Shabbat Ha’azinu 5786
Love, lift us up (where we belong)
Not every portion has a theme song, but when it comes to Ha’azinu, reflecting on the people’s struggles and how God has been faithful to them, every year somehow there’s an eighties soft rock ballad that comes back to me. For a people who have been travelling through the wilderness for decades, a verse that says “the road is long / there are...Read more...
I’m not ready. I appreciate the irony that we’re entering the final hours of such a long day, and yet now – now I’m not ready for it to end. I don’t know about you, but I still have more prayers that need praying, more internal work that needs working out… And among all the beautiful Jewish melodies echoing in my brain today, right now there’s a secular song playing on repeat in my head,...Read more...
Some Jerry Seinfeld:
“According to all known laws of aviation, there is no way that a bee should be able to fly. Its wings are too small to get its fat little body off the ground. The bee, of course, flies anyway. Because bees don't care what humans think is impossible.”
Isn’t that lovely? Of course it's not true, it's a myth stemming from early 20th-century aerodynamic calculations that got...Read more...
Kol Nidre Sermon: CZJ 2025
Monday.
The phone rings .
A long-standing member of our community on the line. They’re calling to tell me that they’re leaving the synagogue.
“Why?” I ask.
“You’re just too pro-Israel” they reply.
We are??
Tuesday.
My email inbox...Read more...
2nd Day Rosh Hashanah 5786
You can listen to Rabbi Howard's sermon here or read it below.
Act I.
“And Hagar went, and sat at a distance…saying: ‘I can’t bear to see the death of the child’, and she sat at a distance and burst into tears” (Genesis 21:16-17). Keeping at a distance, the unbearable knowledge of deaths occurring as eyes are turned away, voices raised in distress, waiting...Read more...
Rosh Hashanah 5786
You can listen to Rabbi Eleanor's sermon here or read it below.
The author of one of the best books on teshuvah, a book I return to often at this time of year, was born 250 years ago this December; although at this time of viddui, of confession, I can also admit that I rarely need a specific excuse to reread her work. In this season especially, you could be forgiven for thinking that Jane...Read more...
Erev Rosh Hashanah 5786
You can listen to Rabbi Deborah's sermon here or read it below.
Life throws you all kinds of problems, and like many of us when I run into something I’m struggling to solve - or on a day when I’d be happy to learn from others' mistakes rather than making my own - I turn to Rabbi Google.
Which is what a lot of people do, and mostly it is pretty effective. Google is why my son’s...Read more...
In our own time (Shabbat Ki Tavo 13.08.2025)
You can listen to Rabbi Eleanor's sermon here or read it below.
Think of a trio of women, one of whom is named Zoey, whose voices are sweet and strong and powerful…and some of you will know that – this time – I’m not thinking about FRS clergy or service leaders, but rather about a fictional girl group called Huntr/x. The title of this summer’s...Read more...
S'lichot 5785
You can listen to Rabbi Howard's sermon here or read it below.
So, we’ve come to that time again, a time for reflection, for looking inwards, a time for questions – questions that might get neglected as we lose ourselves in the busy-ness of life, but questions that (reluctantly or not) we begin to sense pressing in on us as the New Year approaches.
Basic questions. What are we...Read more...
Parashat Ki Teitze 5785
You can read Rabbi Deborah's sermon below or listen to it here:
If you saw me do this (thumbs up) to you across the room what would it mean?
Voices in the room- encouragement, approval, good job, yes, I see you
I think it’s a pretty straightforward gesture, a sign of approval, encouragement, maybe even...Read more...
Sermon FRS 26 July 2025 – Sedrah Mattot-Masei
A Place In The Sun
The Book of Numbers comes to an end with a chapter listing the stopping-off places of the Children of Israel on their legendary 40-year journey through the wilderness. More than forty places are mentioned – we read the first ten today (Numbers 33:1-10), ending with the Sea of...Read more...
Shabbat Pinchas 19/07/25
You can read Rabbi Deborah's sermon below or listen to it here:
Some years ago, at Limmud, I went to a talk by an educator called Miriam Brousseau. She was speaking about the early days of her teaching career when she was first set loose on a class of kids. She was so passionate, so excited, so ready to gift these children the joys and treasures she felt she had to share. She...Read more...
Crazy Creations: made in God’s image (Shabbat Sh’lach L’cha 21.06.2025)
You can listen to Rabbi Eleanor's sermon here or read it below.
The latest song that Teddy Swims released, last week, has a retro (70s) vibe, almost a slow jam feel, and it’s a love song trying to put into words “the indescribable feeling you have when you know you've met your person,” your soul mate. He sings to...Read more...
Shabbat Naso 5785
You can listen to Rabbi Deborah's sermon here or read below
There’s an old joke you probably know - the one about the Jew who gets stranded on a desert island. After many years, he’s finally rescued, and his rescuers are amazed to find that he’s built not one, but two synagogues.
They ask him: “Why two? You’re the only person here!”
And he replies: “This one is...Read more...
