Sermons – Page 3 – Rodeph Shalom

Our Concealed Shortcomings and Charleston

By Rabbi Jill Maderer

Rebbe Nachman of Brastlav tells this tale: A young man leaves his home to learn a trade. Years later, he returns to his family and shares that he has become a master in the art of menorah making. He asks his parents to invite all of the other artisans in town to come see his masterpiece — a candelabra inspired by those of the ancient Temple in Jerusalem. So all the finest crafters come to view this man’s menorah. Later, the son asks his parents, “What did you think?” They reply, “We’re sorry to say all of your fellow lamp-makers told us that it was a flawed, ugly piece.” “Ah,” replies the son, “but that is the secret! Yes, they all say it was ugly, but what nobody realizes is this: Each sees a different part as ugly. Each overlooks the mistakes that he himself would make, and sees only the shortcomings of the others. “You see, I made this menorah in this way on purpose — completely out of mistakes and deficiencies — in order to demonstrate that none of us has perfection.”

In Psalm 90, the Psalmist calls to God: “You can see our concealed darkness; You can see our concealed shortcomings, in the light of Your face.” Perhaps God can see our shortcomings, but can we?

Broken-hearted to live in a society where a white man enters a black church with his gun and brutally murders nine African American souls who are studying Bible, Continue reading

#rsgrows: A Building Expansion Fueled by Purpose

It has been so exciting to see the expansion go up here at Rodeph Shalom. And now here we are, almost complete, with the May 17 Dedication happening this month! In last weekend’s Sunday seminar, our expansion chairperson Michael Hauptman taught that the master planning for the space began in 1992!

The meaning of our new addition is certainly not limited to bricks and mortar. The power of the renovation and expansion has been that, every step of the way, our leadership’s decisions have been mission-driven, fueled by our vision of the people and purpose who will fill its space. Not once has this congregation set out to create a museum; this is a center for living Judaism, where we honor the past, celebrate the present, and shape the future of Jewish life in Philadelphia.

And so it made sense when, about a year ago, a congregant suggested we consider a Jewish text, that might appear on the external Broad Street wall. Continue reading

On Public Shaming, a Compassion Deficit and Monica Lewinsky

by Rabbi Jill Maderer

This week’s Torah portion, Shmini, describes what can serve as a korban–a sacrifice. And when the wrong thing is used as a korban, tragedy results.

Recently, Monica Lewinsky has made the news, because she has begun to speak publicly about the media storm that consumed her identity. Now at the age of 41, the former Whitehouse intern reflects back when she was 22, and made serious and foolish mistakes, when she began a relationship with her older and exceedingly more powerful boss, the then president of the United States. Lewinsky’s boss abused his power and her friend violated her trust. Still, the most painful part of the experience for Lewinsky was the public humiliation she endured.

In 1998, our society allowed the wrong thing to be used as a korban–a sacrifice– when Monica Lewinsky became the first person to be publicly shamed in the age of the internet. Everyone knew her mistakes, many seemed to derive joy from degrading her, ostracizing her, reducing her to her faults, and exaggerating them beyond recognition. Continue reading

LifeEdited: What in Your Life Really Matters?

When you move from one home to another, how long does it take until you unpack the final box? Has that last box ever just remained packed, tape still in-tact, perhaps ready for the next move? What’s in there?!

A few weeks ago, much of our Rodeph Shalom staff moved to a different floor or to a different side of the hallway, into temporary office space, to allow for the next stages of renovation and construction. Although I am almost all unpacked, 3 boxes are still staring at me from the floor. I have to wonder: if I have survived for almost a month without their contents, how important could they be?

In an effort to teach simplicity and sustainability, Graham Hill, founder of LifeEdited, lives in an apartment, with over 1,000 square feet of functionality, in only 420 square feet. The bed folds into the wall, the coffee table becomes the dining room table, and a wall of drawers slides over to reveal guest beds folded into another wall… LifeEdited provides products, spaces and tips on how you can have more time, money and happiness with less stuff, less space and less waste.Continue reading

If Worry Comes to Your Heart: Anxiety, Control and Noah

Shabbat sermon delivered 10/24/14.

We just bought our Halloween candy for next week’s trick-or-treaters. (I haven’t quite finished it yet.). Bags of mini candy bars take me back: Do you remember the 80’s, and the freak reports of razor blades in bags of candy? Suddenly, the world was out to kill America’s children. No longer could we accept homemade cookies or apples, lest they be poisoned–by my neighbors, in suburban New Jersey! And no longer could we go home and pop a chocolate bar in our mouths. No, we had to wait for my mother to pull out the cutting board and the cleaver, and chop through, to check for razor blades, so that we could then enjoy our Kit-kat sawdust.

What do we need in order to feel secure? How much worry is too much worry? How do we balance our caution and our trust? Continue reading

Choosing Our Character: A Yom Kippur Message

Delivered Yom Kippur morning by Rabbi Jill Maderer

A woman sits at an airport gate, reading her book and eating a bag of cookies… begins Valerie Cox in her poem, “The Cookie Thief.” The woman at the airport realizes the man next to her– a stranger– is sticking his hand into her bag and eating her cookies! How dare he do such a thing? Her row is called, she boards the airplane, settles into her seat and reaches into her handbag for her book. And there it is. Instead of the book, she pulls out her unopened bag of cookies. The bag at the gate belonged to the man. He had quietly let her stick her hand into his cookies. She was the cookie thief!

