Dear Temple Sinai Members and Friends,
Many of you, if not the majority, have been members of other Temples or certainly over the years have attended services. You, therefore, have heard rabbis give their sermons. I, also, have heard many rabbis give their sermons in numerous Temples throughout this country and around the world.
There are some rabbis who see themselves as academics and fill their sermons with quotes from as many Torah, rabbinic and scholarly sources as they can. Other rabbis enjoy telling stories either from their own lives or the lives, sometimes fictional, of other rabbis such as the Hasidic masters or the population of that well-known city of Chelm. Some colleagues try to conclude their sermons with a message or plan of action, as a takeaway if you wish, so that attendees can leave the sanctuary saying that they learned something for their lives. There are, of course, those rabbis who try any or all of the just mentioned approaches and miss the boat entirely. I have left many a service saying to myself, “What did he or she say? What were they getting at?”
For those of you who have been attending services during these two years plus since I began as Rabbi of Temple Sinai, you have an idea of what kind of sermon I enjoy giving. I certainly share traditional sources, when they can substantiate my point, but I do not use them to “show-off.” I try to share stories either from my own life or from the lives of others that are helpful to the general theme of the sermon.
As often as possible, I try to take the week’s Torah portion and find a part to comment on that is relevant for my life and will be relevant to the lives of my congregants. Yes, I do bring humor into my sermons but not for humor’s sake, but rather, to make the sermons enjoyable so that the lesson is one which its listeners can first want to hear and then use for their daily lives. The goal of every sermon is to give you something to think about and or act on. I try to have a beginning, a middle expanding the idea, and then a conclusion, all within 15 minutes, or so.
If you have listened carefully to my sermons, you have learned a lot about me. You have learned about my personal life and my professional life. You have learned about the experiences, especially from my 30 years as chaplain at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, which shaped me in becoming the kind of Rabbi and person I am today. You have learned of my philosophy, theology, and just the way I try to bring it all together as a modern Jew, with a love of tradition and of spirituality. It is for this reason that I especially hope you will attend Shabbat service this Friday night.
As Judy and I were back in New York last summer attempting to clean out our home of 50 years, I found a sermon I gave at West End Temple in Neponsit, New York, entitled, “The Function of Man in the Universe.” I gave this sermon on December 31, 1965, meaning when I was 17 years old. I shared this sermon with Lynne Weinstein, and she thought I should share it with you, my congregation. Hearing this sermon will allow you to learn a little bit more about your Rabbi.
While I do not quote any Jewish sources and I do not even mention God, it is a highly spiritual sermon giving my view of how a person can relate to the underlying spiritual essence of the universe. At 17, I was a graduating high school senior looking forward to attending Adelphi University, however, transferring after one semester to NYU-University Heights Liberal Arts College. I had written to the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion at the age of twelve stating my desire to become a rabbi, so at 17, I was looking forward to when I could begin seminary.
Shabbat shalom,
Your Rabbi Steve