Shows
From the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeShabbat Sermon: The Curious Case of...Curiosity with Rabbi Sonia SaltzmanI’m sure you’re familiar with the saying: “curiosity killed the cat.” We say it when curiosity leads us down an unproductive or even dangerous path. However, in a fascinating interview with Professor Tal ben Shahar, an expert in the field of positive psychology, he offers this wonderful line: “curiosity might have killed the cat, but it keeps us alive.” Curiosity, says this prominent researcher, is one of the great secrets of happiness. It ensures that even when we’re alone, we’re not bored. But also, says ben Shahar, being curious about others brings new relationships, can help mend broken...
2025-07-2619 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeShabbat Sermon: Both/And: Being a Proud Queer Zionist Jew in a Post-October 7 World with AJ HelmanAJ Helman (they/them/theirs) is an educator and artist with a focus on Jewish and LGBTQ+ theater and education. After graduating from Emerson College with a BFA in Theater Education and Performance, AJ remained in Boston, working in the local theater and film industries as both an artist and a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion liaison. As part of their activism and educator work, they facilitated workshops on gender diversity in theater and spearheaded better inclusion practices for transgender employees in the film industry thanks to the support of Ryan Reynolds’ and Blake Lively’s Group Effort Initiative. AJ prou...
2025-06-2111 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeShavuot Keynote Speaker: Beyond all Consolation: A Jewish Philosophy of Redemption and Tragedy with Rabbi Jason RubensteinBeyond all Consolation: A Jewish Philosophy of Redemption and TragedyRabbi Jason Rubenstein joined Harvard Hillel as Executive Director on June 1, 2024 after six years as the Howard M. Holtzman Jewish Chaplain at Yale. Jason’s background is as diverse as Harvard’s Jewish community: a childhood at Temple Micah in Washington DC, formative years studying at Yeshivat Ma’ale Gilboa in northern Israel, and rabbinic ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary. From 2010-2018, Jason taught on the faculty of the Hadar Institute, where he created classrooms, conversations, and communities that bring Torah into an open-e...
2025-06-0158 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeTalmud Class: Between the Holocaust and IsraelGod is always confusing. We never know what to think. But that is especially true now in this fraught theological season between commemorating the Shoah (April 24), honoring soldiers who fell in Israel’s wars and victims of terrorism on Yom Hazikaron (April 30), and celebrating the birth of the State of Israel on om Ha’atzmaut (May 1). Tomorrow we are going to study a modern Jewish philosopher that we have never before studied, Rabbi Irving Greenberg, who came up with a new scheme: the Three Eras of Jewish History.It is new. I...
2025-04-2641 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeShabbat Sermon: Argentinian Jewish Music and the Forgotten Figure of the Temple Days - Asaph with Cantor Elias RosembergFebruary 8, 2025
2025-02-0816 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeShabbat Sermon: Upon 3 Pillars The Teen’s World Stands with Rabbinic Intern Aaron BercShimon The Righteous would say that the world stands upon three things: upon Torah, upon Avodah - the Temple Service, and upon G’milut Hasadim - acts of loving kindness. Since I am finishing my fifth month working with the teen community here at Temple Emanuel I thought that I would humbly reflect upon three stories that illustrate these three pillars of Jewish life, which point our compass as we continue to establish our teen community.
2025-01-3107 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeTalmud Class: Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde's "Have Mercy" SpeechIf you have not already done so, please take a couple of moments to watch this clip of the most famous part of Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde’s sermon at a prayer service this past Tuesday, the day after the inauguration, at the Washington National Cathedral.
In class we will watch this clip together before our study and conversation. Here are some questions we will consider together:
What do you think of her message?
What does it say about our nation now that Bishop Budde’s message—have mercy—can ignite so much emotion and controversy?
How do you t...
2025-01-2541 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeShabbat Sermon: This Is No Time For Zealots with Rav Hazzan Aliza BergerThe volume of outrage in our world has hit a crescendo. All the time I hear questions like, “how can you bear to be around someone who voted like that?!” or “how can you stand working with people who are so anti-Zionist or who are so pro-Israel?” As if people who do not rage against those they disagree with are somehow condoning or supporting evil perspectives. Young people, already stressed by the pressures of their own lives, feel pressured to respond to hateful social media posts and/or to present content that will fight against what they see as evil lie...
2024-12-1417 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeTalmud Class: Michael Bohnen Teaching the Poems of October 7
As the horrors of October 7th were unfolding, a common reaction was “ein milim,” no words. But it is not surprising that Hebrew poetry soon appeared that gave expression to the nation’s raw feelings and emotions.
Our teacher Rachel Korazim, our member Michael Bohnen and Heather Silverman of California have recently published a moving anthology of those poems which they have translated to English. Their book, Shiva: Poems of October 7, is available on Amazon, and all royalties go to the Israel Trauma Coalition for their work with victims of that terrible day and its aftermath.
This Shabbat morning, Octobe...
2024-10-0556 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeTablets Shattered: A Conversation with Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz and Author Joshua LeiferIn late August Joshua Leifer, author of Tablets Shattered, was going to be in dialogue about his new book with a local Brooklyn rabbi. They were infamously banned from the bookstore because they are Zionists. While the employee who tossed them was fired, it is sobering that in America, in New York, in August of 2024, an author could get banned for believing that the Jewish people have a right to a homeland.
The day that Josh Leifer was banned by the bookstore I called him. His mother and Shira have been the best of friends for more than forty...
2024-09-241h 00From the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeTalmud Class: What Does Elkanah Teach us About How to Listen?On the first day of Rosh Hashanah, we encounter the well-meaning words of a loving husband whose consolation of his very sad wife did not work. Hannah could not get pregnant. Her husband Elkanah’s other wife Peninnah got pregnant easily and, the text notes twice, would taunt Hannah for her inability to conceive.
https://files.constantcontact.com/d3875897501/3774939d-786f-4595-b167-b4fcafa95e06.pdf?rdr=true
This happened year after year: Every time she [Hannah] went up to the House of the Lord, the other [Peninnah] would taunt her [Hannah], so that she wept and would not ea...
2024-09-1439 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeShabbat Sermon: From Camp to Congress with Rabbi Michelle RobinsonDid you or your children go to summer camp? If so, do you remember the songs you or they sang? For me, my childhood soundtrack of classic summer camp songs is filled with silly ditties like “I Said a Boom-Chicka Boom” and “Sippin’ Cider through a Straw.” Throw in a “Zum Gali Gali” and a “Shalom Rav” or two, and it always made me smile that my kids are singing those same summer songs – a joyful summer soundtrack filled with ruach (spirit) and a camp legacy.
Last week, I visited our Temple Emanuel kids at Camp Ramah and found them singi...
2024-07-2712 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeTalmud Class: What do Elie Wiesel's Hasidic Parables Say About the Madness of Our Time?Madness.
