It's true. You read it correctly. There wasn't a typo. A handful of weeks ago, I did not want to go to services.  I was tired.  I had a long week.  I had a busy weekend ahead of me.  I didn't even want to host a Shabbat dinner, I just wanted to have a quiet night to myself.  But I listened to your voices, the ones who often leave our services saying, "Rabbi, you know, I really wasn't in the mood to leave the house and come to services tonight, but it turns out that it was exactly what I needed, I'm so glad I came."   Your reminder was just what I needed, and the lively services lifted me up: my energy, my spirit, my smile. All it took was showing up to Temple Emanu-El on a Friday night and Shabbat did the rest.
  I hope you'll join me tomorrow night for services outside on the Schiffer Family Terrace Chapel.  Come hear the bigger story of what really happens when the rabbi doesn't want to go to services. I promise, there's a message for everyone in what I learned.  Soak up the holy … [Read more...]

In this week's parsha, Emor, God gives the command to our ancestors, "Do not desecrate my holy name.  I must be sanctified among the Israelites.  I am the Lord, who made you holy…" (Leviticus 22:32) Over the course of time, Judaism extracted two vital principles from this commandment.  The first is 'chillul Hashem,' the prohibition against desecrating God's name.  The second is its opposite, 'Kiddush Hashem', where we are instructed to sanctify God's name. Our rabbis ask a very direct question:  How could anything that we do, in a practical sense, either desecrate or sanctify God's name?   Inherent in their question is a deeper, theological one, which is: how can anything that we (regular people, Jews) do affect our God-most-high?  That we could do anything that would affect God seems somewhat counter-intuitive. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks (z'l) teaches us that that our rabbis conclude an answer that is both simple, and profound. It is the conduct of the Jewish people that determines … [Read more...]

Israel, like the Jewish people, shouldn't exist today. For millennia, emperors and czars, kings and queens, pharaohs and sultans have sought our oppression, our destruction, and our annihilation. The easy explanation is that all of this is a miracle-"easy" because such a reason doesn't require us to look deeper. The real explanation is that our survival and the blossoming of our people is a result of our power for creativity, community, and the perseverance of our ancestors to defy the will of tyrants who sought our destruction. We could have been wiped out in Egypt by Pharoah and his evil decree. We could have been destroyed by Amalek during the forty years of desert wandering. When the Babylonians destroyed our Temple in Jerusalem, we built another. When the Romans destroyed our Temple in Jerusalem again, we invented Rabbinic Judaism, a model of Judaism that could survive while the Jewish people lived in foreign lands. We could have been destroyed by Philistines, Greeks, Persians, … [Read more...]

One of the things that synagogues all over America try to do is to connect Diaspora Jewry with 'Jewish time'.  Clearly, we have our own calendar, with its own rhythms, that help define how we are distinct from the rest of the world, and, what we choose to prioritize with our celebrations and commemorations. Shabbat is the most frequent of these marked Jewish times, where once a week we elevate a day, and the most aspirational parts of our self. This week, and next, we have a set of Jewish days devoted to our collective memory that begin with Yom HaShoah/Holocaust Remembrance Day (today) and culminate with Yom Ha'atzma'ut/Israel's Independence Day. There was a question, post Holocaust, within the Jewish community of when we ought to commemorate our greatest modern tragedy, one that continues to affect our group social psyche, and the world.  Should it be commemorated on the 9th of Av, and mixed into our collective mourning for the other national tragedies that we have encountered over … [Read more...]

Tomorrow evening's Shabbat service will be led by our Confirmation class of 5782. It has been called one of TE's "best kept secrets" because it is so inspiring. When I see our synagogue 10th graders celebrate their years of Jewish education, and connection, through prayer, I really feel it.  I get emotional. What's more, I find that I leave this Shabbat service with a heightened sense of optimism for the Jewish people, and the world around us. For those of you who are familiar with Confirmation, likely you have memories of profound connection. Which connection is most valuable to living a life of purpose and meaning?  The one with your rabbi who you have met with weekly for years? The one with your synagogue which comes to house your amazing Jewish experiences? The one with your Jewish community, your Jewish friends, who will remain with you for many decades to come? The one with The Divine, whom you have been given the space, and the time, to explore? The answer, of course, is that … [Read more...]