The question always is, what’s next? And the answer is, let’s be together. What’s next? This is a question that weighs on me in every facet of my life. My son Avishai, who many of you know well after his many years at Hebrew school here and around at services, for a long time would have the same question for us when we first woke up. “What’s for di…

How are we to understand the death of the leader of Hamas, and the mastermind and architect of October 7, Yahya Sinwar? Does his death mean that an end to the war, and the beginning of the day after, is closer? Or should Israel’s military continue the fight? What will Sinwar’s death mean for our hostages? These questions are hugely important and ab…

Sukkot October 18, 2024

When I was growing up, we spent a lot of time with my Grandpa Gene feeding the geese. My Mom kept a 50 lb. bag of birdseed in the car, and, even when Sir Grandfather, as he liked to be called, was not feeling well, we would drive to the pond, and he would sit and watch from the front seat as we tossed out birdseed to grateful honks. My grandfather …

October 12, 2024

One quiet Shabbat morning in August, a long-time member comes in and says, Rabbi, I turn 93 today. Can I have an Aliyah? I said of course. We’d love to give you an Aliyah. Just want you to know one thing. You are a youngster. A youngster? I’m turning 93 today. How is that a youngster? I pointed in the direction of a woman who was sitting with her c…

October 11, 2024

Rabbi David Wolpe tells a classic story of speaking to a group of American Jews in Tulsa, Oklahoma at their JCC about God. He was trying to make the case that God loves them. But he could see that his words were not resonating. Being the seasoned speaker that he is, he decided to take a bit of a gamble. He stopped his prepared remarks and said: If …

As the horrors of October 7th were unfolding, a common reaction was “ein milim,” no words. But it is not surprising that Hebrew poetry soon appeared that gave expression to the nation’s raw feelings and emotions.Our teacher Rachel Korazim, our member Michael Bohnen and Heather Silverman of California have recently published a moving anthology of th…

Years ago, I was talking with our preschool learners, 3- and 4-year-olds, about God. Not sure what I was thinking that day. I was a young rabbi, fresh out of the Seminary. So I turned to very young learners and asked: have you ever seen God? As you might predict, it did not go well. There was a long, awkward silence. Nobody raised their hand. Nobod…

October 3, 2024

One fine August night, after I got home from evening minyan, I picked up the phone and called my sister Beth, who lives in Los Angeles, just to check in. Beth shared that one of her summer projects was to feng shui their house that she and her family had lived in for 50 years. Just that afternoon she was working on thecloset in her bedroom, one bag…

What do we do when the way we feel on the inside doesn’t match what we feel we have to project on the outside? Or even more generally, what do we do when our insides don’t match our outsides? I was thinking about this recently as I was reading a fascinating New York Times interview with Steve Burns, the actor on Blue’s Clues. If you weren’t tuned i…

“The unexamined life, a philosopher said, is not worth living. No one who has genuinely experienced Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur lives an unexamined life.”Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Introduction to The Koren Rosh Hashanah Mahzor (2011)This coming Shabbat is our last Shabbat before Rosh Hashanah. Our tradition bids us that we prepare ourselves for the Day…

In late August Joshua Leifer, author of Tablets Shattered, was going to be in dialogue about his new book with a local Brooklyn rabbi. They were infamously banned from the bookstore because they are Zionists. While the employee who tossed them was fired, it is sobering that in America, in New York, in August of 2024, an author could get banned for …

This morning has been so beautiful. And an example of life imitating art. The prophet Isaiah talks about a great light shining. Ari and Zoe talked about that light. And they embody that light. Our bride and groom, Beth and Adam, and their parents Marlene and Errol, may he rest in peace, and Cindy and Jon, embody that light. We know what to do with …

In How to Know a Person, David Brooks devotes an entire chapter to what he calls life stories.https://files.constantcontact.com/d3875897501/1021ea46-026b-4259-9de3-6f87a6cefd69.pdf?rdr=true "Coming up with a personal story is centrally important to leading a meaningful life. You can’t know who you are unless you know how to tell your story. You can…