We all feel the madness of our time. How can it be that at the Newton Public library, groups of Newton citizens shout at each other, locked in mutual hate? How can it be that students at Columbia have to hear encampments where they can hear from their bedrooms "We love Hamas" and "Burn Tel Aviv to the ground" night after night—and the administration lets this happen, hate unfiltered? How can it be that graduation ceremonies are interrupted by hate? How can it be that Jews feel so abandoned by so many? How can it be...
2024-05-1850 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeShabbat Sermon: Rough Patches with Rabbi Wes GardenswartzAbe and Sarah have been happily married for more than 60 years. They share children, grandchildren, great grandchildren. One fine day, Sarah says, Abe: I’d like a banana sundae. Would you please go to JP Licks? Of course! It would be my privilege! What kind of banana sundae do you want? Abe, write it down. A banana sundae has a lot going on. Would you please get me three flavors: chocolate chip, Oreo, and cake batter. Then whipped cream. Lots of hot fudge. With a cherry on top. Abe, write it down. I don’t need to write it down. I’ve got...
2024-04-2721 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeTalmud Class: Love in a Time of Not LoveWhat happens to love in a world of not love? Consider this past Sunday at Temple Emanuel.
In the morning Shai Held was in dialogue with Marc Baker about his new book Judaism is About Love. It was a truly inspiring conversation. After their dialogue, I heard many people offer some version of the following statement which, to my mind, is the single greatest compliment any rabbi could ever earn. “Shai Held inspires me to want to be a better human being.”
Totally beautiful, and totally well earned. There is only one catch. In their dialogue, there was no ment...
2024-04-1338 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeShabbat Sermon: Cultivating Hope During Seemingly Hopeless Times by Dr. Irle GoldmanI must tell you that whenever I have entered this sanctuary, I am reminded of the Starship Enterprise of Star Trek….and now I have the honor of speaking from the Control Room, And I flash to Spock communicating “Beam me up Scotty”…
For me, this is a metaphor of how we use the spiritual power of this Sanctuary to create a Place For Healing.
A true story. When my 40 year old son Adam Goldman-Yassen was in second grade, they brought the class to the Temple Emanuel sanctuary…and they showed them around and said of these chairs back here, “ Th...
2024-03-2520 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeTalmud Class: "I'm Just Not Into Israel"...Which of the Four Children is That?A hypothetical based on a real-world situation, not at Temple Emanuel, but at another Jewish organization:
Imagine you are on the rabbinic search committee for some institution near and dear to your heart: shul, Hillel, federation. You read the resume of a candidate. Superb. Excellent education. Deep experience at Jewish summer camp. Has lived Judaism in a rich journey. Doing exceptionally well in rabbinical school. You go into the interview very favorably disposed. At the interview, you like this candidate. You feel a connectivity. Chemistry is good. Then you ask this candidate about Israel.
The candidate responds: I am...
2024-03-1634 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeTalmud Class: Unpacking Our Israel Mitzvah MissionThe Temple Emanuel 50-person mitzvah mission to Israel last week experienced the confusing reality that diametrically contradictory truths can both be true.
Normal or not normal? Is Israel a nation in mourning, as Rachel Korazim taught? Or is Israel getting past October 7, not in mourning, trying to live a normal life, as Donniel Hartman taught? Yes, and yes.
Returning the hostages? Is it absolutely essential that Israel do everything possible to bring the hostages home? Or will it undermine the success of Israel’s war effort if it has to fight with one hand tied behind its back in or...
2024-02-2442 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeNeurodivergent Torah: A Celebration of Autistic Culture & Liberation with Rabbi Shoshana Meira FriedmanThis Shabbat, I’m going to share a personal story very different from the kinds of sermons I used to give when I worked in a congregation. I want to be clear it is my story. I recognize that in this room there are Autistic people and family members who have their own perspectives that may differ from mine. They are just as important and valid. We are a large and diverse community.
Three years ago, a neuropsychologist assessed our then 3-year-old son and called a few weeks later to tell us that was Autistic. I was so...
2024-02-1028 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeShabbat Sermon: Brothers and Sisters with Rabbi Wes GardenswartzI have been thinking a lot about something that many of us—not all, but many—have in common: brothers and sisters. I have been in a deep brother and sister place this week for two reasons.
I am the youngest of six children. My five older siblings live in different places. Two live in Los Angeles, one in New Jersey, one in Denver, and my sister Jill and I live in Newton. This past Monday night, for a brief, incredibly sweet, totally-to-be-cherished nano second, we were all in the same place together, Brooklyn, for the wedding of Jill...
2024-01-2019 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeTalmud Class: Wisdom - What Does It Look Like, and Where Can We Get It?Wisdom. We could all use it now. Many of us had hoped and
prayed for a better 2024, a happier 2024, a more peaceful 2024. But now that we are in 2024, we are faced with the same stubborn challenges of 2023, deepened. The election cycle in America. The ongoing war in Israel and Gaza and the simmering threat of war with Hezbollah.
Ongoing tensions on our college campuses, including one five miles from Temple Emanuel. In the face of all this complexity, what might wisdom look like, and where could we get it?
Today we examine two classic Jewish st...
2024-01-0641 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeYom Kippur Sermon: Next, Next! Now, Now! with Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz A writer named Robert Hubbell is not Jewish. He and his wife are both observant Catholics. But earlier this year he wrote an essay entitled “My Kippah” about the fact that one of his most cherished possessions is a kippah. He did not know any Jews growing up. One of the first Jewish people he ever got to know was a law school classmate, a woman who became a fast platonic friend and study partner. After they graduated from law school, their friendship continued, and Robert Hubbell and his wife were invited by this friend to join what she call...
2023-09-2418 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeTalmud Class: Is the Peretz Story an Adequate Response to the Pain in Our World?
For our Talmud class this week, we read the classic short story If Not Higher, written by the Yiddish writer I.L. Peretz (1852-1915). Dr. Stephen Greenblatt, a proud alum of the Temple Emanuel Hebrew School, and a University Professor at Harvard, where he is the world’s preeminent Shakespeare scholar, teaches us If Not Higher before Neilah on Monday night.
As you read this story, consider these questions:
What is the theory of goodness, decency, menschlikeit that the rabbi in the story embodies?
Do you consider the rabbi’s posture an adequ...
2023-09-2331 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeShabbat Sermon: Hitting the Ever-Moving Target of Jewish Education with Rabbi Ravid Tilles
It seems the goal-post of how we reach and teach the next generation is always moving. As parents, grandparents, educators, and a community who cares, how do we get it right? How can we move the next generation toward an indelible connection to Judaism now and for generations to come?
Rabbi Ravid Tilles has been the Director of Jewish Life and Learning at Schechter Boston since 2017. Schechter Boston is a Jewish Day School in Newton for students from 15 months to 8th grade. He and his family are also members of the Temple Emanuel community. Before...
