Rabbi Sydni's Sermons

Friday, July 22, 2022 - 23 Tamuz, 5782

We will not be here forever. While we’ve had this conversation before regarding end-of-life planning, one of the most difficult parts about grasping the reality of our impermanence is envisioning and preparing for the world we want to see when we’re gone. While that envisioning and preparation may seem like lofty, inaccessible ideas, we can also see them at a smaller scale. Even if we’d...Read more...

May 28, 2022 - Iyar 27, 5782

When I moved to Shreveport three years ago and learned about local culture, I promised myself that I would not speak about guns on the bimah. Today, I’m breaking my promise. In the wake of this week’s shooting at Robb Elementary in Uvale, TX, and last week’s shooting in Buffalo, NY, I do not believe that talking about anything else today would be appropriate. If you are triggered by the topics of gun...Read more...

Saturday, May 14, 2022 - Iyar 13, 5782

I’m not quite sure where this myth originated, but I know I heard it in my childhood - Jews with tattoos may not be buried in Jewish cemeteries. This myth is entirely false. Just as any Jewish person who orders chicken parmesan at a restaurant may be buried at any cemetery they and their family pleases, a Jew with a tattoo may be buried anywhere, as well. Just as you will be allowed to attend...Read more...

Saturday, May 7, 2022 - Iyar 6, 5782

As the sun begins to set later and later, the amount of time we have between our morning Shabbat service and Havdalah lengthens. Tonight, Havdalah time is 8:40. For those of us who actively keep Shabbat, that means we don’t spend money, cook, bake, sew, knit, write, draw, build, garden, or a whole lot more until after many kids in this congregation are already asleep. Alas, no Dvorak’s New...Read more...

April 2, 2022 - 1 Nisan, 5782

We are a synagogue with a long history of intense interpersonal dynamics. Like any healthy community, we have pairs of community members who know and love each other like family, and we have pairs of community members who might choose to sit on opposite sides of the room at Kiddush lunch. The people in this room have helped each other through simhas and tragedies. As is true in so many close...Read more...

March 11, 2022 - 9 Adar II 5782

Have you ever had a heated conversation with a loved one in which, thirty minutes in, you both realize you’re speaking about completely different things? Then, you have to go back to the beginning and start all over again, hoping you’ll understand each other this time around.

Throughout the book of Leviticus -...Read more...

February 19, 2022

Last week, we focused on the words l’dorotam - for their generations, in the context of this synagogue space. We read God’s commandments to the children of Israel to keep a ner tamid (an everlasting flame), to sacrifice a lamb every Pesah, and to bring a yearly offering on Yom Kippur. In a different sense in each generation, we have kept those commandments for thousands of years; so too, our ways of practicing...Read more...

February 12, 2022 - 1 Adar 11, 5782

On October 30, 1902, 58 men signed a charter to officially found Agudath Achim Congregation. 120 years later, we are still here, and we are still thriving. I can’t know what those 58 men and their families thought we would look like in 2022, but I would like to think that they founded this congregation with the promise of our existence in mind. In 2022, we cannot even begin to fathom what...Read more...

Saturday, February 5, 2022

The one who intends to say “terumah” but says, “ma’aser”; “ma’aser” but says, “terumah”; “olah” but says “shlamim”; “shlamim” but says “olah”; [the one who says] “I will not enter into this house,” but says “that house”; “I will not benefit from this person” but says “that person” - has not said anything until her mouth and her...Read more...

January 22, 2022 - 20 Sh'vat, 5782

What would happen if right now, we committed to not checking email or social media, to not typing or writing until nightfall? What would happen if we committed to not spending money, to not cooking or baking until three stars appear in the sky tonight? I am almost positive that the world, even your world would not come crashing down. Sure, there would be inconveniences, and sure, it would be a lot...Read more...

December 11, 2021 - 7 Tevet, 5782

All week, I have been reflecting on Dorothy Rosenfeld’s 94 years of life, a life jam-packed with rich experiences and generous mitzvot. At her funeral on Tuesday, I mentioned a couple of lines from Psalm 90 that come to mind when I think about her energy and curiosity: Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. (Psalm 90:12). From Dorothy’s life, from Psalms, and also, from...Read more...

December 4, 2021 - 30 Kislev, 5782

On Tuesday evening, my yoga teacher came into the room and sighed, “Why in the world do we have this season of celebration when it gets cold and dark so early? It’s so depressing!” Jewish author Anita Diamant has the perfect answer to my teacher: “This is the season,” she writes, “when people of all faiths and cultures are pushing back against the planetary darkness. We string bulbs,...Read more...

Saturday, October 30, 2021

18th-19th century Hasidic master Rabbi Nachman of Breslov prescribes a particular regimen of conversation with God:

Hitbodedut is the highest path of all. One must therefore set aside an hour or more each day to talk with God by themselves in a room or in a field.

Hitbodedut consists of conversation with God. One can pour out their...Read more...

Saturday, November 13, 2021

Hizkuni, a 13th century commentator from Ashkenaz, sounds like a modern Israeli tour guide when he explains the holiness of the place where Ya’akov rests his head and dreams at the beginning of our parshah:

This is the place where Avraham offered prayers to God on his way to Ai, and Yitzhak later offered prayers on that same altar. The people Israel would fight battles...Read more...

Friday, October 22, 2021

When you or a loved one has been ill in the past, what has someone else done that has been helpful or meaningful to you?

Tomorrow morning, we will learn the Talmudic statement that hakhnasat orkhim (welcoming guests) is a greater act than welcoming the Shekhinah (the Divine Presence). Just a few sentences later, in the Talmud Bavli, Masekhet Shabbat, Rabbi Yehuda Bar Sheilah says that Rabbi Asi says...Read more...