Rabbi Sherman - Honorable Mensch-ion

The below article was featured in The Forward yesterday. I was confused as I lit the Chanukah candles this year. How could it be that I recently watched thousands of firefighters in Southern California douse out life threatening flames, while my...

The prophet Zechariah teaches us on this Shabbat of Hanukkah, “Not by might, nor by power, but by My spirit alone.” The great Jewish composer and musician Debbie Friedman sang, “Not by might and not by power, but spirit alone,...

As a child, I recall hearing about “the good old days.” The days of the Catskill Mountains, the days of a nascent State of Israel, the days of filled synagogue sanctuaries. I would wonder, “When will the good old days...

Our tradition teaches, “The flame of God is the soul of the human being.” Paradoxically, as firefighters extinguished rousing flames, the Baal Shem Tov explains that we bring kindness into the world by igniting a spark and creating a flame...

Thursday evening, we will sit around a table full of turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie. Many will continue the tradition of reciting what we are thankful for: family, friends and community. It appears to be one of America’s...

Dayeinu! I wish I could wait until Passover to say these words. Yet again, we wake up to a mass shooting. For us in Los Angeles, Pittsburgh felt spiritually close. Yet, today, in Los Angeles, Thousand Oaks was physically close....

The sociologist Erich Fromm taught, “We all have an overpowering urge to leave our mark on the world and to change it.” The Torah tells us, shenei chayei Sarah, these are the years of our mother, Sarah. Sarah lived 120...

As I landed in Philadelphia this past week, on vacation with my children, the pilot joyfully announced, “Welcome to the city of the birthplace of freedom.” Yesterday morning, my parents drove us past Independence Hall, the place where the United...

Sinai Temple was fortunate to host the Maccabi Haifa basketball team this week, as they prepared to take on the Los Angeles Clippers. After a clinic with Sinai Temple students, I had the opportunity to interview the head coach, Barak...

A school principal stood in front of the parents at the start of the year and said, “Much have I learned from my masters, even more from my colleagues, umiltalmidai yoter mikulam, and from my students more than from all.”...