Tomorrow afternoon, t-ball, soccer practice, and other parenting responsibilities permitting, I hope to stop by a one-day conference being hosted at Central Synagogue. I encourage you to attend.
April 05, 2010
The Four Children…of Grief and Recovery
Occasion(s) / Pesach, Yizkor
In every generation, at every Passover seder, we return to the iconic passage of the four children. Four children: wise, wicked, simple, and the one who does not know how to ask.
March 29, 2010
Staying Power
Occasion(s) / Pesach
"Style… ain’t nothing but keeping the same idea from beginning to end.” So said the great Pulitzer Prize-winning Pittsburgh playwright August Wilson. It is within our capacity to see and sustain a thought, from its origins into unseen future horizons; that is the measure of who we are.
March 21, 2010
Book Launch: Rabbi Milton Steinberg’s "The Prophet’s Wife"
Occasion(s) / Other
If it were the case that Rabbi Milton Steinberg, z’’l, had only led this congregation from 1933 until his untimely death in 1950, building it from a sleepy Depression-era congregation to a beacon of intellectual, social, and religious activity in American life – that would have been enou
March 19, 2010
Prisoner of Hope: 60th Yahrzeit of Rabbi Milton Steinberg, z”l
Occasion(s) / Va-yikra
It is my distinct honor and privilege to offer a sermon in memory of Rabbi Milton Steinberg on the occasion of his 60th Yahrzeit. On behalf of the entire congregation, I want to welcome Rabbi Steinberg’s sons, Dr. David Steinberg and Dr.
March 13, 2010
Tradition and Change
Occasion(s) / P’kudei
Over the past few months, there has been much ado in the press about something called the DSM-V.
February 20, 2010
Esther, Vashti, and Other Uncomfortable Options for Jewish Women
Occasion(s) / T’rumah
When our community gathers next Saturday night for the festival of Purim and the reading of the Scroll of Esther, many of us may feel that we are being offered two objectionable depictions of femininity.
February 06, 2010
Remembrance of Torah Past
Occasion(s) / Yitro
Right beneath your nose, just above your upper lip, is something called the philtrum. The origins and purpose of that small indentation are, for most of us, a mystery.
January 30, 2010
The Right to Be Different
Occasion(s) / B’shallah
President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s January 1941 State of the Union address bequeathed to us perhaps the most substantial ideological statement of the Second World War, if not of American rhetoric as a whole.
December 12, 2009
The Joseph Generation
Occasion(s) / Va-yeishev
Some time ago, I had the pleasure of being escorted to shul by my daughter. There is no greater pleasure in my life than to walk to synagogue with one of my kids. As we walked hand-in-hand, I was struck by the power of our time together and the memories it evoked.