2023-08-2622 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeShabbat Sermon: Judaism and Queerness - A Whole Greater Than the Sum of the Parts with Sam GardenswartzShabbat shalom. As we say in Brooklyn on Pride Shabbat, chag sameach. I’m so jazzed to be back home as Temple Emanuel’s gay-in-residence this Shabbat.
Growing up at Emanuel, Schechter, and Ramah, I was frequently asked the same question: am I a Jewish American or an American Jew. Twenty years later, I can safely say…its a really odd question for a 5th grader.
The real problem with the question is that it presumes my Jewish identity and my American identity are separate. But really, they build on each other and amplify each other...
2023-06-2411 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeBrotherhood Shabbat Sermon with Dan CaineDan is a board member of Repair the World (Jewish engagement through service) and the Friends of the Arava Institute (bringing Arabs and Jews together in Israel to address environmental and climate issues). He is a long-time member of Temple Emanuel and has, over the years, volunteered with other Jewish organizations, including Combined Jewish Philanthropies, JCDS, the Newton Centre Minyan, and Our Generation Speaks.
In his free time, Dan created a software package for calculating income tax, as well as software to help attorneys and individuals with the financial aspects of divorce.
2023-05-1312 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeTalmud Class: The Torah of Rabbi Harold Kushner, Zichrono Livrachah
When the history of twentieth-century Jewry is written, I believe that one of the most important, impactful, influential thinkers will be Rabbi Harold Kushner, who was laid to his eternal rest this past Monday. I do not know of a rabbi whose teaching had a broader reach or a bigger
impact.
It is not just that his books sold millions of copies.
Not just that his books were translated into many languages.
Not just that his work was read by Jews and non-Jews alike.
Rabbi Harold Kushner did s...
2023-05-0643 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifePesach Day 7 Sermon: The Things We Do For Love with Rabbi Wes GardenswartzFor those of you hearty enough to come to shul on the seventh day of Pesach, I want to share with you a love story—in fact a Pesach double love story. But to appreciate this double love story, we need first to talk about halakha, Jewish law. When was the last time that happened in a sermon?
The Torah commands us to have no chametz in our possession during the holiday of Pesach. Chametz is defined as five species of grain: wheat, barley, spelt, rye, and oats. It is not just that we can’t eat chametz. ...
2023-04-1215 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeTalmud Class: Should We Ever Pray for Revenge?A 26-year old named Ilya Sosansky was the seventh victim of the terrorist attack in Jerusalem on January 27 in Jerusalem’s Neve Yaakov neighborhood. Ilya Sosansky was a graduate of AMIT Technology High School. AMIT sent out an email describing the indescribable loss of this young man.
Ilya Sosansky was a beloved, popular DJ. His friends
described him as a young man filled with a joy for life,
who could cheer up anyone. Adi Yona referred to Ilya as,
“A charm, a walking smile, a good soul who only did good.”
At...
2023-02-1843 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeTalmud Class: Is There a Point of No Return?Some hypotheticals:
After his lengthy prison term, Harvey Weinstein joins Temple Emanuel and wants to come to services. He says I now get it. I was wrong. Would you sit next to him?
We receive a generous check from Jeffrey Epstein to be used by the Temple in any way we wish, and anonymously, no need to publish his gift. He writes I now get it. I was wrong. Would you accept his gift?
After referring his 4.6 million followers to a vile Jew-hating movie that denies the Shoah, and after refusing to apologize for...
2022-11-1244 min
From the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeTalmud Class: What Do Elijah and Rabbi Yose in the Ruins of Jerusalem Say to Us Now?Two years and three months later, we now know two things. Covid is not going away any time soon. There will be new variants and new cases. And we have to get back to life. There is a short and haunting passage from the tractate Berakhot 3A that connects deeply with our reality.
Rabbi Yose (from the Maxwell House Haggadah) is in Jerusalem, after the Temple was destroyed. God’s house is ruined. The people are exiled. The community that was is no more. He is there apparently alone, and he goes to the Temple ruins to pr...
2022-05-2144 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeShabbat Sermon: Breaking a Glass at the Olympics Final with Rav Hazzan Aliza BergerLast shabbos, we gathered in the sanctuary to process the rising threat of antisemitism in our world. Officially, we were talking about the recently released report by Amnesty International which condemned Israel in very intense ways. In clearly antisemitic ways. But we were also thinking about Colleyville, about swastikas carved into gym mats and painted on bathroom stalls here in Newton public schools. We were also thinking about the rise in hate crimes perpetrated against Jews, and about the increasingly vitriolic rhetoric against Israel worldwide. We talked about strategies, about how we might fight these forces.
Underlying ou...
2022-02-1216 min
Temple Emanuel Hartman Learning InitiativeThe COVID Ethicist: Revisiting Pandemic Dilemmas with Mishael Zion - October 3, 2021Mishael Zion The COVID Ethicist Revisiting Pandemic Dilemmas October 3, 2021 View Source Materials Here: https://www.templeemanuel.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Zion_M_The-COVID-Ethicist_Temple-Emanuel_Oct-2021.pdf
2021-10-031h 17From the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeShabbat Sermon: Hitting the Wall with Rabbi Michelle RobinsonThere is an amazing new sculpture on Commonwealth Avenue. Carved out of a tree trunk, in mid-stride is a magnificent runner confidently bounding up Heartbreak Hill. I pass him every day on my way to Temple Emanuel and am always struck by how he never seems to run out of energy. A little more than 10 years ago, I ran a marathon. Well, “run” is perhaps too generous a word. I jogged for a super-long time until I crossed the finish line in what I had hoped would be under six hours. To this day, I am still not entirely sure...
2020-12-1914 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeHartman Learning Initiative: Dani Segal - October 25, 2020Join us on Temple Emanuel’s Mission to learn Torah at the Hartman Institute in Jerusalem.
2020-10-2551 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeShabbat Sermon: Stamina — When You Are in the Shadows with Rabbi Wes GardenswartzIf you had to pick the single most essential personal quality to be working on right now, what would it be? Let me place this question in a context by sharing three recent conversations.
One was from a beloved long-time member who really misses coming to services on Shabbat morning. She misses it so much that she has counted exactly how many Shabbatot it has been since she was last in shul. At the time we spoke, she had not been in shul for 25 Shabbatot.
A second was from a wonderful couple that told me how...
2020-09-1920 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeShabbat Sermon: Block Out to Dial In: A Strategy for Hineni in the Age of Covid with Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz100% of us share the same problem. 100% of us will be experiencing the same problem next week on Rosh Hashanah. 100% of us experience the same problem in different ways every day. Here is the problem. I’ll use the language of the High Holidays. When God calls on Abraham, Abraham says: Hineni. I am here. Our problem is, how do we say I am here, when I am not here?
