Rabbi Sherman - Honorable Mensch-ion

John Huibers, from the Netherlands, took 4 years and 2 months to build a replica of Noah’s Ark, which he dreams of one day floating to the land of Israel. While each year we read the story of Noah, from...

Over the past six months, we have learned to find joy during challenging times. For each Bar and Bat Mitzvah, we have created a ritual called kabbalat ha-Torah, where we deliver a Torah scroll to the family’s home. For the...

The sigh of relief when we finish a giant project is often the best feeling of the experience. Yet, when we finish the annual reading of the Torah, the most exciting part is what is yet to be. The last...

Eating in a sukkah with a winter coat and gloves was the norm growing up in the northeast. I grew up to believe that a sukkah provided warmth even on the coldest days. As an adult eating in a sukkah...

Have you ever returned to a familiar place from your childhood and it does not look the same? Everything looked bigger and brighter when we were children. Over the years, our life experiences chisel away the ideal and create the...

As I write these words, the night has fallen on the day before Rosh Hashanah. I open the mahzor, like seeing an old friend. It feels so familiar, words recited by my parents, and their parents. Just three generations ago,...

I will always remember the night I stayed up past midnight for the first time. It was Selichot, the Saturday night before Rosh Hashanah. The service began at midnight, and as my father would say at the conclusion of each...

As the world has changed, so has the manner in which we celebrate simcha in our community. We must discover joy during heartbreak. In pre-pandemic times, our B’nai Mitzvah would gather with their families and the Sinai Temple daily minyan...

Determination. Comeback. Celebration of the Human Spirit. Those words can describe our Jewish community in this transformative moment. We have entered the month of Elul, just four weeks before Rosh Hashanah. Every day until the New Year, we will sound...

During this pandemic, we have learned how to learn. We have shifted our focus from in-person to online learning. We attend webinars and programs from behind our screens. A new way of life demands new ways of operating. Yet, the...