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Parashat Korach: When Cain Speaks Again
In this week’s parasha, we encounter more than a leadership challenge. Some mystical sources reveal Korach as the reincarnation of Cain, while Moses carries the spirit of Abel. That ancient sibling tale of envy, wounded entitlement, and primal rage reappears in the sands of the wilderness. Cain’s jealousy began with offerings. His gift from the…
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Marching With the Sound of Hope
In this sermon, Rabbi Adrian Schell continues the courageous conversation taking place in his community, addressing grief, moral disorientation, and hope in turbulent times. Drawing on Numbers Chapter 10, he explores the symbolic power of the silver trumpets: tools that call to community, to action, and to memory. Just as the Israelites finally moved when…
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“When the Dust Speaks: A Reflection for Pride Month”
The dust of the sanctuary says: You belong here too.
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Finding the Way Back from the Wilderness
We know the wilderness well in our tradition. It’s the place where Israel wandered, lost and disoriented. A place of testing and trial, but also of revelation. Sinai happened in the wilderness, not in the comfort of a promised land. Elijah found God not in the fire or the storm, but in the still small…
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The Sabbath of the Land, the Sabbath of the Soul
The Sabbath and Shmita teach us that the land is not merely our resource, but our partner in God’s covenant—a caregiver that Resh Lakish likens to a devoted handmaiden raising the king’s children. When we honour the earth’s need for rest, we rediscover our own worth beyond productivity, learning to breathe not as owners, but…
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What Makes Us Whole?
In Parashat Emor, we find one of the Torah’s more difficult passages — a section that limits which kohanim, which priests, can serve at the altar. A priest with a visible difference — blind, lame, injured, or with a disfigurement — is instructed not to offer the sacred sacrifices.To modern ears, this can feel jarring.…
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Holiness in the Shadow of History: Lessons from Acharei Mot–Kedoshim and VE Day
On the 80th anniversary of VE Day, this sermon reflects on the powerful intersection of Parashat Acharei Mot–Kedoshim with a moment of both liberation and loss in Jewish and world history.—
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The Fire that Sustains, the Fire that Consumes
I have just returned from a few days away in Germany. It was good, and it was needed. The truth is, Pesach – as joyful and rich as it is – carries with it a weight that few of us acknowledge aloud. It is one of the most intense, demanding seasons in the year of…
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Planting Hope in Fragile Soil
This Shabbat, we find ourselves at a crossroads of deep reflection and joyful celebration. The Torah portions of Tazria and Metzora speak about illness, healing, isolation, and return. They tell of individuals who are cast out of the community because of tsara’at, not as punishment, but as a way to heal. And when they are…
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The Shoreline of Memory
On the Seventh Day of Pesach, when the festival meets Shabbat and memory meets hope, Rabbi Adrian M. Schell offers a tender reflection from the edge of the sea—both literal and spiritual. In this sermon, we walk alongside Barbara and Batya on a quiet English beach, gathering pebbles of memory and learning how even the…
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