From the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for Life

By Temple Emanuel in Newton

What's From the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for Life about?

Bringing weekly Jewish insights into your life. Join Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz, Rabbi Michelle Robinson and Rav-Hazzan Aliza Berger of Temple Emanuel in Newton, MA as they share modern ancient wisdom.

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From the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for Life episodes:

04.23.2024
Pesach Day 1 Sermon: A Passover Conversation about Campus Antisemitism with Rabbi Michelle Robinson
April 23, 2024
04.20.2024
Shabbat Sermon: Apples with Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz
Do you remember where you were last Saturday night when we learned that Iran was firing more than 330 drones and cruise missiles into Israel? Shira and I spoke to several Israelis, and they used three words to describe last...
04.13.2024
Shabbat Sermon: Listening to Beyonce in a Time of War with Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz
Within the last few weeks, something has happened to give me a new lease on life. A new glide in my stride. We are all looking for hope and energy, and I got mine from an unexpected source: the...
04.13.2024
Talmud Class: Love in a Time of Not Love
What happens to love in a world of not love? Consider this past Sunday at Temple Emanuel. In the morning Shai Held was in dialogue with Marc Baker about his new book Judaism is About Love. It was a truly inspiring...
04.06.2024
Talmud Class: Waiting for God
The book of Exodus famously evokes five types of redemption that God brings the Jewish people. And yet at the seder, we commemorate these five redemptions by drinking four cups of wine. What explains this anomalous practice, and what can...
03.30.2024
Shabbat Sermon: Brothers for Life with Amit Gilboa and Shahaf Segal
This Shabbat, we hear reflections from two visiting members of Brothers for Life. Since October 7, Amit Gilboa has served 155 days of active duty in the IDF and is currently participating in a workshop to facilitate support groups for newly...
03.25.2024
Shabbat Sermon: Cultivating Hope During Seemingly Hopeless Times by Dr. Irle Goldman
I must tell you that whenever I have entered this sanctuary, I am reminded of the Starship Enterprise of Star Trek….and now I have the honor of speaking from the Control Room, And I flash to Spock communicating “Beam me...
03.23.2024
D'var Torah by Rabbi Elie Lehmann
After about an hour's drive, heading south from Nairobi on our first day working with the Maasai tribe in Kenya, we arrived at a small one-room church in the middle of the bush. The single light bulb, dangling from the...
03.23.2024
Talmud Class: Why Don't We Say Hallel on Purim?
For Talmud this week a different kind of move, in two ways. First, we are actually going to study a page of Talmud, tractate Megillah 14a. Second, we are going to examine a halakhic question: why do we not say...
03.16.2024
Shabbat Sermon: Have a Little Faith with Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz
I want to start with something lovely, a little bit of serendipity. I meet from time to time with a good friend to catch up. This friend has a tradition, after our conversations, of giving me a book to read....
03.16.2024
Talmud Class: "I'm Just Not Into Israel"...Which of the Four Children is That?
A hypothetical based on a real-world situation, not at Temple Emanuel, but at another Jewish organization: Imagine you are on the rabbinic search committee for some institution near and dear to your heart: shul, Hillel, federation. You read the resume of...
03.09.2024
Shabbat Sermon: Build a Tabernacle in the Wilderness with Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz
The IDF has an intelligence unit whose name does not exactly roll off the tongue. It is called Terrain Analysis, Accurate Mapping, Visual Collection and Interpretation Agency. As Dan Senor and Saul Singer point out in their new book The...
03.09.2024
Talmud Class: The Bible Story About No Good Options
No good options. All options are bad. There is a hard-to-understand Bible story, 2 Samuel 24, about what do we do when there are no good options. King David commissions a census. How many soldiers are there in Israel and in Judah?...
03.02.2024
Shabbat Sermon: Real Body Positivity with Rav Hazzan Aliza Berger
Dronme Davis tells a powerful story. She was nine. At the time, she had developed the habit of biting her nails until they were raw and sometimes even bleeding. A teacher told her, in all seriousness, “if you keep biting...
03.02.2024
Shabbat Sermon with Rav Hazzan Aliza Berger
March 2, 2024
03.02.2024
Talmud Class: Is the Sun Rising or Setting on American Judaism?