How does the Newton North or Newton South high school student say I am here for their new school year, when they are not here? The learning is remote.
2020-09-1217 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeShabbat Sermon: Ours For Now, Not Forever with Rabbi Wes GardenswartzThe new NFL season begins next week. For the first time in 20 years, Tom Brady will not be playing for the New England Patriots. He will be playing for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. If you are not a football fan, here is some background. Tom Brady is widely regarded as GOAT, the Greatest quarterback Of All Time. In a league in which most players play a short time, get injured, and are replaced by a younger, healthier player—NFL stands for Not For Long—he has played 20 years and counting. In a league set up to promote parity, where every team...
2020-09-0517 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeShabbat Sermon: Flow with Rabbi Wes GardenswartzI want to talk to you about something that is very pleasant and productive at the same time. You hear a lot about it from creative types, from artists, singers, composers, writers, athletes—but it is not limited to these fields. It is the feeling of having flow. F-l-o-w. Here is how having flow is defined by dictionary.com:
In positive psychology, a flow state, also known colloquially as being in the zone, is the mental state in which a person performing some activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the proc...
2020-08-2923 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeShabbat Sermon: Do We Believe in a God Who Punishes Us for Our Sins? A Question for the Elul of Covid-19 with Rabbi Wes GardenswartzI am about to violate three cardinal rules of giving sermons. One: Don’t talk about sin. That’s too old-school. Two: Don’t talk about punishment. That’s too draconian. Three: Don’t talk about God. That goes whoosh, over peoples’ heads. Too many folks are not God people.
So in view of those three cardinal rules, here is my question: Do you believe in a God who punishes you for your sins?
Why bring up this heavy topic now, on a late August summer weekend? Two reasons.
Follow this link to view the sermon a...
2020-08-2218 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeShabbat Sermon: What’s cooking? with Rabbi Aliza BergerIn our American milieu, we pride ourselves on individualism. We believe in the power of the American dream—the ability of every person to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, to make of themselves something great. Because we believe so much in the power of every individual, we tell stories of success as if each person were fighting against the current of the world, we talk about how they did this and thought that. Rarely do we remember to include in their stories the people that helped them along the way.
It’s true that each one of u...
2020-08-1515 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeShabbat Sermon: BDS: Boycott, Divestment and Sanction of Only One State, the Jewish State – Hateful Ideas Have Hateful Consequences with Rabbi Wes GardenswartzI want to speak to you today from the heart about something that is very important to me, I care a lot about it, yet I have never before in 23 years spoken about it from the bimah: BDS, the movement to boycott, divest and sanction Israel, the movement to single out Israel, from among all the nations in the world, not China, which imprisons its Muslim minorities, not Turkey, which stifles its dissenters, not any of the number of countries where being gay is a capital offense, but BDS focuses only on the Jewish state for special boycott, divestment, an...
2020-08-0819 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeShabbat Sermon: Cancel Culture with Rabbi Michelle RobinsonThe latest symbol of the American culture wars is a can of beans. In case you missed the political scuffle, last week Robert Unanue, the CEO of Goya Foods, the largest Hispanic owned company in the U.S., stood next to the President in the Rose Garden and declared his support.
The response was swift and severe: a massive outcry that took social media by storm with clips of Hispanic celebrities flushing Goya beans down their toilets, tweets of tutorials for how to hand-soak beans, calls to boycott Robert Unanue and Goya Foods for what he had s...
2020-07-1812 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeShabbat Sermon: Is It Possible to Be At Peace in the Middle of a Pandemic? with Rabbi Wes GardenswartzIs it possible to be at peace in the middle of a pandemic?
Every morning we hear the grim statistics, how many infected, how many hospitalized, how many died. Every morning, these numbers keep growing. Is it possible to be at peace while hearing these numbers?
And while statistics convey one kind of truth, individual stories convey a deeper truth. Like the story of Charles Hiser. Charles Hiser was an 82-year old widower. He had been married to his beloved wife Shirley Mae for 43 years. When she passed, he was all alone. His main source of huma...
2020-07-1120 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeShabbat Sermon: Pivot with Rabbi Wes GardenswartzIn honor of the Fourth of July, I want to tell you a true story about our beloved nation in a hard season on its finest day.
Our story begins in Aleppos, Syria, where a young boy named Abdulkader Hayani left school at the age of 9 to learn the craft of tailoring. He got to be a master tailor and came to own his own tailor shop in Aleppo, overseeing six employees and ten sewing machines. But when the Syrian civil war began, Aleppo was reduced to ruins, and his tailoring business was no more.
To...
2020-07-0417 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeShabbat Sermon: Lessons from a 6th grader with Rabbi Aliza BergerThis week, I had the most interesting conversation with one of our now-7th graders. I asked her what advice she would give to incoming 6th graders about how to succeed in middle school. I thought she would say something about the importance of doing homework on time or paying attention in class; something she had learned which helped her academically. Instead, immediately and without hesitation she said, “sometimes it’s hard to fit in, but if you try really hard, maybe you can.”
Her answer pulled at my heartstrings. I remember that feeling, of being in middle...
2020-06-2715 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeShabbat Sermon: But What About Black Anti-Semitism? with Rabbi Wes GardenswartzSince the murder of George Floyd, I have heard two voices from the members of Temple Emanuel.
By far the more common voice is moral outrage at the structural racial injustice that the murder of George Floyd revealed. I knew, but I didn’t know. I saw, but I didn’t focus. I should have done more. I am complicit. But now I am awakened. What books can I read? What films can I see? Where can I get an education around my own implicit bias? What can I do to help?
That is the first reactio...
2020-06-2019 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeShabbat Sermon: Time to Drag Out Our Mattresses with Rabbi Aliza BergerI want to speak to you today as a millennial.
As a millennial, people tell me I don’t understand—that problems take time to resolve, they take nuance, they take patience. But I know that just because things have been a certain way, doesn’t mean that’s how they need to stay. As a millennial, I know that often we do not have the luxury of time. If we want to make our world conform to our values, we may have to upset industries, we likely have to forge new paths, and we can’t always rely...
2020-06-1315 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeShabbat Sermon: Somebody’s Baby with Rabbi Michelle RobinsonWhen the coronavirus first hit and schools around the world shut down, Israeli mother Shiri Kenigsberg Levi rose to internet stardom, sharing her displeasure with the world in a hilarious homeschool harangue. A few weeks later she was at it again – this time in honor of Mother’s Day, reflecting on the super-power of one word.
She begins: “I realized something that if not for the coronavirus I would not have paid attention to – that the children say one word without adding anything, and I already know what they need…Ema.” Mom.
“There’s this…‘E-maaah’ [deep voice...
