Of the 52 Shabbatot of the Jewish year, Shabbat Thanksgiving may not rank at the very top of the hierarchy. Many people are away, and those of us who are here feel the lingering side effects of the last two days of food… and relatives.
November 21, 2009
Judaism: Liberal or Conservative?
Occasion(s) / Tol’dot
I would hope that when asked for help by a brother in need, each of us in this room would respond better than our patriarch Jacob did. The scene is one we know well: Esau comes home, famished from a hunt.
September 27, 2009
Do you still love me?
Occasion(s) / Yom Kippur
Sadie and Abe had been married for many years. Over the decades, they had built a life together, achieving great material success, living far more luxuriously than they ever imagined from their humble beginnings. One day Abe came home from work, crushed, his face downcast and ashen.
September 25, 2009
The Importance of Apologies
Occasion(s) / Other
Sincere apologies, it would seem, are our nation’s fastest diminishing resource. A few weeks ago, many of you may have watched one of the oddest and perhaps most unsatisfying endings to a U.S.
September 17, 2009
The Journey Home
Occasion(s) / Rosh Hashanah
This year marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of Sholom Aleichem. Russian-born, settling in America in 1914, Aleichem has been called the “natural genius of Yiddish Literature.” (Irving Howe, A Treasury of Yiddish Stories, p.