From the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for Life

Temple Emanuel of Newton
  • 5.0 (8)
  • Judaism
  • Updated Weekly

Bringing weekly Jewish insights into your life. Join Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz, Rabbi Michelle Robinson and Rav-Hazzan Aliza Berger of Temple Emanuel in Newton, MA as they share modern ancient wisdom.

  1. May 30

    Shabbat Sermon: Maimonides’s Moment—And Our Own with Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz

    I want to talk to you this morning about a pivotal moment, a fork in the road moment, faced by the greatest rabbi who ever lived, Maimonides. And while we are not Maimonides, and we live in a very different time and place, we all face our own version of Maimonides’s moment. His story has so much to teach us.

    17 min

  2. May 30

    Talmud Class: Tuning Our Six Strings

    Please do yourself a favor. Listen to the commencement address that country star Eric Church recently gave at the University of North Carolina. It’s 18 minutes—and very much worth our time. Church offers that there are what he calls "six strings" to a life well lived. If all six strings are properly tuned, our life can be a beautiful song. If any one of those strings is not properly tuned, the song of our life is off.  We can hear it. The people in our life can hear it, too. Take a good look at the list. What strings of ours need tuning?  Church observes that the need to tune our strings is never-ending. At every age and stage some string or strings needs our attention. Which makes sense. Faith is an important string, but events like illness, death, and loss rock our faith. Family is an important string, but families are ever-changing. Loved ones die, loved ones are born, people grow up and out. Marriage is an important string, but every marriage has its different chapters. And so on for all the strings. On Shabbat morning we are going to look at three Jewish values—listening (shema), focusing (kavanah), and returning (teshuvah)—that can bring our strings into attunement. Church’s commencement address has gone viral because it is artful and true. Matching his six strings with our three Jewish values will add beauty and meaning to our song and our life.

    41 min

  3. May 23

    Shavuot Sermon: Never Say Goodbye with Rabbi Michelle Robinson

    May 23, 2026

    14 min

  4. May 23

    Talmud Class: Parenting Through the Lens of Revelation

    Last week, we cut Eder’s hair for the first time in celebration of his third birthday. As he grows, Solomon and I find ourselves thinking more intentionally about the kind of parents we hope to be. How do we offer the scaffolding and boundaries that help a child to flourish? What does it mean to guide with love, clarity, and presence? What does it mean to be a good parent?   As it turns out, Shavuot has something to say about all of this. Revelation wasn’t a single moment or a single style. God didn’t give Torah once, in one voice, with one emotional tone. Instead, revelation unfolded gradually — sometimes with thunder, sometimes with quiet, sometimes through story, sometimes through relationship. Each moment was shaped so the people could actually receive it.   In this class, we’ll explore Torah’s revelation stories and midrashic portraits of divine communication alongside different models of parenting. But beneath the texts lies a deeper question: How do we share wisdom, values, and truth in ways that can truly be heard — by our children, by our communities, and by the world we’re trying to build?

    41 min

  5. May 22

    Both Sides of the Glass: the Art of Jewish Self-Consciousness with Shavuot Guest Speaker Joshua Foer

    Author and social entrepreneur Joshua Foer is the co-founder of several initiatives to make Jewish learning and cultural exploration accessible worldwide, including Sefaria, the open-access library of Jewish texts, Lehrhaus, a community hub in Somerville, the Jewish film and TV production company Leviathan, and the design competition Sukkah City. He is also the co-founder of Atlas Obscura and author of Moonwalking with Einstein, an international bestseller published in 37 languages. Josh was recently named one of the 50 most innovative Jews of the last 50 years in Moment Magazine.

    54 min

  6. May 20

    Bruce Feiler in Conversation with Rabbi Gardenswartz on his Newest Book, A Time to Gather

    In his new book A Time to Gather, our friend and multiply published bestselling author, Bruce Feiler, delves into the role of rituals in our lives, how traditional old and innovative new rituals might work together, and our empowered role in creating them. In this podcast, he offers a one-sentence recipe for the diversity of innovative rituals that help and heal, that anchor and inspire: Something new, something old, something borrowed, and something You. Bruce will also be our speaker on the afternoon of Yom Kippur, September 21, before Ne'ilah; the day that is most filled with ritual: not eating, not drinking, not having relations, not wearing leather, praying, beating our chest as we offer the vidui, the confessional, together as a community.

    44 min

  7. May 16

    Shabbat Sermon: Time in a Bottle with Rabbi Michelle Robinson

    May 16, 2026

    11 min

  8. May 16

    Talmud Class: Much Ado About Nothing? Shakespeare’s Hidden Jewish Roots

    In 1290, Jews were expelled from England, only to return in 1656, three-and-a-half centuries later. William Shakespeare published his works between 1589 and 1613. Except for perhaps a smattering of crypto-Jews, 275 years prior to his birth, 40 years past his death, there was no Jewish presence in England. Dr. Stephen Greenblatt, in his introduction to the Norton Shakespeare, notes that Elizabethans were fascinated by Jews and Judaism. We are going to explore the bard’s roll in this phenomenon, the inordinate number of Talmudic and Mishnaic references in his writings, along with his possible Jewish roots. More importantly, let’s address the phenomenon of why a nation that never encountered a Jew was so intrigued, and what that might mean for us today.

    44 min
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
8 Ratings

About

Bringing weekly Jewish insights into your life. Join Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz, Rabbi Michelle Robinson and Rav-Hazzan Aliza Berger of Temple Emanuel in Newton, MA as they share modern ancient wisdom.

Information

  • Creator
    Temple Emanuel of Newton
  • Years Active
    2019 - 2026
  • Episodes
    591
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Temple Emanuel of Newton

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