Sermons
One of the strangest, most difficult and at times most exciting responsibilities of being a rabbi is preparing and delivering a sermon. It is a strange form of communication, almost completely “one way,” with little opportunity for the congregation to respond or for the rabbi to know how it was received. The blank sheet of paper before beginning to write is so daunting: what should I talk about? What should I say about it? How should I say it? But looking back now over forty years of sermons, I realize that being required to stand up in front of the congregation and open my mouth and speak has forced me to think deeply about my own life, Judaism, and our world. Below are many recent sermons and some of the sermons from the past which capture important moments in my life, or the life of our community or the world.
Land of the Living, Land of the Dead
Friday, January 6, 2023
As I sat in the theater watching Coco, like people everywhere, I wished desperately to be part of that vibrant Mexican culture. But I also thought to myself: This is very Jewish. “Recuerdame, Remember Me” the song at the heart of the film expresses the deep idea embedded in our Jewish tradition of Yizkor. The redeeming power of memory. Our beloved dead depend upon us, here in the land of the living, to remember them.
The Blessing
November 25, 2022
Before blessing our children on Friday night, we might ask them “come close and kiss me.” And take a deep breath…smelling the odor of their breath and skin, remembering all the times we have kissed them in our lives. And then we might speak their names, since speaking a person’s name can awaken our love for them. And then offer words of blessing. Love first, then bless.
Reading and Love
February 11, 2022
We heard these stories from our mother’s mouth, three of us children sitting together with her on the sofa, her arms around us, the scent of her perfume in our nostrils. Our mother loved us by reading to us.
The Afterlife
October 27, 2019
The problem with death is not that we want to live forever. After a long life, we all need to rest. The problem with death is that we are taken from the people we love. .. in the course of our lifetime, our soul becomes completely intertwined with other human souls. …We become so thoroughly enmeshed with each other that when death takes us from each other,… we are overcome with grief.
Mt. Hope Cemetery
December 2, 2016
How very fitting that Susan B Anthony and Frederick Douglass are resting nearby each other in a cemetery named Mount Hope.
My Father
Rosh Hashanah 2016
The silence between parents and children has a purpose. A religious significance. As parents, when our children are small, we fill their lives. We teach our children language, stories, songs, religion and culture, we pour ourselves into them. And then a time comes…right around age thirteen…when we parents step back and simply watch and wonder. We invite silence to enter between us and our children. The silence between parent and child becomes a sacred space, a dwelling place for God. A holy of holies.
Eulogy for My Father
October 9, 2015
I doubt that many doctors have spent the night sleeping next to their patients, or researchers spent the night sleeping with the animal subjects of their experiments. But these stories of night-times together reveal my father’s insight, perhaps his most deeply held conviction. My dad knew intuitively and reflected throughout his life and career upon the divine, healing power of personal presence. Of touch, of glance, of voice, of smile and laugh. These were the most important items in our father’s medical bag.
What is Revelation?
May 22, 2015
When those two young people opened up to each other, it was revelation! And when they shared their story with me, in all its strangeness and power, it was revelation again! Our souls can meet, in falling in love, or even just in sharing a story. The story of the volcano, and the thunder and lightning, and the voice of God speaking out of the silence, is all a glorious metaphor for the way that something deep and true can rise up within us and erupt in tears, laughter, and powerful words of truth. This is revelation; this is Torah. It is the best thing about being alive. And it takes courage.
Gathered Unto His People
September 12, 2014
our Torah simply does not provide a description of the afterlife. But it offers a beautiful phrase to express that a person has died: “He was gathered unto his people.” I do not need or want a doctrine of the afterlife. I will never be ready to pledge allegiance to a belief about where my father is going. But I will be happy to allow my imagination to run free, and to imagine him reunited with his friend Earl, his best friend from childhood, whom he lost so long ago, and Nick and Stan and Jerry and his mentors Paul and John and George and his mother Dora, his father Samuel whom he never met, after whom I am named, and his many aunts and uncles Ida and Alice and Bertha and Ben and Itch and Louie and Charlie…
When he is good and ready, and not before, he will be gathered unto his people; all of those who raised him on Vienna Street, in the old Jewish neighborhood of Rochester, New York.
The Holy Life of Naomi Gerber
March 11, 2011
We Jews have for thousands of years, been praying at a wall in Jerusalem. From her daughter Naomi, Louise learned and is now teaching us, what it means to be driven to our knees, and to pray before a wall. Shabbat Shalom.
Leonard Cohen
September 4, 2009
Last week, on Thursday night, my family and I were driving home from Sequoia National Park, barreling down Route 5 and across on the 126 at night, in the dark, singing along with Leonard Cohen….all these songs and more. Marian, Rachel, Ari and I each have our own, very different views of God, and Judaism. Our kids are now 19 and 21. But the four of us were there together in the dark….singing Who By Fire, Hallelujah, If it be Your Will, Anthem. It was one of the nicest moments we have had with our children in recent memory.