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.

Steve Cohen Steve Cohen

Holiness and Zionism

May 10, 2024

During the past one hundred years of Jewish history, our people have been attempting to carry out this holiness revolution in our ancient homeland, the land of Israel. God knows and we know that it has been far from perfect, but this is the meaning of Zionism as I understand it. The Jewish people…which includes all of us….is attempting to create a just and compassionate society in the land of our ancestors.

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Steve Cohen Steve Cohen

Our Sisters from Kibbutz Kfar Azza

February 9, 2024

Our sisters from Israel came to us, across a vast distance, and with their powerful voices, opening to us their broken hearts, they brought us together. Now, after October 7th, more than ever, we know that Israel is the living, beating heart of our people. Now we are family, bound together in grief and in joy, the Jews of Santa Barbara and the Jews of Kibbutz Kfar Azza.

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Steve Cohen Steve Cohen

Emotions

December 8, 2023

Our emotions grow and spread.  V’yosifu.  V’yosifu.  Even more.  Even more.  We know this.  This story is for us, right now.  We are living in a time of rapidly spreading anger and fear and hatred.  In Israel, in Gaza, on our university campuses, on our television screens, on the internet.  V’yosifu, v'yosifu.  Even more.  Even more.

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Steve Cohen Steve Cohen

Interfaith Thanksgiving 2023

Tuesday November 21, 2023

            An old Jewish teaching observes that “When senseless hatred reigns on earth, and human beings hide their faces from one another, then heaven is forced to hide its face.  But when love comes to rule the earth, and human beings reveal their faces to one another, then the splendor of God will be revealed.”

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Steve Cohen Steve Cohen

3 Weeks After Oct 7th

October 27, 2023

we are living through profoundly dangerous times.  The events that we are witnessing and are actually part of, will change our world irrevocably, in ways we cannot anticipate or imagine. But we do know that we are stronger, wiser and more courageous when we work together with each other.

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Steve Cohen Steve Cohen

Saturday eve Oct 7

October 7, 2023

      Twenty four hours later, we have come back to the same spot ….together with leaders and members of our entire Santa Barbara Jewish Community….and our hearts are bursting with a different set of emotions.  Fear.  Grief.  Anger.  Even hatred.  So much has changed, overnight.

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Steve Cohen Steve Cohen

Becoming Israel

December 9, 2022

I know that fear is also normal. There are many good reasons to be afraid in this dangerous world. But Tally, and Linda and Ben, like our father Jacob nearly four thousand years ago, each in their own way are teaching us, showing us that it is possible to be unafraid, to step boldly out of our comfort zone, and to increase the peace of God’s world.

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Steve Cohen Steve Cohen

Abraham

November 4, 2022

I believe that Abraham was moved to open his home, and himself, to the people around him because of his great discovery. Abraham was the first to look into the face of another person, and to see in that other face the God of his own soul.

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Steve Cohen Steve Cohen

The Purpose of a Sermon

July 1, 2022

The purpose of a sermon is to remove our sandals, so that with the sensitive soles of our souls, we may feel all the pain and all the joy of being alive in this beautiful broken world.

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Steve Cohen Steve Cohen

Lies and Truth

June 10, 2022

We are living in a time when it often seems as though truth lies gasping on the ground.  In our haste, we may decide that kol ha-adam kozev, everybody lies.  But if we care for this fragile but marvelous creation, democracy, we will interrupt our haste, our rushing around.  We will pay attention to the seriousness of this moment in history, and we may be blessed to see the miraculous return of truth imagined in the midrash.  Emet mei-eretz titzmach.  Truth will sprout forth from the earth. 

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Steve Cohen Steve Cohen

Backpacking and Braver Angels

May 13, 2022

The temptation is so strong to withdraw, to listen only to music on the radio, and to have nothing to do with the brawling, the name calling, the derision and contempt and demonization that have become the norms in our political discourse. I’m so tired of it. And yet, here we are, trying to create something together.

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Steve Cohen Steve Cohen

Choose Life

April 29, 2022

God declares, “if this human being chooses correctly, then this entire creation will endure.  But if this human being chooses badly, the heavens and the earth will disintegrate, and return to tohu vavohu, the primordial chaos.  In our generation, we have come face to face, at last, with the planetary implications of our life choices.

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Steve Cohen Steve Cohen

Go Down Moses

April 8, 2022

it came to pass that in the middle of the 20th century, American Jews discovered a body of songs which combined both: our ancient Jewish story and one of the richest and most profound forms of American music, the African American spirituals.

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Steve Cohen Steve Cohen

Esther and Zelenskyy

Friday night, March 11, 2022

In this moment also, in our own terrifying moment in history, a Jew named Volodymir Zelenskyy is recapitulating Esther’s act of kiddush hashem.

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Steve Cohen Steve Cohen

On Suffering

December 10, 2021

the truth is that we are not meant to be happy all the time.  There is vast suffering in the world, more than I ever imagined when I was young.  And I think that one of our greatest challenges as human beings is to somehow make room in our hearts for both all of the exquisite beauty and joy, and also the suffering that is all around us.  Is that even possible?

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Steve Cohen Steve Cohen

Heart Attack

Friday night, January 8, 2021

After the January 6 Capitol riot

Our nation suffered a heart attack this week; can we change our national, political lifestyle? Can we become healthy again? Can we ever hope to create a government with well-functioning institutions, which is more or less trusted by most of its citizens?

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Steve Cohen Steve Cohen

Truth, Justice and Peace

Friday night, June 5, 2020

After the murder of George Floyd

Tonight I want to propose that if we hope for a livable world for ourselves and for our children, we must consider Rabban Shimon’s three pillars: truth, justice and peace. In that order.

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Steve Cohen Steve Cohen

The Voice of the Prophet

Yom Kippur 2019

Malala Yousafzai, Emma Gonzalez and Greta Thunberg have each spoken in a voice that has reached across the entire planet....before reaching the age of 18 years old. Each one of them, sadly but not surprisingly, has thousands of people who hate them and are trying to destroy them. Somehow, fear does not seem to affect them. Like the prophets of ancient Israel, each one of these young women speaks for something far beyond themselves. Something that I believe our ancient ancestors would have understood as the holy spirit.

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Steve Cohen Steve Cohen

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.

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Steve Cohen Steve Cohen

Two Wrestlings

December 5, 2014

This week we read the story of Jacob wrestling all night long with a mysterious man, and in the same week our televisions and computer screens have placed before us devastating video footage of a forty- three year old black man Eric Garner being placed in a chokehold, and wrestled to the ground, to die on a street on Staten Island.  Two very different wrestlings fill our minds in this single week. 

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