70 Years of Physical and Spiritual Growth – Remarks from the 70th Anniversary Celebration

by Ner Tamid | Nov 25, 2025 | Sermons

Good evening, Ner Tamid!

Sometime in the late 18^th century, President John Adams wrote a letter to his wife, Abigail.
“I must study politics and war,” he wrote, “that our sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. Our sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history and naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry and porcelain.”

Adams was a wise man with a broad vision. He understood how his actions would pave the way for his children to accomplish more than he did, and their children to accomplish even more.

It is too easy to pat ourselves on the back and say, “Wow, Ner Tamid of 2025 is doing so well thanks to an incredible team of volunteers, thanks to a bold leadership. We are the reason this shul is flourishing.” That’s a small-minded mistake.

The only reason we are flourishing is because we had generations of people who became before us who invested tirelessly and selflessly to make this shul the amazing place it is today. The first generation built, the next generation maintained, and we have the luxury, the inherited luxury to prosper.

Tonight, we acknowledge and thank those people who became before us. To the volunteers throughout these seventy years, to the members of the board throughout those seventy years, to the people who filled the pews throughout those seventy years, we thank you. The merit of all the Tefilah, the Torah, the Chesed that takes place in these walls and through this community is yours for all of eternity. Thank you.

People asked me how we did so well on our campaign. We set out to raise a certain amount and by the end of the campaign, we raised almost double that amount. How did that happen? We turned to our shul community to contribute, but over 700 people from all over took part. Why?

The simple answer is that people recognize that Ner Tamid is burning bright. They see the many people from all walks of life who feel like they have a spiritual and social home, and they want to support that. They see the many people who have a sense of belonging, who would otherwise not have a connection to a Jewish community, and they want to support that. They see the programs and the classes that are unique to this shul, addressing current events, elevating Torah scholarship for women, focusing on Israel, and they want to support that. That’s all true.

But there’s another reason that I’d like to share with you; something a little more mystical.

There is a Gemara in Meseches Shabbos that tells us that every Shabbos, we receive a Neshama Yeseira, an extra soul. Hard to know exactly what that means but it gets even stranger. Rashi comments that because we have an extra soul, we are able to eat more food on Shabbos.

Now Rashi is not a comedian. He is a very serious scholar. What in the world is he talking about that because we have an extra spiritual soul that allows me to have more kugel, more cholent, more turkey salad? What does that mean?

What he means is that G-d created the world with an equilibrium of spirituality and physicality. When there is more spirituality brought into the world, G-d blesses us with more physicality. So yes, when we have a greater soul, we do have a greater capacity to eat.

Over the past two years, in addition to inspiring programming for all ages, in addition to being the most welcoming shul around, there has been a spiritual revolution in this community. The amount of Talmud Torah, the hundreds of people who are learning daily, who are connecting to their heritage throughout their week, attendance in daily minyan, and the amount of chesed performed weekly, all of that has grown exponentially. And I believe that our success in fundraising is a direct outgrowth of this spiritual success. Our shul’s Neshama, our shul’s soul, has expanded, and so too its material fortune.

And with that in mind, I’d like to make an announcement. You see, the shul did not raise $186,000. While we were engaging in fundraising, a group of visionaries in the shul realized that it’s time to invest in the material future of the shul. Like President Adams, they saw more broadly than the present and decided to build for the future. Thanks to the hard work and perseverance of Debrah Dopkin and Rachel Groner, an endowment fund was set up two weeks ago. In that time, a number of extremely generous people came forward, people I’d like to mention by name – Michael and Janet Scherr, Dr. David Maine and Dr. Rachelle Smith Maine, Rachel Groner, and some anonymous donors, and together they dedicated an additional $115,000 to seed our endowment fund. Thank you!

We have a representative from Merril Lynch who will be available during the second half of tonight’s program, who will be happy to discuss the many ways that you can invest in Ner Tamid’s future. I encourage you to speak to him, or speak to me, and help us build a shul that will last for at least another 70 years. Can I count on you?

Now, if my extra soul and extra material theory is correct, this is not just an announcement, this is a charge. If we are now investing materially into our future materially, that means we must invest more seriously into our spiritual future as well. For those who started attending a weekly class over the past two years, is it time to start learning every day? For those who started learning daily, can you squeeze a little more into your schedule to learn just a little more, or a little more deeply? For those who haven’t joined in the daily learning, or who did and then ran out of steam, maybe it’s time to reconsider? For those attending shul weekly, maybe it’s time to attend a day or two during the week? For those, of course, responding to needs as they arise, maybe it’s time to carve some proactive chesed into your daily or weekly schedule?

