Sermons
Kol Nidre, 25th September 2023, Worry and doubt – Ed Kessler
SermonEvery year in the run-up to the High Holy Days I do what you’d expect me to do: I worry. Not only because there is too little time to prepare adequately but because the need to decide on the topic of the kol nidrei sermon is agonisin...
Shabbat Shuva, 23rd September 2023 – David Karat
SermonDear Friends Shabbat Shuva Shalom and Shana Tova Today is the Shabbat of Shuva returning or Tshuva repentance. The first Shabbat of the new year. Traditionally it was one of the two Shabbats on which the Rabbi of the Community would give...
Beshalach, 4th February 2023 – Marc Saperstein
SermonWe have listened to the words of our Torah reading from parashat Beshalach, Exodus 14 and 15, in Hebrew and English, and I would imagine that I am not the only one who found some rather strange problems with the words of our parashah, ...
7th January 2023, The Stories of two Youths 4,000 Years Apart – Leslie Wheeler
SermonThe Stories of Two Youths 4,000 Years Apart Today I want to discuss with you the life experiences of two youths, one a 17 year old Joseph who 4,000 years ago finds himself a slave in Egypt, the other being my own experience on joining th...
Lech Lecha, 5th November 2022 – Martin Cahn
SermonWhen I was presented with this parsha as a basis for my sermon, I began to ask myself what should I comment on. This is the story of the wanderings of Abram and his family, Sarai, his nephew Lot and Sarai’s maidservant and later Abram...
Kol Nidre 2022, Rab Eizik’s Treasure – Marc Saperstein
SermonRabbi Shneuer Zalman of Liadi, the founder of the Chasidic sect known as Chabad, was once thrown in jail by the Russian government because of the slander of an informer. While awaiting trial, he was visited by the chief jailer. Impressed...
23rd July 2022, Do NDEs (Near Death Experiences) provide an insight into the “Olam Haba”? – Leslie Wheeler
SermonJudaism devotes itself to the here and now, the “Olam azi” but belief in the afterlife “Olam haba” is also core to Judaism. Just as when God formed Adam from the earth and blew into his nostrils the breath of life “Neshamah” ...
Numbers 25:10-26:4, 16th July 2022 – Franz Fuerst
SermonWhat is the problem with sermons? They are only words. No matter how powerful or passionate the message contained in them may be, the raw materials – the words – from which they are crafted, are always fragile and ephemeral. And words ar...
Mishpatim – 29th January 2022 – Franz Fuerst
SermonToday’s Torah portion Mishpatim with its rather stern list of divine statutes, ordinances and potential punishments may seem slightly at odds with a simcha, the joyous occasion of celebrating a bar mitzvah. The BM boy’s dvar torah ...
B’shallach, 15th January 2022 – Did The Exodus Happen? – Leslie Wheeler
SermonThe vision that most of us have of the Exodus is typified by a quote from General Sir Richard Gale’s Great Battles of Biblical History (1): “The long trek over the arid desert was a grim undertaking for a tired and undernourished peo...
Bo, 8th January 2022 – Mike Frankl
SermonThose of you who have heard me speak before will know that if at all possible I like to put myself in the shoes of the characters involved. Today’s Sedra covers the plagues and the requirement that we remember and recreate Passover eac...
Vayechi, 18th December 2021 – Fred Diamond
SermonThis week’s portion, Vayechi, is the last one in Genesis/B’reishit – it so happens I gave a sermon on it just 2 years ago, right before Covid began affecting all our lives. I spoke then about Jewish identity, partly inspired by K...
Behar-Bechukotail, Sabbatical and Jubilee, 8th May 2021 – Fred Diamond
SermonOne of the main features of this week’s portion – a double portion – Behar-Bechukotai is to present the laws of Shmita and Yovel: Sabbatical and Jubilee. I naturally associate the words in English with academic sabbaticals and regn...
Parashah Va-yishlach, 19th November 2021 – Leslie Wheeler
SermonOld Moishe Applebaum arrived at the post office with a post card in his hand. He approached the young counter assistant and said, “I’m sorry to bother you but could you address this post card for me? My arthritis is acting up today and...
