Shabbat T'tzavveh
You can listen to Rabbi Miriam's sermon here or read below.
Rabbi Jackie Tabick tells the most wonderful story which she told Rabbis Debbie and Robyn and me while we were recording a “Rabbiting On” podcast that will be out in a couple of weeks. All of us were blown away by the fact we didn’t know how this huge cultural shift had come about.
We...Read more...
Shabbat T'rumah
You can listen to Rabbi Miriam's sermon here or read below.
First they projected purple onto the chimneys of Battersea Power Station for Holocaust Memorial Day, and I didn’t speak out because I thought it was just a misplaced gesture that came from good intentions.
Then they banned Art Spiegleman’s Maus from Tennesse schools and I didn’t speak out...Read more...
Mishpatim- Moral Injury
You can listen to Rabbi Deborah's sermon here or read below.
Rabbinic training is designed to prepare you for life, but there are some bits of the study of rabbinic texts in particular that can seem a little far removed from reality. Like discussions about how many cheek fulls of liquid constitute a meal? What animals can function as the wall of a sukkah?
If you...Read more...
Yitro- there are no heroes, there's just us
You can listen to Rabbi Deborah's sermon or read it below:
Hymie Simon, Joe Kurtzberg, Jerry Siegel, Joe Schuster. These may not be familiar names to you, but if you don’t know these men you certainly know their creations. The Fantastic Four, the X-Men, Thor, The Hulk, Iron Man, Captain America, Superman. And to be honest, Simon, Siegel, Kurtzberg, Schuster....Read more...
Shabbat Va-yeitzei 5782
You can listen to Rabbi Deborah's sermon or read it below:
There’s this category of thing you’ve always known and therefore never actually checked to see if its true. You know, like the idea that you lose most of your body heat through your head, or that Vikings had horns on their helmets, or that fortune cookies are Chinese food, or that lemmings jump...Read more...
Shabbat Va-yeira
You can listen to Rabbi Howard's sermon or read it below:
In my early years in the rabbinate - and I am talking about 40, 45, years ago, because I started in this business ridiculously young - when I listened to other rabbis’ sermons I was aware that they hardly ever talked about what I thought was the most important theme/idea...Read more...
Yom Kippur 5782
You can listen to Rabbi Deborah's sermon or read it below:
I should be honest here that the sermon I am about to give is not the sermon I originally wrote. I spent, as many rabbis do, my spare time over the summer reading and learning, I spent my weekends talking with study partners and writing, and on Saturday I finished my sermon and sent it to some friends to proof read.
The...Read more...
Kol Nidre 5782
You can listen to Rabbi Miriam's sermon or read it below:
It’s the image of the shop window which intrigues me most. People standing stock still, looking out, watching the real people on the street go by. They stand making the display look enticing, willing passers-by to come in and choose them, but all the while noticing the minutest detail of the routines just the...Read more...
Rosh Hashana Day 2
You can listen to Rabbi Howard's sermon or read it below:
So here we are. With our ‘new normal’ – and our ‘new caution’ – in our New Year.
You know what I mean by the ‘new caution’. That we’ve come to the end of something we were used to, and new questions and doubts have infiltrated our thinking: where do we feel comfortable going, out the house? who do we...Read more...
Rosh Hashana day 1 5782
REPENTING THE SMUGNESS OF SUCCESS: TWO MICHAELS AND A KARL
THE TYRANNY AND ARROGANCE OF MERITOCRACY: MICHAEL SANDEL
I was standing at my study window looking at the garden and thinking life isn’t so bad. Lovely house, big study lined with many hundreds of books, West Ham season ticket – admittedly less than half the price of the Etihad or the Emirates but fidelity to...Read more...
You can listen to Rabbi Deborah's sermon or read it below:
I want to tell you a story about a woman named Imma Shalom. Mother of Peace. She’s one of the few women to be named in the Talmud, she’s only mentioned four times, but it’s not quantity that matters here, it’s quality, and Imma Shalom delivers a lesson in Torah and in daily life that feels particularly relevant for...Read more...
You can listen to Rabbi Deborah's sermon or read it below:
I absolutely hate it when someone is having an argument on their phone in public. It’s so inconsiderate. Shouting down the receiver, emoting shock, sadness, outrage, it’s so selfish. At least they could have the argument on speaker phone so that I’d know whose side to take!