Our friends from Merril Lynch can’t help you this, but I encourage you to speak to me as soon as you can, we’ll find a time to talk, and we can strategize how to bring more spirituality into your life. Not only for yourself, but to invest in Ner Tamid and the Jewish People’s future.

Can I count on you?

There is a Halacha brought in the Shulchan Aruch that you are supposed to stand up for someone who is 70 years old. After 70 years of experience, after 70 years of Mitzvos, one becomes holy – there is a lot to respect and give honor to.

If you are part of this kehillah, you are holy. You are part of a holy, authentic, growth-driven community. It is an absolute honor to stand on the shoulders of the giants and visionaries who came before us to be the rabbi of this shul as we start this new chapter. A chapter of material growth, a chapter of continued membership growth, and a chapter of holiness. CAN I COUNT ON YOU?

Good. Let’s do this.

I look forward to speaking with every one of you  in the near future, not only about the material endowment but the spiritual one, as we pave the way for the future.

The Death of Good and Evil Parshas Toldos

by Ner Tamid | Nov 23, 2025 | Sermons

About a decade ago, Ms. Noa Goldman, the principal of our preschool came to my office with a dilemma. It was Parshas Toldos, our parsha, and the children were given coloring pages that told the story of the parsha, and one of the parents was upset. In the coloring page, Eisav was depicted as evil, a bad guy. “A bad guy?!” the parent complained. “You’re telling my child that this man was evil. Who says?” Ms. Noa patiently explained to her that Chazal, our Sages, teach us about all the terrible things he did – he deceived his father, he was a murderer, a philanderer. That makes him a bad person. But this parent wouldn’t have it.

And I understand where this parent was coming from. She is, like me, a millennial. There are a many characteristics that typify millennials; we are labeled as narcissistic and entitled. At the same time, we are also known to be more positive than the generation before us – the negative and pessimistic Generation Xers. But perhaps the characteristic that is most significant is our open-mindedness regarding social and cultural issues, otherwise known as moral relativism.

Moral relativism, first introduced by Baruch Spinoza, in the 17^th century, is our calling cry. There is no right, there is no wrong. During the Cold War, presidents could get away with calling the fight against the Soviets as good vs. evil. Try finding those words in a political speech these days. No such thing exists. We sympathize, we justify, and we look for the alternate perspective in everything. Millennials, and the generations that follow us, have a very hard time seeing anything in black and white.

On the one hand, there is something beautiful and G-dly about this nuanced perspective. The Gemara teaches us that the prerequisite for joining the Sanhedrin was the ability to find 49 reasons why an impure rodent, something that is tamei, should be tahor, should be pure. In other words, as the Maharal explains, the ability to see the many shades of grey is a sign of sophistication.

And yet,

Allow me to share with you an article about a criminal, written in Psychology Today, a very popular website:

“…Like so many victims of physical… during childhood, [the criminal] may have experienced an extraordinary sense of helplessness and powerlessness as a boy, stemming mainly from his poor relationship with his exceedingly domineering and controlling father… Such tragic circumstances engender “inferiority feelings” which, in the form of “increased dependency and the intensified feeling of our own littleness and weakness, lead to… aggression … ambition, avarice and envy, coupled with constant “defiance, vengeance, and resentment.”

The author is trying to give the reader some understanding as to why the criminal acted the way he did. The criminal in question is… Adolf Hitler.

While that article is obviously extreme, look no further than one of the most popular movies of the past 5 years, Joker. Joker is a film about a man who commits heinous crimes, murdering people left and right and creating havoc and anarchy. The entire thrust of the movie is to try to help us understand where his behavior stems from.

There’s a part of me that really appreciated that movie. But there’s another part of me that felt disgusted, that felt like we have lost something as a society. In the late 20^th century, Friedrich Nietzsche wrote a short piece titled, The Parable of the Madman, about an individual who comes to declare that G-d is dead. He is trying to open the eyes of the people around him to the foolishness of believing in morality, of believing in an objective sense of right and wrong. It’s a parable about himself. In that story the madman, exasperated that no one agrees with him, throws the lantern he is carrying onto the floor and declares, “I have come too early. My time is not yet.” In 2019, at the heyday of Millennialism, and with the superb acting of Joaquin Pheonix, Nietzsche’s time had finally come.

