Rosh Hashanah sermon
A New Look At Old Commandments I remember the discomfort I first felt, when I was told there was a stained glass window of Moses holding the Ten Commandments in our building. These days it is somewhat out of the way, hidden from direct view, but long-time IHC’ers...
Erev Rosh Hashanah sermon
A Most Difficult Year There are two great bodies of water in the holy land of Israel. They could not appear to be more different, and yet they are both nourished by the very same Jordan river. When visiting the North of Israel, no trip is complete without visiting...
Rabbi Jordana Chernow-Reader’s Yom Kippur Sermon: Choose Life
As I begin my sermon this afternoon, I invite you to close your eyes and take a deep breath. Now I have a question for you: do you know anyone who is living or has lived a meaningful life? What is it about their lives that makes it so fulfilling? Take a moment,...
Rabbi Jordana Chernow-Reader’s Rosh Hashanah Sermon: Un’taneh Tokef
Who will live and who will die? Today on our day of confessions, I have a confession to make. This will come as no surprise to people who have spent time with me, but the truth is, I am a bit of a control freak. I like things the way I like them. I like when things...
Rabbi Krichiver’s Yom Kippur Sermon: Grace
In one of the most well-known Talmud stories, a man comes to the famous sage Shammai to ask if he might convert. The man says, “If you can teach me the entire Torah while standing on one foot, I will convert.” Shammai proceeds to beat the man with a stick. What is...
Rabbi Krichiver’s Rosh Hashanah Sermon: Empathy
There is a moment each year in which I personally prepare for the High Holy Days. It usually occurs only a few days before services. All our cues are prepared, books are set out, the wall between the Social Hall and the Sanctuary is opened, and pristine lines of...
Nostalgia – Yom Kippur 5780/2019
I actually hated the song when I first heard it. Everyone was playing it, it was all over the radio, and at the local high school a dozen teenagers covered the song decked in clothes carefully selected to look nonchalantly thrown together from a thrift shop wardrobe....
Time to Prepare – Kol Nidrei 5780/2019
Tonight is Kol Nidrei, the most meditative and moving moment of the Jewish liturgical year. This day marks the culmination of the Aseret Yemei Teshuvah, the Ten Days of Repentance. Through the prayerbook, our Machzor, we have been bombarded with petitions and pleas...
Embrace Complexity
Once the congregation found itself in the middle of a fierce debate. Do we stand or sit for the Shema. Half the group was convinced that we should stay seated for the Shema, half convinced we stood for the Shema. Not to get into too many technicalities on Rosh...
Diary of Anne Frank
Just a few short weeks ago, I went to the the Indiana Repertory Theater to see their production of the Diary of Anne Frank. The truth is I have not seen that play in years. I know that I read the diary, and that I saw the movie, but most of the memory of it was gone...
