Yom Kippur | Rabbi Michael Siegel | October 2, 2025
Yom Kippur Sermon 2025/5786 Am Yisrael Chai: The People of Israel Live Rabbi Michael S. Siegel 1945. The Bergen Belsen death camp. 50,000 people, most of them Jews, were murdered here, including a teenage girl named Anne Frank. After British troops liberated Bergen Belsen it became a displaced persons camp where they cared for Continue Reading »
Yom Kippur | Rabbi Michael Siegel | October 2, 2025
Panim El Panim: The Power of Looking into Each Other’s Faces Yom Kippur 2025/5786 Rabbi Michael Siegel There is no feeling quite like holding a newborn in your arms. The warmth of the child’s body, the softness of their skin, so small, so beautiful, so miraculous. There is an unparalleled sense of wonder, seeing the Continue Reading »
Rosh Hashanah | Rabbi Michael Siegel | September 23, 2025
Finding Our Confidence After the Aftershocks of October 7th Rosh Hashanah: 2025/5786 Rabbi Michael Siegel Rebo’no Shel Olam, Creator of Heaven and Earth, You who created each of us in the Tselem Elohim in Your Sacred Image. On this day of Rosh Hashanah, we celebrate Your Creation. On this day of Rosh Hashanah, the difficulties Continue Reading »
Shemini | Rabbi Michael Siegel | April 26, 2025
Remembering Pope Francis Through a Jewish Lens Parshat Shemini 2025 Rabbi Michael Siegel An oxymoron is a figure of speech, usually one or two words, in which seemingly contradictory terms appear side by side. Here are a few examples: alone together bittersweet deafening silence deceptively honest Oxymoron comes from the Greek word oksús (meaning “keen”) and Continue Reading »
Rabbi Michael Siegel | April 20, 2025
On this last day of Passover, we gather for Yizkor and find ourselves ending the holiday where we began: focused on the sacred exercise of memory. The Haggadah instructed us on the first night: “In every generation, each person must see themselves as if they personally had gone out of Egypt.” This central imperative of Continue Reading »
Rabbi Michael Siegel | February 21, 2025
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel was once quoted as saying, “I am a hopeful person by nature,” an “optimist against my better judgment.” I think that Heschel could have been describing the Jewish people, who have long been optimists against all rationality or reason. The greatest example of this is the fact that Israel’s national anthem Continue Reading »
Bo | Rabbi Michael Siegel | February 1, 2025
The Necessity of Teaching Our Children Passover and International Holocaust Day Rabbi Michael S. Siegel February 1, 2025 It was the moment that our people had been waiting for, for hundreds of years. The plagues had devastated Egypt, and the God of Israel had shown beyond a shadow of a doubt who the true divinity was. Continue Reading »
Vayechi | Rabbi Michael Siegel | January 13, 2025
Vayechi: And He Lived Remembering President Jimmy Carter, Warts and All Rabbi Michael Siegel January 11, 2025 Oliver Cromwell was an English statesman, politician, and soldier, widely regarded as one of the most important figures in British history. When sitting for a portrait by artist Sir Peter Lely, he asked to be depicted with pimples, warts Continue Reading »
Rabbi Michael Siegel | December 9, 2023
It is Shabbat Hanukkah. Ask any Jew how to observe Hanukkah and most will be able to tell you that for 8 days we kindle the Hanukkah Menorah, each night in ascending order. We eat either Latkes or Sufganiyot (according to your taste) and play dreidel. But ask the same group why we kindle the Continue Reading »
Bereshit | Rabbi Michael Siegel | October 14, 2023
B’herif Ayin is an ancient phrase that goes all the way back to time of the Bible. It means in the blink of an eye. The Rabbis use it to describe how quickly things can change. In an instant everything is different…in the blink of an eye. While many of us did not know the Continue Reading »
