Rabbi Sherman - Honorable Mensch-ion

The following piece was included in this week’s Jewish Journal. Here is a rabbinic secret. Each year before Yom Kippur, rabbis send an e-mail, asking a simple question: “Has anyone compiled a list of notable deaths for the past year?”...

A woman proudly hung on her mantelpiece a plaque that read, “Prayer Changes Things.” A few days later, the plaque was missing from its place. The woman asked her husband if he had seen it. “I took it down, I...

Last night, I had the opportunity to meet new members of Sinai Temple. I asked a simple question, “What is your most formative Jewish experience?” Each answer given was more powerful than the next. For one, it was the death...

18 is Chai. It means life, a time to celebrate. But 18 years ago, the world changed. I am amazed at how quickly the years fly by, feeling as if I just wrote this same message yesterday, and the day...

Our family spent Labor Day at the Santa Monica beach, teaching our children to boogie board and build sand castles. A man sat in the car next to us as we arrived, filming a documentary. Out of curiosity, I asked...

We are commanded when we appear before God on the three festival holidays not to be empty handed. Give what we can give, but give we must. While this must be taken literally in the times of the Temple, it...

We are required to recite birkat hamazon, grace after meals, after we eat a k’zayit, the amount of an olive. The Torah teaches, achalta vasavata, uverachta, we should eat and be satisfied, and then we should bless. There are two...

When I meet a new parent in our synagogue community, I often ask this question and do not expect an answer, “I know what you want for your child; a well rounded Jewish education, with knowledge of the customs and...

The common custom when visiting a cemetery is to place a stone upon the grave. Several explanations exist… Moses carves the tablets from stone, a stone is a metaphor for the eternal God, and Jacob’s ladder arises from a stone....

On Monday evening, as we traveled from the Philadelphia airport to my parents’ home in Elkins Park, PA, the boathouses on the Schuylkill River were illuminated in red, white, and blue. My son turned around and shouted, “Abba, they celebrate...