Please look at this iconic photograph of a chair at the Constitutional Convention. The chair has a sun which is ambiguous. Benjamin Franklin famously wondered out loud, is the sun rising or setting? https://files.constantcontact.com/d3875897501/094c58c3-688a-4ef0-a325-c75a886b067a.png Now please read this evocative article entitled “The...
02.24.2024
Shabbat Sermon: Reflections of Our Israel Mitzvah Mission Travelers
This week we enjoy the reflections of Sonia Saltzman, Noah Rivkin, Rhiannon Thomas, Michael Gardener, and Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz on their Mitzvah Mission to Israel.
02.24.2024
Talmud Class: Unpacking Our Israel Mitzvah Mission
The Temple Emanuel 50-person mitzvah mission to Israel last week experienced the confusing reality that diametrically contradictory truths can both be true. Normal or not normal? Is Israel a nation in mourning, as Rachel Korazim taught? Or is Israel getting past...
02.17.2024
Shabbat Sermon: Turn the Lights Back On with Rabbi Michelle Robinson
February 17, 2024
02.10.2024
Neurodivergent Torah: A Celebration of Autistic Culture & Liberation with Rabbi Shoshana Meira Friedman
This Shabbat, I’m going to share a personal story very different from the kinds of sermons I used to give when I worked in a congregation. I want to be clear it is my story. I recognize that in this...
02.10.2024
Talmud Class: Saying Yes When We Don't Have the Foggiest Idea of What We Are Saying Yes To
Have you ever said yes to a commitment without knowing what that yes would mean to your life? If you have taken a new job, moved to a new city, gotten married, had children, or nurtured a loved one through a...
02.07.2024
A Conversation with Annette Miller
Rabbi Michelle Robinson sits down with Annette Miller to discuss her role as Golda Meir in 'Golda's Balcony,' a play opening in Boston on February 23. They discuss inhabiting the iconic figure and what her legacy can tell us about...
02.03.2024
Talmud Class: Transformation
The holy grail in Jewish education is “transformational.” An Israel trip like Birthright or any of our Passport experiences are supposed to be “transformational.” Going to any of our wonderful day schools is supposed to be “transformational.” Jewish summer camp--24-7 immersion,...
01.27.2024
Am Yisrael Chai with Rav Hazzan Aliza Berger
January 27, 2024
01.27.2024
Talmud Class: Should the Jewish People Lower our Expectations?
“When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in...
01.20.2024
Shabbat Sermon: Brothers and Sisters with Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz
I have been thinking a lot about something that many of us—not all, but many—have in common: brothers and sisters. I have been in a deep brother and sister place this week for two reasons. I am the youngest of six...
01.20.2024
Talmud Class: Three Stories About Trees
There is a Jewish holiday that few know, Tu B’Shevat, the new year of trees, celebrated next Wednesday night and Thursday, January 24-25. If Passover is the most broadly observed holiday, Tu B’Shevat is among the least observed—a holiday about...
01.13.2024
Shabbat Sermon: Meeting Change with Rabbi Michelle Robinson
January 13, 2024
01.13.2024
Talmud Class: Signs and Wonders That We Can Believe In
Our reading this week, parshat va’era, features otot u’moftim, signs and wonders, that are intended to persuade Pharaoh of God’s power and therefore that he should let the Israelites go. The problem is, while the signs and wonders are indeed...
01.06.2024
Shabbat Sermon: When We Feel Weariness with Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz
If a picture paints a thousand words, then a screen shot I saw this week conveys a truth that we need to reckon with. The screen shot shows the different realities of New York City and Israel on New Year’s Eve. ...
01.06.2024
Talmud Class: Wisdom - What Does It Look Like, and Where Can We Get It?
Wisdom. We could all use it now. Many of us had hoped and prayed for a better 2024, a happier 2024, a more peaceful 2024. But now that we are in 2024, we are faced with the same stubborn challenges of...
12.30.2023
Shabbat Sermon: God’s Afikomen - Hidden Messages in Vayechi with Dr. Lynne Heller
A member of TE, Dr. Heller is a respected member of the Hebrew College MEAH Bible faculty and has taught many courses at TE. Dr. Heller combines her passion for biblical text with her academic background in Jewish Studies and...
12.23.2023
Shabbat Sermon: A Christmas Story with Rav Hazzan Aliza Berger
My grandfather was a curmudgeon, especially this time of year. He would start to get grumpy mid-November, when Christmas lights started going up around town and his mood would really sour after Thanksgiving when retailers began blasting Christmas carols. Then...
