On Tuesday morning, Barack Obama will become the forty-fourth President of the United States of America. In a peaceful transition of power, he will assume the presidency and begin to govern. Whatever one’s philosophy of government, whatever one’s feeling about the outcome of November’s election, the orderly democratic process is something to celebrate. For Jews, [...]
Archive for the ‘Divrei Torah’ Category
A Sermon on the Inauguration of Barack Obama
Posted in Divrei Torah on January 17, 2009 | 1 Comment »
The Antidote to Forgetfulness
Posted in Borderlands, Divrei Torah on November 17, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
It’s about five years ago, and I am sitting in a gathering space in my synagogue with a diverse group of leaders from our broad-based community organization, Border Interfaith. We are training in the art of the relational meeting, the “one-to-one” which is the heart of community organizing, and we’re doing it through a “fishbowl” [...]
Will the new year bring change, or more of the same?
Posted in Divrei Torah on September 25, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Shanah is an interesting word. It means “year” in Hebrew, and is related to two ideas that seem not only divergent, but even contradictory. On the one hand, we can relate “shanah” to the verb l’shanot, which means “to change.” Or, with no less authenticity we can see in the word shanah the verb l’shanen, [...]
Bavli Berachot 56b, Two Ways
Posted in Divrei Torah on May 24, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
This week’s d’var torah was a look at a brief passage from the Babylonian Talmud, tractate Berachot, “two ways.” First, a conventional d’var torah…and then a song.
“This Machine Buries Fascists”
Posted in Divrei Torah on May 3, 2008 | 4 Comments »
When you visit the “Bob Dylan’s American Journey” exhibit, now at the Skirball Museum in Los Angeles, the very first thing you see is a 1940s-era Martin Guitar. It’s a 000-18, narrow at the waist, with lovely mahogany back and sides, and a spruce top mellowed and burnished with the passage of time. In pristine [...]
Three things there are together in my eye…and one of them is a cell phone tower!
Posted in Borderlands, Divrei Torah on April 11, 2008 | 1 Comment »
It’s budget time at Temple, and our finance committee is hard at work, crunching the numbers and creating the roadmap that will – with our discipline, generosity, and a little bit of good fortune – make Fiscal Year 2008 our eighth consecutive year with an operating surplus. It’s often noted that budgets are our real [...]
Welcoming our newest joint proprietors.
Posted in Borderlands, Divrei Torah on October 19, 2007 | 1 Comment »
A coalition was born on Sunday afternoon in Washington DC. It wasn’t a new alliance of Republicans or Democrats, nor was it a gathering of interests seeking to influence domestic policy. It was a group of Jews – rabbis, cantors, other professionals, and laypeople – coming together in common cause. “Big Tent Judaism” [...]
Perfect.
Posted in Divrei Torah on October 13, 2007 | 2 Comments »
Ann Coulter wants to see me “perfected.” How nice.
Institute for Interfaith Dialog Iftar Dinner
Posted in Borderlands, Divrei Torah on October 8, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Remarks from the Institute for Interfaith Dialog’s Iftar Dinner on October 8, 2007:
Mishkan T’filah: No Poison Here
Posted in Divrei Torah on October 6, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Mishkan T’filah, our new prayer book, is good religion. It is humane, through and through, reflecting our understanding of the value of all people. It welcomes those with a sure faith in God, those struggling to believe, and — if they read it with nuance – those who are more humanist than theist as well. It connects us to our tradition, but refuses to allow us to be slaves to it. Its primary concern, page after page, is the cultivation of a just and ethical life. Read it and you’ll find that there is no poison in this prayer book, only ways of pleasantness and paths of peace.
