Congregation Beth Mordecai
Congregation Beth Mordecai
An inclusive congregation affiliated with the Conservative Movement.
Your Jewish Home for the Soul!
An inclusive congregation affiliated with the Conservative Movement.
Your Jewish Home for the Soul!
October 5, 2014 By bethmordecai no comments.
A Moving Tradition
Yom Kippur Day 5775 – October 4, 2014*
Rabbi Ari Saks
Congregation Beth Mordecai
A week ago today, on a quiet Shabbat between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur a small group of Jews gathered at Beth Mordecai in Perth Amboy, NJ to schmooze, to learn, and to drink some schnapps. In addition to the laughs and the cajoling needed to convince everyone around the table that it was ok to drink before noon, we had some really interesting conversations about our shul and about Judaism in general. One comment that spurred some interesting discussion was when one of our community members, let’s call him David, said “I think that Judaism or all of religion for that matter is about comfort.” As[...]
Category : Rabbi Ritual Practice Sermons Yom Kippur Tag : Amidah comfort Granting Desires high holidays Jewish Home for Your Soul Jewish prayer Moving New Jersey Star Ledger prayer Rabban Gamliel rabbi rabbi eliezer Rabbi Gerald Zelizer sermons Sh'moneh Esrei tradition Un'taneh Tokef Unetaneh Tokef yizkor Yom Kippur
By bethmordecai no comments.
Forgetting Justice for the Sake of Forgiveness
Kol Nidre 5775 – October 3, 2014*
Rabbi Ari Saks
Congregation Beth Mordecai
There is a famous midrash (Masekhet Rosh Hashanah, 17b) in which Moses is standing atop Mt. Sinai about to greet God for the very first time. When God arrives, Moses does not see God’s face but rather a figure wrapped in a beautiful Tallit. God then brings Moses into God’s Tallit and declares: “Moses. I will show you how to lead the people of Israel in prayer.” And as God teaches Moses how to lead the Israelites in prayer, God also teaches him a secret. “Moses, whenever Israel sins, let them recite the following words before Me, and I will forgive them.” And then[...]
Category : Israeli News Jewish Current Events Rabbi Sermons Yom Kippur Tag : 13 attributes accuracy Ali Abu Awwad arguing compassion forgiveness God hearing high holidays israel israeli-palestinian conflict justice lie Listening mercy Palestine rabbi Rabbi Brad Hirschfield Rabbi Hanan Schlesinger right righteousness sermons Seven (7) Habits of Highly Effective People Stephen Covey understand Understanding undrstood Yom Kippur You Don't Have to be Wrong for Me to be Right
September 30, 2014 By bethmordecai no comments.
Let Us Sing Our Songs Together
Rosh Hashanah 5775 – September, 25 2014*
Rabbi Ari Saks
Congregation Beth Mordecai
Picture this. You are an Israelite in approximately 1600 BCE. You, your family, and your people have just escaped the torture and slavery of the Egyptians with the help of God and Moses, and as you turn back from reaching the other side of the Red Sea , you hear the deafening, vicious sound of waves devouring your Egyptian pursuers, until the last of them are no longer seen.
You stand there aghast, not knowing what to say…you are free! After a moment or two of reality sinking in, you feel this overwhelming urge to shout out for joy. To sing praises of thanksgiving, of joy,[...]
Category : Rabbi Rosh Hashanah Sermons Tag : Arukh Hashulkhan Benjamin Segal birds community Expression high holidays joy love mary poppins rabbi Rabbi Irwin Kula reflection Rosh Hashanah sermons shower song song of songs To Rome With Love Unique Songs unique torah vulnerability Woody Allen Yearnings
June 3, 2014 By bethmordecai no comments.
*Sermon for Friday night of "Cantor Showcase of Unique Torah" (Shabbat prior to Shavuot) – May 30, 2014
Our Unique and Godly Torah
Rabbi Ari Saks
Some of you may remember a story my father told during my installation on this same bimah over a year and a half ago. I was a little boy in Benton Harbor and my father and I had just come back from shul on Simhat Torah. As we approached home I started making a frantic pointing motion in a not-so-specific direction (with the requisite grunting of a child). So my father, in attempting to respond my neediness, took me on a walk trying to follow my random pointing. Eventually we ended up back at shul where my pointing got[...]
Category : Bulletin Articles Cantorial Showcase Holidays home Rabbi Sermons Shabbat Shavuot Tag : bulletin articles Cantorial Showcase godly holidays neil gillman norman lamm pirkei avot potential rabbeinu yonah rabbi revelation sermons shabbat shavuot unique torah
April 13, 2014 By bethmordecai no comments.
