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For the past month or two, Psalm 92, the psalm for Shabbat, somehow slipped out of our Kabbalat Shabbat davvening. I asked around about this and discovered that it was not out of some great strategic initiative, it had kind of just happened- please turn from page ____ to page…

May all your teeth fall out except one, so you can still have a toothache. May you grow like an onion, with your head in the ground. If you can’t say anything nice, say it in Yiddish.My dad’s parents, Jessie and Harold, were born, respectively, in Lynn, MA and Bloomfield,…

Originally published in Jewish News of Greater Phoenix Online. September 21, 2012. ******* Vayelech, Deuteronomy 31:1-31:30 Moses’ life is drawing to a close. With his final breath, he encourages Joshua and the people to be strong and fearless, and to maintain their awe of the Holy One. What is the…

I’m very proud to share my contribution to a new book, On Sacred Ground:  Jewish and Christian Clergy Reflect on Transformative Passages From The Five Books of Moses, edited by Jeff Bernhardt and published by Blackbird Books. “And it shall be, when you come close to war, the priest shall…

L’El Orech Din- To the One Who Arranges Judgment “Hinei Yom haDin”- Judgment Day has arrived. This is the powerful message of the Untaneh Tokef prayer, with its depiction of the heavenly court and even the angels trembling before God’s throne. The theme is expanded in the beautiful piyyut on…

Last Sat night, we ushered in the Yamim Noraim, the days of awe, with an awesomely moving Selichot service, One thing struck me, though- the translation of the prayer Avinua Malkenu. In this prayer, we beg God to treat us with grace, to answer us- we acknowledge that we need…

I was sitting in my car, minding my own business, chatting on the phone, waiting for the light to change, when, all of a sudden, from behind the car- boom! The car behind me failed to stop and my rear bumper went crunch. The other driver and I dutifully pulled…

Forty days and forty nights of rain. Forty years of wandering. Forty is a meaningful number in our tradition. This Shabbas is Rosh Chodesh Elul, the beginning of the final month of the year, marking forty days until Yom Kippur. If we have not yet begun the process of teshuvah,…

The High School that I went to in Brooklyn, New York, was named for John Dewey, and it was founded on his educational philosophy of allowing for independent study and non-competitiveness. So, we didn’t get traditional grades in our classes- we received an “M” for Mastery, or and “R” for…

Friends- Welcome and thank you so much for being here. I especially want to thank my fellow chaplains for allowing me the privilege of addressing you this morning. When the email went out to the chaplains in our class, I jumped at the opportunity to be the speaker for this…