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.
Our Family in Israel
April 24, 2020
This is our family, in Israel, living through the coronavirus. The tiny baby in her flat in Tel Aviv, dreaming and her parents longing for their families. Yishay Ribo, singing for us to the entire world, ancient questions out of our tradition that have come back to life, in our day. What is God teaching us? How do we come back together, and when? And the children of Kibbutz Gezer, singing and dancing with their popsicles on a hot corona day.
Israel: Disneyland or Reality?
Rosh Hashanah 2014
Israelis are nothing if not direct and utterly real, but sadly most organized tours tend to turn Israel into a Jewish Disneyland. It’s easier, much easier, to drive folks from archeological site to museum, then to some awesome natural beauty and finally to go shopping for souvenirs, than to set up meetings with real people, who have personalities and opinions, and who may or may not show up, and you never know what they will say. And many tours skip right over the horrible messiness of the Arab-Israeli conflict, which can almost be avoided as long as you don’t talk to any people. But I wanted to embrace the messiness.
Gaza War 2014
August 1, 2014
…what I cannot understand is the mortal terror of Lieut. Hadar Goldin’s family who began Shabbat this evening knowing that their son had been captured alive by Hamas. And I cannot understand the grief of the Palestinian parent who finds their child dead in the rubble after an airstrike. And I cannot understand why after 3,000 years hatred still flourishes between the descendents of Abraham, or for that matter why the human race as a whole has not yet come to its senses, and set aside its hatreds and fears. This is the reality that we cannot understand, but which concerns us to the core of our being. Woe to us if we do not tremble.
The Muslims and Us
Yom Kippur 2012
When we dialogue with our Muslim neighbors, we will not agree about everything. We will disagree, sometimes passionately. But the question is how we will disagree. And whether we will press forward and continue to talk.
The Jewish People
Rosh Hashanah 2010
Mount Moriah—mountain of yirah and r’iyah…fear and vision! What is that place to us? We are here in Santa Barbara, on the other side of the planet. What is our connection to the Kotel, and its crowds of black-hatted Jews? What is our connection to the Old City of Jerusalem, with the tense alley-ways of the Muslim Quarter and the tacky and commercialized Jewish Quarter? In fact, what is our connection with Israel? That country of traffic jams and tourist traps and lethal hatreds?
After a Visit to Israel
December 29, 2006
Ten measures of suffering fell upon the world, taught the ancient sages, and nine of those fell upon Jerusalem. Ten measures of beauty fell upon the world, taught the sages, and nine of those fell upon Jerusalem. I wouldn’t want my daughter to be spending her nineteenth year in any other city in the world.