The westernmost member of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism
Tzedek
Shoftim Drash By Marlene Booth & Avi Soifer
Marlene: The portion of the Torah I read today emphasizes the need to have two witnesses in a criminal case. No conviction can be based on the testimony of a single… Continue reading
Hear and Remember
ʻEkev Drash by Sandra Z. Armstrong
The great joy of Shabbat carries through every day until the time comes when we open up the Torah and the words flow through us. In ʻEkev, Moses stresses the importance of “remembering” to… Continue reading
Memory, Forgetting, and Accuracy
Drash on Va’etchanan
by Alex Golub
There’s an old joke about a guy who is sent to prison. He’s terrified to be there and nervously, he sits down with some of the oldest convicts to try to blend in.… Continue reading
Irony and Role Reversal
Parsha Balak Drash
by Fran Margulies
Our word irony comes from ancient Greek theater device erroneia. A comic character was an eiron, a faker who pretended to be dumb but was really smart. At end of the play the… Continue reading
Grasshoppers and Giants
Parashat Shelach Drash from visiting Rabbi Norman Levin
I want to thank you for inviting me to give the dvar Torah this Shabbat. This is my first time in Hawaiʻi and I am very pleased to be here. Feel… Continue reading
Spiritual Acts of Faith
Parsha Chukat Drash by Donald Armstrong
I have always enjoyed the poetry of Ogden Nash. He wrote:
The cow is of the bovine ilk. One end is moo, the other milk.
A short, clean and humorous poem that is so… Continue reading
Recent Sof Drashes
Shabbat HaGadol & Story
May 4, 2022
Drash by Reb Daniel Lev
According to the great scholar of the Jewish Time-Cycle, Reb Eliyahu KiTov,
For as long as the days of the Tanna’im and Amora’im, it has been customary in… Continue reading
Tradition and Change
Pekudei Drash by Sandra Z. Armstrong
When I taught preschool, I explained to the children the concept of same and different. It is a pretty elementary school basic concept and easily understood by most. These 3-5 year olds could grasp… Continue reading
Parshah Terumah
Drash by Marc Flitter
To place Parshah Terumah in context, Moses has ascended to the mount. He is to be there 40 days and 40 nights. And God commands, “They shall make me a sanctuary so that I might dwell… Continue reading
Ki Tissa—Drash by Sid Goldstein
Shabbat Shalom
Exodus 4 :10
Moses said to the lord. “I have never been a man of words, either in times past or now. I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.”
And the Lord said to him… Continue reading