Worship & Torah
Ideas in text
This collection showcases sermons I have delivered across different settings. I regard writing and presenting sermons as one of the most impactful parts of my rabbinic role. It is not about having more knowledge than my community; it is about creating meaningful connections with the text and with each other.
Selected Sermons
A Road Wide Enough for Compassion
Selected sermon: on the Torah's cities of refuge
Have you ever done something and found the effect was the opposite of what you intended? I have. Have you ever hurt someone inadvertently, or watched it happen? I have. Have you ever hurt someone by mistake and then felt indignant that they misunderstood you? I have. Have you ever wished, especially after you’ve royally screwed things up, that the road leading to safety and confidence was freshly paved for you? Oh, how I have. We are human. We always will be. We are vengeful and prideful, and often unforgiving. The difference between the Messianic age and now is that, while these days we struggle to find a way to support each other, even when we are at our best, in the future the roads to safety, the roads to comfort in the face of life’s real, inescapable brutality, will be paved twice as wide. They will be well maintained. And we will all know that there is a safe place for us, a place where we can rest, close at hand, even with our scars, or guilt, or baggage.