Rabbi Arthur Weiner

Do you remember watching television with your parents or grandparents when a commercial came on that suddenly made everyone uncomfortable. And everyone hoped the commercial would end before the youngest person in the room asked a question or your mother passed out from embarrassment. I suspect many of us have such a memory.   I certainly do.   Actually, I have a lot of them.   So what made those moments uncomfortable? Usually, it was some boundary had been crossed: a boundary of good taste, modesty, or what was (assumed) appropriate for people of different ages and levels of maturity watching together. We thought there were certain understandings about such things. Until, apparently, there weren’t. Earlier this week, I read about a controversy over advertisements appearing during baseball’s postseason playoffs. One features actress Sydney Sweeney wearing revealing underwear while promoting the sports betting platform Novig. Another features actress Megan Fox in a red ...

Wednesday night’s playoff game was not only a bitter loss for the Yankees and millions of fans everywhere, but an unexpected source of sermonic ideas that deal with living the kind of life we prayed to achieve on the High Holidays. In the sixth inning, Anthony Volpe hit what initially appeared to be a two-run home run that would have tied the game. Yankee Stadium erupted. Unfortunately, a fan reached over the outfield wall and interfered with the ball. After reviewing the play, the officials determined that it would have remained in the ballpark. The home run became a double. One run scored instead of two. The Yankees eventually lost, 4–3, and their season was over. Now for Yankees fans, there was plenty to be unhappy about. But what interested me most was manager Aaron Boone’s response afterward. “I thought they got it right.” This is not the sentence you generally expect from someone whose season has just ended. Usually, this is an excellent opportunity to question the umpires’ e...

I pride myself on writing an original Shabbat message to our synagogue family and community each week. But occasionally I come across a message from our broader Jewish community that I believe is important to share. This is one of those weeks. It is about our responsibility to vote in the upcoming elections. As a matter of federal law, and synagogue policy, the JCCP/CBT does not endorse political candidates. But we wholeheartedly and 100% endorse voting. I hope you will read the following message from our Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey, encouraging every eligible member of our community to vote. *         *         *         On Tuesday, November 3, 2026, New Jerseyans will cast ballots in federal, county, municipal, school board, and other local elections. Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey encourages every eligible member of our community to make their vo...

Six years ago this month, something remarkable happened in the Middle East. On September 15, 2020, representatives of Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain gathered at the White House to sign what became known as the Abraham Accords. A few months later, Morocco joined the process, as did Sudan. For the first time in a quarter century, Arab nations were establishing formal relations with the State of Israel. At the time, I wrote to our congregation about what an extraordinary development this was. I wrote about it again a year later. And now six years have passed. The anniversary deserves to be acknowledged and celebrated.   Not because everything has gone according to plan. Quite the contrary. Think of what these agreements have been required to survive. October 7 th , and the terrible war that followed. The enormous suffering and political turmoil throughout the region. The deterioration of Israel's relations with much of the international community. War involving Iran an...

One of the most familiar prayers of the High Holiday season is Avinu Malkeinu — “Our Father, our King.” The words are so familiar that we can easily say them without stopping to consider what they actually mean. Avinu — our Father. Malkeinu — our King. We speak of God in two very different ways. God is close to us, like a parent. But God is also sovereign, and   commanding, like a King. And if God is our Father and our King, then what does that make you? About 20 years ago, I read a story that challenged me to think about that question in ways I had never considered before. It was about a woman named Sarah Jane Culberson , who discovered the answer to that question in a way that few people ever will. Sarah had been adopted as a baby and raised in West Virginia. She knew very little about her biological parents. For years she wondered where she had come from and who they had been. Finally, when she was twenty-eight years old, she decided to search for her biological fathe...

One of the most heartbreaking stories in the news these past two weeks has been the publication of new details surrounding the kidnapping and presumed murder of the mother of television journalist Savannah Guthrie. Like millions of Americans, I have followed the story with sadness. I have no interest in second-guessing the investigation itself. I am not a criminologist, nor am I a law enforcement professional, and it would be inappropriate for me to pretend otherwise. What caught my attention, however, was something entirely different. In a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal , Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos responded to criticism of his department's handling of the investigation by suggesting that some of his earlier public statements had been taken more literally than he intended. That observation stopped me in my tracks. If not the sheriff's words, whose words are we supposed to take seriously? After all, a sheriff occupies a position of public trust. When...