Park Avenue Synagogue Podcast

Drawing on the community's response to the 1966 fire in the Jewish Theological Seminary library, Rabbi Zuckerman explores a question that runs through the early chapters of Genesis: What does it mean to take responsibility for something precious?

Three years after October 7th, the blood of the victims still cries out. What does that cry demand of us? Drawing on the biblical story of Cain and Abel and a landmark report documenting Hamas’s atrocities, Rabbi Cosgrove reflects on our responsibility to preserve truth against denial, distortion, and erasure.

For his Yizkor sermon, Rabbi Pink explains the hidden meaning behind the matzevah, the stone erected to honor a deceased loved one.

As we go from Yom Kippur to Sukkot, Rabbi Zuckerman explains that we must use the inward reflection of Yom Kippur to move outward differently, because if we do not know and tell our own story, others will tell our story for us.

On the second day of Sukkot, Rabbinic Intern Claire Davidson Bruder explores Rabbinic texts about the holiday and its rituals, uncovering Sukkot's call for Jewish unity even in times of strife.

As Yom Kippur draws to a close, Rabbi Cosgrove reminds us that life is fleeting and none of us knows how long we will have. He urges us to live today so that were it to be our last day, we would have no regrets.

Rabbi Koffman discusses the very Jewish messages of this Broadway show, and how its teachings are especially appropriate for Yom Kippur.

Recalling moments from the Torah and Jewish history, Rabbi Zuckerman highlights the need for a broader Jewish historical imagination, one that remembers our moments of vulnerability without forgetting our moments of courage - because while trauma has a way of traveling through generations even when no one speaks about it, courage depends on someone telling the story.

What do we leave behind when we are no longer in the picture? Through the life and legacy of his mentor, Michael Brooks, Rabbi Cosgrove explains Yizkor not merely as a time to remember those we have lost, but as a call to carry forward their values, their work, and their love.

Doing teshuvah – and, for that matter, making changes of any kind – is tremendously difficult. As Rabbi Pink explains, sometimes the most powerful thing you can do is shift your mindset from "no" to "not yet."

In the year of Leonard Cohen's tenth yahrzeit, Rabbi Zauzmer honors him not only as the singer-songwriter we all know, but as an inventor of Jewish ritual. His powerful story is a reminder that ritual is how we make holy that which we cannot control.

What does it mean to take responsibility for our lives? From Genesis to September 11 to the confessions of Yom Kippur, Rabbi Cosgrove explores Judaism’s insistence that grievance never absolves us of agency, challenging us to stop asking who is to blame and start asking, What is mine to do?

As we enter 5787, Rabbi Zuckerman reflects on the Jewish American experience with a story about Jonas Philips, a Jewish figure in the American Revolution, and discusses how the Jewish calendar is one of the most powerful communicators of Jewish identity that we possess.

Rabbi Zauzmer illuminates the meaning of the prayer “Hayom Harat Olam” and shares her own experience of pregnancy and expecting.

How can Jews with different relationships to Zionism remain bound to one another? Using history as his guide, Rabbi Cosgrove reflects on Jewish peoplehood, arguing that our future depends on sustaining a shared community capacious enough to hold disagreement without surrendering responsibility for one another.

What does it mean to come home to ourselves—and to reckon with the patterns, wounds, and inheritances that have shaped us? Rabbi Cosgrove reflects on teshuvah as the work of return: naming what we carry, changing what we can, and refusing to let the past determine the future.

Rabbi Koffman invites us to step back and look at our lives with a fresh perspective – and to respond to the “inconceivable surprise of living” with gratitude, prayer, and wonder.

There are many reasons why people do mitzvot. But are some reasons better than others? Rabbi Pink explores what motivates people to do Jewish actions, and how a different internal approach can help make those actions more enduring.

In the lead-up to the High Holidays, Rabbinic Intern Claire Davidson Bruder encourages us to atone for the sins we have committed by hardening our hearts, reminding us of our tradition’s demand to look our fellow humans in the eye and bear witness to their pain.

With the memory of Dolly Parton on all of our minds, Rabbi Zauzmer leads a discussion about what we can leave behind for the next generation.