

Jul. 30 – Leadership and Succession in Uncertain Times

Jul. 2 – What Aliyah Means to Me

Jun. 18 – The Meaning of the Rainbow

Jun. 4 – Should we still be breaking glasses at Jewish weddings?

May 28 – Does the Torah promote Socialism?

May 7 – Yom Hashoa, Yom Ha’Zikaron, & Yom Ha’atzmaut: Israel’s “High Holiday Season”

Apr. 18 – Rice on Passover?!? What’s an Ashkenazi Jew to Do?

Jan. 11 – Redemption: Your Responsibility or Our Responsibility

Nov. 7 – Remembering Rabin… 20 Years Later

Oct. 31 – What we can learn from the New York Mets about living a fuller Jewish life

Oct. 17 – Enough of Moral Equivalence

Sept. 26 – My Encounter with Pope Francis

 

 

5775 / 2014-2015

Jul. 18 – Parashat Mattot-Mas’ei – Can this stain be removed?

May 30 – The Loneliness of Samson

Apr. 18 – Shabbat Machar Chodesh – “The Problem with Other People’s Successes”

Feb. 21 – Good and Bad Chutzpah – “To Speak or Not to Speak: That is Netanyahu’s Question”

Feb. 14 – Vive la France – Am Yisrael Chai!

Jan. 17 – Parashat Va’era – The Proper Place of Fear in Religion

Jan. 03 – Parashat Vayechi – Favor vs. Favoritism

Jan. 03 – Parashat Vayigash – What if these are the last words we ever exchange

Dec. 06 – Vayishlach and Police

Nov. 21 – From Har Nof to Har Shalom, Terrorism Affects Us All

Nov. 25 – Isaac’s Mail Order Bride

Oct. 25 – Demystifying the Mikveh – by Sari Levinson Raskin

 

 

5774 / 2013-2014

Sept. 6 – Parashat Ki Teitzei – Parashat Ki Teitzei

Jul. 26 – Parashat Mas’ei – Reflections Upon Returning From Israel

Jun. 18 – Vigil for kidnapped Israelis

Jun. 14 – Parashat Shelah – The Faith of the Past = The Faith of the Future

May 31 – Parashat Naso – People Blessing People

May 24 – Parashat Bemidbar – Finding God in the Wilderness

May 10 – Parashat Behar – You Always Hurt the Ones You Love

Mar. 8 – Parashat Va-yikra – Reflections on AIPAC

Feb. 15 -Parashat Ki Tissa – The Moses Vaccine

Jan. 18 – Parashat Yitro – Jews know a lot about having enemies, but how adept are we at having friends?

Parashat Va-yeishev – Remembering Kennedy

Parashat Va-yishlah – Wrestling: The National Sport of the Jewish People

Parashat Va-yeitze – Smooth Talking Villains

Parashat Hayyei Sarah – Will the Real First Jew Please Stand Up

Parashat Va-yera – Recovering Faith Following Disappointment

Parashat B’reishit – God Created Beginnings

 

5773 / 2012-2013

Parashat Ki Tavo – Why the Ketubah Was Not Composed by Hallmark

Parashat Hukkat – Making Sense of Irrational Commandments

Parashat B’ha-alot’kha – A Theology for Living in a World of Suffering

Parashat Behar-Behukkotai – Besieged by Bullying

Parashat Naso – The ‘Scandal’ of the Sotah

Parashat Emor – My Evening at the Mosque: Why I Went and What I Learned

Parashat Aharei Mot-Kedoshim – Human Beings: Better off never having been created or ‘little less than angels?’

Parashat Tazria-Metzorah – “Projection: We All Do It, But Some Dangerously More than Others”

Yom HaShoah – Holocaust and Heroism Day

Parashat Tzav/Shabbat Ha’Gadol – What Does Elijah Have to do with Passover?

Parashat Vayikra – You’ve Got to Have Skin in the Game

Parashat Yitro – What I (Just) Learned in Kindergarten

Shabbat Shira / Tu B’Shvat – The Survivor Tree

Parashat Bo – Finite Disappointment and Infinite Hope

Parashat Va’era – Why Moses Sat Out the First Thee Plagues

Parashat Shemot – How Moses’s near death experience may very well have saved his life

Parashat Vayechi – The Happiest Person in the Bible

Parashat Va-yetzei – A Moral & Religious Defence of Israel’s Actions in Gaza

Parashat Hayyei Sarah – Being Content Because You Did Your Part

Parashat Va-yera – Facing (& Acing) Life’s Inevitable Tests

Parashat Lekh L’kha – From Covenant to Crime: Why 21st Century Europe is Attempting to Ban Judaism’s Oldest Ritual

Parashat No-ah – Decrying Lip Service; Humans Must Speak From Within

Parashat B’reishit – Malala Yousufszai & Anne Frank: Profiles in Courage