February 26th: The Gifts We’re Given, The Gifts That Were Taken

The following is a transcript of a D’var Torah given at Temple Oheb Shalom in Sandusky, Ohio on Friday, February 23rd, 2018. Anyone who has gotten to know me for more than a few minutes knows that I am a huge Cubs fan. Now that I live outside of the Chicago area, it has become…

November 27th: 45 NFTY Events

While driving home from Chicago for Thanksgiving, my fiancee and I played a fun little game, counting the number of NFTY events each of us had attended. Between our time as participants and staff members in the youth movement, we learned that I have been to 45 youth group events and she has been to…

July 6th: Call Your Knesset Members

Last week, the Israeli government suspended plans to create an egalitarian prayer space at the Kotel, or Western Wall, in so doing ostracizing a large portion of the non-Orthodox Jewish population in Israel and abroad. After plans were put aside, Jews around the world, most notably American Reform Jews, voiced their significant displeasure, noting their…

May 21st: The Year in Israel – A Year Later

One year ago today, I got on a plane and returned home after my first year of rabbinical school in Israel. At the time, I remember the feeling as though I had just experiencing something too big for words, too profound to be understood in a day or a week or a month. I knew,…

October 5th: Forgiving Abraham

The following is a transcript of the Sermon given on Rosh Hashanah morning by Austin Zoot at his student pulpit in Kokomo, Indiana. We just read one of the most intriguing passages of the Hebrew Bible, the Akedah, or the Binding of Isaac. In this episode, Abraham is told to take Isaac, his son, and…