2020 May Shabbat Sermon
05/13/2020 06:36:39 PM
One of the strangest occurrences that happened when this whole situation with the virus began was – the day the stay-at-home order was announced, my wrist watch stopped and ran out of battery. Of course… No way to get to the store.
But how apt.
Time stopped.
For the past month and a half, we have been living...Read more...
2019 Rosh Hashanah Day Sermon
10/01/2019 12:00:00 AM
Good Yontif. Good Yontif.
One of my favorite stories about Albert Einstein was about how he found inspiration.
Einstein was an unusual person. As a youth, he was a mediocre student. In college, instead of attending class, he would focus on playing his beloved violin and performing concerts...Read more...
2019 Rosh Hashanah (5780)
09/30/2019 12:00:00 AM
Yehezkel Taub was born into a great Polish Hassidic dynasty. They could trace their roots to the early masters.
They were related to the Modzits Hassidim, beloved for their music. They composed the ani maamim we...Read more...
2019 Erev Rosh Hashanah
09/29/2019 12:00:00 AM
Good Yontif.
Va yelekh Avram kasher diber Adonai.
And Abraham went forth as Adonai had said.
Va’ yaavor Avram baaretz.
And Abraham passed through the land.
After I moved to the...Read more...
2019 Nirzavim
09/28/2019 04:23:13 PM
A day before Rosh Hashannah…
We know what our work is:
Teshuvah
Repentance
Return
As Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach sang, return again, return to the land of your soul, return to who you are to what you are to where you are born and reborn again.
As our parashah says:
When you take it all to heart and you return to the Lord your God and you and children heed his command with all your heart and...Read more...
2019 Ki Tavo
09/21/2019 03:49:39 PM
“A land that eats its inhabitant or a land flowing with milk and honey?”
Shabbat shalom
Ki Tavo el Haaretz. When you come to the land.
The land of Israel is both a physical location and a spiritual location.
Our Torah is always trying to get there. It always concludes before we get there, to begin again. That makes us like Moses, standing on top of the mountain looking out yearning to get...Read more...
2019 Ki Tetze
09/14/2019 04:15:00 PM
Shabbat shalom.
As many of you know, the Israeli elections are in just a few days.
There was a story in the Israeli media last week—of an Israeli television program, Channel 13, report on the pre-army hesder yeshivot. That featured the recorded comments of a leading Rabbi speaking to his students, speaking about how they fear the wicked secular society, how corrupt their values were, and to even be ready to go against the...Read more...
2019 Ekev
08/24/2019 12:00:00 AM
Shabbat shalom. Mary McNeal was an orthopedic surgeon. While on holiday in South America, she had a kayaking accident. Her kayak was pinned under the water and she was trapped. Despite great effort by her companion, she couldn’t be rescued and she was declared dead.
This is where she had the beginning of an...Read more...
2019 Re'eh
08/19/2019 02:50:49 PM
The Talmud tells us that at every moment there is a heavenly voice ringing out, crying: you can go this way or you can go that way. Choose ...
This is a very deep teaching, perhaps the key to all of life.
We pick the timber of our existence, the pattern of our life.
In each and every situation, no matter what it is, we have a...Read more...
10/02/2018 10:18:50 PM
My name is Monica Garcia Norlander. My Hebrew name is Chaya Ora, which means Life and Light. I am proud to stand here today as an alumna of the West Suburban Temple Har Zion class titled, “Introduction to Judaism.” In the class, I learned a solid foundation of Jewish knowledge, I joined a community of other learners, I cemented my decision to raise a child with Jewish values, and I grew on my personal journey.
In...Read more...
2018 Yom Kippur Kol Nidre Sermon
09/24/2018 12:00:00 AM
Good Yontiv.
Good evening.
Gmar Tov – a good seal after the fast.
Our holiest night of the year begins as we remove all of the Sifrei Torah from our ark, in an...Read more...
2017 Noach
10/27/2017 12:00:00 AM
Shabbat Noach 5778 – ‘The Human Gift for Unity’
Hineh ma tovu u manim shevet achim gam yachad
How good and pleasant it is when brothers and sisters sit together in...Read more...
2017 Kol Nidre Sermon 5778
09/29/2017 12:00:00 AM
Good Yontif,
I was once at La Guardia airport in New York, and there was a man walking from person to person, looking...Read more...
2017 Rosh Hashanah Day 1 (5778)
09/21/2017 12:00:00 AM
A Song of Ascents; of David.
Hine mah tov umah naim shevet achim gam yachad.
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers and sisters to dwell together in unity!
It is like the precious oil upon the head,
coming down upon the beard; even...Read more...
2017 Shabbat Re'eh Sermon
08/19/2017 10:46:21 AM
Shabbat shalom,
What a week! Charlottesville last weekend, Barcelona on Thursday… How do we respond to all of this?
There is a story that Rabbi Akiva, the leader of his generation, was once summoned by the Roman governor, Rufus. The governor asked him, why do you Jews circumcise your males? Is God’s creation not perfect?
Rabbi Akiva showed the governor, in one hand flax, in the other a garment. He asked, ‘which...Read more...
2017 August: Melton Jewish Learning Comes to West Suburban Har Zion
08/07/2017 03:18:07 PM
2017 Shabbat Bo (5777)
02/04/2017 12:00:00 AM
When I was young and lived in the Old City in Jerusalem, our family was in a big apartment. My room was across what seemed like an impossibly long and dark hallway to the kitchen, where I imagined my parents always were. I don’t remember much else about the apartment but I remember the hallway as a frightening place…
In our parashah this week, Bo, the Torah recounts to us the final intensification of the plagues. Finally, Pharaoh...Read more...
2016 Toldot (5777)
11/28/2016 12:00:00 AM
2016 Rosh Hashanah (5777)
10/03/2016 04:10:08 PM
2016 Bechukotai (5776)
06/04/2016 12:00:00 AM
When I was young, the most powerful religious memories for me were of our Friday night ritual before dinner. Of the singing we did. Of the special feeling, the holiness of Shabbat, that we created. We had our own way of doing it in our house. And I was convinced it was the very best and only way of doing it. I still am.
For many people, this is what religion is about. A collection of memory, song, feeling, nostalgia, of the way...Read more...
