D’var by Frank Salomon for Chayei Sara
According to the source-critical approach, Chayei Sara contains three segments.
Sermon
In the Breach and to the Brink
In many ways, the story of Abraham in Parashat Vayera, is the detail – what the Rabbis called the ‘p’rat’ – of the Noach story.
Let There Not Be Strife Among Us
Can we be like Abram? Can we center ourselves on our morality and center each other’s humanity? Can we hold difference and create space? Can we recognize grievance and pain, diversity and blessing? Can we leverage wealth and power not for prestige and conquest but for compassion and the common good?
Power and Virtue: the Davidic Calling and Promise
Not so long ago, before the Jewish High Holidays, my five-year-old daughter – the middle child – insightfully asked me whether God ever makes mistakes.
Neilah Sermonette
‘Did they’, she wondered out loud, ‘consider the gardens they planted, their last garden?’
Yom Kippur Day Sermon
Be still, my soul, the Psalmist sings. Isn’t that soothing? Isn’t that what the current moment cries out for?
Kol Nidrey Sermon
The human family. All of us. Remember that idea?
Erev Rosh haShanah Sermon 2020
There’s a joke floating around the Internet, which I cannot take credit for but I am happy to share: ‘The question no job applicants in 2015 ever got right was, ‘so, where do you see yourself in five years?’’
Rosh haShanah Day 1 Sermon
I don’t know if I can speak on behalf of anyone else, but I have felt the silent emptiness stretch like a wasteland across my soul.