2020-06-0613 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeShabbat Sermon: Abra Kadabra with Rabbi Aliza BergerIn the 70s, Walter Mischel began the experiment that we all know and love, and which became one of the most famous psychological experiments of all time. At the time, he wanted to explore the relationship between a child’s patience and ability to wait and their success later in life. To conduct the experiment, he sat four-year-old children in front of a marshmallow and told them they had a choice. They could eat the marshmallow right away, or, they could wait 15 minutes at which point they would receive an additional marshmallow.
Follow this link to view the...
2020-05-2315 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeShabbat Sermon: Murder Hornets with Rabbi Michelle RobinsonIn case we did not have enough to worry about, earlier this month news broke about a whole new out-of-left field threat: murder hornets. If their name itself does not do it, the description of these vicious insects is enough to send shivers up the spine. The nearly 2-inch predators can singlehandedly destroy the entire population of a honeybee hive in a most gruesome manner within the span of just a few hours.
So far, the American honeybee population, which was already waning (remember the “Save the Bees” campaigns of previous years?), have absolutely no recourse. The so-call...
2020-05-1612 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeShabbat Sermon: Bigger with Rabbi Wes GardenswartzI realized I had a problem last Friday when I was doing our weekly shopping for Shabbat at Whole Foods—when I saw, and could not resist buying, this large package of 16 toilet paper rolls that we definitely do not need.
One of the glories of the Whole Foods where I shop is that often they have large packages of toilet paper available, one per customer. I go there once a week, and whenever they happen to have the toilet paper available, I buy it. The lockdown has been 8 weeks. Five of those 8 weeks they have had toile...
2020-05-0918 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeShabbat Sermon: Unflattening Time with Rabbi Michelle RobinsonA few months ago, when I would send an e-mail to the congregation, I would get scores of bounce-backs – out-of-office replies like, “Thank you for your e-mail, I’m travelling for business and will get back to you as soon as I can.” Or, “I’m on vacation. I’ll be offline with limited access to e-mail. If you need something, call someone else.”
I sent an e-mail last week and received exactly one bounce-back. What does it mean for our days (and nights) that while most of us are home, almost none of us are “out of office?” What is t...
2020-05-0214 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeShabbat Sermon: More is More with Rabbi Wes GardenswartzThere is a very poor neighborhood in Cape Town, South Africa that is regularly terrorized by two rival street gangs. These gangs literally kill each other and extort, harass, and intimidate townspeople. Police could not stop the violence. Preachers, pastors, counselors, star soccer players could not stop the violence. You know what did stop the violence? The Coronavirus.
Follow this link to view the sermon and watch the live streaming version on our website https://www.templeemanuel.com/rabbi/rabbi-wes-gardenswartz/more-is-more/
2020-04-2516 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeShabbat Sermon: Lord, Please Help Me Be Gentle With Myself with Rabbi Wes GardenswartzThere is a nurse in Florida who lives in a town that is blessed not to have much Covid-19 activity. When she heard about the surge happening in our Commonwealth this week, she decided to help. She left her husband, her children, and her home in Florida and got right to work in one of our hospitals treating those infected with the virus. She leaves all she knows behind to run towards the population that the rest of us are running away from. She was asked by an NPR reporter whether she was worried about getting infected. No, she said...
2020-04-1818 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeShabbat Sermon: How Can We Keep From Singing? with Rabbi Aliza Berger[sung] My life flows on in endless song, above earth’s lamentation. I hear the real, though far off hymn, that hails a new creation. Through all the tumult and the strife, I hear that music ringing. It sounds an echo in my heart, how can I keep from singing?
Every year when we read the Passover story, and every time we sing the Song of the Sea, I wonder what it would have been like to be an Israelite passing through those tumultuous waters. I imagine them exhausted after weeks of not sleeping because of the pl...
2020-04-1114 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeShabbat Sermon: What Really Matters — a Contemporary, Coronavirus Dayeinu with Rabbi Wes GardenswartzOne of the consequences of our surreal season has been greater clarity about what really matters in life. I hear that again and again—what really matters—from people in various stages of life.
There was a bride and groom who were going to get married this summer. It was to be a glorious venue, with a stunning view of the water, in a historic villa, uber elegant, with hundreds of guests. The tables were going to be set with the finest linens, china and flowers. Now all of that is up in the air. When I asked the...
2020-04-1016 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeShabbat Sermon: Do What You Can with Rabbi Michelle RobinsonLast year, I made a Passover parody playlist to help our family get in the holiday spirit. This year, a friend sent me a coronavirus playlist with songs like, “Don’t Stand So Close to Me,” “U Can’t Touch This,” and “It’s the End of the World as We Know It.” Or my personal favorite for this Pesach: “From a Distance.”
Last night, many of us connected with our loved ones from a distance via Zoom, FaceTime, and other virtual platforms. In Israel, there’s a new Pesach move: ochlim b’nifrad, shirim b’yachad – eat separately and sing together...
2020-04-0913 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeHartman Learning Initiative: Rachel Korazim "Seder Table" - March 29, 2020Join us on Temple Emanuel’s Mission to learn Torah at the Hartman Institute in Jerusalem.
2020-03-291h 32From the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeShabbat Sermon: Blind Faith with Rabbi Aliza BergerIt was 2012. I was standing on the sidewalk of Emek Refaim holding a blindfold, ready to begin the simulation.
I put the blindfold on, feeling excited for the challenge. I was determined to be the best temporarily blind person ever. But as the darkness set in, I was surprised by how quickly my excitement fizzled in the face of anxiety. Without the ability to see, I was paralyzed by fear. Even the classmate posted next to me, whose job it was to protect me and prevent me from stumbling, didn’t relieve my anxiety. I slid my fee...
2020-03-2815 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeShabbat Sermon: Your Finest Hour with Rabbi Wes GardenswartzMazal Tov Lily on your Bat Mitzvah! And mazal tov to your parents, David and Melissa, to your sisters, Tove and Emma, to your grandmother Lee. Lee, we are so happy that you now live at Evans Park, so close to our shul. And mazal tov to your aunt and uncle, Jessica and John, and to your cousins, Hannah, Noah and Olivia. This is not the day that any of us would have envisioned, but it is a deeply beautiful and meaningful Bat Mitzvah in its own way.
Which leads to the obvious question: what is the meani...
2020-03-2112 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeShabbat Sermon: Where Are You Going? With Rabbi Michelle RobinsonA story is told about Rebbe Zusha of Anipoli, a beloved Chasidic rabbi who lived in Northern Poland in the 1700s, a place that was not particularly friendly to its Jewish residents. One night, Reb Zusha left his house and began to walk. Two big, burly, policeman stopped him and asked: “Where are you going?” Zusha took a breath and replied, “I don’t know.”
“That’s ridiculous. You must know where you’re going,” one policeman growled. “Tell us now or there will be severe consequences.” “I don’t know,” Zusha again replied.
“That’s it!” the second policeman shou...
