Darchei Noam דרכי נועם

Shana tova and Gmar Tov. I want to begin by talking a bit about Gematria. The word Gematria means “an alphanumeric code assigning a numerical value to a word or phrase based on its letters.” The word Gematria itself is believed to derive from the Greek word for Geometry, and the practice of Gematria is at least 2,000 years old in Judaism. You may not even realize it, but I bet almost everyone in this room uses Gematria. If you have ever written a check for $18 or $36 or any

When Bruce invited me to give the Dvar Torah today, I was a bit dismayed because by the seventh day, I must admit I’m a little sick of Pesach. So I decided to look at the Haftarah to see what the Prophets have to say that our sages have connected with Pesach. You may have noticed in the Stone chumash, the note that says this 22nd chapter of Shmuel II is almost identical to Psalm 18. It is referred to as “The Song of David,” and is one of the very few chapters in Tanach that

Rosh Hashana 2- Dvar Torah- September 11, 2018— Shana Tova. It’s pretty intimidating to be invited to give a Dvar Torah on Rosh Hashana: I feel like the bar is set pretty high, after Rabbi Davis’ words yesterday. So in choosing a topic, I decided to focus on something that I find interesting, or difficult, or confusing about our Rosh Hashana Liturgy. I’ve always felt a little hypocritical about the whole idea of being “written into the Book of Life”, which we use to greet e

When I was asked to give the Dvar Torah today, on Yom Kippur, I have to admit I was a little intimidated. But I remembered what a valued and important part of Darchei Noam is our practice of congregants giving divrei torah, even though we now have a full-time Rabbi to grace our bema. Ten years ago I was honored with this same task: we were newly installed in our rented basement space on Salem Avenue at the time, and we all felt pretty good about being in an actual sanctuary