Rabbi David Baum

Dvar Torah for Shaarei Kodesh's Annual Meeting - Wednesday, January 28, 2026 Before you read on, please watch the video above. It’s only three minutes, and I promise you, it will not disappoint! As you saw, one person starts dancing alone in a field. He looks awkward and unpolished. He’s just out there, exposed, and no one is quite sure what he’s doing or why. Then something subtle happens. One other person joins him. And then another. And then suddenly, a movement forms. Wha

Parashat Vayigash 2025 - Rabbi David Baum Have you ever had a second chance in life? I don’t mean a small one. Not a “we’ll try again tomorrow” moment.I mean the kind of second chance where you knew—deep down—that you didn’t really deserve it… and yet it was given to you anyway. And on the other side of that question: Have you ever been the one who gave someone else that second chance? Not because they had earned it. Not because it was easy. But because something in your hear

Can your heart break from across the world? I think we all know the answer to that question after the first night of Hanukkah as we heard about the horrific terrorist attack against the Jewish community of Australia on Sunday at Bondi Beach. I have a personal connection to the Jewish community of Australia. My grandfather Frank, of blessed memory, had a brother and sister who survived the Holocaust along with him. Whereas Frank went to America to build a family, his brother a

5th Year Rabbinical Student at the Jewish Theological Seminary, David Baum's Senior Sermon. Delivered on November 22, 2008, at the Women's League Seminary Synagogue. The parashah that week was Toldot. I welcome everyone here, family and friends who have come from near and far, and those watching at home (on videotape). In particular, I welcome our guests from Auburn Theological Seminary to our Synagogue. All of you have been my teachers, and it is an honor to repay you by ser

Rabbi David Baum Delivered on Parashat Noah, 2025/5786 Before we begin our Torah reading this morning, I wanted to share a story of this Torah cover that's in back of us right here, and the mitzvah that Audrey, the mother of our bar mitzvah boy, performed to turn it into a beautiful memorial to October 7th, 2023, and the two years that followed. Because it was here during Simchat Torah when we learned about the massacre. And after that day, we started wearing yellow ribbons;

Learning to practice joy during Sukkot 2025-5786, when our hearts are still in mourning but hope is on the horizon Imagine a time when you were happy, but had to feel sad, or a time when you were sad, but expected to feel happy. They are rare instances, but they happen from time to time in our lives. Judaism asks us to live in that tension all the time. We’re commanded to mourn when our hearts are full, and to rejoice when our hearts are breaking. For instance, it is one of t