Hazzan Jessi: Lessons from My Elders — and from Noah
by Hazzan Jessi Roemer I’d like to tell you about three of my elders: My dad, Dr. Peter Roemer, who died at age 86 this past May; Rabbi Dr. Arthur Waskow, who died at age 92 this week; and my mom, Cantor Susan Roemer, who died in May 2010, almost fifteen and a […]
Hope and Healing
by Rabbi Nathan Kamesar It’s hard to put to words the experience of relief many of us are feeling in response to the release of the living Israeli hostages this week, and an apparent end to the war — an experience, which, to state the obvious, must be but a shade of the experience […]
We Need Each Other
Yom Kippur 5786 by Rabbi Nathan Kamesar We need each other. That’s the premise of this sermon. And yet as nice as that sounds, and as easy as that is to affirm, I can promise you it can take a lot longer to learn than one might think. I’ve learned that lesson the hard way. It’s […]
Sacred Touchstones
Kol Nidrei 5786 by Rabbi Nathan Kamesar As I stand here on Erev Yom Kippur, the eve of the Day of Atonement, I’m picturing us on the shore of a river. I don’t know why we’re here, but our task, I feel certain, is to reach the other side. The current is rushing, and the […]
Moments of Clarity: Connecting With the Divine
Rosh Hashanah 5786 by Rabbi Nathan Kamesar In the course of my prayers these days, I do a lot of just sitting and listening: sitting and letting my heart, my spirit, wander, seeing what comes. Recently, what has come to me was a leadership course I took in rabbinical school during which we were asked […]