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 […]
Terumah 2019 – Board Installation Shabbat
BUILDING A SANCTUARY FROM THE INSIDE OUT PART I – Sacred Partnership We are here tonight to celebrate Shabbat, but also to install our new Board of Directors, to pray for their success, and to offer our support to them. It seems particularly fitting that our Torah Portion is Terumah, which describes the building of […]
BaShalach 2019 – MLK Jr. Day
…try to imagine the joy, the jubilation you would have felt if you had been slaves, then escaped with all your people, and then with an army hunting you down, a sea opened and you got across only to see those chasing you be covered by the waters. Just try and imagine that feeling of relief and release.
Now, try to remember the time in your life that is closest to getting out of a bad situation, escaping danger and attack, finally getting to the other side of a terrible situation?
Yom HaAtzma’ut 5779
May 10, 2019 by templesinai • Rabbi's Blog, Sermons •
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…