High Holiday Sermons: 2020/5781

Right now we are in the period of the most concentrated grief in the Jewish calendar leading up to Tisha b’Av next week. This year, in Los Angeles, we are in an extended period of the same. From the fires through the ICE raids beginning last month, we have gotten no reprieve. What insight does our parsha lend us about how to live in this valley of grief and also let our grief be a catalyst for action?

This war must end. I am begging those with power to look themselves in the mirror, and at last, prioritize human life. Bring the hostages home. Allow extensive humanitarian aid into Gaza and the fighting reopen, the channels of dialogue that will make it possible for Israeli and Palestinian children to one day break bread together on the land they both call hope.  

Buried in a list of names is the mysterious fact that the sons of the mutinous leader Korah did not die. What follows is the bizarre journey of the sons of Korah to a ledge in Hell, where their song calls out to us, even today.

Sharing a personal, first-hand account of my time in Israel during the war with Iran.