Rabbi Esther Hugenholtz Sermon B’har-Bechukotai
There’s a Dutch saying ‘er op of er onder!’, which translates literally as ‘on top of it or underneath’, meaning that we will either succeed gloriously or fail spectacularly but we need to give it everything we’ve got because the time is now.
Rabbi Esther Hugenholtz Sermon Acharei Mot, Kedoshim
The cruelty and mystery of Leviticus 18:22 and 20:1 cannot be understated. Embedded among cultic taboos circumscribing forbidden intimate relations in Parashat Acharei Mot, and juxtaposed with verses exhorting ethical conduct in K’doshim, stands the prohibition against ‘offering up offspring to Molekh’.
Rabbi Esther Hugenholtz Sermon Tazria-metzora
Each of us is waging a war, fighting a battle. Each of us will have to contend with what this all means for our souls as well as our bodies.
Rabbi Esther Hugenholtz Sermon Chol HaMoed
By the time I am giving this sermon, our Sedarim will have ended. Still, right now, I am seated at my dining room table, the scents of chicken soup wafting through the kitchen door.
Rabbi Esther Hugenholtz Sermon Tzav
Theology is not merely the futile exercise of debating how many angels dance on the head of a pin. Theology informs our world view and drafts our response to the moral issues of our day.
Rabbi Esther Hugenholtz Sermon Vayakel-pekudei
While science may help lift the veils of our ignorance and solve many mysteries, it does not bleed the mystical from our lived experience.
Rabbi Esther Hugenholtz Sermon Ki Tissa
It is hard to think in exponential increases, in orders of magnitude, in terms of emergency declarations and social distancing. This is the stuff of dystopian near-future sci-fi and we seem to have landed in the middle of it.
Rabbi Esther Hugenholtz News Coronavirus, COVID-19, Pandemic, Social Distancing, Suspend Service
As you have read in President Sue Weinberg’s congregational letter, we are switching our congregational life from in-person services and activities to online activities in accordance with an evidence-based policy of social distancing.
Rabbi Esther Hugenholtz Sermon Mishpatim
Parashat Mishpatim is a perfect storm. Opening the book of Exodus during volatile political times is an exercise in confirmation bias in the best of cases, but Mishpatim speaks to our current reality – in an election year, no less – in uncanny ways.
