Coloring in Creation
In the spring of my senior year of high school, after the stress of college applications and acceptance were over, my best friend and I both had the overwhelming urge […]
The Liberation of False Memory: Cantor Frankel’s Yizkor Sermon 5774
Remember. It’s one of our first Jewish lessons. It’s in the Ten Commandments, it’s in the poem L’cha Dodi with which we greet Shabbat each week, and it’s repeated throughout […]
Sukkot: The Illusion of Shelter
Why do we build a shelter that provides no shelter at all? Growing up in suburban NJ, my home was not in a high-crime area. Yet, always, we locked the […]
We Were Strangers, Too: Yom Kippur Sermon on Immigration Reform
A few years ago, while celebrating Shabbat with our preschool students, I was teaching the Jewish value of welcoming the stranger. Thinking that I was encouraging the young children to […]
We’re All In This Thing Together (Rabbi Freedman’s Erev Rosh Hashanah Sermon)
In an episode of the TV sitcom “Friends,” entitled “The One Where Phoebe Hates PBS,” two characters, Phoebe and Joey, engage in a contest based on the theories of philosopher […]
September 11, Honoring the Memory
Psalm 23 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: […]
Awake My Soul–All of Elul has been directed to this moment
This whole summer, each Shabbat, we have been talking about Judaism’s relevance. Judaism is all around us. We can become attuned to it, and we can learn Jewishly from the […]
Elul Reflections: What Do I Want?
Our lives are full of “should”s. I should go to the grocery store. I should make that appointment I’ve been avoiding. I should ignore the beautiful weather outside and finish […]
Parapets, Public Welfare and Philadelphia Public Schools
It was a beautiful summer day; I was about 6 years old and playing with my little brother in a second floor room of our suburban Boston house. We were […]
Elul Reflections: The Power of Our Words
Do our words really matter? In his sermon Friday evening, Rabbi Bill Kuhn explored how every time we speak to another, we have the opportunity to heal or to hurt, […]