Sermons

Below is a sampling of Shabbat and festival sermons and addresses delivered by our rabbis, lay leaders, and darshanim (guest speakers).  We hope that you will enjoy browsing through, that you’ll find them resonant and relevant, and that their words will inspire you to come visit us soon!  If you'd like to speak on a particular torah portion, please let us know.

Recent Sermons

• Ba'asher Hu Sham - Making Jewish Sense of the Ukraine Crisis - Rabbi Nicole, March 2022
  • Click here to watch  or click here to read

High Holy Days 5782

Read here or scroll down to watch videos.

• Rabbi Nicole - Rosh Hashanah 5782 - "Our 'After' Life"
• Rabbi Misha - Erev Rosh Hashanah 5782 - "To Dwell or Not to Dwell in the Past"
• Rabbi Nicole - Kol Nidre 5782 - "The Human Project"
• Rabbi Nicole - Yom Kippur Morning 5782 - "The Art of Culturecraft"
• Rabbi Misha - Yom Kippur 5782 - Yizkor sermon

• Rabbi Nicole - Yom Kippur Morning 5781 - "Breathing and Dreaming"
• Rabbi Misha - Yizkor Service 5781 - "Book of Life? Sign me up!"
• Rabbi Nicole - Kol Nidre 5781 - "Grace, Kindness, and the Battle You Know Nothing About"
• Rabbi Nicole - Rosh Hashanah 5781 - "All We Do Not Know"
• Rabbi Misha - Erev Rosh Hashanah 5781
• Rabbi Nicole - Yom Kippur Morning 5780 - "Synagogue and the Quest for a Deeper Humanity"
• Rabbi Nicole - Kol Nidre 5780 - "Yes, And...Standing in the Cringe"
• Rabbi Misha Clebaner - Yiskor Sermon 5780 - "Memory and Storytelling"
• Rabbi Nicole - Rosh Hashanah 5780 - "For the Sake of Heaven"
• Rabbi Misha - Erev Rosh Hashanah 5780
• Rabbi Nicole - Parashat Kedoshim
• Rabbi Nicole - "Helping Our Teens"
• Rabbi Nicole - Yom Kippur 5779 - "You, Through Heavenly Eyes"
• Rabbi Nicole - Kol Nidre 5779 - "Spinning, Turning, and Reckoning"
• Rabbi Nicole - Rosh Hashanah 5779 - "Leave No Trace?"
• Rabbi Nicole - 17 August 2018 - “Israel’s Nation-State Law: A Progressive View”
• Rabbi Nicole - 30 July 2018 - "Right or Left, We Are All Yisrael: Talking About Israel”
• Rabbi Nicole - 20 July 2018 - "Plain as Day: Our Bible’s Call for Social Justice"
• Rabbi Nicole - 16 February 2018 - "What's in Those 'Prayers' Anyway?"
• Rabbi Nicole - 23 December 2017 - "Our movement taught me Ahavat Yisrael"
• Rabbi Nicole - Vayishlach 5778 - "Dinah's Silence - It Ends with Us"
• Rabbi Nicole - Yizkor 2017/5778 - "Road Runner"
• Rabbi Nicole - Kol Nidre 2017/5778 - “Who We Are, What We Vow – Building our Progressive Jewish Vocabulary”
• Rabbi Nicole - Rosh Hashanah 2017/5778 - "You, Post-Truth"
• Rabbi Nicole - "Why I am in Love with our Movement"
• Rabbi Nicole Kol Nidre 2016/5777 - "Inspiration Destination"
• Rabbi Nicole 9 November 2016 - "Teaching Holiness, to Save a Life"
• Rabbi Nicole 4 April 2014 - "It's Time to End our Silence on Syria"
• Rabbi Nicole 26 July 2013 - Parshat Ekev, "Torah of Hope"

From our darshanim (guest speakers):

• Peter Allen - 'The Jewish experience of WW1 and the Centenary of the Treaty of Versailles' - 2 Nov. 2019
• Miriam Itzkowitz, Drash on March of the Living - 1 June 2019
• Brandon Srot, Drash on Life Beyond Laws: Creating a Culture of Diversity and Inclusion - 31 May 2019
• Peter Allen, NSTE Member - Drash on "Reflections on the 100th Anniversary of the Signing of the Armistice of WWI and 80th Anniversary of Kristallnacht", 10 November 2018
• Miriam Itzkowitz,  NSTE Member and Year 10 student at Emanuel School - Drash on "Children with Autism", 18 August 2018
• Leanne Shelton, NSTE Marketing & Communications Coordinator - Drash on "Jews on the Periphery", 21 July 2018
• Eliza McCarroll, Rabbinical Student & NSTE Member - Drash on Parashat Naso, 26 May 2018
• Gail Le Bransky, NSTE Member - Drash on "Being a Jewish feminist”, 6 April 2018
• Jenny Peles, NSTE Member - Drash on Haftarah from Hosea, 27 May 2017 - Lay-led service
• Debbie Scholem, NSTE Member, Parashot Behar and Behukotai, 20 May 2017 - In honour of the Art of Psalms artwork donated by herself and husband Stephen Scholem