C.S. Lewis said, “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking of yourself less.” It's also a piece of Giving Up and Letting Go - Thomas Friedman, America 2022: Where Everyone Has Rights and No One Has Responsibilities  

Rabbi Alon C Ferency

Letting Go

Claim your identity, but be open to review

What‘s in a Name?

Returning to our Heska Amuna Synagogue, what lessons can we begin to piece together? What do we keep and what do we give up?

Covid Lessons

Inhale your authentic self, and exhale your superficial self. Based on Robert Alter's translation of Ecclesiastes, "Merest breath."

Meditation: ”Merest Breath”

Is "Brit" a (a) compact, (b) contract, (c) covenant, or (d) none of the above?

Allies and Partners

Good for Rosh HaShanah, or any time you need to release past regrets or future worries!

Meditation: ”A New Year”

In trying times, we ought to rewrite our definition of success. Sometimes, surviving and thriving is its own blessing.

The Acme of Success

In trying times, what can our tradition teach us about remaining buoyant, agreeable, and content?

A Recipe for Joy

Narcissism is a plague of that age - how might the practices of Deuteronomy salve that?

Toxic Individualism

Law binds us together as a society, but the cords can become frayed. How do we pursue justice with mercy and humility?

The Rule of Law

Have we forgotten to look out for each other, lost our civic-spirit, or become a nation of narcissists?! Deuteronomy offers a way back.

Competitive Eating

Meditation: "At the Mountaintop"

Does the Torah offer insights in to what's an acceptable policy for debate?

How Wide Is the Overton Window?

Thinking through William James' "Proposing the Moral Equivalent of War"

Sacrifice: Start Small

Take less. Give more. Face your neighbor as your equal.

Love Peace and Pursue It

Sermons and divre Torah, delivered at Heska Amuna Synagogue, Knoxville, Tennessee, made possible through the generosity of the Hecht and Messing families.

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Rabbi Alon C Ferency

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