From the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for Life

Latest Episodes:

Shabbat Sermon: What is Stronger Than a Storm, More Powerful Than a Pandemic? with Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz Feb 06, 2021

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If I had to pick a word that captures the place where many of us find ourselves, that word would be stuck. S-t-u-c-k. Stuck.

We are stuck in winter. We’ve been through December’s cold, January’s cold, this past week’s storm. It’s early February, still cold, still icy. In previous years we might go somewhere warm. But not this year.

We are stuck in month 11 of the pandemic. While more people are beginning to get vaccinated, we still have such a long way to go. We are so far from Israel’s experience with vaccines. The wisest counsel that our wonderful health advisors give us is: be patient. We are in for a long ride, not clear how long, but long. We are stuck for longer than any of us wants living a pandemic life. We are stuck without places to go and things to do. A quiet and isolated Super Bowl, to go with all the other quiet and isolated holidays of this surreal year.

Talmud Class: Why Does Rashi Insist on Converting Yitro When the Torah is Perfectly Content To Let Him Be What He is, a Midianite Priest? Feb 06, 2021

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From February 6, 2021.

Shabbat Sermon: Let’s Sing the Songs We Love with Rav Hazzan Aliza Berger Jan 30, 2021

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Let’s Sing the Songs We Love!!

Talmud Class: Three Women Step Out of the Shadows Jan 30, 2021

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From January 30th, 2021

Shabbat Sermon: Generation Gap with Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz Jan 23, 2021

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This past Tuesday night, erev Inauguration, in a cold classroom with the windows open, and the January wind coursing through, I decided to get a sense of how our seventh graders felt about America. So I gave each student a sheet of paper that had a prompt on it, and asked everyone to think about the prompt and write their response which they would then share.

The prompt was: “America is the greatest country in the history of the world.” Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Please explain your reasoning.

That prompt came from me, from my heart and soul. I grew up believing it. I went to college in the late 70s and early 80s, majoring in American history. After studying American history, I still somehow believed it. Shira and I brought three children into the world, and I believed it. And taught it to my children. I told Nat, Sam and Jordana many times, while they were under our roof, America is the greatest country in the history of the world–because it welcomes immigrants from all over the world.

Talmud Class: This Shabbat: A sneak peek into Rabbi Gardenswartz's sermon Jan 23, 2021

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From January 23rd, 2021.

Talmud Class: What Does Klete Keller Teach Us About Human Nature, Our Beloved Country, and What We Can Do Now? Jan 16, 2021

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From January 16th, 2021.

Shabbat Sermon: Dickens and Democracy with Rabbi Michelle Robinson Jan 09, 2021

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“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” In just a few words, Charles Dickens penned one of the most powerful and gripping opening lines in the history of literature. It is also, frankly, a questionable line. If you read the rest of the story, you will notice that A Tale of Two Cities does a glorious job capturing the grit and despair that Dickens describes as the “worst of times.” It is much harder to identify what makes it the best.

Shabbat Sermon: Not Haunted by What Might Have Been with Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz Dec 26, 2020

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In the late 1990s, a young college student named Joshua Rothman caught the dot.com fever. So did two of his close friends. These three undergrads fancied themselves budding high- tech executives, entrepreneurs who were going to create some cutting-edge business in the new economy, sell it off for untold riches, and then do it again. They worked and worked, they hardly slept, and out of their dorm rooms they created an early version of an internet dating service and insurance business. Alas, having invested the better part of their college career in this business, the outfit that they hoped would buy it was not interested in it; they had no other suitors; they had bills they could not pay. It was their senior year in college, they were graduating, and their business dreams came to naught.

Shabbat Sermon: Hitting the Wall with Rabbi Michelle Robinson Dec 19, 2020

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There is an amazing new sculpture on Commonwealth Avenue. Carved out of a tree trunk, in mid-stride is a magnificent runner confidently bounding up Heartbreak Hill. I pass him every day on my way to Temple Emanuel and am always struck by how he never seems to run out of energy. A little more than 10 years ago, I ran a marathon. Well, “run” is perhaps too generous a word. I jogged for a super-long time until I crossed the finish line in what I had hoped would be under six hours. To this day, I am still not entirely sure what possessed me to do this.

Every time I pass that tree trunk runner, I think back to my marathon. The tree trunk runner was carved to life in the middle of a global pandemic – at a time that the Boston Marathon has now been called off for a second season. The tree trunk runner is, by definition, rooted in place – stuck – on Heartbreak Hill, the hardest part of the route. Yet the sculptor filled him with eternal boundless positive momentum.