2020-03-1410 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeShabbat Sermon: Building a Jewish Future in KrakowTune in as Rabbi Michelle Robinson interviews Jonathan Ornstein, Executive Director of the Jewish Community Centre of Krakow. We look forward to hearing Jonathan speak at Temple Emanuel on Tuesday, March 17th.
Follow this link to learn more https://www.templeemanuel.com/event/building-a-jewish-future-in-krakow/
2020-03-0523 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeShabbat Sermon: Don’t be Indifferent – Make a Difference with Rabbi Aliza BergerIt was Monday morning. I had just parked in the Wegman’s lot, and was gathering my re-usable bags when the phone rang. I answered, and the familiar recording began to play, [robotically] “an inmate from the Donald D Wyatt Detention Facility would like to speak with you….” I settled back into my seat as I waited for the end of the recording. “This call is being recorded. To accept charges, press 0. Thank you for using Global Tel Link.” I pressed zero.
There was a pause, and then a voice filled my car. “You’ve got to help me. I just c...
2020-02-2913 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeVisiting Scholar – Donniel HartmanOn February 24, 2020, Donniel Hartman, President of the Shalom Hartman Institute, spoke to us about how we can reclaim and deepen the Israel conversation in his lecture titled “Talking about Israel: Missteps and Opportunities.”
2020-02-241h 17From the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeShabbat Sermon: Talk To with Rabbi Wes GardenswartzDo you know somebody, or are you somebody, who walks around carrying a heavy weight? It could be a secret. It could be a regret. It could be a mistake. It could be a broken relationship. It could be a rift in the family. It could be some small thing—the Yiddish term is faribble—that grows into a big thing. And you don’t know quite how to deal with this heavy weight. You don’t know how to get rid of this heavy weight. You don’t know how to travel light. So you carry it around with you. Weeks tur...
2020-02-2215 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeShabbat Sermon: Kvell with Rabbi Wes GardenswartzOnce upon a time there was a woman named Olivia who was married to her husband Lee. They lived in Los Angeles in a neighborhood known as Pacific Palisades. They were blessed to have two sons. The family joined a Conservative synagogue in west L.A. named Adat Shalom. Both boys went to the religious school, and they both celebrated their Bar Mitzvah there. There is a picture of the pious young lads, both wearing tallesim, flanked by their proud parents, in front of the aron kodesh, the holy ark. Both boys have Hebrew names. The older brother is Gedalia...
2020-02-1520 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeShabbat Shirah Sermon – Cantor Elias RosembergOn February 8, 2020, we celebrated a very special moment in the Torah, a very musical moment in Jewish biblical history. On Shabbat Shirah we read the Song of the Sea and our service included extraordinary music to celebrate Moses and Miriam leading the Israelites across the Sea of Reeds (The Red Sea) and out of Egypt.
Cantor Rosemberg delivered the Shabbat Sermon. His topic was Jewish Italian Music and Traditions and his teaching explored the rich history and different musical traditions of the Italian Jews.
Follow this link to view the sermon and watch the live s...
2020-02-0910 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeShabbat Sermon: Daily Page with Rabbi Wes GardenswartzWhat do the late Philip Roth, one of the greatest writers of our time, and Steph Curry, one of the greatest basketball players of our time, have in common?
Philip Roth was once asked by Robert Siegel, an NPR host, how he was able to write so many award-winning novels. Roth answered that there is no secret. Rather, he works all day, every day, six or seven days a week. He offered that many times he will look at what he has written, in a ten-hour day, and he does not like anything he wrote, he throws it a...
2020-01-2516 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeShabbat Sermon: @LAPDHQ with Rav Hazzan Aliza BergerOn September 26th, an officer from the Los Angeles Police Department was walking through the Wilshire-Normandie subway station in Koreatown, when a beautiful voice caught him off guard. Ahead stood a slight, middle-aged woman. Her shoulder-length blond hair was tied up in pigtails, her clothes swallowed her tiny figure. Her right-hand rested on a pushcart, filled to the brim with personal belongings and covered with a blue plaid blanket, while her left-hand juggled bags and tubs of belongings as she sang an aria from Gianni Schicchi.
Follow this link to view the sermon and watch the live...
2019-12-1410 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeShabbat Sermon: Gratitude Is Not Just a Feeling with Rabbi Wes GardenswartzJon Levenson, a professor of Bible at Harvard, offers a rich hypothetical that I have shared with you before, and which I share again now because it goes to the heart of the meaning of the holiday of Thanksgiving.
Imagine you are driving to the airport on the Wednesday afternoon before Thanksgiving. It is 4:00, bumper to bumper traffic. You are in the tunnel and, oh no, your car dies. Just dies. You turn on and off the ignition, you pray, you start sweating profusely. People are honking, cursing at you. It is already one of the heaviest traffic...
2019-11-3014 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeShabbat Sermon: The Tested One is Also the Blessed One with Rabbi Wes GardenswartzI want to play a new game with you this morning, Jewish trivial pursuit. I am going to ask you two simple questions about the Hebrew Bible, and the winner gets a free bagel at kiddush this morning.
First question, what character in the Hebrew Bible is most associated with blessing? The word blessing, berakhah, is prominently and repeatedly associated with his story?
Second question, what character in the Hebrew Bible, more than any other, is tested? This character is tested so frequently, and so painfully, that there is a midrash speaking to the ten tes...
2019-11-1617 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeShabbat Sermon: Beyond the Hashtag with Rav Hazzan Aliza BergerYears ago, when I was living in Israel, I remember going to visit the Tomb of the Patriarchs (Ma’arat haMachpelah) in Hevron. I remember feeling totally overwhelmed by the sheer number of visitors and by all the sounds. There were tourists snapping their cameras and talking loudly about the history of the place and about plans for lunch. There were what felt like hundreds of Orthodox Jewish men praying in blocs, Hebrew prayers racing fluently through their mouths as they turned pages in unison. There were Hassidic Jews swaying and crying out, tears literally streaming down their faces as...
2019-11-0913 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeHartman Learning Initiative: Rachel Korazim "From the Summit of Mt. Scopus" - November 2, 2019Join us on Temple Emanuel’s Mission to learn Torah at the Hartman Institute in Jerusalem.
2019-11-0212 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeShabbat Sermon: When Suffering and Blessing Are Inexplicably Intertwined: Reflections on the First Yahrtzeit of the Pittsburgh Massacre with Rabbi Wes GardenswartzDo you remember where you were when you first learned of the massacre at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh last year, a year ago tomorrow, October 27, 2018? I remember exactly where I was. I was right here. It was Shabbat morning, in the middle of services, and from the bimah I could see a restless energy, an edge, in the people in the pews that I had never seen before. Soon enough I would learn that people’s cell phones were going off, telling them that the massacre had happened, during Shabbat morning services, at a sister Conservative shul...
