Category: Rabbinic Thoughts
-
Touching the Edge of Life
The Torah recognises that death and pain change the texture of the air around us. In this sermon for Shabbat Parah, Rabbi Adrian explores the ancient ritual of the Red Heifer (Parah Adumah) from Numbers 19. While we often focus on the bereaved, the Torah highlights a striking paradox: those who help others become “pure”…
-
Beyond the Megillah
Purim usually brings laughter, but this year the news from the Middle East feels particularly heavy. As we watch regimes shift and sirens sound, how do we find the genuine courage to celebrate? I have been reflecting on the resilience of our friends in Israel and the humbling grace of the Baha’i community. Let us…
-
The Geometry of Wholeness
In a world that prizes the “finished” individual, the Torah offers a provocative alternative: the half-shekel. By requiring a contribution that is intentionally incomplete, the mitzvah suggests that we cannot arrive before the Divine entirely on our own. Rabbi Adrian explores how our modern obsession with self-reliance can lead to isolation, and why the “grammar…
-
Memory as a Sacred Obligation
The silence left behind by the stopped hostage clock is not the joyous quiet of a struggle won, but the heavy stillness of a cycle closed. In Parashat Beshallach, we read that Moses took the bones of Joseph with him out of Egypt. Even in a life or death escape, the leader of our people…
-
The Weight of Witnessing: Why Your Heart Feels Heavy for Others
Looking at the 10 plagues at the beginning of the Exodus narrative, I think they not only strike Egypt but also pass through the Israelite houses as sound, fear, and memory. The Israelites may be spared some of the blows, but they still live with the cries in the night and the knowledge of what…
-
A Letter to Myself: Reflections on my father’s first Yahrzeit
In the twelve months since my father’s passing, our community has accompanied around twenty individuals on their final journeys. For a rabbi, walking with the bereaved is a constant, but this year the weight of it felt different. There was a strange, heavy resonance between my private study, where I sat with my own grief,…
-
The Courage of Inadequacy
We often imagine the great biblical leaders as individuals of unshakeable confidence. We tend to picture the cinematic version of Moses, standing fearless before Pharaoh, or the booming voice of a prophet thundering against corruption. Yet, when we look closely at the texts appointed for this Shabbat, we find something far more human, fragile, and…
-
The Theft of Memory: Why the “Palestinian Jesus” Narrative is Antisemitism
From the billboards of New York City to the viral feeds of our social media, a troubling narrative has taken hold this holiday season. The claim that “Jesus was a Palestinian” is being repeated with increasing confidence, often framed as a gesture of solidarity with the oppressed. Yet, beneath this veneer of social justice lies…
-
At the End: Finding God After the Chaos
The Hebrew word that gives this week’s Torah portion its name, Mikeitz, translates simply as ‘at the end’. It refers to the end of two years of Joseph’s imprisonment, marking the precise moment his fortune shifts. In the biblical narrative, the timing is impeccable. Pharaoh dreams, the cupbearer suddenly remembers Joseph, and in a whirlwind…
-
Our Civic Covenant: Faith and Democracy
In a time of deep societal division and rising anxiety, Rabbi Adrian Schell delivers a powerful address for Civic Shabbat, “A Covenant of Courage.”Drawing on the ancient call to Abraham in Parashat Lech Lecha and the prophet Micah’s vision of peace, Rabbi Schell explores the urgent challenge of our time: the breaking of our “civic…
