From the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for Life

It was Monday morning. I had just parked in the Wegman’s lot, and was gathering my re-usable bags when the phone rang.  I answered, and the familiar recording began to play, [robotically] “an inmate from the Donald D Wyatt Detention Facility would like to speak with you….” I settled back into my seat as I waited for the end of the recording. “This call is being recorded. To accept charges, press 0. Thank you for using Global Tel Link.” I pressed zero. There was a pause, and then a voice filled my car. “You’ve got to help me. I just can’t take this anymore. Please, you have to get me out of here.” Follow this link to view the sermon and watch the live streaming version on our website https://www.templeemanuel.com/rabbi/rabbi-aliza-berger/dont-be-indifferent-make-a-difference/

On February 24, 2020, Donniel Hartman, President of the Shalom Hartman Institute,  spoke to us about how we can reclaim and deepen the Israel conversation in his lecture titled “Talking about Israel: Missteps and Opportunities.”

Do you know somebody, or are you somebody, who walks around carrying a heavy weight?  It could be a secret.  It could be a regret.  It could be a mistake.  It could be a broken relationship.  It could be a rift in the family.  It could be some small thing—the Yiddish term is faribble—that grows into a big thing.  And you don’t know quite how to deal with this heavy weight.  You don’t know how to get rid of this heavy weight.  You don’t know how to travel light.  So you carry it around with you.  Weeks turn into months turn into years turn into decades. Follow this link to view the sermon and watch the live streaming version on our website https://www.templeemanuel.com/rabbi/rabbi-wes-gardenswartz/talk-to-2/

Once upon a time there was a woman named Olivia who was married to her husband Lee.  They lived in Los Angeles in a neighborhood known as Pacific Palisades.  They were blessed to have two sons.  The family joined a Conservative synagogue in west L.A. named Adat Shalom.  Both boys went to the religious school, and they both celebrated their Bar Mitzvah there.  There is a picture of the pious young lads, both wearing tallesim, flanked by their proud parents, in front of the aron kodesh, the holy ark.  Both boys have Hebrew names.  The older brother is Gedalia Yitzchak, the younger brother is Mendel. Follow this link to view the sermon and watch the live streaming version on our website https://www.templeemanuel.com/kvell/

On February 8, 2020, we celebrated a very special moment in the Torah, a very musical moment in Jewish biblical history. On Shabbat Shirah we read the Song of the Sea and our service included extraordinary music to celebrate Moses and Miriam leading the Israelites across the Sea of Reeds (The Red Sea) and out of Egypt. Cantor Rosemberg delivered the Shabbat Sermon.  His topic was Jewish Italian Music and Traditions and his teaching explored the rich history and different musical traditions of the Italian Jews. Follow this link to view the sermon and watch the live streaming version on our website https://www.templeemanuel.com/shabbat-shirah-sermon-cantor-elias-rosemberg/

What do the late Philip Roth, one of the greatest writers of our time, and Steph Curry, one of the greatest basketball players of our time, have in common? Philip Roth was once asked by Robert Siegel, an NPR host, how he was able to write so many award-winning novels.  Roth answered that there is no secret.  Rather, he works all day, every day, six or seven days a week.  He offered that many times he will look at what he has written,  in a ten-hour day, and he does not like anything he wrote, he throws it all away.  Robert Siegel asks him: how do you feel on a day where you end up throwing away everything you wrote, and his answer is: “You wouldn’t want to have dinner with me.”  But the next morning he is at it again. Follow this link to view the sermon and watch the live streaming version on our website https://www.templeemanuel.com/rabbi/rabbi-wes-gardenswartz/daily-page/

On September 26th, an officer from the Los Angeles Police Department was walking through the Wilshire-Normandie subway station in Koreatown, when a beautiful voice caught him off guard. Ahead stood a slight, middle-aged woman. Her shoulder-length blond hair was tied up in pigtails, her clothes swallowed her tiny figure. Her right-hand rested on a pushcart, filled to the brim with personal belongings and covered with a blue plaid blanket, while her left-hand juggled bags and tubs of belongings as she sang an aria from Gianni Schicchi. Follow this link to view the sermon and watch the live streaming version on our website https://www.templeemanuel.com/rabbi/rabbi-aliza-berger/lapdhq/

Jon Levenson, a professor of Bible at Harvard, offers a rich hypothetical that I have shared with you before, and which I share again now because it goes to the heart of the meaning of the holiday of Thanksgiving. Imagine you are driving to the airport on the Wednesday afternoon before Thanksgiving.  It is  4:00, bumper to bumper traffic.  You are in the tunnel and, oh no, your car dies.  Just dies.  You turn on and off the ignition, you pray, you start sweating profusely.  People are honking, cursing at you.  It is already one of the heaviest traffic days of the year, and now it is even more jammed because your car is stuck.  You are stuck.  You have no idea what to do.  OK, you’ll call AAA.  You reach for your phone, but it is out of juice, it is one of those days, the honking gets louder and louder.  Help!! Follow this link to view the sermon and watch the live streaming version on our website https://www.templeemanuel.com/rabbi/rabbi-wes-gardenswartz/gratitude-is-not-just-a-feeling/