Shabbat B’Midbar
It’s been more than a year now and the future looks bleakly uncertain. Can Israel’s leaders really be trusted? They seem so certain of themselves, so assured they know what is best for the people, they are so proficient at issuing orders, and so reluctant to hear the people’s complaints. Memories of how it used to be are rapidly fading because every day the people have to wake up and face the uncertainty of...Read more...
Shabbat Emor
I feel a bit apprehensive about talking today, sharing some thoughts with you. I never used to feel this: I have always enjoyed the opportunity, the privilege, it’s an honour really bestowed by the community, the space given to speak about things that matter to me - and I have spent a career hoping that what I find myself speaking about might be stuff that can stimulate reflection, that might be of interest to the...Read more...
Before You Can’t (Shabbat Acharei Mot-K’doshim 10.05.2025)
You can listen to Rabbi Eleanor's sermon here or read it below.
Recently, I messed up. I didn’t exactly forget what was a special occasion for my parents: I texted and had arranged for a gift to be sent; but I didn’t call them, or even send a handwritten card, because work was busy. I seemed to have time to feel guilty, but not to do anything...Read more...
Reflections for Shabbat Atzmaut
Not a sermon, but a few words that feel like they could be helpful for us as a community.
I've been working my way through the copies of Manna in the atrium. This shabbat I wanted to take you to the winter of 2004 when Rabbi Professor Tony Bayfield declared that he 'is not the Archbishop of Canterbury'.
Perhaps that seems relatively obvious to us... but he was writing it as a...Read more...
In case you missed Cantor Zöe’s reflections on the time between Yom HaShoah, Yom Hazikaron, and Yom Ha’atzma’ut last Shabbat, you can hear it here, along with a new song from Elana Arian.
Read more...Enquiringly he enquired (Shabbat Sh’mini 26.04.2025)
You can listen to Rabbi Eleanor's sermon here or read it below.
Over the past few months, a certain song has made a new breathing exercise famous. It isn’t our usual slow breathing for a reflective moment, and I’m not going to demonstrate it, because I really don’t know how Doechii does it without hyperventilating. I will tell you that it arises in her...Read more...
Shabbat Hagadol 5785 - 12th April 2025
You can listen to Rabbi Howard sermon here or read it below.
“Behold, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before the coming of the great – hagadol, today is Shabbat Hagadol - great and awesome day of God. He will reconcile the hearts of parents with their children, and the hearts of children with their parents, so that when I come, I do not strike the...Read more...
I’ve learnt much Torah from Taylor Swift—Olivia and I have this in common. This week, it’s her lyric “nightmare dressed like a daydream” that encapsulates the beauty and challenge of the diversity of our Jewish world, where it's possible for something to be both someone’s wildest dream and another’s worst...Read more...
Shabbat Ha-Chodesh 5785
You can listen to Rabbi Miriam's sermon here or read it below.
Life can change in a single moment. The moments we fear, the moments we torment ourselves with the...Read more...
Skill fade to Snow White (Shabbat Vayakheil 22.03.2025)
You can listen to Rabbi Eleanor's sermon here or read it below.
Yesterday Disney released its live action version of Snow White, starring Gal Gadot as the Evil Queen who needs to know that she is the fairest of them all. Remaking an eighty-year-old film has proved somewhat...Read more...
Shabbat Ki Tissa 5785- A calf or a mishkan?
You can listen to Rabbi Deborah's sermon here or read it below.
As a teacher, my students often take my breath away. It’s one of my favourite things about learning with others, and especially about learning with young people. I adore the totally brilliant and revealing questions that children especially, not only, but especially ask. There’s a naivete...Read more...
Shabbat Zachor 5785
Shabbat Zachor 5785
If you were the kind of person who read popular social science books in the '90s or '00s, chances are you read one of these two books:
No Logo by Naomi Klein, a foundational exploration of the role that big brands like Nike and Pepsi play in our world—a book that sparked at least two summers’ worth of programming at RSY summer camps.
And The...Read more...
New Rules/Two Pockets (Shabbat Mishpatim 22.02.2025)
You can listen to Rabbi Eleanor's sermon here or read it below.
Back in the early thirteenth century, the infamously bad King John was having...Read more...
FRS Sermon February 15 2025
‘On Zionisms’
I am going to share with you a personal story, it happened more than 40 years ago and I don’t think I have ever talked about it. I’m not embarrassed by it and there’s no shame involved - it’s just something that someone once said to me that lodged inside me - and it’s re-emerged in my mind...Read more...
Shabbat Vaera 5785
You can listen to Rabbi Deborah's sermon here or read it below.
There’s a Vicar of Dibley end of credits scene that particularly amuses me. Geraldine (the vicar), and Alice (her congregant, confidant, and friend) are discussing football. Geraldine makes a comment along the lines of ‘how good is it that we won the match’, and Alice says to her, ‘oh, i didn't realise you played...Read more...
Shabbat Vayeishev 5785- Ahad Ha'am's Competitive Imitation (how I learnt to love Chanukah PJs)
You can listen to Rabbi Deborah's sermon here or read it below.
In the middle of a conversation in our atrium bemoaning Asda’s choice of colours for this year’s Chanukah pyjamas- white for those of you wondering, utterly impractical for jammy fingers- one of the people I was talking to...Read more...
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