Sermons

May we break Shabbat in order to keep Shabbat? The tension between working to make Shabbat and resting to have Shabbat is as old as Shabbat itself. Looking back over our pandemic year, Rabbi Cosgrove questions how our use of technology will affect how we keep Shabbat in the future.

Our Jewish lives or our support for the State of Israel? Rabbi Cosgrove reflects on the vituperative reaction of Israel’s ultra-Orthodox to last week’s Supreme Court decision regarding conversion and the uncomfortable choice faced by diaspora Jewry.

Is it better to make change from the inside or outside? On our annual UJA Shabbat, Rabbi Cosgrove looks to the Megillah for two models of leadership that can guide our choices today.

In the face of sin and addictive behavior, how can Torah guide us to realize our best selves? The legacy of Rabbi Dr. Abraham Twerski, z”l, inspires us to take personal agency over our lives.

What lessons does the Exodus offer to our country and to us? Rabbi Cosgrove proposes five principles that can guide us as we seek to emerge from today’s narrow places.

Calling the domestic terrorist attack on the Capitol no surprise, Rabbi Cosgrove argues that as with Pharaoh's Egypt, the degradation of our society occurs incrementally and with the complicity of many. Reversing it will require that we take a stand to denounce hatred and injustice.

Rabbi Cosgrove reminds us that since Joseph in Egypt, Jews have found the strength to form imagined community and make spiritual connections even when we are physically separated. We must reach out to others, reminding them and ourselves that we are never alone.

Do you believe in miracles? As we approach Hanukkah, the holiday of miracles, Rabbi Cosgrove teaches that we need not believe in the supernatural in order to appreciate the miraculous in the mundane.

As Thanksgiving approaches, Rabbi Cosgrove explores the subject of sibling relations by way of the most intense and painful sibling rivalry of the Bible – Jacob and Esau. He urges us to invest in the blessing of siblings and to express gratitude for their presence in our lives.

In posing “the Sancho question,” Rabbi Cosgrove considers how the response of our political leaders and our own responses to the recent election bear on the health of our democracy and the strength of our country.