2019-10-2618 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeShabbat Sermon: Something Left to Prove? with Rabbi Wes GardenswartzIs it a good thing to go through life always feeling that you have something left to prove? Or do you ever reach a point where the healthier move is to say: you know what, I have nothing left to prove?
You are a tenured professor in your chosen field for 20 years. You have authored definitive works in your field. You cannot get fired except for moral turpitude. When you go to your classroom on Monday morning, what is the healthier mindset: I have something left to prove, or I have nothing left to prove.
Follo...
2019-10-1918 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeShabbat Sermon: Overnight Millionaire with Rabbi Wes GardenswartzNext time you are hungry, next time you need a quick pick up, consider eating a protein bar known as an Rx Bar. It comes in a variety of attractive packages and delicious flavors. Blueberry, Maple Sea Salt, Mango Pineapple, Chocolate Sea Salt, Chocolate Chip, to name just a few. I live on them, though I am not getting a commission from the Rx Bar company for this sermon.
Follow this link to view the sermon and watch the live streaming version on our website https://www.templeemanuel.com/rabbi/rabbi-wes-gardenswartz/overnight-millionaire/
2019-10-1717 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeShabbat Sermon: Love with Rabbi Michelle RobinsonA rabbi once heard about a preacher who gained notoriety by giving the world’s longest sermon. Not wanting to duplicate that feat, and, perhaps more importantly, not wanting to put everyone in shul to sleep, the rabbi decided to preach the world’s shortest sermon instead.
In the weeks leading up to the holidays, he shared the big news with the congregation in e-blasts, social media, and in person. Come to shul – and hear the shortest sermon ever! Sitting down to write, though, he realized the task was harder than it sounded. How to say something meaningful, so...
2019-10-0515 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeFrom the Bimah Interview: Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz with Pre-Neilah Speaker, Pastor Jeremy BattlePastor Jeremy D. Battle, from the Western Avenue Baptist Church is a third-generation pastor hailing from Brighton, Alabama. Pastor Battle lives by the personal mantra, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.” (Proverbs 3:5-6)
Tune in to hear more about Pastor Jeremy Battle in his own words and hear him on Wednesday, Oct. 9 at 4:00pm.
2019-09-2746 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeShabbat Sermon: Rebbe, Please Give Me Fervor! with Rabbi Wes GardenswartzOnce, there lived amongst us a man with the stature of a prophet, a man with the moral vision of Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel. His name was Elie Wiesel, and he taught for years just a few miles from here at Boston University.
In his book Witness, which is about Elie Wiesel’s teaching at BU, Ariel Burger, his student for 25 years, tells a story that Elie Wiesel shared in class. The story concerned a man named Isaac Babel, who was both a Jew and a lieutenant in the Russian cavalry. That cavalry was a fierce fighting force...
2019-09-2515 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeHartman Learning Initiative: Alex Kaye - September 22, 2019Join us on Temple Emanuel’s Mission to learn Torah at the Hartman Institute in Jerusalem.
2019-09-221h 27From the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeShabbat Sermon: Be Like Taylor Swift’s Seventh Album, Not Her Sixth with Rabbi Wes GardenswartzI want to talk about two words I have never uttered from this bimah. Taylor Swift. Taylor Swift is dramatically germane to the moment in which we now find ourselves.
As you know, Taylor Swift is one of the best-selling, most popular singer songwriters of all time. She has sold more than 50 million albums. She has won 10 Grammy Awards. Her first five albums were all huge, runaway hits, full of simple and catchy tunes that dealt with universal themes like falling in love and fear of rejection.
Then came her sixth album, Reputation. That is where...
2019-09-1416 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeFrom the Bimah Interview: “Entering into a Brit Hashem, Together” with Rav Hazzan Aliza Berger and special guest Rabbi Becky SilversteinTune in as Rav-Hazzan Aliza Berger interviews Rabbi Becky Silverstein on his upcoming Parshat Nitzvaim “Entering into a Brit Hashem, Together,” and his journey to becoming a Rabbi. Rabbi Becky will be joining us on Shabbat morning, September 28th. You can learn more here https://www.templeemanuel.com/event/entering-into-a-brit-hashem-together/
2019-09-1237 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeShabbat Sermon: Take Your Best Shot with Rav Hazzan Aliza BergerRecently I came upon an article in the New York Times which took my breath away titled, “He was shot and paralyzed 37 years ago. That’s not how the story ends.”
Thirty-seven years ago, thirteen-year-old Jeff Williams was hanging out with his brother and a friend, Maury, in the Bronx when the unthinkable happened. Maury got out his uncle’s gun and started showing it off: spinning the chamber and pointing the it around the room. Jeff’s brother, Reggie, tried to convince Maury to put the gun down. But Maury insisted it was perfectly safe, pulling the trigger...
2019-08-3113 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeShabbat Sermon: "The Jewish American Paradox" with author Robert MnookinTune is as Rabbi Michelle Robinson interviews Robert Mnookin, author of "The Jewish American Paradox: Embracing Choice in a Changing World." Robert Mnookin is an American lawyer, author, and the Samuel Williston Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. He will be kicking off our year of adult learning at Temple Emanuel on Sunday, September 15th. Check out his book and join in on a lecture and Q&A with Mnookin himself! Learn more here: https://www.templeemanuel.com/event/adult-education-opening-lecture/
2019-08-2740 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeShabbat Sermon: Nachus: A Reinterpretation with Rabbi Wes GardenswartzRabbi Joseph Telushkin authored a book called Jewish Humor: What the Best Jewish Jokes Say About the Jews. In a section about parents and children, he shares the following:
Two Jewish women who haven’t see each other in twenty years run into each other on the street.
“How’s your daughter Deborah?” the first woman asks, “the one who marriedthat lawyer.”
“They were divorced,” the second woman answers.
“Oh, I’m so sorry.”
“But she got married a second time, this time to a surgeon.”
“Mazal Tov!”
“They were also d...
2019-08-2415 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeShabbat Sermon: Sending Thoughts and Prayers with Rabbi Wes GardenswartzWhenever there is a mass shooting in our country, including last Saturday in El Paso and Dayton, there is this civic ritual where leaders of both parties say that they are sending thoughts and prayers to the victims and their families. How are we to understand this? Is this helpful?
There is a cynical read. We send thoughts and prayers in lieu of action. We send thoughts and prayers in lieu of fixing the problem, which is why the nightmare of mass shootings in our country continually recurs. I get the cynical read. It has a certain plau...
2019-08-1017 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeShabbat Sermon: Believe Me When I Tell You Who I Am with Rav Hazzan Aliza BergerThe other day, I was listening to an episode of This American Life titled “Save the Girl,” documenting all sorts of crazy stories of people swooping in to save damsels in distress, when I heard the most unbelievable story. Yong Xiong grew up in Laos, part of the ethnic Hmong minority. A few years ago, she met the man of her dreams at a New Year’s party. They fell in love. They decided to get married. Because the love of her life is a naturalized US citizen living in Minneapolis, their love story involved lots of government appointments and of...