Parashat Nitzavim, 4th September 2021 – Leslie Wheeler
SermonThe Book of Deuteronomy is the fifth and final book of the Five Books of Moses. By the time Deuteronomy starts, the Children of Israel have already left Egypt, stood at Mount Sinai to receive the Torah, built the Tabernacle and wandered ...
Lights and Lamps of the Torah, 29th May 2021 – Leslie Wheeler
SermonIntroduction The importance of light and lamps mentioned in the Torah cannot be over emphasised. At the very beginning of Torah we are told: “And God said: ‘Let there be light.’ And there was light. And God saw the light, that it w...
Be-Midbar – Hosea 2, 15 May 2021 – Marc Saperstein
SermonOn Thursday evening, our Torah Study group met as we have done every Thursday evening for the past two or three years. Each week between 10 and 15 members of our congregation focus on the Torah reading designated by British Reform Judais...
The Haggadah and the Purpose of Questions – Simon Eder
SermonRedemption in Catalonia and Bosnia, The Sarajevo HaggadahWarren Berger, author of A More Beautiful Question, found that kids ask an average of 40,000 questions between the ages of 2 and 5. Adults on the other hand are known to ask on ave...
Purim blog – Simon Eder
SermonPurim and the UnMasking of False Certainties The philosopher Isaiah Berlin in a 1953 essay contrasted two types of thinker – the hedgehog and the fox. The hedgehog has one big idea. Everything else is filtered out. The fox conversely h...
Ben Simon’s Bar Mitzvah, 30 January 2021 – Simon Eder
SermonBenjamin, I can’t help feeling that only you could have mastered such an incredible riddle – we can be seen or we may be invisible, we can be heard but may be muted, we are all celebrating together and yet we are not in the same place,...
Vayechi/Genesis 50, 2 January 2021 – Rachel Berkson
SermonOn Saturday 2 January we read the last chapter of Genesis. With the start of the secular new year in really tough circumstances, it seems a good time to repeat the formula for ending a book: be strong, be strong, and let us strengthen on...
Esau loses his birthright to his younger brother, Jacob, 21 November 2020 – Ed Kessler
SermonPoor Esau. What has his father, Jacob done? He’s not happy and for good reason. No wonder that his mother Rebecca tells her other son, Jacob, to run away until his brother calms down. Families… It is not an accident that the most fam...
Rabbi Lord Sacks And Rabbi Jacobs’ Dialogue In Heaven, 14th November 2020 – Simon Eder
SermonWords this week have poured forth in memory of the late Rabbi Lord Sacks z’’l who passed away last Shabbat. They have come from all sections of the Jewish world and far beyond too. None of course can fill the void which his loss brin...
Parashat Vayeyra, Taking Flight, 7th November 2020 – Rabbi Charles Middleburgh
SermonIreland went into a full lockdown a few days before we did last March. As Rabbi Emeritus to the Dublin Jewish Progressive Congregation, previously visiting the community one weekend a month, we decided to embrace Zoom and on the first po...
Yom Kippur 2020/5781 – Ed Kessler
SermonOne day, a travelling circus came to town. Its star was a lion, kept in a cage 30 metres long, 30 metres wide. For hour upon hour each day, the lion paced up-and-down, back and forth. One night, it broke loose from the cage. His escape w...
Sealed for Life or Death? Kol Nidre 2020 – Marc Saperstein
SermonMany passages of our liturgy, and especially the High Holy Day liturgy, derive their power from the integral connection between music and words. Indeed in some cases, the melody seems far more important than the words. Kol Nidre is an ob...
Nitzavim – Vayeilech, 12th September 2020 – Fred Diamond
SermonWhen Fiona asked me to give this week’s sermon, I thought “Oh no, I can’t possibly.” I had several big work commitments right around now – I was still supposed to be travelling next week. But I took a quick look at the portion ...
Sof’tim, 22 August 2020 – Leslie Wheeler
SermonFor my sermon today I have chosen two important themes from Parahsha Sof’tim: The guarantee and pursuit of justice within Jewish society The protection and safeguard of trees The pursuit of justice in Jewish society evolves from the in...
Shabbat V’etchanan, 1st August 2020 – Deuteronomy 3:23 – 7:11, Hanna Hazi
SermonShabbat shalom everyone! I’m spoiled for choice regarding what to talk about with today’s parsha, it’s an embarrassment of riches. We have everything from the Ten Commandments to the beginning of the Sh’ma to that fascinating asi...