Last Sunday evening Shira and I were in Lakewood, New Jersey for a wedding. Lakewood is the capital of the charedi, or ultra-Orthodox, world in America. Lakewood boasts a world-famous charedi yeshiva called Beth Medrash Govoha which is the second largest yeshiva in the world, second only to the Mir Yeshiva in Jerusalem. The wedding was charedi. Men…

On the first day of Rosh Hashanah, we encounter the well-meaning words of a loving husband whose consolation of his very sad wife did not work. Hannah could not get pregnant. Her husband Elkanah’s other wife Peninnah got pregnant easily and, the text notes twice, would taunt Hannah for her inability to conceive.https://files.constantcontact.com/d38…

I have a question for you this morning. How do we keep clean and pristine things clean and pristine? Imagine that in your home, in your living room, you have a sofa. The sofa is clean and pristine. The sofa is white. How do you keep your white sofa white? How do you think about inviting a family for dinner that has, say, a four-child old child? Let…

Our ice maker in our fridge broke again. I called the service line. You know the drill: obnoxious faux classical music, repeated robotic recordings, “we care about your business and will answer your call as soon as possible. Please stay on the line.” Finally my call was answered by a woman who said her name was Jennifer and sounded like she was ans…

Every Friday Shira calls her brother and sister-in-love in Jerusalem, Ari and Tziporit, to check in, to hear about their Shabbat plans, to hear about their children who are serving in Gaza or up north, and to wish them a Shabbat shalom. Two weeks ago they had a particularly evocative conversation. That week Ari and Tziporit had been blessed with a …

August 10, 2024

Friendship has the power to shape our lives. Join us this Shabbat morning in the Rabbi Samuel Chiel Sanctuary as our member Ruth Tepper and her dear friend, Brit Kammler, share the profound impact a connection first forged through grappling with the trauma of the Holocaust has had on their lives in the decade since.…

Did you or your children go to summer camp? If so, do you remember the songs you or they sang? For me, my childhood soundtrack of classic summer camp songs is filled with silly ditties like “I Said a Boom-Chicka Boom” and “Sippin’ Cider through a Straw.” Throw in a “Zum Gali Gali” and a “Shalom Rav” or two, and it always made me smile that my kids …

There’s a story that lurks in our family lore. I don’t remember anyone ever telling it outright. But it was there. Fuzzy around the edges. Bleeding into every day. When my grandfather was very young, his father died tragically. He went duck hunting, got pneumonia, and, without antibiotics, the infection quickly took his life. My great-grandmother w…

Last week I had two meetings that I just can't get out of my head. The first meeting was with an elder who has recently experienced some significant health challenges. He’s at an assisted living facility now where he spends his days being wheeled around by an aide, going where they take him and eating what they serve him. His wife passed away years…

July 6, 2024

This week, we laid to rest a pillar of our community, our beloved Channah Berkovits. As we were reflecting with her family about her incredible life, I kept thinking about what a powerful teacher she was for me and for our whole community. Channah radiated positive energy. I remember when I first met her—she was this petite woman dressed in a brigh…

Do you remember those times in your life when you had to move? You moved from one house to another. Or from one city to another. Or you helped your parents move from the home they had lived in for 50 years as they downsized? Young couples deal with moving when they move into their first home together. College kids, and their hapless parents, deal w…

Dr. Rochelle Walensky served as the 19th Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2021-23), Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School (2012-2021), and Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases, Massachusetts General Hospital (2017-2021). Dr. Walensky is an infectious disease clinician whose research career is guided by a b…

Sivan Kotler-Berkowitz (he/him) is a rising sophomore at UMass Amherst studying Special Education and Psychology. He is passionate about transgender youth advocacy, working with kids with disabilities, and making the world a better place. As an advocate, Sivan shares his story as a thriving transgender teenager to help replace misinformation about …

One of the best parts of being a rabbi is sitting down with a young couple that has just become engaged and is now beginning the exciting journey of planning their wedding day. That initial conversation always involves the sharing of the proposal story. Almost always there is an element of surprise. One partner does not know it’s coming or coming t…

June 1, 2024

We could all use a booster shot of hope. Where do we find it?Tomorrow we are going to examine two very different models for finding hope in dark circumstances: Rabbi Akiva in the Talmud, Makot 24 A and B, and Rabbi Jonathan Sacks in his epic Morality, published shortly before he passed away in 2020.Rabbi Akiva’s approach to hope seems to be about a…

