Rabbi Cy Stanway's Podcast

Send us Fan Mail You can spend your whole life waiting for clarity, or you can start walking and let clarity catch up. We wrestle with the Torah’s “Lech Lecha” and why the usual translation “go forth” feels too polite for what the Hebrew is doing. God asks Abraham to move first and see later, no map, no brochure, no proof that the destination will be worth the cost. That discomfort is the point, b...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, I take a look at the symbolism of Simchat Torah and how it can be a paradigm for our lives.

Send us Fan Mail A short reflection on Shabbat Shuva, the Shabbat between Rosh Hashanna and Yom Kippur

Send us Fan Mail My Shanna Tova thoughts

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Send us Fan Mail In this episode, I explore why a simple produce tithe turned into a whole megillah of Jewish history.

Send us Fan Mail In this episode I speak about the interesting ritual of bikkurim and the text reminding us where we have been and where we are now.  

Send us Fan Mail This is my Parashat Shoftim discussion with the congregation during Shabbat morning service

Send us Fan Mail A Shabbat reflection on tzedek, tzedek tirdof - justice, justice you shall pursue

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Send us Fan Mail A short thought on Parashat Eikev.  Justice and love - and how they are so closely dependent upon each other.

Send us Fan Mail The Torah drops a line that sounds impossible to reconcile: Moses tells Israel that God didn’t choose them because they were numerous, “for you are the fewest of all peoples.” But wait, aren’t Abraham’s descendants promised to be like the stars and the sand? And weren’t the Israelites so many in Egypt that Pharaoh panicked and enslaved them? We take that tension seriously, because...

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Send us Fan Mail Shabbat Hazon is the Shabbat before Tisha B'av and gets its name from the prophet Isaiah who 'saw' (Hazon) the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. I offer a couple of thoughts about how we can commemorate this moment in Jewish history.

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Send us Fan Mail In this Shabbat greeting to Congregation B'nai Israel of Boca Raton, I look into the conflict that could have been and the compromise that was when Reuven and Gad wanted to stay on the East side of the Jordan River.

Send us Fan Mail In this episode I riff on Parashat Pinchas and the different kinds of leadership hinted at in the text.  

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Send us Fan Mail I am delighted to be the Senior Interim Rabbi of B'nai Israel this year!  This is the audio from my 'Happy to be Here' video!

Send us Fan Mail Rabbi Stanway and Rabbi Garten discuss the most troubling story of Aaron and Moses and the episode of 'the thing that must not be mentioned'!

Send us Fan Mail In this CHRI episode, Rabbi Stanway discusses the portion Vaeira with Rabbi Steve Garten, specifically the disputation with God and Abraham around Sodom and Gommorah and the Binding of Isaac.

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Send us Fan Mail After 27 years, my tenure at Beth Miriam has come to an end as I head into serving a wonderful interim congregation in Gainesville Florida for the year.  This last service excerpt features a couple of speakers, a presentation, a blessing and my personal remarks.

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