Shabbat 25 July 2020, Deuteronomy chapter 1 verses 21 to 33 – Mike Frankl
SermonImagine the scene – on the eastern side of the Dead Sea in an area now in the central western parts of Jordan, where the sun-drenched desert landscape of sandstone bluffs and valleys is extremely hot and dry, and there camped on the Pl...
Hukkot, 27 June 2020 – Tali Artman
SermonOn this last shabbat of pride month I want to talk about people who rarely get a mention in our communities, the people who regardless of their sexual orientation are simply alone. In this parasha we read of the death of Miriam and Aaron...
Shabbat 20 June 2020 – Simon Eder
SermonThis has no doubt been said but no longer does wanting an extra lie in on a Shabbat morning now preclude us from coming to shul and neither is geography an obstacle and of the infinite opportunities now to attend shul all over the planet...
Joshua, Israel’s Great Military Commander, 13 June 2020 – Leslie Wheeler
SermonIn this digital age the crowing glory of any historical event is when software engineers make the event into a gaming video. Use any internet search engine and you’ll find numerous games representing the “Battle of Jericho”. Althou...
Shabbat Beha’alotecha, 6 June 2020, Rabbi Dr Deborah Kahn-Harris, Principal Leo Baeck College
SermonAccording to my best recollection I was eight when the new music teacher started at my elementary school. Memory is tricky, though, so I might be out by a year or two either side. But I remember her starting. I don’t remember having mu...
Naso – Numbers 6:1 to 12, Judges 13:2-25, 30 May 2020, Mike Frankl
SermonThis week’s Sedra, Naso, is the second section of the book of Numbers, and is about setting the scene for living in the desert. Remember that in parashat Bemidbar last week, it was stated that the Israelite population included over 6...
Parashah Acharei Mot – K’edoshim, 3rd May 2020, Leslie Wheeler
SermonOur Torah reading today from Leviticus 19:23-37 consists of 14 verses packed full of God’s commandments instructing us what we must do and what we must not do. The first verse, however, differs in that it commands us when we must do so...
Shabbat Hagadol, 4th March 2020 – “How is this Seder different from all other Seders?”, Hannah Hazi
SermonShabbat shalom, everyone. What a week it’s been. Fiona asked me to put together a sermon for today, as we sadly won’t be celebrating Abby Steinberg’s bat mitzvah today – like many other events, it has been postponed to a happier ti...
Religious Responses to Plague, 28th March 2020, Rabbi Marc Saperstein
SermonA confession about the content of my message. The verses selected by the Reform Movement from the opening chapters of Leviticus strike me as totally inappropriate for a sermon to be delivered under our current situation, and I have there...
Vayakhel-P’Kudei: Exodus 35:20-35, 21st March 2020, Rabbi Professor Tony Bayfield CBE, DD (Cantuar)
SermonVIRTUE IN THE TIME OF CORONAVIRUS These are challenging times. I agonised about whether I – aged 73 – should drive up to Cambridge today or whether it was better to write the sermon and then ask Mike Frankl to kneel down and imperson...
Parashat Sh’mot, Mi anochi? Who am I? – 18th January 2020, Mike Levy
SermonSermon given by Mike Levy on the occasion of his grandson’s baby blessing Three words..well actually two stand out for me in this week’s reading from Exodus. The words are uttered by Moses. Mi anochi….Who am I? Who am I? is probably ...
Parashat Vayechi – 11th January 2020, Fred Diamond
SermonThis week’s parasha, Vayechi, closes B’reishit, Genesis – more specifically it marks the end of the story of Jacob, Joseph and his brothers. We have the death of Jacob in today’s reading, but just preceding this, Jacob blesses Jo...
Parashat Vayigash – 4th January 2020, Tamar Drukker
SermonOnly a few weeks ago I was standing here talking about brothers’ rivalry and the fateful meeting of Jacob and Esau. After the sermon some of you approached me to say that you were hoping that as a mother of three boys, I will be able t...
Parashat Noach – 2nd November 2019, Leslie Wheeler
SermonThe story of Noah’s Ark and the flood has intrigued Jews, Christians and Muslims over many centuries. Despite its overtones of death and destruction, the flood story has given birth to rainbows, countless cheder lessons, nursery decora...
