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

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

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

Erev Rosh Hashanah 5785 by Rabbi Nathan Kamesar I want to start my teaching this evening with one of the most well-worn stories of the Yamim Noraim, the Days of Awe, about a boy and his flute.¹   When Rabbi Israel was about to enter

Yom Kippur, Society Hill Synagogue, 5784 By Rabbi Nathan Kamesar There is one particular story from Torah that is sticking with me this Yom Kippur, and it’s a story that, while perhaps known to many, does not necessarily have an enduring role in the Jewish

Kol Nidre, Society Hill Synagogue, 5784 By Rabbi Nathan Kamesar Rabbi Akiva has been called the greatest rabbi of them all, the most esteemed of the ancient rabbis. So when he identifies what he considers to be כְּלַל גָּדוֹל בַּתּוֹרָה, the great principle in all

Rosh Hashanah 5784 By Rabbi Nathan Kamesar I have to say, I never imagined myself here. I never imagined myself as a pulpit rabbi.  Many of you know that I had a brief foray as an attorney before this, and even when I got to

Erev Rosh Hashanah, Society Hill Synagogue, 5784 By Rabbi Nathan Kamesar Judaism is not a religion that is often closely associated with math; most of us rabbis got into this business precisely to avoid it, but I want to get into just a little bit

By Rabbi Nathan Kamesar For those of you, like me, who love a podcast, or who are exploring the medium, I loved being interviewed on the latest Evolve: Groundbreaking Jewish Conversations podcast. You can listen to it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. It is titled, “High Holidays:

Yom Kippur 5783 By Rabbi Nathan Kamesar Time for another song lyric. This one comes from a song by Jewish Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen that has been, as one writer put it, “repurposed and reinvented by other artists so many times, that it [has become]

Kol Nidre 5783 By Rabbi Nathan Kamesar Philadelphia’s own Tariq Trotter, lead MC and singer of the hip hop band, The Roots, one of the more successful musical acts to come out of Philadelphia in recent memory and current house band of The Tonight Show,

Rosh Hashanah 5783 By Rabbi Nathan Kamesar It’s been a rough year. Years? Decade? Century? We’re weary. How much longer is this pandemic going to last, we wonder? How many times do we have to turn on the news and encounter another attack on our

Yom Kippur Sermon 5782 By Rabbi Nathan Kamesar I want everyone to look around for a minute. Those in the sanctuary, and those at home. Maybe Ven, our camera person can pull back for a minute so that those at home watching on Zoom can

Kol Nidre Sermon 5782 By Rabbi Nathan Kamesar One of the stories that struck me this year going through our annual cycle of reading the Torah is one that is not often covered in your classic Hebrew School curriculum. Long after Noah and the flood,

Rosh Hashanah 5782 By Rabbi Nathan Kamesar I think I know what the most important piece of Torah is.  I know, it’s a lofty claim. It’s like saying you can identify the single greatest piece of art, the greatest piece of music, the greatest basketball

Yom Kippur Sermon 5781 By Rabbi Nathan Kamesar Al shlosha d’varim ha’olam omed. On three things the universe stands. Al ha’torah, va’al ha’avoda, v’al gemilut chasadim. On Torah; on Avodah, worship or service, and on gemilut chasadim, acts of lovingkindness. So says pirkei avot, the

Kol Nidre Sermon 5781 By Rabbi Nathan Kamesar Tonight for my sermon I want to talk about a makhloket, so first I have to define what that term means. A makhloket is that component of a dialogue where a disagreement is discovered. It’s not necessarily

Rosh Hashanah Sermon 5781 By Rabbi Nathan Kamesar For my first of three sermons this year, I figured I’d get right to it. The state of the world today. Humanity’s role in a broken cosmos. We’ve got about 10 minutes. Let’s figure this out. In

Kol Nidre Sermon 5778 By Rabbi Nathan Kamesar Let’s play a game.  I’m not promising you it’s going to be a very fun game. It is Yom Kippur, after all –the moment we’re implored to afflict ourselves, to make atonement for a year’s, a lifetime’s

Kol Nidre Sermon 5779 By Rabbi Nathan Kamesar Here we are at Kol Nidre. Perhaps the most sacred time of the Jewish year. A time when our worldly cares are set aside; when we are supposed to be locked in to this moment; when the