Earlier this summer, my daughter Nomi and I went to see The Producers in London’s West End. I saw it decades ago with Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick. Could anyone really top them? But Nomi had never seen it. What we got was a mashup of Mel Brooks and Monty Python, and a Springtime for Hitler that had us in stitches. The theatre was packed with Brits. Statistically speaking, almost none of them Jews. And as the laughter built and rolled through the house, it felt good, sur

Shanah tovah. It's good to see you again. How are you? For real. How am I? I'll be honest with you. I'm tired. I'm really tired. And it's only partly the half-crazy decision Andi and I made in the spring to get a puppy. (You'll meet Midge at Tashlikh tomorrow.) This is my fifth year leading services in this congregation, and I've enjoyed each one more than the last. But after three years of what feels like relentless assaults - mostly from the insidious, often vicious antisem

I’m not sure what’s harder: confessing to the sins I’ve actually committed, or confessing to those I know I haven’t. And yet our...

Every life is shaped by two great love stories. So writes one of my favorite philosophers, Alain de Botton, in the opening to his book,...

It’s 4:35 in the morning and I’m lying awake waiting to die. Not that there’s anything wrong with me. Other than the fact I’m convinced...

My mother is 86 years old. She was raised in a non-observant, secular Jewish home just a few blocks from here. As a young adult, she felt...

Here’s the good news: I’m not going to preach to you today. Here’s the bad news: I’m still going to deliver a sermon. What I’m actually...

When people ask about my experience growing up in the Orthodox community and making my way to the Conservative rabbinate, I often hear...

How many times have you been out to dinner with friends and someone looks at you and your spouse or your partner and asks: “ So, how did...

V’asu li mikdash v’shakhanti betokham. Lord, prepare me to be a sanctuary, pure and holy, tried and true. And with thanksgiving, I’ll be...

Drashah 2023/5784: From Days of Fear to Days of Awe Kol Haolam kulo, gesher tzar me’od v’haikar lo lefahed clal…the whole world is a...

Yom Kippur 2022 "Once in a while, you find a place on earth that becomes your very own. A place undefined. Waiting for you to bring your...

First Day Rosh Hashanah 2022/5783 On the night of Monday, April 11 I got one of those phone calls we all dread. And in that uncanny way,...

Two Solitudes Most people don’t know that in the late 1970s, after Shabbat was over in Jerusalem, on the corner of Balfour Street in...

Ancient Persia or Modern America? Delivered March 4, 2023 at B'nai Jeshurun Shabbat Scholar in Residence Shabbat Shalom! I’d like to...

It seems that everyone has something to say about turning 50 – those who’ve been there, and those who observe from afar. Magazines,...

Sometimes he knows who I am; sometimes he doesn’t. I’m not sure which is better. My father’s dementia at times coddles him in blissful...

For a biblical tradition that prides itself on literary efficiency, it’s odd that our Torah portion this morning, Terumah, is the first...

February 18, 2023 | Ivry Have you ever wondered why God made Moses climb up a mountain to get the Torah? Wouldn’t it have been just as...

Second Day Rosh Hashanah 2022/5783 Of all the commentaries on the Akedah I’ve ever studied, there’s one whose imagination caught my...