Category: Torah
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Finding Holiness in a Fractured World
Vayikra [and He called] refuses the idea that faith should be simple, tidy, or continuous. It understands that life is fractured, and that a human being often comes to the holy place carrying contradiction. Sometimes we arrive with devotion. Sometimes we arrive with numbness. Sometimes we arrive because something inside us has gone wrong, and…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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The Lonely God and the Creation of Relationship
There is a strange tenderness in the second creation story.The first chapter of Genesis is full of grandeur and order: light and darkness, sea and sky, evening and morning. Everything unfolds with rhythm and precision, and when it is done, God looks at the world and calls it very good. Then the tone changes. The…
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Take Words With You: A Jewish Guide to a Hopeful New Year
Between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the work of ‘teshuvah’ (return) can feel daunting. But what if the essential tool for change isn’t guilt, but language? Rabbi Adrian Schell explores the ancient Jewish “technology” of using words—for apology, for prayer, and for rewriting our own stories—as we prepare for the new year. Drawing on the…
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The Pain of Being Unseen: A Rosh Hashanah Message of Hope and Recognition
On Rosh Hashanah, we stand before the Divine with a profound and deeply human hope: to be truly seen. This sermon explores the quiet, sinking feeling of being overlooked that we have all experienced and connects it to the central prayers of the High Holy Days. It asks: What is the greatest blessing we can…
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When Conscience and Command Collide: Faith and Ethics in the Akedah (Binding of Isaac) Story
When Conscience and Command Collide: Faith and Ethics in the Akedah (Binding of Isaac) Story In this powerful sermon for the first day of Rosh Hashanah 5786, Rabbi Adrian Schell of The Wimbledon Synagogue offers a profound re-reading of the Binding of Isaac (the Akedah). What if Abraham’s journey up the mountain was not an…