The joke isn’t mine, but it...Read more...
You can listen to Rabbi Deborah's sermon or read it below:
Dr Sandra Lee has 7 million followers on youtube and 4.2 million on instagram. She’s better known as dr pimple popper and she has made a name for herself by producing what you might think is niche content but apparently is anything but- filming her work as a dermatologist, removing cysts, squeezing pus, and...Read more...
You can listen to Rabbi Miriam's sermon or read it below:
Quotes from the book in memory of Daniel Pearl in answer to the question of what is means to say "I am Jewish"
“I am Jewish. It began at birth purely by chance. It continues through my life as a great challenge and will end in the final moments of my life. What is most amazing, though, is...Read more...
You can listen to Rabbi Miriam's sermon or read it below:
This week’s Torah portion identifies the creation of one of biggest problems I see in society. It ruins lives and leaves people completely let down by the structures that are meant to be there to support them.
Let me explain. This week’s...Read more...
You can listen to Rabbi Howard's sermon or read it below:
Exactly one hundred and one years ago this weekend, Martha and Sigmund, a bourgeois Viennese couple, received some devastating news. The phone call came at noon. Their pregnant...Read more...
You can listen to Rabbi Deborah's Drash or read it below
I’ve started writing this Drash several times this week. Why? Because this Shabbat is mental health awareness Shabbat and it means that clergy around the country have been asked to talk about mental health from the bimah. It’s such an important initiative, and one that means a huge amount to me personally, so why...Read more...
You can listen to Rabbi Miriam's sermon or read it below
Over the last few days, I’ve been struck by the ever so stark, different outlooks of the population. The news has been full of vaccine updates. The second vaccine being used...Read more...
You can listen to Rabbi Howard’s sermon or read it below.
It’s a truism to say that these are strange times, disturbing times, vexing times: if you are not feeling destabilised in some fundamental part of yourself, somehow on edge, unable to fully relax, fully let go and enjoy life in all its abundant richness, if you are feeling you have lost some essential inner calmness of spirit, or...Read more...
Shabbat B'reishit 5781 - 17th October 2020
You can listen to Rabbi Miriam’s sermon or read it below.
This week I’ve felt rather sad and helpless. My grandma who has been so stoic since losing her husband of 75 years to Covid at the beginning of lock down has...Read more...
Whenever we have two scrolls, there is a PAUSE to honour the first and prepare to read from the second. Today, however, it has especial significance as we imagine re-rolling all the way from the end of Devarim back to the beginning of Bereshit.
I would like to highlight this pause, and make three points.
First, thank you, Rabbi Miriam, Bob and all...Read more...
You can listen to Rabbi Howard’s sermon or read it below.
I remember around 20 years ago reading about an American rabbi who was also a member of the Society of American Magicians. It’s a kosher organization – founded in 1902 by Harry Houdini, the Budapest-born illusionist and escapologist, son of a rabbi as it happens, who found fame and fortune in America (once he’d changed his name...Read more...
You can listen to Rabbi Miriam’s sermon or read it below.
I have started this sermon many times. I have focused on loneliness and isolation. I have been worried for our elderly as the R number rises. I have feared for our children as their childhood is so disrupted. I have worried for us all as the economy is in free fall. And yet it is not my job to play on your fears and confound your anxieties; we...Read more...
You can listen to Rabbi Miriam’s sermon or read it below.
My kindle has a tendency to lead me down a literary rabbit warren. Its Artificial Intelligence is hard to resist “If you enjoyed that book, you will like…” is even more astute than the “Rabbi, I’ve just read…” which is of course also a source of fabulous recommendations – don’t be offended I haven’t replaced you...Read more...
You can listen to Rabbi Deborah’s sermon, together with Cantor Zöe singing Sa’akhi, Sa’akhi or read the sermon below.
When McDonalds opened its first store in Moscow in 1990 they faced a host of challenges. They brought a menu full of unfamiliar dishes and ingredients that needed importing, the logo was in the Latin alphabet, and indeed the very idea of fast food was a relative...Read more...
I’ve been thinking a lot this last few days about Spike Milligan – who else would you think about at Rosh Hashanah? – and the epitaph he chose for his tombstone “I told you I was ill”. Maybe this is just how my mind works, making this connection, but it feels like every High Holy Days, for I don’t know how long, there’s one theme I would return to, a touchstone for what’s at the heart of this...Read more...