We Jews, believers of the Divine origin of the Torah, do not believe in moral relativism. We believe that G-d Himself taught us what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is evil. And in such a world view, we find terms that are culturally unacceptable. Concepts like sin, evil, bad. In Kabbalas Shabbos last night, we quoted King David who said, “Ohavei HaShem sinu ra, Those who love G-d, hate evil.” If you really believe in G-d, and you believe that He is the arbiter of good, then that should cause you to abhor what is evil.

That does not mean that we are without nuance.

Yaakov’s stealing of the blessings of Eisav is endorsed wholeheartedly by our sages. And yet, the Medrash tells us that when Eisav cried out, that cry was the creation of a generations-long hatred between Rome and Yisrael, of which we suffered from immensely. Nuance.

Similarly, are other religions evil? No, they are not. As Jews we do not believe that everyone must or even should adopt Judaism as their faith, but we do expect a modicum of decency, it’s called the Noahide laws. Is a person who knows no better by definition bad? No. We have concepts like tinok shenishba, that people who were not educated or properly taught cannot always be held accountable. How do we interact with someone who sins? It depends. Will they listen to our rebuke or not? If yes, then fire away. If not, then we are obligated to hold back and salvage the relationship. There is a lot of nuance in our Halachic tradition.

But none of that grey thinking prevents us from believing that there is an objective right and objective wrong.

What some may call our stuffy sense of right and wrong, what we call the Torah, has stood the test of time. Our Torah was seen as archaic or backward throughout history. In Avraham’s times child sacrifice was fashionable. Aristotle, the most enlightened of all philosophers, endorsed pederasty, intimate relationships between adult men and young boys, because it was a wonderful form of population control. And during a good portion of Western history being anything but Christian was a ticket to the back of the societal bus. Just because our belief in an objective moral system doesn’t sit right, doesn’t mean it is not absolutely true.

Earlier this week, the Saudi crown prince visited the White House. A reporter questioned him on the killing of the journalist, Jamal Khashoggi. I have no idea if the crown prince ordered his execution or not. But if he did, to defend him and even to honor him would be in violation of a Torah prohibition called Chanifa, the prohibition against honoring someone who has committed evil. G-d demands of us not only to live by the Torah’s moral code, but to not even imply that we respect someone who does not do so.

And so, Ms. Noa was right in giving out pictures that depicted Eisav as evil. Evil exists and it is essential, especially in a generation and in a culture that nuances Hitler into a pity-worthy victim of parental abuse, that we stand strong. Because “ohavei Hashem,” those who love G-d, “sinu ra,” are able to state without qualification, that we hate and are disgusted by evil.

The Most Boring Shabbos of the Year Parshas Chayei Sarah

by Ner Tamid | Nov 15, 2025 | Sermons

Welcome to the most boring Shabbos of the year!

Hear me out –

We are in the month of Cheshvan. Some called this month Mar Cheshvan, bitter Cheshvan, because in contrast to every other Jewish month, there are no inspiring holidays, no special rituals. Inspiration dies in Cheshvan. Some may say bitter, I prefer boring.

We just read a parsha of which the bulk consists of Eliezer traveling to find a shidduch for Yitzchak. The Torah reports this story not once, but twice, in painstaking detail. Booooring.

And then the main character of the story is Yitzchak. Avraham is the brave and kind revolutionary, Yaakov is the man who overcomes every conceivable challenge, and Yitzchak… Yitzchak does nothing.

He is passive in the Akeidah; he obediently allows his father to bind him up. When it comes to dating, he doesn’t even bother swiping to the right or left, he just sends his servant, Eliezer, to do all the work for him. In next week’s parsha he digs a number of wells – that almost sounds exciting, just that the Torah goes out of its way to inform us that the wells he digs are actually the same exact wells dug by his father. Bo-ring.

You know what else is boring?

Ner Tamid is boring.

There is a new shul opening every few months in Baltimore. And there is something exciting about being ‘new.’ In our backyard there is a minyan called the New Minyan. I heard there’s another shul opening next month called, the Even Newer Minyan (joking). But there are so many new and fresh and exciting Jewish projects and institutions all over this city – which I happen to think is wonderful. Compared to them, an institution that has been around for 70 years – we’re the old minyan, the really old and boring minyan.

So yes, this is the most boring Shabbos of the year, focused on the most boring character, with the most repetition, during the most boring month, in the most boring shul.

Our Sages have a profound take on boring.

