Parashat Beha’alotcha 2019 – Body and Soul
In our Torah Portion this week, there is lots of drama. Moses melts down and becomes a drama queen. Aaron and Miriam turn against Moses and God becomes a drama queen. But perhaps the greatest drama is the people’s obsession on getting some meat to eat.
Yom HaAtzma’ut 5779
May 10 2019: One of my earliest memories of Israel is really much more a memory of my father than of Israel. My father was definitely not a Zionist in his younger days. He was an assimilationist, who believed that Judaism was a religion, not a nationality, and felt our priority should be to blend into American society. My mother was a Zionist who would never forgive my father for proposing to her shortly before she planned to go to Israel as a nurse in 1948…
Shabbat HaGadol, Kabbalat Shabbat Sermon
Rabbi David Edleson April 10, 2019 So, let me start with a question. Show of hands, who in here has been on a special diet of some sort in the past few years? Who’s not eating Gluten? Who’s not eating Dairy? Who’s doing Paleo, or Low-Carbs? Who’s not eating red meat? Low salt? Low sugar? […]
Parashat Vayikra – Shabbat Zachor 2019 after NZ shooting
What Purim almost was Tonight was going to be a festive Purim-leaning Shabbat, but after the events in New Zealand, it isn’t right. It is important to remember that Purim itself is a holiday about a narrow escape from a massacre, a genocide. Purim celebrates that rare moment when such tragedy is avoided, but it […]
Parashat Vayikra 2019 – The Power of Sacrifice
This week, we begin reading the book of Leviticus, or “Vayikra” in Hebrew. Leviticus is a very detailed training manual for priests at the ancient Jerusalem temple, and includes some of the most beautiful, and some of the most offensive laws in the Torah. We also get a blow-by-blow of each kind of animal sacrifice […]
Parashat Sh’lach L’cha 2019 – Stonewall Shabbat
June 29, 2019 by templesinai • Rabbi's Blog, Sermons •
A MIGHTY REAL DIFFERENT SPIRIT – So I was driving home from work a couple of weeks ago, and I had listened to all my Torah study podcasts, and I had listened to the Daily and Hidden Brain, and so I pulled over to look for something and noticed there was a new season of Making Gay History, and excellent podcast series featuring interviews with a wide variety of people who were pivotal in some aspect of the LGBT rights movement.
This season is all about the Stonewall Riots, so I thought, “perfect,” clicked, started listening and kept driving. By the time I got to Starksboro…