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Temple Israel of Sharon

125 Pond Street
Sharon, MA 02067
781-784-3986
a vibrant, open, and affirming Conservative synagogue welcoming and serving the South Area

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Temple Israel of Sharon

  • About
    • About Temple Israel
    • Our Mission and Values
    • Our History
    • Interfaith Families
    • Clergy & Staff
    • Board of Trustees
    • Committee Chairs
    • Our Facilities
    • Directions to TI
    • Contact Us
    • mytistory
  • Calendar
  • Membership
    • Joining Temple Israel
    • Importance of Temple Affiliation
    • Can You See Yourself at Our Home?
    • A Unique Alternative to Dues
    • How to Become a Member
    • Membership Interest
  • Prayer
    • Prayer Melodies
    • Shabbat Services
    • Daily Minyan
    • High Holy Days
    • Mishpacha Minyan
    • Youth & Family Services
    • Holidays
    • Sukkot
    • Purim
    • Learners Services
    • D'var Torah
  • Learning
    • Religious School
    • Hertz Nursery School
    • Hertz Summer Camp Program
    • Adult & Family Education
    • Women's Rosh Hodesh Group
    • High School
    • Bar & Bat Mitzvah
    • Lunch and Learn
    • Passport to Israel
  • Events & Community
    • Events
    • Brotherhood
    • Sisterhood
    • USY - Youth
    • collegemailings
    • Shorashim (Roots) - Families
    • Hazak
    • thechevra
    • Holocaust Remembrance
    • Torah Scroll Restoration Project
    • Cultural Arts
    • Gamm-Concert
    • Hessed Caring Community
    • Social Action
    • Chavurah
    • Music
    • Shir Rhythm Spring Concert
    • Israeli Dancing
    • Keruv
    • Tiferet Center
    • Israel Affairs
    • Community Garden
    • Wider Community
  • Connect
    • Temple Israel Calendar
    • Temple Israel Luach Newsletter
    • Jewish Community Resources
    • Business Directory
    • Job Shiddukh
  • Giving
    • Donations
    • Volunteer and Get Involved
    • Gala
    • Endowment Campaign
    • Business Contributions
    • Marketplace
Featured
Oct 14, 2016
Rosh Hashanah Sermon - 2016
Oct 14, 2016

Shana tova.
Our children are constant reminders that our past is never far behind us; our present is precious; and our future is rushing toward us seemingly at light speed. It is through them that we repeat the patterns that we recognize from our own childhood, even as we strive to become the best versions of ourselves. We neurotically fret that they won’t inherit our neuroses. And we do everything in our power to ensure their safety - in the process, sometimes even turning into someone we don’t recognize. 

Oct 14, 2016
Oct 14, 2016
President's Yom Kippur Speech - 2016
Oct 14, 2016

Hi, I am Ed Hershfield. I’ve been privileged to serve as your President for the last 16 months. 

As noted Jewish sage Mel Brookssaid, “I want to speak to you from the heart“Thump Thump” “Thump Thump” “Thump Thump’.

Oct 14, 2016
Oct 14, 2016
Yom Kippur Sermon - October 2015
Oct 14, 2016

Long ago, in the city of Jerusalem, there lived a wealthy man whose annual parties were not to be missed.

Each year, he invited the crème de la crème of Jewish society. The food was lavish, barrels of wine were consumed, and the Temple musicians played their harps and lyres for the assembled guests. One month before, the host would send out a dozen footmen to personally deliver the coveted invitations to all who made his discerning cut.

Oct 14, 2016
Dec 6, 2015
Installation of Rabbi Ron Fish
Dec 6, 2015

For generations in our tradition there is a sense that we human beings can be the worst threat for each other, or a source of deep trust. Threat or trust, what are we for each other? When we fight each other, for food, water, power, wealth, wisdom, life then becomes a terrifying jungle with no place in it for gentleness, and we have then only one mission: to survive. Yet our ancestors did not wish for us a life of survival. Rather, they wished for us, and one day for humanity, a life of trust. 

Dec 6, 2015
Sep 23, 2015
What's Next - Yom Kippur 2015
Sep 23, 2015

How do we become a more vibrant, growing and exciting community? As Rabbi Fish said during Rosh Hashanah, it all starts with welcoming. Welcoming prospective members and welcoming existing members who feel that they are “crew members in red shirts.” And allow me to let you in on a secret I have learned in three months as President: most of us, even long-time very involved members, feel unwelcome at one time or another. 

Sep 23, 2015
Sep 23, 2015
Immanence and Memory - Yom Kippur 2015
Sep 23, 2015

Maybe you and I, maybe we still believe, we still feel this kind of energy in things and matter. Maybe we still experience, even in this modern community, that rooms can be sacred sanctuaries, parchment can be made into God’s gift to the Jewish people, and days can be made into holy occasions. 

Sep 23, 2015
Sep 22, 2015
We Are The People of Hope - Kol Nidre 2015
Sep 22, 2015

I have hope that the Jewish future in America is brighter than its past. I have hope because I believe in the attractive, joyous power and draw of authentic Jewish living. Because I have no doubt that in the marketplace of ideas, where people are free to pursue what they find meaningful, while we will lose some -- we will draw in many, many more. 

