Sermons

We are all in the middle of a match. Parsha Vayishlach is probably most famous for its description of Jacob’s wrestling match. While Jacob is alone, fearing for his family as his angry brother approaches, one of the most famous encounters in all of Torah takes place. Jacob wrestles with an “ish,” or a man […]

This week’s Torah portion is called “Chayei Sarah,” or “The life of Sarah.” The strange thing about this title is that the portion begins with the death of Sarah at the age of 127 years old. We then hear of her husband Abraham’s purchase of a burial plot in the cave of Machpelah. Later, we […]

This week, we are introduced to parsha Vayeira, which contains the deeply troubling account of the Akeidah, or the Binding of Isaac. We read this section of Torah on Rosh Hashanah, and it is commonly a difficult bit of text to wrestle with for so many people. The idea of Abraham, our first patriarch, so […]

The year is 2004. I am sitting in my crowded dorm room in the Back Bay of Boston. A single room shared by four people; three music theater majors, and a viola major crowded together. “Mom, I am leaving Boston, I have to move to New York City to go to acting school.” Next, “Mom, […]

Michael Jordan, who is arguably the greatest basketball player of all time, famously did not make the varsity basketball team as a sophomore at Laney High School in Wilmington, North Carolina. The coach of the team at the time, Clifton “Pop” Herring attributed Jordan’s omission from the team to his height. Michael Jordan was only […]

I would like to share with you tonight the words of Elana Kaminka, an Israeli woman who lost her son on October 7th, just weeks before what would have been his 21st Birthday: “I lost my firstborn son. When something like that happens, you realize nothing else is important. My son’s name was Yannai Kaminka. […]