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Rabbi Rachel Bearman
"True service to God is service to one
another." - Lily Montagu
(To learn more about Lily Montagu, please click here.)
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The Imperative and Gift of Jewish Joy
For as long as I can remember, my Judaism has been something that I valued, something that I loved about myself, and something that...


Rosh Hashanah 5784 / 2023
While you might not recognize the name Martin Niemöller, I know that you’ve all heard his most famous quote. He included these words which analyze his complicity in the Nazi regime in the speeches that he delivered all around the world in the wake of the Holocaust. On dais after dais, he said: “First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade uni


A Sermon for Yom Kippur 2020
For months and months, I’ve been excitedly considering what I should talk about in my first High Holy Day sermon at my new congregation....


Following Channah's Example: A Prayer for Rosh Hashanah
The Haftarah portion for Rosh Hashanah comes from the first two chapters of 1 Samuel, and it tells the story of two, very unhappy women....


Kol Nidre 2019 / 5780
I was taught, and I believe, that the Torah is not the history of the world but is instead the Jewish people’s way of telling our own...


Rosh Hashanah 5780
Narratives that coalesce around a single person who is the only one who can perform a critical task are ever present and ever popular. I...


Erev Rosh Hashanah 5780
Figuring out what I wanted to speak about tonight was a very lengthy and difficult process. I started and abandoned several sermons until...


A Yom Kippur Sermon
When the first and second Temples still stood in Jerusalem, Yom Kippur looked significantly different than it does today. The ancient...


Kol Nidre 2018
Over the summer, I received a message from Rabbi Paul Kipnes, who serves a congregation in California. In addition to his pulpit work,...


A Rosh Hashanah Sermon
In tractate Sanhedrin 17b of the Babylonian Talmud, we read: A Torah scholar is not allowed to live in a city that does not have these 10...


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