L’dor vador, from generation to generation, our people have been thoughtful and deliberate about ensuring the continuity of leadership as a sacred trust. Moshe Rabbeinu didn’t merely announce that Joshua would be his successor. He assembled the entire community and, in the presence of God, laid his hands upon Joshua’s head and blessed him. To Continue Reading »
Dear Temple Beth-El, Tonight and tomorrow in Israel another holiday of thanks-giving will be celebrated: Sigd, a special holiday of the Ethiopian Jewish community, known as Beta Israel, which confirms and celebrates the renewal of the covenant between God and the People of Israel. As R. Dr. Dalia Marx writes in her book From Time Continue Reading »
Dear Temple Beth-El, I want to start this message with gratitude: We called upon you to rally to support our food insecure neighbors, and you have answered the call. Our community has donated over $7,000 of critical funds to the Food Bank Network of Somerset County–a testament to the mensches of which our community is Continue Reading »
The following remarks were shared by Gary Cohen at our Erev Shabbat Service on Friday, November 7. Shabbat shalom everyone. For those of you who do not know me, my name is Gary Cohen, and if you do know me you may not recognize me without my mask. Tonight, I took off my mask to Continue Reading »
Dear Temple Beth-El, We were already in a moral crisis in the United States around hunger–the wealthiest country in the history of the world should not be struggling to feed its most vulnerable populations. That moral crisis, however, has been worsened into an immediate and existential crisis–not because of acts out of anyone’s control, but Continue Reading »
Dear Temple Beth-El, A word on our parashah in just a moment, but first an important reminder: We are offering Healing Services on Shabbat each month of the year that contains five Fridays, of which October is one. Tonight’s Shabbat service will not include a sermon, but instead will include an extended moment for healing. Continue Reading »
Dear Temple Beth-El, We are back into the swing of things this Shabbat, with our holiday season in the rearview mirror. We enter into Parashat Noach yet again, and perhaps not without some trepidation–a flood is coming, after all; here’s hoping you have a nice stockpile of gopher wood. In seriousness though, if you really Continue Reading »
Dear Temple Beth-El, I’m pleased to let you know that all of my High Holy Day sermons, as well as the inspiring messages delivered by our lay leaders, are now able to be viewed at our website, via this link. As a rabbi, it is a privilege to be able to address our community each Continue Reading »
Dear Temple Beth-El, Two years ago today on the Jewish calendar began the most difficult period in the history of the State of Israel, and a dark time for global Jewry. We mourned and prayed and hoped for this day for two years of war, over and over again invoking God as “Matir Asurim,” “Freer Continue Reading »
Dear Temple Beth-El, This Shabbat is our final Shabbat of this past year’s Torah reading cycle, and would otherwise have been the Shabbat on which we read from V’zot Hab’rachah, the very last parashah in our Torah that details the blessings Moses gave the tribes and then his ultimate passing as he looked out into Continue Reading »