This past week, February 9 to be exact, marked the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Confederate States of America, with Jefferson Davis, a former US Army officer, sworn in as president. One month later, Abraham Lincoln became the 16th president of the United States of America.
February 05, 2011
Life is Not Sinai
Occasion(s) / T’rumah
There is a famous scene in Moliere’s play Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, shared between the main character, Monsieur Jourdain, and a professor of philosophy. Jourdain, though he grew up in a middle class background, has become wealthy owing to his father’s success as a merchant.
January 15, 2011
Redemption Song
Occasion(s) / B’shallah
In her Pulitzer Prize winning novel Beloved, Toni Morrison describes how the protagonist, “Baby Suggs,” would, on occasion, take her company of slaves to an open area some distance away from the white-knuckle grip of their slave masters.
December 05, 2010
Wars of Necessity, Wars of Choice
Occasion(s) / Va-yishlah, Hanukkah
When is war necessary? Rabbi Cosgrove considers how Jewish tradition has answered that question from the Bible until now and expresses the hope that we will someday live in a world of peace where the question will no longer be relevant.
December 04, 2010
Heirs to Hasmoneans, Sons of Kishinev
Occasion(s) / Mi-ketz
In 1903, Chaim Nahman Bialik (1873-1934), the poet laureate of Modern Hebrew, was sent by the Jewish Historical Commission in Odessa to interview survivors of the Kishinev Pogrom.
November 27, 2010
Pilgrimage and Homecoming
Occasion(s) / Va-yeishev, Thanksgiving
If there is one song that embodies the festival of Thanksgiving, it is Lydia Maria Child’s “Over the River and Through the Wood.” “Over the river, and through the wood, to Grandfather’s (or Grandmother’s) house we go, [Journeying through] the white and drifted snow…Hurrah for Thanksgiving Day.” I
November 14, 2010
Self-Reliance
Occasion(s) / Va-yetzei
If you read chapter one of Genesis carefully, or for that matter, any of the chapters that follow, then you can not help but realize that the Divine deed of significance is not so much the act of creation, as the act of separation. In the beginning, the universe was unformed and void.
October 30, 2010
Can You Grow From a “No”?
Occasion(s) / Hayyei Sarah
My teacher in rabbinical school, Rabbi Eddie Feinstein of Temple Valley Beth Sholom in Los Angeles, taught me the most important lesson I ever learned about giving a sermon. No matter what you say, no matter what the topic, every sermon should be able to be summarized in a single sentence.
October 16, 2010
Just Because You Can, Doesn’t Mean You Should
Occasion(s) / Lekh L’kha
You may have heard of the passing last week of one of the titans of New York real estate and philanthropic life, Robert Tishman. As president and chief executive of one of the county’s largest builders of office buildings, Mr.
September 30, 2010
Yizkor: Life Eternal
Occasion(s) / Shemini Atzeret
In the coming week, when we hear the opening chapters of the book of Genesis, you should know that the most significant part of the story is not what happened, but what did not happen.