Judaism for the Thinking Person

Kol Nidrei Sermon 2026

Yom Kippur Sermon 2026

"The Machzor as a Guide to Responding to Antisemitism" - The Jewish Holidays focus on Unetaneh Tokef --the reality of pain and adversity-- and Scapegoating/Confession. I use these as a guide to understanding and responding to anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism, and I don't hold back from analyzing their relationship.

What are the most common commandments in the Torah? Shabbat? Kashrut? No, it's repetition after repetition about caring for the stranger, the widow, the orphan, the poor, and the daily laborer. Are these terms that identify specific roles in Biblical society that are not easily mappable onto modern society? Or is that exactly wrong -- even to the point of our mistranslating them (like "orphan") to put ourselves at a distance?

Almost every part of the last two sections of Numbers seems obvious, and usually offensive, from war, to borders, to women, and so on. I pick three items that seem to need no further interpretation than what we think they mean, and turn them on their heads. WE ONLY SEE TORAH WHEN WE SEE OURSELVES DEEPLY. The last of the three: do we Jews living outside the Land have a right to have opinions about Israel?