Watch, Listen, Learn

To throw up our hands and surrender to the myth of inevitability is to relinquish the most precious gift given to humanity: our capacity to change the world around us.  We can be scared without being resigned.  We can be exhausted without being fatalistic.  We can be discouraged but nonetheless courageous.  

Look closely at this week’s reading and we can discern a shining thread. What does it mean, and what can it teach us about our own power in times of adversity?  

We are living in a world that is broken and painful. It is a moment to turn towards the angels within us and around us in order to find our way through.

We are living in a world that is broken and painful. It is a moment to turn towards the angels within us and around us in order to find our way through.

Our family is broken. Please, God, help us heal.

Every ounce of our energy must advance a vision of peace. There is no other way to rebuild a society in ruins. Our God, and God of our ancestors. Our God, and God of our descendants. Grant us peace.

We are at an inflection point: will we again fall prey to the zealots?

A tribute to some of the many moments with this beautiful community that have changed me over the past 16 years.

“...Disability only becomes a tragedy when society fails to provide the things we need to lead our lives, such as job opportunities or barrier-free buildings…”

Holiness is recognizing that what looks like the whole story is always, necessarily, only part of the story.

We must have zero tolerance for violent and racist rhetoric in our Jewish community.

We must do better. What we need is a movement fueled by empathy and moral imagination.

The free person, awake and humble, can acknowledge the truth that emerges from various even contradictory perspectives.

How can we ensure that the Passover Seder is not performative, but transformative?

Creation is a process. As we look ahead to the new month we also look back at the last six months – what seeds were planted that we can reap now?

A priestly ritual offers a path toward spiritual preparation for Passover.

Live, for a day, without all the answers, without all the assumptions about each other that cast a giant shadow over how we relate to one another.

The Purim story reminds us that the real danger is when overt meets latent antisemitism. And in a culture steeped in antisemitism, literally no one is safe.

In a landscape of utter devastation, the spiritual work of choosing hope in the heartache.

When God threatens to wipe out the Israelites, Moses recognizes, in the subtleties of language, that history is on the verge of dangerously repeating.

We must reject the way of eternal war.

Parshat Mishpatim Sermon. If law is the ground upon which we stand, story must be the water that softens the soil. When law leaves story behind, it runs the risk of disregarding the human beings it’s meant to protect. In the last year and a half, since Roe V. Wade was overturned, far too many women and people who need abortion access have been dangerously denied care. It’s time to tell their stories and protect the right to reproductive freedom.

Parshat Yitro Sermon. It is precisely when the public square is consumed with fantasies of binary outcomes and our hearts are full of anguish that we honor those Israelis and Palestinians who are working in partnership to imagine a just and peaceful future. Rabbi Brous joins May Pundak and Dr. Rula Hardal, the Israeli and Palestinian co-directors of A Land for All, to discuss their shared vision. Learn more about the vision, the work, and the promise of ALFA.

Parshat Beshalach Sermon. What happens when one memory is replaced by another, when a moment of discernment is replaced by an act of force? The people are free, but Moses is caught between past and future, and the consequences are tragic. Listen: Spotify / Apple Podcasts