12.16.2023
Shabbat Sermon: Maestro with Rabbi Michelle Robinson
With Rabbi Michelle Robinson
12.16.2023
Talmud Class: The October 7 Kaddish, the Holocaust Kaddish, and Hallel
The prayer life of the Jewish people gives voice to contradiction and dissonance. On the one hand, all week long we have been singing Hallel, in which we acclaim how God saves us: I called on Adonai; ...
12.09.2023
Shabbat Sermon: Fight for your Heart with Rav Hazzan Aliza Berger
Ever since October 7, I have been living in an anxiety-filled, doom-driven stupor. All day, from the moment I wake up until I go to bed at night, I check my news apps compulsively and obsessively, worried that there will...
12.09.2023
Talmud Class: How Has October 7 Changed the Project of Jewish Education?
Before October 7, our children were blessed to live in a world where their Jewish commitments were not an obstacle to making friends or fulfilling their dreams. Yes, there has always been some anti-Semitism. But for the most part, our...
12.02.2023
Shabbat Sermon: Engaging the Darkness Without Becoming Dark with Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz
This morning has been so beautiful, so joyful, just what we needed. Daniel’s Bar Mitzvah. Eli’s Bar Mitzvah. Ronna’s birthday. Elizabeth’s naming, three generations of love. And the reason it is especially joyful is that things have been so dark....
12.02.2023
Talmud Class: Jacob's Tattered Envelope - and Our Own
An envelope structure is a great way to tell a story. The story begins with a place, an event, a memorable moment. Stuff happens. The plot unfolds. And the story ends back at the same place or a newer, deeper...
11.25.2023
Shabbat Sermon with Lishi Baker
We hear a lot these days about “the college campus,” and I just want to note, it is important to remember that every student is different and every student is experiencing his or her campus differently. I don’t speak for...
11.25.2023
Talmud Class: Is God Relevant?
How do we understand the double absence of God since October 7? The first absence is obvious: where was God when Hamas butchered, maimed, kidnapped, and performed unspeakable atrocities upon the innocent? Not there. The second absence is less obvious but still...
11.18.2023
Shabbat Sermon: What to do about the State of Judaism in the Jewish State? with Rabbi David Golinkin
The State of Israel has a religious establishment that is totally out of touch with most Israelis and a school system which does not teach Judaism. What can be done about this dual problem?
11.18.2023
Talmud Class: Rabbi David Golinkin on Israel at War
This is a Talmud class like no other for a moment like no other. One short story encapsulates the moment. There are tragically so many moments like it. On Sunday, Shira was speaking with her brother Ari and sister-in-law Tziporit who...
11.11.2023
Shabbat Sermon: When Parents and Children Disagree About Israel with Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz
This morning I want to tackle a question that is granular, sensitive, painful, common—and coming soon to a Thanksgiving table near you. What do we do when different generations in our family disagree, passionately, about Israel? This is not...
11.11.2023
Talmud Class: How Does This Chapter Compare?
About the daily stories of rising anti-Semitism, two questions. First question: How does this current chapter compare to previous chapters? The Haggadah contains the famous passage vehei she’amdah: This promise has stood us and our parents in good stead. For not...
11.04.2023
Shabbat Sermon: 2023? with Rabbi Michelle Robinson
November 4, 2023
11.04.2023
Talmud Class: Moshe Dayan's Hard Words in 1956, Israel's "Gettysburg Address"
All of us worry about the courageous soldiers of the IDF going into the alleys and tunnels of Gaza. It fills us all with deep dread. The ground invasion, and what it will mean to Israeli soldiers, has resurfaced a very...
10.31.2023
Shabbat Sermon: Hope - What Poland’s Jewish Rebirth Means for the Jewish World with Jonathan Ornstein
October 28, 2023 Jonathan is the CEO of the JCC in Krakow Podland
10.28.2023
Talmud Class: Do the Two Psalms We Say Every Morning and Every Evening (Psalms 121 and 130) Help?
Elie Wiesel talked about madness descending on Europe in the 1930s. Cultured, urbane, sophisticated Germans who loved opera and philosophy, and who were nice to their dogs and cats, warmed to the Nazis. A similar madness is descending on American...
10.21.2023
Shabbat Sermon: The Paradox of Forever Love with Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz
I would like to start with something lovely, the most beautiful words in the world: I love you forever. Think of the people and places that have inspired these magical words. I have a question. How long is forever? ...

