The most thought provoking, most depressing – and for this room, most relevant – data to emerge from the recent studies of New York and American Jewry concerns the decline of synagogue life. According to the Pew Study, 31 percent of Jewish respondents claimed to belong to a synagogue.
January 18, 2014
Something to Talk About
Occasion(s) / Yitro
It is not often that the line at the salad bar launches a sermon – but for the purposes of this morning I need to set the scene.
January 11, 2014
"Who is a Jew?" Revisited
Occasion(s) / B’shallah
Generations from now, when the history of American Jewry is produced – please God even as new chapters are still being written – there will be a footnote, if not an entire chapter, on Adam Sandler.
December 21, 2013
The Counterfactual
Occasion(s) / Sh’mot
Down the rabbit hole I fell this past Monday, faster and further than I had ever imagined possible. I had been invited to present a paper at the AJS conference in Boston, the annual gathering of the Association of Jewish Studies, comprised of Jewish studies academics from around the world.
December 14, 2013
The Big Picture
Occasion(s) / Va-y’hi
Jews don’t believe in the Christian concept of original sin, but if we did, our tainted condition would result from a sin that occurred towards the end of the book of Genesis, not the beginning.
December 07, 2013
The Blessing of Assimilation
Occasion(s) / Va-yiggash
The most interesting thing about the blessing one must recite upon seeing a king or secular head of state, is that such a blessing exists at all. Barukh she-natan mik’vodo livriotav.
November 16, 2013
Rachel's Tears
Occasion(s) / Va-yishlah
In my entrance exam for rabbinical school, I was asked to recite the Talmudic debate on the proper sequence of family and career. As formulated by the gendered language of the Talmud: “What should a man do first, get married or study Torah?” Not surprisingly, the Rabbis disagreed.
November 05, 2013
Parenting
Occasion(s) / Tol’dot
Considering that I am just under one month shy of my oldest daughter’s Bat Mitzvah, it may strike you (as it does me) as a bit presumptuous for me to deliver a sermon about parenting. The returns, as they say, are not yet in.
October 18, 2013
Radical Hospitality
Occasion(s) / Va-yera
Had the Pew Research Center analyzed the condition of the Jewish community of this week’s parashah, their assessment would undoubtedly have been altogether gloomy, if not downright bleak.
October 04, 2013
Enlarging Your Heart
Occasion(s) / Noah
The most remarkable, most provocative and most self-evident premise of Biblical theology is the assertion that God cares at all about human beings. Mah enosh, “What is man, that you should take note of him?” The pointed question of the Psalmist goes to the heart of the matter: The humbli