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.
Pandemic Sabbatical
June 26, 2020
The job of being a rabbi has been the great honor and privilege of my life. But it’s a job that never ends. From early in the morning until late at night. The sadness and the joy, the weight of the past and the questions about the future. And all of the people! tiny children, hormonal teenagers, stressed out parents, aging seniors. All with desires, needs and opinions! There is nothing more exciting, nothing more interesting, nothing more holy than what happens in this community. But a rabbi needs to rest.
My Mentor Rabbi Richard Levy
June 28, 2019
Richard was a towering intellect. A powerful, clear-eyed thinker. And he prayed. He spoke to us first year students openly and without embarrassment about his relationship with God. Richard was my first living proof of the possibility of holding onto both faith and reason. Religion and science.
At the Rabbis’ Convention
March 8, 2013
three hundred rabbis all in one building is a huge concentration of Torah, of ego, of compassion, of Jewishness, of power, of self-promotion and of humor. I was there in rabbi-land for just about two days and this is my report back to you.
On God
March 30, 2005
At the Central Conference of American Rabbis
to speak of God’s unknowability is in no way to deny God’s reality. On the contrary, by insisting upon God’s unknowability, we open up a sacred empty space, a holy of holies, inside ourselves within which God can dwell and from which the voice of God can issue like fire.
1st Sermon at CBB
August 6, 2004
here is what I have realized after 47 years of learning: the very best thing I can do is to listen carefully to all of my teachers, to all of you here tonight and to everyone else I have mentioned, and then to go to myself, to find a way, a time and a place to become still, and to listen to the voice of my own heart. And that is the way I will learn to do this job.