What's From the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for Life about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

From the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for Life episodes:

Pesach Day 1 Sermon: A Passover Conversation about Campus Antisemitism with Rabbi Michelle Robinson

Shabbat Sermon: Apples with Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz

Shabbat Sermon: Listening to Beyonce in a Time of War with Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz

Talmud Class: Love in a Time of Not Love

Talmud Class: Waiting for God

Shabbat Sermon: Brothers for Life with Amit Gilboa and Shahaf Segal

Shabbat Sermon: Cultivating Hope During Seemingly Hopeless Times by Dr. Irle Goldman

D'var Torah by Rabbi Elie Lehmann

Talmud Class: Why Don't We Say Hallel on Purim?

Shabbat Sermon: Have a Little Faith with Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz

Talmud Class: "I'm Just Not Into Israel"...Which of the Four Children is That?

Shabbat Sermon: Build a Tabernacle in the Wilderness with Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz

Talmud Class: The Bible Story About No Good Options

Shabbat Sermon: Real Body Positivity with Rav Hazzan Aliza Berger

Shabbat Sermon with Rav Hazzan Aliza Berger

Talmud Class: Is the Sun Rising or Setting on American Judaism?

Shabbat Sermon: Reflections of Our Israel Mitzvah Mission Travelers

Talmud Class: Unpacking Our Israel Mitzvah Mission

Shabbat Sermon: Turn the Lights Back On with Rabbi Michelle Robinson

Neurodivergent Torah: A Celebration of Autistic Culture & Liberation with Rabbi Shoshana Meira Friedman

Talmud Class: Saying Yes When We Don't Have the Foggiest Idea of What We Are Saying Yes To

A Conversation with Annette Miller

Talmud Class: Transformation

Am Yisrael Chai with Rav Hazzan Aliza Berger

Talmud Class: Should the Jewish People Lower our Expectations?

Shabbat Sermon: Brothers and Sisters with Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz

Talmud Class: Three Stories About Trees

Shabbat Sermon: Meeting Change with Rabbi Michelle Robinson

Talmud Class: Signs and Wonders That We Can Believe In

Shabbat Sermon: When We Feel Weariness with Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz

Talmud Class: Wisdom - What Does It Look Like, and Where Can We Get It?

Shabbat Sermon: God’s Afikomen - Hidden Messages in Vayechi with Dr. Lynne Heller

Shabbat Sermon: A Christmas Story with Rav Hazzan Aliza Berger

Shabbat Sermon: Maestro with Rabbi Michelle Robinson

Talmud Class: The October 7 Kaddish, the Holocaust Kaddish, and Hallel

Shabbat Sermon: Fight for your Heart with Rav Hazzan Aliza Berger

Talmud Class: How Has October 7 Changed the Project of Jewish Education?

Shabbat Sermon: Engaging the Darkness Without Becoming Dark with Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz

Talmud Class: Jacob's Tattered Envelope - and Our Own

Shabbat Sermon with Lishi Baker

Talmud Class: Is God Relevant?

Shabbat Sermon: What to do about the State of Judaism in the Jewish State? with Rabbi David Golinkin

Talmud Class: Rabbi David Golinkin on Israel at War

Shabbat Sermon: When Parents and Children Disagree About Israel with Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz

Talmud Class: How Does This Chapter Compare?

Shabbat Sermon: 2023? with Rabbi Michelle Robinson

Talmud Class: Moshe Dayan's Hard Words in 1956, Israel's "Gettysburg Address"

Shabbat Sermon: Hope - What Poland’s Jewish Rebirth Means for the Jewish World with Jonathan Ornstein

Talmud Class: Do the Two Psalms We Say Every Morning and Every Evening (Psalms 121 and 130) Help?

Shabbat Sermon: The Paradox of Forever Love with Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz