COVID-19 and Teshuvah (RH1 5781)
RH1 Sermons from Shomrei Torah on Vimeo.
I have to say that this is the strangest Rosh Hashanah I have ever experienced and I suspect that is true for many, if not most of us. Typically, I look out on Rosh Hashanah and see hundreds of people here at this annual religious gathering. But not this year, I am looking at a mostly empty sanctuary, at cameras and a large monitor, all from behind my Plexiglass...Read more...
Israel/Corona (RH2 5781)
RH2 Sermons from Shomrei Torah on Vimeo.
I think it is important to talk about Israel each year during the High Holy Days. It is critical that we acknowledge the central role that Israel plays in the life of American Judaism and I hope in your Jewish identity as well. I would not be the person that I am today if not for the time I have spent in Israel. We are a diverse community, so I would expect there...Read more...
Ruth Bader Ginsburg (KN 5781)
When people heard the news of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s passing, it left them in shock, it took one’s breath away. Such a physically small woman who made such a huge impact on American life. She literally transformed life in America for millions of people. Like the energizer bunny, she kept coming back from every illness and setback, but alas no more. She is truly and finally gone. But in...Read more...
Yizkor (YK 5781)
Yizkor, a time of remembering. This year we have much to recall. A year when millions tested positive for COVID-19 that required hospitalization and hundreds of thousands died worldwide from this pandemic. A year where many died alone, because family was barred from entering the hospital or nursing home. A year where families could not go to the cemetery to bury their loved ones and then had to mourn apart...Read more...
Stigma (RH1 5779)
Stigma of Mental Illness/Rosh Hashanah Day 1 5779/2018
Rabbi Randall Mark, Shomrei Torah, Wayne, NJ
The Torah reading we do every year on Rosh Hashanah is not about the creation of the world which Rosh Hashanah celebrates, nor about the beginning of us a people which we celebrate at Pesach. Rather on Rosh Hashanah the rabbis prescribed that we read about the first family of...Read more...
Israel (RH2 5779)
Rosh Hashanah Day 2 - 5779/2018
9/11 and Ahavat Yisrael
Rabbi Randy Mark
Shomrei Torah, Wayne, NJ
September 11th and a Tuesday again too. I suspect that most of know exactly where we were when we heard the news 17 years ago. I was at the Y with the Wayne Clergy Fellowship and when we heard what was going on, we all headed back to our various Houses of Worship to see...Read more...
Paradise (ERH 5778)
Love stones are usually about Young people sharing romance. This is a love story about older people who have shared a lifetime together and have come to understand what love and life are all about.
From the day Adam and Eve were exiled From the Garden of Eden, they lived together east of Eden, tilling the earth, raising children, and struggling to stay alive. After those many years of struggle, when their children were...Read more...
Listen! (RH1 5778)
Wow, as we look outward into this world of ours, so many things have gone on this last year that it is challenging to know where to begin or what to focus on. I’m troubled by the many hot spots around the globe where wars are taking place and where violence is perpetrated against specific groups that are ethnically, religiously or socially different from the majority. I’m upset by the increase of biased and hateful rhetoric in general and...Read more...
Israel (RH2 5778)
It is important for us to talk about Israel, it is also challenging. I love Israel and I hope that you do too. There was a time when I could have counted on that as a given, but that day has past for now and I can only look forward to the day when it again will be a fact of life in the American Jewish community. You may not realize it but one of the most central prayers of Rosh Hashanah is the Aleinu. Aleinu began as an...Read more...
Kol Nidre (KN 5778)
Here we are together again on this most sacred of nights. Of all the days of the week, the most sacred is Shabbat; and of all the Shabbatot of the year, the most sacred is Yom Kippur - Shabbat Shabbaton/the Sabbath of Sabbaths. The two moments that stand out for most people and also the most famous are Kol Nidre and Yizkor. As Jews we are notoriously late arriving at services, but on Kol Nidre night people try to arrive as close...Read more...
