

War and Peace: What Aaron’s Staff Can Teach Us After the Twelve-Day War©
Parashat Korach 2025/5785 Rabbi David Baum, Congregation Shaarei Kodesh Let’s say you experience a miracle. Do you think you would...

Rabbi David Baum
Jul 17 min read


The Strength to Step Back: What My Wooden Book Holder (Shtender) Taught Me About Humility and Leadership©
Parashat Shelach Lecha 2025/5785 Rabbi David Baum, Congregation Shaarei Kodesh In 2002, while I was studying in Jerusalem after my...

Rabbi David Baum
Jun 257 min read


🎙️ Torah From Boca — Episode Title: Fear Builds Encampments. Love Builds Community; Our Choice: Encampment or Community?
🎙️ Torah From Boca — Episode Title: “Fear Builds Encampments. Love Builds Community; Our Choice Encampment or Community?” I originally...

Rabbi David Baum
Jun 171 min read


Never Forget, Never Again: Why We Return to Traumatic Places©
Yizkor Sermon - Shavuot 2025/5785 I was asked a very important question by a rabbinical student when I led the Flesh Family Sinai Temple...

Rabbi David Baum
Jun 65 min read


More than Colors: Israel's Flag and Our Shared Future©
Parashat BaMidbar 5785/2025 Anyone who took an American history class knows the story of the American flag, created by Betsy Ross, but...

Rabbi David Baum
Jun 69 min read


Less Facetime, More Face Time
Rabbi Baum's Annual Meeting Address - June 4, 2025 There are some places in the world that are just different from others. For example,...

Rabbi David Baum
Jun 53 min read


Breaking Bread with the Enemy: When Should We Talk, and When Should We Walk?©
Parashat Acharei Mot-Kedoshim 2025/5785 - Rabbi David Baum I have to share something I’ve never shared before. It was during the first...

Rabbi David Baum
May 137 min read


Not Handed, But Earned: The Ongoing Story of the Silver Platter©
One of the poems I always read on Yom HaZikaron, Israel's Memorial Day, is called "The Silver Platter" by the Jewish poet Natan Alterman....

Rabbi David Baum
May 14 min read


You Are What You Eat—and What You Don’t: Keeping Kosher in the Land of Bacon-Wrapped Everything©
Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash Parashat Shemini 2025/5785 Why do you keep kosher? Why don’t you keep kosher? Why is it hard for...

Rabbi David Baum
Apr 306 min read


Why We Remember, Why We Fight, Why We Live: Yom HaShoah U’Gevurah Reflections
Photo by Majkl Velner on Unsplash After the shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in 2018, my grandfather Frank z'l, a Holocaust...

Rabbi David Baum
Apr 245 min read


No Liberation Without Revelation: The Crisis of Moral Clarity in the Age of Campus Activism©
I want to begin with a quote and gauge how you all feel about it. Would you ‘like’ it if no one knew? On a base level, maybe you hope...

Rabbi David Baum
Apr 227 min read


What We Talk About When We Don’t Talk: Silence At The Seder©
Parashat Vayikra/Leviticus - 2025/5785 Click here for the Video Version on YouTube Moshe says to his friend David, "I've been doing a lot...

Rabbi David Baum
Apr 88 min read


We Are Not Boring: The Secret History Jewish America©
Parashat Ki Tissa 2025-5785 We Are Not Boring: The Secret History Jewish America by Rabbi David Baum Congregation Shaarei Kodesh...

Rabbi David Baum
Mar 178 min read


Who Lit Your Fire? The Power of Jewish Inspiration
Who in your life lit the flame of Judaism for you? Maybe it was a rabbi or a teacher, or it could have been a family member who didn’t...

Rabbi David Baum
Mar 134 min read


The Edifice Complex: What Really Matters in a Synagogue©
Parashat Terumah 2025/5785 Shabbat Shekalim When I was 16, I stepped into the famous Krakow synagogue along with other teens on the March...

Rabbi David Baum
Mar 64 min read


Empty Chairs, Broken Hearts: The Torah’s Response to Kidnapping and Loss©
Parashat Mishpatim - Rabbi David Baum When we were in Israel this summer, we visited Israel's Library of Congress. As you walk into the...

Rabbi David Baum
Feb 203 min read


Baum's Branches: Symbols of Survival and Hope - Parashat Bo
This week, on Monday, January 27, we observed International Holocaust Remembrance Day. I reflected on a powerful message through a sermon...

Rabbi David Baum
Jan 304 min read


Annual Meeting Dvar Torah by Rabbi David Baum - January 29, 2025 - Parashat Bo
One of the things I often hear from our chaverim/congregants who have made a connection with Shaarei Kodesh is a version of this...

Rabbi David Baum
Jan 304 min read


Protecting Our Hearts: Confronting Evil Without Losing Ourselves
Rabbi David Baum, Congregation Shaarei Kodesh Shabbat Va-era 2025-5785 Early in the film Selma, which tells the story of the famous march...

Rabbi David Baum
Jan 277 min read


More Than a Number - A Name: Reclaiming Our Humanity After the Release of the Hostages©
This Shabbat is bittersweet, much like the book of Exodus. Today, we are overjoyed with the prospect that the hostages will be returning...

Rabbi David Baum
Jan 196 min read