Today is May 2, 2024 /
Today is May 2, 2024 /
Main Office: 215-635-3110
Find Us: 8231 Old York Rd., Elkins Park, PA (part of Beth Sholom campus)
Social: 
March 6, 2020 This week’s d’var Torah on parashat Tetzaveh and the World Zionist Congress Elections. This might surprise some of you, but I’m actually a late-blooming feminist. This is for two completely opposing reasons. On the one hand, I grew up mostly around adults who adhered to traditional gender roles and expectations. On Continue Reading »
February 14, 2020 This week’s d’var Torah on Parashat Yitro. A couple of years ago, Temple Sholom in Cincinnati started putting out a series of artfully done, well-produced comedy videos about what it’s like to run a synagogue. One you are likely familiar with is “The Little Table,” which lampoons temple bureaucracy by showing the Continue Reading »
February 7, 2020 This week’s d’var Torah on parshat Beshallach. This Torah portion contains two of God’s greatest miracles: splitting the Red Sea so that the Israelites could cross onto dry land and escape the Egyptians, and giving the Israelites manna to eat in the wilderness. Both of these events are an essential part of Continue Reading »
January 17, 2020 This week’s sermon on Parshat Shemot. There’s a running joke in the American version of The Office where employee Dwight Schrute refers to himself as the “Assistant Regional Manager” and his boss, Michael Scott, corrects him by saying, “Assistant TO the Regional Manager.” While the ongoing semantic argument makes the two of Continue Reading »
January 10, 2020 Sermon on anti-Semitism and parashat Vayechi. On Friday nights, traditional Jews bless their sons with these words, y’simcha Elohim k’Ephraim v’chiMnasheh. This blessing comes from our Torah portion, where Jacob blesses his grandchildren in the following manner: “By you shall Israel invoke blessings, saying, God make you like Ephraim and Menashe” (Gen. Continue Reading »
October 9, 2019 Standing among the ruins of the first Temple in Jerusalem, the prophet Jeremiah sends a letter to the exiled Israelites in Babylon. While other prophets warned of the Temple’s destruction, or promised a return to Zion, Jeremiah finds himself squarely in middle. He must speak to where the people are, right at Continue Reading »
October 8, 2019 I am about to do something highly controversial. This may make some of you uncomfortable. You might even want to walk out. On the holiest night of the year, as many of us begin a 25-hour fast, I am going to tell a story about cake. Since we’ve only been fasting for Continue Reading »
September 30, 2019 “This is just to say,” a poem by William Carlos Williams: I have eaten the plums that were in the icebox and which you were probably saving for breakfast Forgive me they were delicious so sweet and so cold “This American Life,” contributor Shawn Cole imagines this poem Continue Reading »
September 29, 2019 One of my mentors, Rabbi John Friedman, warned me to always leave one High Holy Day sermon slot open until the last minute. This was in case, as he put it, “Rabin and Arafat shake hands on the White House lawn in the middle of September,” referring to the Oslo Accords, which Continue Reading »
This week’s sermon on Chayei Sarah and the tragic shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh Undo it, take it Back Undo it, take it back, make every day the previous one until I am returned to the day before the one that made you gone. Or set me on an airplane traveling Continue Reading »