There is a Tannaic debate found in the introduction to Ein Yaakov – what is the most important verse in the Torah? One Tanna says it’s Shema, another says it is the verse that speaks of man being created in G-d’s image, yet another says, love your neighbor like yourself. Shimon Ben Pazzi, not a very well-known Tanna, says that the most important verse is, “You shall offer one sheep in the morning, and a second sheep in the afternoon.” What is known as the Korban Tamid, the daily offering. Compared to shema, tzelem Elokim, and loving your neighbor, I would consider a daily sheep as the epitome of baaa-ring. (Sorry)

After quoting the different views, the author of Ein Yaakov declares the opinion of Ben Pazzi to be correct – the most important verse in the Torah is the one that speaks of an offering brought consistently every single day. It is not just the most important verse; it is the essence of Judaism.

Rabbi Sacks explains: “Much of Judaism must seem to outsiders, and sometimes to insiders also, boring, prosaic, mundane, repetitive, routine, obsessed with details, and bereft for the most part of drama or inspiration.”

We can all relate to this. How often do we struggle with Judaism because it doesn’t give us the high and excitement we’re yearning?

Rabbi Sacks continues: “Yet that is precisely what writing the novel, composing the symphony, directing the film, perfecting the killer app, or building a billion-dollar business is, most of the time. It is a matter of hard work, focused attention, and daily rituals. That is where all sustainable greatness comes from.”

Yitzchak may not be a revolutionary or face terrible challenges, but it’s actually much harder to maintain momentum when there is no adrenaline. There may be a lot of repetition in this week’s parsha but the Korban Tamid – which represents repetition – is how we develop new skills and behaviors. Cheshvan may be a month without any special days, but it’s the daily grind that brings out our greatness.

This Shabbos, we are celebrating the engagement of Chana Herzog and Chanan Oshry, we are celebrating the recent birth of a baby girl, Gavriella Esther, to Kochava and Joey Kallan, and the birth and naming of Nova Shiri to Pini and Adrienne Zimmerman. Mazel Tov! All very exciting. These milestones are wonderful and worthy of celebration. But the real joy of marriage is not the exciting engagement party or wedding, it’s the day in and day out, it’s sitting next to your spouse in silence and feeling content, it’s running a household together and always being there for one another. The real joy of parenthood is not the birthday parties. It’s the relationship that develops over years of ups and downs, of hugs and fights and hugs again. Relationships may begin in the state of excitement, but they survive if the parties involved learn the special beauty of boring.

The same is true for a shul. When a shul is around for seven months, that is exciting, but when a shul is around for 70 years, that makes it real. To overcome the inevitable dips of attrition and not fold, to allow for new cultures and social trends to slowly shape a community, to not lose sight of the goal – of being a center and community for Jewish growth for that many years, Ner Tamid like the Korban Tamid speaks to the essence of Judaism.

Before I joined Ner Tamid I would alternate between 4 or five shuls. Sometimes I wanted a little more singing, I went to shul A, sometimes I wanted a more inspiring sermon, I went to shul B, sometimes I didn’t want to see anyone I knew, I went to shul C. It kept things exciting. But for the past 12 years, I have gone to Ner Tamid almost every day of my life, day in and day out. One could argue that it’s boring being part of the same shul for so many years.

But I would disagree.

Though we have maintained the same character over the years, the shul has more than doubled in size over the past few years. At the same time, we have held on to that sense of community, and even family, and that is something I deeply value.

Far more importantly, though we continue to focus on the core values that we focused on 12 years ago, the spiritual engagement has tripled, quadrupled, and more. Weekday minyan is no longer a struggle. From one weekly class to many daily classes, from a handful of people studying Torah to a majority of the congregation doing so daily. The davening gets more and more energized by the month. I have grown together with the shul community and I feel like it’s a part of who I am.

It may be boring to be a member of the oldest shul in the area, it may be boring to be in the same shul for so long, it may not feel as exciting as being somewhere else. But boring, our sages teach us, is where greatness is found. I am grateful to be here every day of the year, I am grateful that each and every one of you have been a part of this, a part of something so exceptionally great. And I am excited to continue to grow our beloved shul together for many years to come.

As you know, tomorrow is our big fundraiser. Ner Tamid has been a rock in the lives of so many, good times, bad times, and everything in between, providing consistent reminders of our values and what we should aspire to. So if I could ask each and every one of you to participate in whatever way you can – even a few dollars. Let’s invest in our beloved shul ensuring that this boring old place will continue to inspire, comfort, and lead for decades to come.