On Saturday Oct. 4, 2008, we had the privilege of hosting Ambassador Dennis Ross at Temple Beth Sholom for Havdalah followed by a very interesting lecture.

Ambassador Ross came to speak as a surrogate of the Obama Campaign. Just like we did for Senator Lieberman when he came on behalf of the McCain campaign, we listened carefully and were delighted to have such a prominent figure in American public life share with us insights on the current election.

Ambassador Ross gave a fascinating presentation on Senator Obama’s foreign policy perspective.  I just came upon an article published by Haaretz this morning that very much summarizes what Ambassador Ross said at TBS.

I have chosen to post the entire article; it is both interesting and may also be enlightening as to what the future may hold in store if Obama is elected president.

Again, this doesn’t constitute my personal endorsement of any candidate nor does it represent the Temple’s point of view or mean that Temple Beth Sholom endorses or supports any specific candidate.

Read the rest of this entry »

Share on Facebook

What an amazing feeling it is to be ready to immerse ourselves in the beauty of Sukkot!  Since I was a child, Sukkot has always been my favorite Holy day and even today it provides me with my very own hide away “spot” within The Jewish Calendar. 

After the overwhelming and awesome number of people that come to The Synagogue for The Yamim HaNoraim, after many of us have had our “deep immersion” in Judaism for the entire year, Sukkot is very often one of the least attended Holy Days. Sukkot is the time of the year when we really experience an outmost sense of Joy! Read the rest of this entry »

Share on Facebook

I am very well aware that many people do not like sermons.  I understand that, and I believe that many times it is due to the fact that we come here to speak about difficult subjects. This afternoon, we will be speaking about something extremely difficult but hopefully we will do it in a rather beautiful way.

About six months ago, I discovered something that many of you discovered way before I did.  Even though I am known for having all the gadgets and I do mean ALL THE GADGETS (I am still in the market for one of the new iPOD NANOS), sometimes I am a late comer to social technology.  For months I kept getting messages to join Facebook.  

I ignored the messages because, after all, “Who has time to just sit in front of a computer and count how many friends you have on any given day?”

Read the rest of this entry »

Share on Facebook

It’s funny what happens right after Rosh Hashanah and in preparation for Yom Kippur. I have a friend who says that he never writes his Yom Kippur sermons before Rosh Hashana in case The Meshiach comes right before Yom Kippur, he would then have to re-write his Yom Kippur sermons, so why work superfluously? 

Many people came up to me right after the second day of Rosh Hashanah and asked me what I would be speaking about on Yom Kippur. When I answered that I didn’t know, some of my friends thought I was being facetious. The truth is that I do work hard on my messages for the Yamim HaNoraim, after all it is like “The Super Bowl” for Rabbis, but I must add that even though I have extensive notes with me on The Bimah, I almost never have a full manuscript of my sermon with me. When it comes to delivering my messages during Shabbat and Holy Days, I do it from notes that I have sketched out on several pieces of paper, and that is why when people ask me for a copy, it is sometimes hard for me to produce one. 

For the first time in many years and to the best of my ability, I am going to try and reconstruct some of my sermons to post them on my blog. Here is my first attempt, the sermon for The First night of Rosh Hashanah 5769.

Read the rest of this entry »

Share on Facebook

Dear Friends,

During the Ten Days of Teshuva, the days from the beginning of Rosh Hashanna to Yom Kippur, I often find myself thinking about what has been and what I want my life to become in this brand New Year. I am sure that most of us approach these Ten Days with tremendous trepidation and that we all search within our soul to find a way to reach our full potential in life as we turn towards God.

This Yom Kippur, I would like to do something that I have never done before. Read the rest of this entry »

Share on Facebook

Parashat Ki Tetze can be quite overwhelming to study! Why? Well, it contains an incredible amount of Mitzvot. A simple reading of this Sidra will leave you puzzled at first. How do you connect some of the different commandments that it contains? Is there a logic in the way in which all of these different Mitzvot are laid out through out this week’s Torah Portion? Hardly!

Instead of trying to put the puzzle of Ki Tetze together, I would much rather bring your attention to Judaism as a whole. One of the most important and absolute truths (I don’t use this term often or lightly) about Judaism is that it is not merely a religion. Judaism is a way of life, and that is what makes us so different from all other different religions in the world. Read the rest of this entry »

Share on Facebook

Click here to find a write-up of Monday’s event in the Las Vegas Sun.

Monday September 15, 2008. Doors open at 10:45 AM.

Dear Friends,

Very often during this time of the year, I find myself thinking about my grandparents. I do so because Rosh Hashana brings with it memories of distant places far away — not only in the physical sense but also in a very profound spiritual way.

I think of where we came from. I remember the reality that we faced as a people in so many different lands throughout our history and of the sacrifice of those who got to the shores of our great nation seeking a new life. There are blessings that we must be thankful for that we often take for granted, one of those such blessings is democracy and freedom! When Rosh Hashana and Yom Kipur leave us this New Year, we will find our nation immersed in an absolute exercise in democracy, which is the result of freedom and liberty. Read the rest of this entry »

Share on Facebook

I wanted to write about this experience for quite some time, but for some reason or another I have not had a chance to do it. Every time I travel to a new country where I haven’t been before, I first search to see if there are any Kosher restaurants to be visited!

This past summer while on vacation in Costa Rica, I made one of the most amazing Kosher discoveries in recent memory — at least in my own recent memory. There is a Kosher Burger King in San Jose, Costa Rica! Who knew? Read the rest of this entry »

Share on Facebook

Most of us know the story from The Tanach where Elijah strives to “understand” God’s presence and effect in the world. Elijah looks carefully at what happens around him to see where God is and what God is trying to say to him. Elijah looks at a fire consuming a bush but can’t find God in the fire. He listens to a great noise but can’t find God in the noise, and he feels a powerful wind but he can’t find God in the wind.

He finally finds God speaking to him in a “still small voice!” — just like the author of Unetaneh Tokef (one of the most powerful and beautiful prayers in our High Holy Day liturgy) wants us to visualize God’s power. Not in the midst of a great show of force, rather in the silence and the stillness of a small voice! Kol D’mama Daka! Read the rest of this entry »

Share on Facebook

This article appeared in The Jewish Daily Forward

Rabbis Focus on Professional Development

By Marissa Brostoff

Moses was probably an introvert.

That was one of the conclusions reached by the rabbis who gathered at a professional development seminar in Manhattan this summer. As part of the seminar, the rabbis took the Myers-Briggs personality test, which measures how introspective, intuitive and perceptive people are, to better understand how they operated in challenging workplace situations. Then they tried to predict how some of the founders of their company — and some of Judaism’s forefathers — would have fared on the same test.  

That rabbis can benefit from learning management techniques more commonly used in the corporate world is a central tenet of a new program called the Legacy Heritage Rabbinic Enrichment Initiative, hosted by the Jewish Theological Seminary. This summer, 14 “mid-career” Conservative movement rabbis from around the country spent 10 days in New York immersed in a program that combined managerial training with more traditional forms of rabbinical study.

Read the rest of this entry »

Share on Facebook