The Entrance of Elul

I love the sound of cicadas in the summer. It is the tell-tale sign that it’s August. The cicada’s song is a mating call, but doesn’t sound that romantic to the human ear. If anything, it can be described, according to entomologist Gaye Williams, as “a million baby...

A Covenant of Salt (a sermon for Parshat Korakh)

I hate restrictive diets, don’t you? I’ve been on my fair share of them: No sugar, no flour, no yeast, no dairy. No fun! Sometimes it’s necessary due to some health concern, sometimes for losing weight, but when I limit the variety of food in my daily routine, I...

Baking Bread–a sermon for Rosh Hashanah

Last night, Jews around the world, like many of us, gathered in homes for a festive New Year meal. Tables resplendent with tzimmes and kugel, brisket and chicken, wine and candles were adorned with white tablecloths, fine silverware, and surrounded by family and...

Shema Yisrael

The following story was relayed to me by Ann Kibbel Schwartz, an educator with whom I worked in Omaha, Nebraska: So a young student of mine was asked to rise and recite the “Shema” in English. The youngster rose and proudly said: “Hear O Israel; The Lord is our God....

Speaking Our Minds

I’m a political junkie. As soon as CNN goes to commercial, it’s MSNBC, the occasional peek at FOX news, and then back to CNN. I go to the CNN website several times a day. I’m looking at tracking polls, listening to political analysis, reading commentaries…...

The Spiritual Journey

As long as I’ve lived here, I have been impressed with this community of New Rochelle. In an era of urban sprawl, people moving into Manhattan, out of Manhattan, over to Brooklyn, up into Connecticut… the New Rochelle residents have by and large remained...
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