Rabbi Arthur Weiner

  Let me begin by wishing you all a Happy Thanksgiving. As you may recall from previous sermons and articles that I have written over the years, I love Thanksgiving. The very idea of Thanksgiving, that is to say, stopping our daily routine and offering thanks and demonstrating our gratitude is at the heart of the Jewish tradition. The Hebrew word for Judaism is Yahadut , which is a noun form of the word L'hodot which means to thank. This reminds us that regular expressions of gratitude are an important part of our religious responsibilities. There are those who have tried to tie the original observance of Thanksgiving to the Pilgrim's understanding of the holiday of Sukkot. Though this idea has been around for years, if one is looking to root this great American holiday to something in the Jewish tradition, a better explanation is provided by recent scholarship that I shared with the congregation last year.   There is is reason to believe that William Bradford, an early l...

  It’s been over two weeks since the recent elections.     I don't want to offer any commentary or observations on those elections, but I would like to draw your attention to one particular candidate who ran for office, Bridgette Ann Kelly. As you recall, Bridgette Ann Kelly was at the center of the Bridgegate scandal in 2016. She was convicted on a variety of corruption related charges, had her reputation sullied by this ugly and sordid affair, lost her job, her home, and then had her conviction overturned by the Supreme Court in 2019. She claimed vindication, and tried to resurrect her political career by running for Bergen County Clerk.   Surprisingly got 45.9 percent of the vote. My issue with her candidacy was that it was obvious that Ms. Kelly has failed to understand the severity of the crimes that she was convicted of originally. And though the Supreme Court overturned her convictions, their ruling was based on legal technicalities, but the very ruling th...

Yesterday, our nation observed Veteran's Day. Veteran's Day is a time to express our gratitude those who have served honorably in our military forces. We thank all our veterans everywhere for their service, sacrifice and dedication. We want to especially acknowledge the veterans of our United States military forces among our JCCP/CBT family. Last night we took the opportunity to honor them at our evening minyan. Jews have fought for the United States since the Revolutionary War. We can be proud of the military service of patriotic Jewish men and women who have answered their nation's call for four centuries. This Shabbat, I want to share with you the prayer for our military personnel that we recite in our congregation each year on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. This prayer was written by Rabbi Gerald Skolnik of the Forest Hills Jewish Center and his son in law, Rabbi Yonatan Warren. You may recall that Rabbi Warren served as our Rabbinic intern in 2009-2010. He is cu...

  Yesterday was a special day for the Ethiopian Jewish Community.  It was the celebration and observance of the unique Ethiopian holiday of Sigd . It is not a holiday that most of world Jewry is even remotely familiar with. I’d like you to know more about it.      Sigd is a one-day holiday traditionally held on the 29th of the Hebrew month of Cheshvan — 50 days after Yom Kippur .  On this day Ethiopian Jews would gather for prayer to God and plead to return to Zion. The word Sigd is Ge’ez, (the traditional language of Ethiopian Jewry) for “prostration.” It is related to the word sged (same meaning) in Aramaic, the language of the Talmud.   The holiday celebrates the renewal of the covenant between the Jewish people, God and the Torah. For centuries it also marked the community’s belief that they would return to Jerusalem, and today Sigd provides an opportunity to give thanks for that dream becoming a reality. There is good reason that most o...