Rabbi's Blog
TWO RABBIS WALK INTO A CHURCH
Last week, I found myself walking into Prospect Presbyterian Church in Maplewood. Rabbi Allie Klein, a colleague from TSTI, had…
WHAT'S WONDERFUL ABOUT PARKING OUTSIDE RALPH LAUREN
For logistical reasons related to parenting obligations and medical appointments, I spent a few days earlier this week in the…
THANKSGIVING, GRATITUDE, AND WHATSAPP
A father is weeding the family garden with his young daughter. They are bickering. “If I can stop whining,” the…
HOW DO YOU KNOW?
The alarm interrupted a dream about my son (Jonah) surprising me at home. In the dream he wasn’t feeling well…
INTO THE UNKNOWN: LECH L’CHA IN A POST-ELECTION WEEK
I’ve told the story before: of a woman who, as part of a long illness, found she could not eat.…
THE ONE YOU FEED: ELECTIONS AND ANXIETY
A snippet of a phone conversation yesterday with a friend: Me: Hi, how are you?Friend (a bit down): Y’know, I’m…
OUR ONE PRECIOUS LIFE
To watch this sermon, delivered on Yom Kippur 2024, click here. If I am honest, I want more than my…
SHOWING UP FOR THE JEWISH PEOPLE
To watch this sermon, delivered October 3, 2024, click here. Sebastian Junger is now an accomplished journalist but he had…
GETTING READY FOR ROSH HASHANAH, IN WAR AND IN HOPE
https://youtu.be/N_QcLqudMUc?si=sEE5fXQpdwKqxnhl We learned a lot this week, the Jewish community, about war and loss and grief and senseless violence and…
THE OLYMPICS, JOSEPHUS, AND THE ENGLISH COTTON MERCHANT
We are not much of a TV-during-dinner family, but for the Olympics, we gather to watch the daily recap over…
ON POTHOLES AND GRATITUDE
New life experience: watching as someone steals your packages off your front stoop. Not a thing when you live on…
JULY 4: SHINE BRIGHT
When the kids were little, we used to take them to visit my in-laws for July 4. My (very wonderful)…
MINT OREOS AND THOSE 2,000 YEAR-OLD TEFILLIN
It only took until Tuesday. It wasn’t the Mint Oreos that Naomi brought home from Target, though they didn’t help…
RAFAH, COMPASSION, AND HOLDING MULTIPLE TRUTHS
Maybe because of the images from Rafah all week, maybe out of a sense of being misunderstood, or maybe because…
SERVICE, SERVICES, SERVING: A Note for Memorial Day
In today’s America, the idea that we are obligated to serve—that our lives are somehow to be “of service”— feels…
PESACH: WHAT STORY ARE WE IN?
“All… adults have only known Jews who were strong enough to help us,” he said, “and now the idea that you need our help…
IS THERE A BLESSING FOR AN ECLIPSE?
Just as we were preparing to send this week’s message, the Earth shook. All the more reason to click below…
ON BASEBALL, THE BACHELOR, AND BOREDOM
I watched “The Bachelor” finale with my daughter this week. How emotionally intense it wanted to be! Daisy was brought…
ARE WE INTERNALIZING ANTISEMTISM?
My intention this week had been to keep it light. After all, we brought in the month of Adar this…
ON WRITING, AVOIDANCE, AND SHOWING UP FOR EACH OTHER
Somewhere in the space between reluctance to commit and the sense of being too busy, I have found a million…
ON SIGNS, SLOGANS & HOW WE MAKE FOR NUANCE
“Rabbi, the message is not getting through.” Sitting with one of the more deeply involved Oheb Shalom members, I was…
SERMON, SAT MORNING, DEC 2, 2023
https://youtube.com/watch?v=WxzQ69a8Nco%3Fsi%3DU3RGgtWI6uqok578
STRETCHING OUR HEARTS AS BIG AS THEY WILL GO
As many of you know, I served at a congregation in Ohio as an interim rabbi the year prior to…
SERMON, SAT MORNING, NOV 4, 2023
https://youtube.com/watch?v=8Hce0_iFpZY%3Fsi%3Dw9Zg6e9Vig2hKnI5
ON HEARTBREAK AND HOPE
Rabbi Treu joined a small group of clergy for a 36-hour Solidarity Mission to Israel organized by Greater MetroWest Federation…
AN OP-ED WE DID NOT WANT TO WRITE
When we first got word of the Hamas Simchat Torah massacre we were sad and brokenhearted. But we know the…
MAKING THE WORLD BETTER THROUGH LAUGHTER
Who remembers Norman Cousins?Norman Cousins was a nice Jewish boy, who grew up not far from here in Union City,…
ON THE MYSTERY AND MAGIC OF CHAROSET
In our family, it is the matzah balls that win the nostalgia award. The brisket, too, but sometimes that is…
ANTI-SEMITISM TODAY
Earlier this week, I was astounded to log in to one of the news websites I read regularly and see…
WHAT TORAH IS GOOD FOR
This week is a pessimist’s raison d’etre: devastation in Haiti, heartbreak and harrowing events in Afghanistan, the continued flourishing of…
OHEB AT THE ISAIAH HOUSE
When I was in high school, I spent a large part of my time and energy helping people who were…
JEWISH IDENTITY IN SPORTS
Jewish baseball is hot right now. Team Israel heads to the Olympics, in itself a minor miracle as Israel has…