What was this man’s disposition, that he simply allowed a stranger to share his snack? And what was this woman’s attitude, that she assumed the worst in someone else? How much does a response to a small everyday, situation say about who we are? Jewish tradition teaches that both the large life turning-points and those daily small moments reveal our character, or spiritually we might say, our soul.Continue reading

AGING WITH DIGNITY, PURPOSE & MEANING

Shabbat Sermon by Rabbi Kuhn, August 15, 2014

The late, great comedian George Carlin had a great bit about aging. He said when you’re young, you can’t wait to get older. You become 21. But then you turn 30. Sounds like bad milk. He turned, we had to throw him out. You become 21, you turn 30, then you’re pushing 40. Whoa!! Put on the brakes, it’s all slipping away. Before you know it, you reach 50, and your dreams are gone. But wait! You make it to 60. You didn’t think you would.

Then you build up so much speed that you HIT 70! After that, it’s a day by day thing. You HIT Wednesday.

You get into your 80’s, and every day is a complete cycle. You HIT lunch; you turn 4:30; you reach bedtime.

And it doesn’t end there. Into the 90’s you start going backwards. I was just 92!

And so it goes. In our society that idolizes youth, it may be difficult to deal with the fact that everyone ages, if you’re lucky that is.

And of course, Judaism has a lot to say about aging with dignity, and finding meaning and purpose in your life as you grow older.

Rabbi Kuhn’s “Crowdsourced” Sermon (7/4/14)

“Have you ever felt that food is sacred? How does food connect you to others? To your family? To Judaism?”

At sunrise on Wednesday mornings in the summer, farmer Phil Stober and his crew pick fresh vegetables and fruit at their farm, Barefoot Organics near Lebanon, PA. and deliver it to Rodeph Shalom every Wednesday afternoon, as part of our Community Supported Agriculture. On Wednesday evenings, RS congregants come in to cook fresh meals, prepared with the produce just-picked that morning and then deliver them (we call them “Mitzvah Meals”) to other RS congregants who are ill, or homebound, or who have recently lost a loved one.

Last Wednesday evening, as I stood in the RS kitchen and watched our team of chefs preparing Mitzvah Meals I was overcome by the feeling that what I was witnessing was the very essence of Judaism.

Can food be sacred? What is the connection between food and Judaism? These are the questions we posed to our congregation this week in our first ever “Crowdsourcing” sermon, where we asked the members of our RS family to offer your thoughts on a different question each week – as our Summer Sermon Series. (As a way to tap into the collective wisdom of our congregation)

This week, we received a lot of very thoughtful responses. Quite a few of the comments focused on the Mitzvah meals, as this has helped provide deeper meaning to the connection between food and Judaism.

Crowd Sourcing Sermons

Imagine that you are a member of the Rodeph Shalom clergy team, and you could tap into the collective wisdom of our congregation to help you write your sermons this summer.

That is exactly what we are going to do this summer with CROWDSOURCING SUMMER SERMON SERIES.

What is Crowdsourcing? It is the process of obtaining ideas or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people, especially from the online community. (Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, 2014)

What is Crowdsourcing a Sermon? It is an opportunity for us to draw inspiration from your comments and to encourage conversation among our congregants on important Jewish issues. Crowdsourcing sermons will be a way for us to find an opportunity to draw closer as a community. It will be a way for us to fulfill our Vision of creating profound connectionsContinue reading

Counting the Omer: Protecting Each Other

You’ve heard the expression: “Stick your neck out?” What is the metaphor? We compare ourselves to what animal? I always thought it was giraffe. Long neck. I was wrong. To stick your neck out, is to be like a turtle. Why? Sticking your neck out involves risk.

Judaism takes this concept, to stick your neck out, very seriously. Take the Jewish law about gossip, or lashon hara: If one person is gossiping to another, and a 3rd person overhears, the conversation. Of the 3 people, who is most responsible–the gossiper, the listener, or the witness?

The 3rd person. The witness is obligated to intervene. There is no pass, for the passive bystander. Judaism’s focus on the power of the witness, demands we stick our neck out– to take a risk for what we know to be right.

In the past several months, the Whitehouse and college campuses across the nation have brought new attention and resources to this concept of sticking your neck out, in response to the epidemic of sexual violence against women on campus. Bystander Intervention, believed to be the best hope for reducing sexual assault on campus, aims to empower anyone who is witnessing potential trouble. Continue reading

How Do You Recharge?

One of you recently shared with me: “Question: If someone from the 1950’s suddenly appeared today, what would be the most difficult thing to explain to them about life today? Answer: I possess a device in my pocket that is capable of accessing the entirety of information known to humankind. I use it to look at pictures of cats and to get into arguments with strangers.”

On the Shabbat of March 7 -March 8 was the National Day of Unplugging. Originally conceived by a group of Jewish artists, the day is meant to help us think differently about our re-chargeable devices in order to re-charge ourselves.Continue reading