What, if anything, lasts forever? What is impervious to the ravages of time? What can we do today that will still be talked about a hundred years from now? I have been thinking about these questions since May 13, which is the day that a great writer named Alice Munro died. Alice Munro won the Noble Prize in Literature in 2013. She was an absolute m…

Kohelet famously teaches us that there is a time for everything under the sun. Does that extend to both moderation and extremism? Is there a time for moderation? Is there a time for extremism? What do our sources have to say about how we might think about the different appeals of moderation and extremism? We will consider two sources.The first is a…

Dr. Michael Oren served in the IDF as a Lone Soldier in the paratroopers and then as an IDF Spokesman. He was Israel’s ambassador to the United States from 2009 to 2013, where he was instrumental in fortifying the US-Israel alliance and in obtaining U.S. defense aid, especially for the Iron Dome system. After his time in Washington, Oren served as …

Madness. We all feel the madness of our time. How can it be that at the Newton Public library, groups of Newton citizens shout at each other, locked in mutual hate? How can it be that students at Columbia have to hear encampments where they can hear from their bedrooms "We love Hamas" and "Burn Tel Aviv to the ground" night after night—and the admi…

It is 4:52 PM. Our flight took off at 4:35 PM. Eder has finished drinking his milk. He’s done reading books. He is not tired. He does not want to sit still. In seventeen minutes, he has already played with and discarded every toy in the diaper bag. Now he’s screeching. Solomon and I are passing him back and forth, trying in vain to appease him. The…

At Sisterhood's wonderful donor event this past Sunday, a woman shared with me that she had had a large extended family in Europe before the Shoah. The family members who said in the 1930s it will all blow over, don't be alarmist, all perished in the Shoah. She said her parents were paranoid. They said it won't blow over. The alarm is real. They go…

When was the last time you changed your mind on a matter of deep principle? You felt one way on an important issue, and then you flipped and came down on the other side? If that has happened to you, what inspired your change of thinking? What changed your mind? Pharaoh and his courtiers changed their minds not once but twice. For a long time, he wa…

Yizkor sermons tend to be challenging for rabbis because we give a lot of them. We say Yizkor four times a year. If you do the math year after year, that is a lot of Yizkor sermons, and what is there new to say? What is there to say that we haven’t said before? That you haven’t heard before? I wish we had that problem again this year. Unfortunately…

I want to ask you to imagine for a moment that you are one of the Israelites fleeing Egypt. And let’s be granular. I want you to imagine that you’ve been a slave for decades. That your life is dictated by the whims of a cruel pharaoh, that your days are spent lugging huge stones, that you’ve been separated from your family, kept apart so that you c…

Abe and Sarah have been happily married for more than 60 years. They share children, grandchildren, great grandchildren. One fine day, Sarah says, Abe: I’d like a banana sundae. Would you please go to JP Licks? Of course! It would be my privilege! What kind of banana sundae do you want? Abe, write it down. A banana sundae has a lot going on. Would …

This year, on the 8th day of Pesach, we will say Yizkor. In a recent clergy conversation as we were planning out this class, Michelle asked the simplest and most profound question, one I had never thought about before. Why do we not say Yizkor for fallen ideas and ideals? For broken hopes and dreams?If we did, there would be so much to say Yizkor f…

April 23, 2024

Do you remember where you were last Saturday night when we learned that Iran was firing more than 330 drones and cruise missiles into Israel? Shira and I spoke to several Israelis, and they used three words to describe last Saturday night. One word was apocalyptic. We spoke with an Israeli woman living in Boston who spoke to her Israeli sister livi…

Within the last few weeks, something has happened to give me a new lease on life. A new glide in my stride. We are all looking for hope and energy, and I got mine from an unexpected source: the release of Beyonce’s new album of country music, Cowboy Carter, in particular one incredible song, a duet with Miley Cyrus called II Most Wanted. I have lis…

What happens to love in a world of not love? Consider this past Sunday at Temple Emanuel.In the morning Shai Held was in dialogue with Marc Baker about his new book Judaism is About Love. It was a truly inspiring conversation. After their dialogue, I heard many people offer some version of the following statement which, to my mind, is the single gr…