Faith in Words
Sermon for Shabbat Hagadol (April 12th 2014)
Rabbi Ari Saks
Congregation Beth Mordecai
Once there was a king who ruled many kingdoms, yet no matter how much wealth he amassed, no matter how many people he helped, he never felt at peace. His mind raced in so many different directions he could never feel as if he was in the right place at the right time. When he was sad he wanted to be happy, and for some reason when he was happy, he wanted to be sad. Well, he thought, if my mind is never at peace then neither should my kingdom. So he set about making every part of his kingdom the opposite of what it should be –[...]
Category : Cantorial Showcase home Passover Rabbi Sermons Shabbat Tag : capacity community high holidays Interfaith Center of Greater Philadelphia mission passover rabbi rabbi david wolpe Rabbi Ezekiel Landau Reverend Nicole Diroff Rosh Hashanah sacrifices sermons shabbat words Yom Kippur
March 18, 2014 By bethmordecai no comments.
Rabbi Ari Saks
*Sermon for Shabbat Zahor/Parashat Tzav – March 15, 2016
Beth Mordecai Homecoming Weekend
In 2002, Jewish journalist Daniel Pearl was brutally murdered by militants in Pakistan. In addition to the sadness and pain felt in hearing the first reports of his murder, there was also a hint of hope, a taste of truth because with his last three words Daniel Pearl spoke a prideful and confident claim that resonates through eternity: I am Jewish.
In the years since his death this confident claim of Jewish identity, of saying proudly I am Jewish, has unified the Jewish people to the point that, despite our many and vast differences, 94% of us in America say that we are proud to be Jewish according[...]
Category : home Homecoming Weekend Purim Rabbi Sermons Tag : alan dershowitz command daniel pearl felicia lilien homecoming weekend i am jewish jewish identity mordecai purim queen esther rabbi sermons tsav tzav
October 12, 2013 By bethmordecai no comments.
Rabbi Ari Saks Sermon for Parashat Lekh L’kha – October 12, 2013* Installation Weekend of Rabbi Moshe Saks Temple Israel, Scranton PA I want to thank the leadership team and my father, my Abba, Rabbi Moshe Saks, for extending the invitation to speak this morning about Parashat Lekh L’kha. But before I begin, I wanted to share a quick observation about my Abba, which you may or may already not know. He’s a man who loves logistics. He loves figuring out how to get from point A to point B, sometimes when you don’t even ask him to. My wife Rachel and I have developed a routine when talking to my Abba about making plans to come visit him, my Ema, and my sister[...]
Category : Rabbi Sermons Shabbat Tag : Abraham Abram leadership lekh l'kha lekh lekha Philadelphia Eagles rabbi Rabbi Moshe Saks sermons shabbat Temple Israel
September 14, 2013 By bethmordecai no comments.
Rabbi Ari Saks Congregation Beth Mordecai Yom Kippur Sermon 5774 (September 14, 2013)* Standing behind the doors of the closed ballroom in one of the finer hotels in Spokane, Washington, I nervously prepared myself for one of the scariest, most vulnerable moments in my 17 years of life…running for Religious Education Vice President of Pinwheel USY, the local region of United Synagogue Youth. My hands sweaty, my heart in my stomach, I opened the doors and did this…cue Mordecai Ben David music…That’s right, I danced into a room full of teenagers rocking out to Mordecai Ben David’s classical religious single, “Moshiach, Moshiach, Moshiach! (or Messiah, Messiah, Messiah!)” Though I don’t remember exactly what I said – I probably blacked out after that[...]
Category : Holidays Sermons Uncategorized Yom Kippur Tag : holidays sermons Yom Kippur
September 13, 2013 By bethmordecai no comments.
Rabbi Ari Saks Congregation Beth Mordecai Kol Nidrei Sermon 5774 (September 13, 2013)* When you turn on the TV at night, there are many options from which to choose. Personally, I have seen too many episodes of reality TV competition shows, like Top Chef or Project Runway than I’m proud to admit. Though they are hardly my first choice, the unfolding drama is hard to resist. One of the themes that often come up in each of these competition shows is just how much the competitors don’t like teams. They are individual artists with their own aesthetics, or to use language that we have developed here, they have their own unique Torah of how to be an artist and they don’t[...]
Category : Holidays Sermons Yom Kippur Tag : sermons Yom Kippur
September 5, 2013 By bethmordecai no comments.
The Necessity of Vulnerability for Connection Rabbi Ari Saks Congregation Beth Mordecai Rosh Hashanah Sermon 5774 (September 5, 2013)* It was a cool Rosh Hashanah morning in early September. All of the worshippers of the small schul in the center of town had already been davening, praying together for a few hours. They were currently davening the Mussaf Amidah, the central prayer in the second half of the service which we, here are Beth Mordecai, will soon pray together. Every worshipper was deep in their thoughts, shuckling back and forth as the words flowed from their lips…zohrenu l’hayyim tovim kol v’nei v’ritekha – God, remember us the children of your covenant for good. Little Deborah, all of 9 years old, stood watching as the men and women of[...]
Category : Rabbi Rosh Hashanah Sermons Uncategorized Tag : Rosh Hashanah sermons