Sep 22, 2015
Sep 15, 2015
On the Importance of Welcoming - Rosh Hashanah 2015
Sep 15, 2015

The man who argued with God, who took his child to a mountaintop ready to offer him as a sacrifice, the man who started the journey which would become Judaism, Christianity and Islam, the most towering figure in Jewish history is teaching us, simply, to open our homes to visitors. It is more important than even greeting the divine presence. 

Sep 15, 2015
Sep 15, 2015
Rethinking Heroes - Rosh Hashanah 2015
Sep 15, 2015

You may think we’re better off without heroes, given how likely they are to disappoint us. But I would argue we still need heroes. Earnest Hemingway said, “As you get older it’s harder to have heroes, but it is sort of necessary.” We need heroes not just to admire. We need heroes to teach us how we can reach our finest selves. We need to see it can be done. 

Sep 15, 2015
Sep 14, 2015
Opening Words to the Community - Rosh Hashanah 2015
Sep 14, 2015

The awe, the sense of possibility and hope, is definitely mixed with more than a few moments of awareness that there is much to be done. We here at Temple Israel are, with all of our diversity and difference -- from religious school to day schools, from babies in toe to empty nesters, from teens to great grandparents -- we are here as one community.

Sep 14, 2015
Sep 14, 2015
Ye'ush Means Letting Go - Rosh Hashanah 2015
Sep 14, 2015

One of the most important concepts that takes shape through this discussion is the idea of ye’ush. Ye’ush means “letting go.” Here’s the basic rule: An object that is lost needs to be returned to its owner, so long as the owner has not yet done ye’ush, giving up on its ever coming back. As long as the owner has a reasonable hope of finding her lost property, the finder has the obligation to try to seek her out. However, the moment that the owner, mentally or in words, acknowledges that what they lost is irrevocably gone, it ceases to be their property at all. It becomes ownerless, it becomes free.

Sep 14, 2015
Nov 22, 2014
On Prayer - Parshat Toldot
Nov 22, 2014

Yitzhak shows us that there are times, moments of despair when it is not only permitted, but necessary to cry out to God, a genuine cry of the heart. I would say that today is a day for prayer. Raise your voice to God, give full expression to your grief, your rage, your fear. 

Nov 22, 2014
Oct 4, 2014
We Are In Action - Yom Kippur 2014
Oct 4, 2014

We have shared values here at Temple Israel and the congregation’s traditions and customs should never outweigh our shared values, meaning, connection and opportunities for growth.

Oct 4, 2014
Oct 3, 2014
The Secret of the Yamim Nora’im: The Sound of Thin Silence - Yom Kippur 2014
Oct 3, 2014

I believe the most powerful forces in the world operate in the realm of the sound of thin silence and not in the realm of the wind, the earthquake, and the lightning. 

Oct 3, 2014
Sep 26, 2014
The Courage to Continue - Rosh Hashanah 2014
Sep 26, 2014

The "courage to continue" constitutes the cornerstone of communal resilience. From the time of Joshua till today, the Jewish people have faced enemies and crises that have shaken the foundation of our spirit. Yet, in every generation, b'chol dor vador, we find a way not just continue, but to move forward; not just to escape death, but to embrace life, not just to leave Egypt, but to find our way to the Promised Land. 

Sep 26, 2014
Sep 25, 2014
The Power of Choosing - Rosh Hashanah 2014
Sep 25, 2014

Living my life in the presence of hundreds of converts, I have become possessed with the question of what it means for religion to be a matter of active choice, rather than a passive inheritance. 

Sep 25, 2014
May 10, 2014
It's Not Just Agricultural
May 10, 2014

From Mt. Sinai itself comes an acknowledgement: It is frightening to contemplate having to do without. We very well may worry that we will not have enough.

May 10, 2014
Sep 14, 2013
The Value of a Home - Yom Kippur 2013
Sep 14, 2013

 My goal is to further develop a sense of community, a feeling of family, where members are committed to one another — not just to the continued existence of Temple Israel, but also to a place that thrives and grows both spiritually and as a place of connections....

Sep 14, 2013
Sep 4, 2013
"…THESE WORDS SHALL BE (AL L'VAV'KHA) ON YOUR HEART"
Sep 4, 2013

Rabbi Menahem of Kotzk was asked why does the Sh'ma say "these words shall be on your heart?" Why does the Sh'ma not say "these words shall be in your heart?" "The answer," he insightfully replied, "is that the heart is not always open; therefore, we should lay these words on our heart, so that when it opens, they will be there, ready to enter."

Sep 4, 2013
Jul 20, 2013
The Ten Commandments, Tikkun Olam, and Moneyball - Shabbat Nahamu
Jul 20, 2013

"In today's d'var torah, I would like to share impressions of Aseret HaDibrot (the Ten Commandments),Tikkun Olam, the movie Moneyball, and what they can teach us..."

Jul 20, 2013
Jan 7, 2013
Thanksgivukkah
Jan 7, 2013

I know, it's only January, so why am I talking about Hanukkah? And, worse, why are others also talking about it? Because while Hanukkah has come close to overlapping with Thanksgiving before (even in our lifetimes; we shared articles when it last nearly happened in 2002, Using Thanksgiving Leftovers the Next Day for Hanukkah and Not Your Typical Jewish Family), it will actually overlap this year! Hanukkah 2013 will be a unique calendar anomaly. Brace yourself for Thanksgivukkah!

Jan 7, 2013

Temple Israel
125 Pond Street, PO Box 377
Sharon MA 02067
781-784-3986


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