It started in Israel as so many innovations and moments of progress often do. Once again, they were the leaders and the ones who were blazing a path for the rest of the world to follow. It began with a new type of photograph shared on social media. A picture of two masked people, one with their sleeve rolled up and the other administering an injection. These were the first photographs that I saw...Read more...

One of my favorite psychological experiments is the so-called marshmallow test. It was pioneered at Stanford by a psychology professor named Walter Mischel in the 1960s.[1] To refresh your memory; a child aged 3-5 years old would be left alone in a room with two identical plates, with different quantities of marshmallows, pretzels, cookies or another delicious treat. The adult researcher would...Read more...

Given the way the last few days have gone, it may be time to declare that the American election is actually a Jewish holiday. The preparation for the day feels like it goes on for months, the main event begins in the evening at sundown; and then it doesn’t end, but lasts for several days. With Jewish holidays we sometimes say that they...Read more...

On Wednesday evening I got to watch Liverpool Football Club lift the trophy as Champions of the English Premier League, the first time they had achieved that goal in 30 years. This morning I saw an article that asked the question “Which is the greatest title-winning team in Premier League history?”  We love lists and we love to rank teams and people against each other –...Read more...

I don’t know how many of you have gone shopping recently. Once a week I venture out of the house to buy groceries at Trader Joes. I stand in line, with my mask on keeping a good distance between the person in front of me, and hoping the person behind me is doing similarly. And I wait for about 20-30 minutes before entering the store. I then carefully follow the arrows on the ground to get everything we need for...Read more...

As I reflect on a wonderful ten days in Israel, I feel like I was able to check off all of the major and required Israel experiences.

I walked around various markets where stall holders tried to entice me into their stores calling out to me and offering me a “good price”, starting to negotiate with me before I had even expressed any interest in purchasing anything that they were selling.

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In 1819, 20 American sailors were aboard the whaleship Essex about 3,000 miles off the coast of Chile.[1] Out in one of the most remote parts of the Pacific Ocean they were struck by a sperm whale; taking on seawater, they were beginning to sink. The men evacuated to three small whaleboats, with rudimentary navigational equipment and minimal supplies of food and water. Today the sailors would be facing a terrible situation, back then it was...Read more...

In 1981 Bill Broadhurst lined up alongside 1,200 other men and women ready to run the 10,000 meter Pepsi Challenge race. But amongst that field of competitors, Bill Broadhurst was unique, 10 years earlier he had had surgery for a brain aneurysm that had left him paralyzed on his left side.

The starting gun sounded, and all of the runners surged forward. As they ran, Broadhurst threw his stiff left leg forward, pivoting on it as his...Read more...

Eloheinu shebeshamayim sheboreh hakol vebarech aleinu – Our God in Heaven, the Creator of all, and the One who brings blessing to us.

I am humbled to stand here at this moment in this sacred place to remember. I stand here as the grandchild of a woman who fled from Berlin as a child after experiencing the horrors of Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass. I stand here as a...Read more...

It is hard to know what to say. On Saturday morning we were gathered in this Sanctuary celebrating a young boy becoming a man. Our hearts were filled with joy and happiness. And then the service ended, and we heard the shocking and horrific news from Pittsburgh. And my heart was broken. Broken for those eleven lives cruelly taken whilst they were praying. Broken for the community of Tree of Life whose sanctuary was desecrated in the most...Read more...

“I’m as mad as hell and I’m not gonna take this anymore!’ Things have got to change. But first, you’ve gotta get mad!…You’ve got to say, ‘I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not gonna take this anymore!’ Then we’ll figure out what to do” 1 These words from Howard Beale in the movie Network ring true for me at the moment. In the days following Hurricane Harvey there were a number of pictures that made the rounds on the...Read more...

Last week I returned home from our Kabbalat Shabbat services and discovered that the two checks, which I thought were in my pocket, were not there. I panicked and immediately searched through the pockets of pants I had worn on the previous days, looked in the places I had remembered leaving them and even searched the car to find them. At about 10pm that night I returned to the synagogue to see if I had left them in my office, but they were...Read more...

Imagine a race of over 500 miles. It is hard to fathom. And yet in 1983 in Australia they announced an ultra-marathon of 543.7 miles between the cities of Sydney and Melbourne. 150 world-class runners arrived to take part in this historic event, excited to test their mettle against the world’s best. On the day of the race, 61-year-old Cliff Young approached the registration table wearing overalls and galoshes over his work boots. People...Read more...

1 Rabbi Danny Burkeman Be Humans Who Are Super Rosh Hashanah 5778 Faster than a speeding bullet. Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. Is it a bird, is it a plane. No … it’s a nice Jewish boy from Krypton. This past year Gal Gadot gave us a Jewish Wonder Woman, but before she assumed the role, we could claim Superman as one of our own. And this is not one of those times where we claim a celebrity is Jewish because her...Read more...