Once, there lived amongst us a man with the stature of a prophet, a man with the moral vision of Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel.   His name was Elie Wiesel, and he taught for years just a few miles from here at Boston University.

I want to talk about two words I have never uttered from this bimah. Taylor Swift. Taylor Swift is dramatically germane to the moment in which we now find ourselves.

Rabbi Joseph Telushkin authored a book called Jewish Humor: What the Best Jewish Jokes Say About the Jews.

Whenever there is a mass shooting in our country, including last Saturday in El Paso and Dayton, there is this civic ritual where leaders of both parties say that they are sending thoughts and prayers to the victims and their families.

This week I returned from Israel after having studied Torah with 30 of our members at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. I want to share with you what I experienced as the single most important hour of the week.

The story is told of the time that the Pope and the Prime Minister of Israel decided to deepen the relationship between the Vatican and the Jewish state by co-cohosting a friendly golf game that would be played by premier Catholic and Jewish golfers.

One day a fifth grader gets sent home from school for taking another student’s pencil. When he gets home, his father says why in the world would you take another student’s pencil?

There is a preacher named T.D. Jakes, the pastor of a non-denominational megachurch in Dallas, who saw something in the book of Deuteronomy that I had never seen.

Four words. They are just four words. They make up a simple sentence. But how you say this sentence makes all the difference in the world.

I want to name a problem that is very common, perhaps almost universal, but we don’t talk about it. If not now, at Yizkor, when?