Sermons

Yom Kippur Shacharit Sermon 5784
I sat across from the rabbi across the table; he was in his mid-sixties or so, with thick-rimmed glasses and a short, scratchy beard.

Erev Yom Kippur Sermon 5784
I sat nervously in his office, among his many books, facing his cluttered, working desk.

Rabbi Esther Hugenholtz’s Recorded Rosh HaShanah Sermons
Videos of Rabbi Esther Hugenholtz’s Rosh HaShanah sermons

Erev Rosh HaShanah Sermon 5784
I invite you to cast back your mind to your first conscious memory of being in synagogue.

Rosh haShanah Shacharit Sermon 5784
In June, I attended a rabbinic conference – my first one in four years!

Everybody’s Judaism
Are we willing to be vulnerable? To crack ourselves open a little? Are we prepared to challenge ourselves and grow? To be discomfited for the sake of insight; to be pushed for the sake of change?

Elul Sermon #2
There are few sights more moving than walking into a full synagogue on Kol Nidrey and seeing everyone wearing their tallitot, anticipating our holiest day of the year.

Elul Sermon #1
We bring ourselves into this preparatory month of Elul, at the threshold of the holy Season of the Yamim Nora’im, the Days of Awe.

The Fragments and the Whole
We had gotten up before dawn, driving out to Salisbury under the grey cover of the British December night.
Hotspots of Holiness
Who of you remembers that childhood game where a friend would hide something in the house and you would be charged to find it?