Rabbi Sherman - Honorable Mensch-ion

In any other year, we would put our Chanukiya away today and tonight we would kindle the Shabbat candles. We know this is not any other year.

Ambassador Michael Oren, author of the new book 2048: The Rejuvenated State, spoke at the closing of the JNF-USA Global Conference in Denver, Colorado. He quoted the first Prime Minister of Israel, David Ben-Gurion, who was a voracious writer in his diary.

The season of Thanksgiving is meant to be a time of reunion. At a time wrought with strife, with wars being waged, and intense emotions surrounding those, it may not have been an easy time to come together. For those of us who found this to be the case, the question we are now sitting with is: Where do we go from here?

Do you act upon your dreams? There is a difference between the dreams of Jacob and the dreams of Pharaoh.

I have prayed in many places around the world: Standing in the depths of Auschwitz, at the Kotel with my children, overlooking the Grand Canyon with my family, and in our stunning Ziegler Sanctuary.

I have spent the last two days at Marquette University participating in the Sport at the Service of Humanity Conference.

The first question in the Torah that God asks Adam is ayeka, where are you?

'I have not set foot on a high school campus in many years. I interact often with teenagers at our synagogue. I consult with teens, give them the appropriate resources to combat antisemitism in the classroom and in the halls of their schools, and educate them on the history and the importance of Israel. After they become b’nai mitzvah, complete religious school or graduate Sinai Akiba Academy, we send these young people off to act as Jewish leaders in their high schools, private and public schools alike. If we are lucky, a small majority of teens stay active and deeply connected to synagogue life. It is the reality of the world.

The families of the hostages set up an empty Shabbat table in Tel Aviv. The picture is haunting. 200 seats, each for one hostage that will not be at their Shabbat table tonight.

A cousin, a friend, a sibling, a child. There is not a Jew in the world who does not know someone who has been personally affected by the Simchat Torah massacre in the State of Israel. We try to awaken ourselves from the nightmare, but it is not yet possible.