Parashat Bereishit – Josh’s bar mitzvah – 26th October 2019, Rabbi Roderick Young
SermonHer, or maybe his, name is Garranga’rreli. She or he is greatly to be feared. One day a group of people were sheltering under an overhanging rock. A woman had a child on her hip. The child was hungry and tired and it kept crying. To so...
Yom Kippur 2019, Ed Kessler
SermonA Rabbi loved golf so much that one occasion, on Yom Kippur, he left the house early and went out for a quick round by himself, thinking no-one in the community would notice. An angel who happened to be looking on immediately notified Go...
Kol Nidre 2019, Marc Saperstein
SermonHow do we learn to cope with the most difficult decisions we will have to make, how do we learn to choose properly at the critical crossroads of our lives? Psychologists tell us that one way is through models – parents, older siblings,...
Parashah Massey – Journeys and Cities of Refuge – 3rd August 2019, Leslie Wheeler
SermonThe two aspects of Parashah Massey I want to discuss with you today are the 42 journeys and encampments and the cities of refuge. The journeys and encampment are more readily appreciated if we first consider the full magnitude of the E...
Parashat Korah, 29th June 2019, Tamar Drukker
SermonTraditionally, Parashat Korah is a popular portion for with those delivering sermons. Rashi’s opening commentary for this parasha is often misquoted to suggest that it must be read accompanied by a sermon. And why is it so popular? There...
Chukkat, 6th July 2019, Leslie Wheeler
SermonThe Red Heifer and the purification of tumah We read in (Numbers 19:2) “This is the statute of the law which the Lord has commanded, saying: Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring thee a red heifer, faultless, wherein is no b...
Niso, 8th June 2019, Tali Artman Partock
SermonReligion without guilt I once more want to visit today the teaching of my Rabbi Shlomo, a man whose understanding of human nature and religion shaped my life. I try to imagine what he would have to say about this week’s parasha, the lo...
The House is On Fire, 27 April 2019, Simon Eder
SermonAt a meeting of the college faculty, an angel suddenly appears and tells the head of the philosophy department, “I will grant you whichever of three blessings that you choose: wisdom, beauty or £10million.” Immediately the professor...
Parashat Metzora Shabbat Hagadol – 13th April 2019, Les Wheeler
SermonWhen I was first offered this sermon, (my very first by the way!) I was really excited and couldn’t wait to look it up in the Chumash to see what the arashat was all about. I must say my initial reaction was pretty negative. Just more ...
Amidah Meditation, 6th April 2019, Mike Frankl
SermonGiven that we have had three scrolls today because it is Rosh Chodesh, I am not going to discuss any of the readings today but would just like to say a little about the short meditation at the end of the Amidah. It’s a piece that we almo...
Vayikra: Vocation, 16th March 2019, Benji de Almeida-Newton
SermonWhy do people do what they do? Well, if we’re thinking in terms of jobs in an industry of some sort then some people do what they do for money alone, others for the combination of money and intellectual satisfaction; few people do unpa...
Parashat Tetzaveh, 16th February 2019, Tali Artman-Partock
SermonFor most of us, there are two types of Torah readings that we find harder to identify with: those which have to do with mass killings and those which describe the building of and serving in the Temple. Progressive Judaism, as some of you...
The Hebrew Who Chooses to Remain in Slavery, 2nd February 2019, Marc Saperstein
SermonOur Torah parashah this morning contains an embarrassment of riches for sermons. Most of it is of a legal character, establishing a basis for many of the fundamental principles of Jewish law, which we discussed in our Torah study group o...
Faith and Freedom, 19th January 2019, Nick Shenker
SermonToday is 13th Sh’vat 5779 in the Jewish calendar, the day my darling daughter Maya Hannah Shenker (Hannah bat Natan) made Bat’mitzvah here at Beth Shalom and didn’t she do well! I know that you have worked extremely hard and the fr...
Two new sermons – 5th and 12th January 2019
SermonBo – Fred Diamond, 12th January 2019 As you’ll have heard, this week’s Parasha, Bo, is building up to one of the main events of Sh’mot, the book of Exodus, namely the Exodus itself. Let me start by plugging the weekly parasha discu...