Rachel Starr To be honest, I'm not great at listening to wake-up calls. When my alarm goes off in the morning, my hand instinctively reaches for the snooze button. Sometimes--usually--more than once. The shofar is a more visceral wake-up call--one…
Rabbi Lauren Grabelle Herrmann, Erev Rosh HaShanah Drash 2018/5779 “Mann Tracht; Un Gott Lacht” — “Man plans. God laughs,” the Yiddish saying goes. This phrase took on new resonance and meaning when our life took an unexpected turn this past summer. Jon…
Rabbi Lauren Grabelle Herrmann “SAJ is a joyous community of New Yorkers, a Jewish home where everyone’s voice is valued and heard. Imagine a school kids run towards and a synagogue where all can come together for study, social justice,…
Rabbi Lauren Grabelle Herrmann, Yom Kippur 5779/2018 The very first commandment given to the Israelites is the commandment of Rosh Hodesh (and thus the instruction to keep a calendar), received just as they are about to leave Egypt and become…
Rabbi Mike Commins teaches, “Prayer expresses desire. Holy desire: an end to an illness or for a peaceful world, to live in joy and to behave well, to find connection with God.” Tonight, we usher in The Yamim Nora’im,…
Lately, it feels like I am having the same conversation in varying forms and guises. A conversation with a friend about marital struggles: Could he stick through it despite the pain and hurt? A conversation with a congregant about a…
Rabbi Lauren Grabelle Herrmann, Kol Nidre 2018/5779 A short questionnaire. Have you ever been in a meeting at work where you were so focused on what you wanted to say that you realize you are no longer listening and have…
Rosh HaShanah, the celebration of the New Year, is a day of seeing and a day of hearing. It is a day of seeing ourselves, gazing inward to see the places we have gone astray; it is a day of…
In April, I sat at my desk in the very late hours of the evening. I was feverishly completing essay questions before the deadline for the AJWS Global Justice Fellowship, a program for clergy to learn about and advocate on…