Today marks the 100th anniversary of the November 11 agreement that ended the First World War. Today also marks the 80th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the organized riot that revealed to all, in dramatic fashion, the true intent of the Nazi regime. These were times of great trial and testing. During the past two weeks, we have also been witness to and participants in great trial and...

My colleague Rabbi Ethan Linden of Camp Ramah in Berkshires wrote: It is a Tree of Life to those who hold fast to it and all of its supporters are happy. I have been holding, clinging, but this week, I have not been happy. I’ve been saddened. I’ve been broken. Branches of our Tree of Life have been broken. They have been snapped off of the tree. There has...

Josette joins me in the hope that this year will be a shanah tovah, one of blessing for you and your family, the people of Israel and the world. Rosh Hashanah is saturated with memories. Occasionally, we are so overwhelmed by these memories that we cannot speak, we cannot articulate why they are so significant. But they remain at the core of souls, at the heart of our inner...

What beliefs sustain you? What commitments guide you through life? What is so important that you would makes sacrifices for them?  I invite you to reflect on these questions today. As you do, I have a confession to make.  This past year, I became a heretic. Heresy, which comes from a Greek word which meant “choice," came to mean a freely chosen opinion at variance with an...

We received a pre Yom Kippur request from someone in hospital: I won’t be able to be in shul for Yizkor. Would you please remember the names of my loved ones during the time of memory.  We want to recall the names of those we love. Names impart identity and meaning to our lives. According to recent research, using or hearing your own name is considered comparable...

It is so good to see you here for our regular Tuesday night minyan. In 1954, Bette Nesmith Graham had a problem with her job as a typist. When she sought to correct a mistake, the eraser would smear ink over the page. She knew that artists made corrections or covered up mistakes not by erasing their work, but by painting over them. Graham mixed up some fast-drying white tempera...

“It’s private!  One day we give her a bath. The next day, she closes the door and says, “It’s private! ” We want to assert our privacy and we also give it away. In a recent article in The New Yorker, Louis Menand asks, “Is there something primal about the need for privacy, for secrecy, for hiding places and personal space? These are things we seem to...

Today, as we mark Shavuot and recite yizkor memorial prayers, I’d like to discuss three hearts with you. The heart of Sinai, the heart of King David and the heart of Fania Feiner. According to the Torah, בַּחֹ֙דֶשׁ֙ הַשְּׁלִישִׁ֔י לְצֵ֥את בְּנֵי־יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל מֵאֶ֣רֶץ מִצְרָ֑יִם בַּיּ֣וֹם הַזֶּ֔ה...

In Canada, we have been pained by the recent deaths of so many young athletes, killed in a road accident in rural Saskatchewan. Many of us recall similar times of national mourning in Israel after a terrorist attack on a home or the bombing of a bus, a cafe or a restaurant. In the Torah, the only narrative portion of the Book of Leviticus tells of the deaths of Nadav and Avihu at what had...

ẖSeder is celebration of passage to freedom, but it also reflects deep loss. In his commentary to the Haggadah, Elie Wiesel writes: Like most Jewish children, I especially loved the Passover holiday. Solemn and joyous, it allowed us to escape time. Slaves of the pharaohs, we followed Moses into the unknown... . His summons to freedom was stronger than fear. The seder...

Today, I want to tell you the story of Master Sgt. Roddie Edmonds, a Christian from Knoxville, Tennessee. It is a story that was unknown to his family and the public until a few years ago. In December 1944, six months after D-Day, an infantry division of the United States Army landed in France. During the cold and wet winter the soldiers travelled across France and Belgium. After an...

In addition to eating matzah and refraining from leavened food, an essential mitzvah of Pesaẖ is Maggid, the telling of the Exodus story. Moshe our Teacher emphasizes this when he addresses the people of Israel before they leave Egypt. “When you come to the land … you shall say to your children, ‘It is a Passover sacrifice to the Eternal, who passed over the houses of the...

As we begin the Book of Shemot (Names) we should pay attention to its Greek name, Exodus, which means “going out”. The book tells how the Israelites leave slavery in African Egypt and start the saga of their journey through the Wilderness of Sinai to reach the Land of Promise. As a result of the experience in African Egypt, the Torah repeatedly instructs us regarding the ger, the...

It was a dark and stormy night; Meg Murry, her small brother Charles Wallace, and her mother had come down to the kitchen for a midnight snack when they were upset by the arrival of a most disturbing stranger. "Wild nights are my glory," the unearthly stranger told them. "I just got caught in a downdraft and blown off course. Let me be on my way. Speaking of way, by the way, there is...

Coded for Error “We are built to make mistakes, coded for error,” writes Lewis Thomas in The Medusa and the Snail. “Humans learn, as we say, by trial and error … Why not ‘trial and rightness’ or ‘trial and triumph?’”. Because, “In real life, that’s the way it is done.” Progress requires error. Our response to imperfection is what enables us to improve. The words...