From the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for Life

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Shabbat Sermon: The Magic Spoon with Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz Apr 17, 2021

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I want to tell you a story about a magic spoon. The story comes from a different time and place, the 1870s in a town in Romania called Stefanesti, where there was an illustrious Hasidic dynasty. The most famous of these Hasidic masters was Rabbi Avrohom Mattisyou Friedman, who became the Second Shtefaneshter Rebbe in 1869 and continued for 64 years. He was considered a hidden tzaddik who could effect miracles. The most famous of these miracle stories concerns a Hasid who comes to see the Rebbe because his daughter had typhus. She was desperately ill. She had very little time left. Rebbe, only a miracle can save her. What happens next is told in a history of this Hasidic dynasty:

Talmud Class: Hero or Sellout? Apr 17, 2021

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From April 17th, 2021.

Talmud Class: An Enigmatic (Gay?) Love Story from the Talmud Apr 10, 2021

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From April 10, 2021

Shabbat Sermon: A Pandemic Makeover with Rav Hazzan Aliza Berger Apr 10, 2021

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I heard a story on NPR this week that kind of blew my mind. They were talking about how, since the start of the pandemic, requests for plastic surgery procedures have gone up something like 85%. Plastic surgeons shared that they are getting so many more requests that they have had to hire additional people just to field those phone calls. They are working overtime, late into the night, trying to accommodate everyone. And what is so interesting is they are getting requests for procedures that did not used to be so popular. People are looking to tighten their jawlines, adjust their nostrils, tighten their necks, and bodywork as well. And when people reach out, nine out of ten people share that they’re reaching out because of ZOOM. Because now that they’re on ZOOM all day long, they’re looking at their faces and they’re noticing the way they look when they talk, when they interact, when they work. They’re noticing places they never knew they wanted to improve.

Shabbat Sermon: Somebody Who Got Me - A Yizkor Sermon with Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz Apr 04, 2021

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You do not have to be Jewish to love Shtisel, the fabulous Netflix series about a Haredi family in Jerusalem. While this family is Haredi, their problems are human and universal. Anyone can relate to them. Season 3 was just released, and one vignette is so poignant it captures the complexity of saying Yizkor.

Shtisel, the family patriarch, has been a widower for seven years. One day he experiences heart pain. He calls the number of his kupat cholim, his medical network in Israel.

Again, while it’s about Israel, and the dialogue is in Hebrew, the story connects with any human anywhere who has ever been caught up in electronic phone hell and cold bureaucracy.

Talmud Class Unpacking One of the Talmud's Gnarliest Tales: Moses, Rabbi Akiva, and God Apr 03, 2021

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From April 3, 2021.

Shabbat Sermon: The Law of the Radiator with Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz Apr 03, 2021

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If you know teens who play hockey, you know how all important it is for them to get their time on the ice. That time is limited and hard to come by. Hockey parents are wont to drive their young hockey stars to the ice rink at 6 in the morning.

In a place like Seaforth, Ontario, the ice rink manager, Graham Nesbitt, had a quality problem. There was only one ice rink. But hockey in Canada is super popular. Far more kids want to play hockey than can comfortably skate in the city’s one rink. But Graham Nesbitt was committed to the idea that any teen who wants to skate can skate, and he would go out of his way to open up the rink early in the morning, to stay there and keep it open late at night, seven days a week. He would keep the rink open in the face of major snowstorms. When other businesses were closed, his ice rink was open for any young skater whose parents were willing to drive them through the storm to get extra ice time. Graham Nesbitt did not see his job as managing an ice rink but as nurturing teen athletes who dreamed of becoming hockey players.

Graham Nesbitt embodies a principle that is important to Judaism and eastern religions like Hinduism and Buddhism. The principle is what my sister Lee calls the law of the radiator. What you radiate comes right back to you.

Shabbat Sermon: Smash Room with Rabbi Michelle Robinson Mar 29, 2021

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How are you? We’re conditioned to answer, “Good,” “Fine,” “Okay,” or, perhaps if you are like me, “Thank God.” When we are in person and someone asks you this question, the response comes automatically – a habit, a construct of polite conversation. But from the comfort of your own home or wherever you are, behind the privacy of a screen, let me ask you again. And let me invite you to pause before you answer. How are you?

Talmud Class: March 27, 2021 Mar 27, 2021

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From March 27, 2021

Shabbat Sermon: One Piece at a Time with Rav Hazzan Aliza Berger Mar 27, 2021

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Tom Ammiano struggled in high school. A teenager in the late 50s, he was gangly and effeminate, with a high-pitched voice. Even though he wasn’t out of the closet, everyone knew that he was different, and they bullied him mercilessly for it. Back then, homophobia legally enforced. Same-sex partnerships were criminalized. Being gay was seen as a mental health issue, and one deserving of ridicule and scorn. Tom knew there was no universe in which he could be his full self.

Nevertheless, he tried to fit in.

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