Rabbi Levinsky Sermon: Kol Nidre

Small acts of Kindness There is something sacred about the way people learn to care for one another. For many, the culture around Bob Weir and the Grateful Dead became a school of kindness, where strangers greeted one another with hugs, said “I love you” without irony, and made room for each other on the […]

The Protests in Minneapolis Like many of you, I am disturbed by the federal response to the protests in Minneapolis. This week’s Torah portion reminds us that Moses does not ask Pharaoh only for rest from labor, but for the right to gather and serve God together. The Passover Haggadah later names this movement “from bondage […]

Is it ever okay to lie? A seventh grader once asked me a deceptively simple question: Is it ever okay to lie? The Torah answers this question not with a legal decision but with a story. When Joseph’s brothers fear revenge after Jacob’s death, they invent words their father never spoke. They lie, and the […]