Rabbi Sherman - Honorable Mensch-ion

I did not grow up attending overnight camp. I stuck with sports day camps. It was not until my first year as a Rabbi that I slept at a Camp Ramah and witnessed firsthand the powerful effect of Jewish camping...

The secular calendar tells us love is in the air. But the Jewish calendar and parshat Yitro inform us that it is God who wishes us to live a life of love.   When the Ten Commandments are given, it...

My four year old asked me while walking out the door this morning, “Abba, am I almost a grown up?” My six year old chimed in with a response. “I’m closer than you to being a grown up.”   I...

Zach Penprase grew up in Moorpark, CA, with very little Jewish identity, until he became an Olympic baseball player, representing the State of Israel. Zach’s mother is Jewish, and his grandmother is from the island of Rhodes. After connecting with...

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks tells of the times his father took him to the synagogue. His father had very little education, and sold garments on the street. Each week they would return home from the synagogue and young Jonathan would asked...

The Exodus commences the Jewish exile. Jacob did not go alone; the children of Israel went with him. Jacob’s name change to Israel occurred after his successful struggle with Esau’s angel, Jacob is a “pure man, the dweller in the...

Last Friday, when deciding which synagogue to attend in Jerusalem, I ultimately chose the Kotel, the Western Wall. Approaching the Kotel, you hear the calls of “Minyan, Minyan.” Groups coalesce to form the required quorum of ten. As the crowd...

The past, the present, and the future.   While in most parts of the world it is difficult to experience all of these in one sitting, we know in Israel, it is easy. This week has been all of that...

We place the Chanukiah in the window in order for all to see the miracle. This mitzvah should not be performed in isolation; it is for others to see that a great miracle happened there, in Israel. Yet, this week,...

This morning, I turned on my computer and received this message, “Failed to reboot.” It is the message of doom- everything is lost. My desktop files, photos from my phone, sermons of the past years-out of sight, out of mind....