I want to play a new game with you this morning, Jewish trivial pursuit.  I am going to ask you two simple questions about the Hebrew Bible, and the winner gets a free bagel at kiddush this morning. First question, what character in the Hebrew Bible is most associated with blessing?  The word blessing, berakhah, is prominently and repeatedly associated with his story? Second question, what character in the Hebrew Bible, more than any other, is tested?  This character is tested so frequently, and so painfully, that there is a midrash speaking to the ten tests, or ten trials, or ten ordeals, of this character? The answer to the first question is…Abraham. The answer to the second question is…Abraham. The answer to both questions is Abraham.  The blessed one is also the tested one.  The tested one is also the blessed one. Follow this link to view the sermon and watch the live streaming version on our website https://www.templeemanuel.com/rabbi/rabbi-wes-gardenswartz/the-tested-one-is-also-the-blessed-one/

Years ago, when I was living in Israel, I remember going to visit the Tomb of the Patriarchs (Ma’arat haMachpelah) in Hevron. I remember feeling totally overwhelmed by the sheer number of visitors and by all the sounds. There were tourists snapping their cameras and talking loudly about the history of the place and about plans for lunch.  There were what felt like hundreds of Orthodox Jewish men praying in blocs, Hebrew prayers racing fluently through their mouths as they turned pages in unison. There were Hassidic Jews swaying and crying out, tears literally streaming down their faces as they poured out their souls to God. There were so many people there, it was hard even to move through the site. Follow this link to view the sermon and watch the live streaming version on our website https://www.templeemanuel.com/rabbi/rabbi-aliza-berger/beyond-the-hashtag/

Join us on Temple Emanuel’s Mission to learn Torah at the Hartman Institute in Jerusalem.

Do you remember where you were when you first learned of the massacre at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh last year, a year ago tomorrow, October 27, 2018?  I remember exactly where I was.  I was right here.  It was Shabbat morning, in the middle of services, and from the bimah I could see a restless energy, an edge, in the people in the pews that I had never seen before.  Soon enough I would learn that people’s cell phones were going off, telling them that the massacre had happened, during Shabbat morning services, at a sister Conservative shul, in Pittsburgh. Here we are, a year later.  We are on the eve of the first yahrtzeit of the Pittsburgh massacre, the worst bloodshed of American Jews in American Jewish history. Follow this link to view the sermon and watch the live streaming version on our website https://www.templeemanuel.com/rabbi/rabbi-wes-gardenswartz/when-suffering-and-blessing-are-inexplicably-intertwined-reflections-on-the-first-yahrtzeit-of-the-pittsburgh-massacre/

Is it a good thing to go through life always feeling that you have something left to prove?  Or do you ever reach a point where the healthier move is to say: you know what, I have nothing left to prove? You are a tenured professor in your chosen field for 20 years.  You have authored definitive works in your field.  You cannot get fired except for moral turpitude.  When you go to your classroom on Monday morning, what is the healthier mindset:  I have something left to prove, or I have nothing left to prove. Follow this link to view the sermon and watch the live streaming version on our website https://www.templeemanuel.com/rabbi/rabbi-wes-gardenswartz/something-left-to-prove/

Next time you are hungry, next time you need a quick pick up, consider eating a protein bar known as an Rx Bar.  It comes in a variety of attractive packages and delicious flavors.  Blueberry, Maple Sea Salt, Mango Pineapple, Chocolate Sea Salt, Chocolate Chip, to name just a few.  I live on them, though I am not getting a commission from the Rx Bar company for this sermon. Follow this link to view the sermon and watch the live streaming version on our website https://www.templeemanuel.com/rabbi/rabbi-wes-gardenswartz/overnight-millionaire/

A rabbi once heard about a preacher who gained notoriety by giving the world’s longest sermon.  Not wanting to duplicate that feat, and, perhaps more importantly, not wanting to put everyone in shul to sleep, the rabbi decided to preach the world’s shortest sermon instead. In the weeks leading up to the holidays, he shared the big news with the congregation in e-blasts, social media, and in person.  Come to shul – and hear the shortest sermon ever!  Sitting down to write, though, he realized the task was harder than it sounded.  How to say something meaningful, something impactful, something true, while at the same time making it short?  As Rosh Hashanah drew closer and closer, he found himself living iconic mathematician Blaise Pascal’s words that he would have written a shorter letter, but he didn’t have enough time. Follow this link to the view the sermon on our website https://www.templeemanuel.com/rabbi/rabbi-michelle-robinson/love-2/