Rabbi’s Corner

The Trouble With Pirates – Rosh Hashana 5777

It took me a long time to get into reality TV, but now I like the shows where an expert comes in as a consultant and tries to fix what’s wrong with a business. I find that these shows usually are not about business, but people. The businesses are usually good ones but there are personality conflicts or people who don’t know their own strengths and weaknesses. Since I never drink and never go to bars, I thought it would be different to try a show called Bar Rescue. I saw a blurb for an episode about a bar in Silver Spring, Maryland, near where I grew up. The episode was called “Yo-ho-ho and a Bottle of Dumb.” That sounded like just about my speed.

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Yasher Koach and Tear Soup – Yom Kippur 5776

Over the years, I’ve asked you some difficult questions. I’ve asked you to wrestle and struggle with some of the most complex emotions. Today, at this sacred moment, I want to ask you perhaps the most painful question of all: “How many times in your life have you really grieved?”

I know that people have died and you have felt sad, or angry, or confused. But it didn’t take long, a few days, or at most a week, and you were back to normal, absorbed in your regular tasks and enjoyments. You might not have admitted it to anyone, even yourself, but you coped, you went on, you were ok.

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George Washington or We’ve All Come to Look for America – Yom Kippur 5776

No one would argue with the statement that George Washington was one of our greatest presidents. He was the General of the Revolutionary forces that somehow, against the odds, defeated the mighty British Empire with inadequate resources and troops.

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Jenny and the Forgotten People – Kol Nidre 5776

When I was six, my parents moved into a new development of split-level houses that had been built next to an older neighborhood that had some very small and modest homes. Way at the end of our street, in the older section, there was a tiny house at the top of a steep hill. Normal kids with nothing to do, my new friends and I would climb up the steep, dusty hill and then run down it, trying not to fall and skin our knees and elbows.

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Meet the Jacobsons – Rosh Hashana 5776

I want to tell you about the Jacobsons.

They were a wonderful Jewish family. There were four children, and they had happy, suburban, activity-filled Jewish childhoods.

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The Lost City – Rosh Hashana 5776

My granddaughter Leah, who is now 1 11/12ths, loves a TV show called Dora the Explorer, which is an upbeat and actually very educational show that teaches children about map skills and math skills, not to mention Spanish. I have spent many happy hours binge-watching several seasons of this show with Leah.

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The Blind Artist and The Painting – Erev Rosh Hashana 5776

When Hal and Julie Hanson were married, all of their dreams seemed to be coming true. In 1993, they were blessed with a healthy baby, who grew into a healthy kid. All seemed well, until little Jeff started bumping into things. “He couldn’t see that there was a curb,” Hal said. “He couldn’t see that there was a stairway, and he would fall down it. And we realized, he’s not seeing a lot.”

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The Whipping Boy – September, 2014

My grandson Avi and I love to watch movies. And the wonderful thing is that we can watch just about anything that has ever been made, because my son Josh bought me this little black box that somehow connects my tv to the internet. Avi and I have to watch movies at home because we talk the whole time; we’d be thrown out of any movie theater for constant chattering. Avi is five years old and he asks a question a minute:

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The Gift of Fear – September 2014

• Snakes.
• Speaking in front of an audience
• Heights
• Being closed in a small space
• Spiders and insects
• Needles and getting shots
• Mice
• Flying on an airplane
• Dogs
• Thunder and lightning
• Crowds
• Going to the doctor (more…)

The College Admission Process, Basketball and Stereotypes  – September 23, 2014

For many of us, the process of getting into college is or was one of the most stressful experiences in our whole lives. Getting “accepted” or “rejected” by nameless, faceless institutions seems so definitive, so defining of a student’s worth. Every year, I talk to kids who are heartbroken because their dreams of getting into certain schools were dashed on the rocks of a mysterious process that everyone thinks they understand until the often-logic defying results come in those make-or-break envelopes and emails.

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