Author: Rabbi Michael Sternfield
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What is the point of Bar or Bat Mitzvah anyway?
From time to time I like to recall my own Bar Mitzvah, which took place in Peoria, Illinois. You might think -Oh, the Rabbi- He had to have been perfect when he was 13! Guess again. I remember so well I was required to memorize my Bar Mitzvah speech, which had been ghostwritten for me…
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Can one doubt the existence of God and still be a good Jew?
I want to speak with you this morning about that most widely used and most abused three-letter word in our language, spelled G-O-D. We must say the words “God,” “the Eternal One,” “Adonai,” and “Eloheinu” dozens of times over the course of these Holy Days. The question is: Can one doubt the existence of God…
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A Broken Hallelujah
Our music director has told me that the Kol Nidré and Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah have something in common. Both are composed in an ambivalent combination of major and minor chords, a musical metaphor perhaps for alternating expressions of joy and of sorrow.
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Who and What is a Jew?
This sermon was delivered on Yom Kippur 2007 at Chicago Sinai Congregation. I am not sure whether my remarks today should be described as a sermon. The High Holy Days especially are a time for considering the meaning of Jewish identity. My objective, this morning, is to provoke discussion. I fully expect that there will…
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Welcoming ‘Jewish Green Card Holders’
This essay was delivered as a Rosh Hashanah sermon in 2002 at Chicago Sinai Congregation in Illinois. Let me begin in a somewhat off-beat way. Children’s literature, particularly fables, often express great insight about human nature. Of all the fables that I read as a child, the one that continues to resonate with me the most is…