Rabbi Cohen’s Writings

Dear Friends, Tomorrow evening, as the new week begins, we will enter the Hebrew month of Elul. Elul is the season our tradition sets aside each year for reflection and teshuvah, returning to our truest selves, as we prepare for the High Holy Days. It is a month that [...]

Dear Friends, This week’s Torah portion, Eikev, contains a moment that’s easy to miss, but it carries one of the most powerful lessons in the entire Torah. In Deuteronomy 10, Moses recalls carving a second set of tablets after the sin of the Golden Calf. You’ll remember the [...]

Dear Friends, Over the course of my rabbinate, I have been truly blessed by mentors who took me under their wing, shared their wisdom, and helped shape not just my rabbinate, but me as a person. One of those mentors was Rabbi Howard Laibson of Temple Israel in Long Beach, [...]

Dear Friends, There’s a midrash about two brothers—one single, one with a family—who secretly brought grain to each other’s barns, each believing the other was in greater need. One night, they met at the top of the hill, saw what the other had done, and embraced. The rabbis [...]