From Yizkor To Yizkor

What a week. Last Saturday afternoon, I was basking in the late afternoon sun, seated on the stone wall in from of our flowering kale. What clouds were about were full of drama and dimension. It was a fitting way to recharge after the Yizkor memorial service earlier in the day. Commemorating those who are no longer with us is touching and deeply humanizing.

One for Me, One for You – Parshat Acharei Mot 5779

Kids grasp the idea of fairness (and unfairness) early on. Toys, food, time - if any of it isn't perfectly equal, they will let you know. We learn in our parshah this week about balance. In other words, what we give to our own earthly desires, like time, money and energy, we should also give equally in service to God, or our faith-based life.

Shabbat Service Recordings: D’var Torah, April 27, 2019

Recording from Shabbat Services, April 27, 2019 D’var from Saturday, April 27, 2019 – Rabbi David Kosak   *If you would like to download the recording and listen later, right click on the link then click “Save as” and it will save onto your computer for later listening. Recorded and edited by Ed Kraus. Click here for an archive of past recordings

Mitzvah Goreret Mitzvah

“Mitzvah goreret mitzvah” is a profound if commonplace phrase in the Jewish tradition. Literally, it means that one mitzvah, one good deed or commandment, pulls another one in its wake. While I sometimes insouciantly translate this phrase as “no good deed goes unpunished,” there’s a deeper reality at play, and one which is captured in an equally pithy statement that “skhar mitzvah mitzvah.” The reward for doing a mitzvah is either that action itself, or another mitzvah.

Shabbat Service Recordings: D’var Torah, April 20, 2019

Recording from Shabbat Services, April 20, 2019 D’var from Saturday, April 20, 2019 – Rabbi David Kosak   *If you would like to download the recording and listen later, right click on the link then click “Save as” and it will save onto your computer for later listening. Recorded and edited by Ed Kraus. Click here for an archive of past recordings

Twas the Night Before Pesach

We have just finished bedikat chametz in my home, the final search for any leavening on the evening before Passover. This is primarily a symbolic search—by the time it comes, people have already cleaned their homes as thoroughly as they can manage and in a manner that meets their own sense of piety. So the search is a way we come to grant ourselves approval for the preparations we have undertaken.

Shabbat Service Recordings: D’var Torah, April 13, 2019

Recording from Shabbat Services, April 13, 2019 D’var from Saturday, April 13, 2019 – Rabbi David Kosak   *If you would like to download the recording and listen later, right click on the link then click “Save as” and it will save onto your computer for later listening. Recorded and edited by Ed Kraus. Click here for an archive of past recordings