2019-07-2716 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeShabbat Sermon: Go Fish with Rav Hazzan Aliza BergerWhen I was still swiping for dates, I had a strict no-fisherman policy. Any time I saw someone posed with a large, freshly caught fish, I swiped no. No matter how cute they were, no matter how smart or Jewishly engaged, I was convinced there was no way I would ever fall in love with someone who liked to torture small, scaly animals for sport.
Follow this link to view the sermon and watch the live streaming version on our website https://www.templeemanuel.com/rabbi/rabbi-aliza-berger/go-fish/
2019-07-1312 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeShabbat Sermon: Piano Concertos and Prophecy with Rav Hazzan Aliza BergerSergei Rachmaninoff was arguably one of the best pianists ever. He was a virtuoso, with giant hands that could easily grasp complex harmonies and move with lightning speed up and down the keyboard. He was not only a performer but also a compositional genius; he could coax the most nuanced sounds from the piano. Maybe because his own internal landscape was filled with dramatic ups and downs, or maybe just because of his musical brilliance, he had a special ability to write music that creates emotional experience.
Follow this link to view the sermon and watch the...
2019-06-2212 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeShavuot Sermon: The Spiritual Assignment with Rav Hazzan Aliza BergerGrowing up, my Aunt Vanessa was my hero. Whenever we saw her, it seemed like she was just coming back from some herculean triathlon or from an epic marathon through the Colorado mountains. She was fearless. Every year, she would take us to the amusement parks and would gladly ride all the scariest rides with my sister and younger cousin. (I never had the guts to join them.)
In the kitchen, she had this sixth sense. She could coax the most incredible flavors out of fresh ingredients and made the most gourmet foods with seeming ease. And s...
2019-06-1007 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeFrom the Bimah Interview: Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz and Rav Hazzan Aliza Berger with Ugandan Human Rights Activist, Qwin Mbabazi, Celebrates One Year of Political Asylum in BostonUgandan Human Rights Activist, Qwin Mbabazi, Celebrates One Year of Political Asylum in Boston. Join Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz and Rav Hazzan Aliza Berger as they sit down with Qwin who shares her story of life as a LGBTQ activist in Uganda and how she found refuge in America. She was persecuted as a child because she was born left-handed in a culture where left-hand dominance is considered the work of the devil. She was persecuted as a teen and as a young adult because she was born gay in a country where being gay was legally a death sentence...
2019-06-0743 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeShabbat Sermon: Linden Tree with Rabbi Wes GardenswartzThe story is told of the time that the Pope and the Prime Minister of Israel decided to deepen the relationship between the Vatican and the Jewish state by co-cohosting a friendly golf game that would be played by premier Catholic and Jewish golfers. The Pope invited Jack Nicklaus to be the Vatican representative. Jack Nicklaus is a devout Catholic and a great golfer. After the golf game, Jack Nicklaus goes to the Vatican to report.
Your Holiness, I have good news and bad news. The good news is that I played the best golf I have ever...
2019-06-0122 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeShabbat Sermon: The Real Yous with Rabbi Wes GardenswartzOne day a fifth grader gets sent home from school for taking another student’s pencil. When he gets home, his father says why in the world would you take another student’s pencil?
We don’t steal in this family. Your mother and I have taught you better values than that. We expect more from you than that. From now on, if you need a pencil, just tell me. I’ll bring them home from the office!
This story is told by Dan Ariely, an Israeli, and a professor of psychology and behavioral economics at Duke Univer...
2019-05-2515 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeShabbat Sermon: Pushed and Pulled with Rabbi Wes GardenswartzThere is a preacher named T.D. Jakes, the pastor of a non-denominational megachurch in Dallas, who saw something in the book of Deuteronomy that I had never seen. It comes from Moses’ poetic speech in parshat haazinu, in which Moses observes nesher yair kino, a mother eagle stirs its baby eagles who are happily at rest in their nest. This is the climax of Moses’ life. This is the end of the Torah. This is Moses’ closing argument. Why is he talking about nests?
Pastor Jakes’ answer is that while nests are comfortable, that baby eagle cannot soar...
2019-05-1815 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeShabbat Sermon: In The Wake of San Diego: What Can I Do? with Rabbi Wes GardenswartzFour words. They are just four words. They make up a simple sentence. But how you say this sentence makes all the difference in the world.
What can I do? Emphasis on I. Meaning that I am so small, the world is so large. My energy is limited. The problems of the world are unlimited. What can I do? Not much. A recipe for contraction.
But then there is: What can I do? I cannot do everything. But I can do something. What can I do to make our world a little more decent. A recipe for do...
2019-05-0420 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeShabbat Sermon: The Problem of Recency with Rabbi Wes GardenswartzI want to name a problem that is very common, perhaps almost universal, but we don’t talk about it. If not now, at Yizkor, when?
It is the problem of recency. It looks like this. Your loved one was fabulous when he or she was in the full bloom of their life. And then, X years ago, they faced a serious health challenge.
Follow this link to view the sermon on our website https://www.templeemanuel.com/rabbi/rabbi-wes-gardenswartz/the-problem-of-recency/
2019-04-2715 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeShabbat Sermon: Half Hallel: Our Passover Challenge with Rav-Hazzan Aliza BergerWhen I used to sing competitively, I remember there was always this moment. I would go with my vocal studio to various competitions, which they always held in some university auditorium far away. After months of practicing and preparing, we would pile 4 or 5 divas into a small beat up car for whatever number of hours it took to arrive at the competition location. In the car, we would be singing vocal warm-ups, or blasting out musical theater tunes, or perseverating about which song we should sing first. (The way these competitions work is that each singer gets to choose...
2019-04-2634 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeChamber Music Concert Sneak Peak with Constantine FinehouseHost Cantor Elias Rosemberg interviews pianist Constantine Finehouse on how he got started with the Temple Emanuel Chamber Music Concerts. Plus, listen to a sneak peak of some of the music that will be featured at our upcoming concert on May 5th.
Learn more about the event here https://www.templeemanuel.com/event/chamber-music-concert-series/2019-05-05/
2019-04-2408 minFrom the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeShabbat Sermon: Beyond Linens ‘N Things with Rav-Hazzan Aliza BergerI have a confession to make. I am a hopeless romantic. Starting when I was a little girl, I devoted endless hours to dreaming about what it would be like to meet my partner and fall in love and live happily ever after. I have journals from when I was 12 peppered with lists of what my ideal partner would be like because I was convinced that if I could imagine him clearly, he would appear.
Follow this link to view the sermon on our website https://www.templeemanuel.com/rabbi/rabbi-aliza-berger/beyond-linens-n-things/
2019-04-2010 min