Selected Drashot (Sermons)
Senior Sermon - “There is wisdom that comes from moving through painful experience. Brokenness can heal, can scar, or stay broken — and can still grow into a new and miraculous wholeness.”
Congregation Beit Simchat Torah - "There is a lot of work to be done to repair this world, too much for us to refuse to truly face each other." In this drash, Rabbi Megdal speaks to a progressive audience that was at the time at war with itself, encouraging truth-telling and mutual respect in relationship.
Congregation Beit Simchat Torah at Masonic Hall, NYC - "There are calls to action from every direction, at every moment, each more acute than the next.... It can feel like every moment is a Hineni moment, or it can feel like none are."
Congregation Beit Simchat Torah at The Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, NYC - "If in our final accounting today, if we find that we have more shame than pride, let us be kedoshim — let us ‘Be Holy’ — or really, let us remember that we are already holy."
Congregation Beit Simchat Torah - "Our tradition has been shaped by humans, humans who have treated it unevenly — some with the utmost love and care, but some causing significant damage. I find that accepting this is incredibly comforting and strengthening of my relationship with Torah: because if the harm is human, then the healing from that harm can also be human."
Congregation Beit Simchat Torah - "I struggle to understand how Aaron moved from loss to silence to work so quickly… We need to take an honest reckoning about how this pandemic has affected us — this means our physical, mental, and spiritual health.”
Congregation Beit Simchat Torah - "Like God’s own personal prayer, may our compassion also overcome our anger when it needs to be softened. May we learn to transform some of the energy of that anger into tender care. But may we also have the courage to harness that anger in order to smash what needs to be smashed."
Service Leadership
Congregation Beit Simchat Torah
What is our earliest memory of prayer?
Reverend Jane Vennard teaches that “prayer is our natural, primary language,” that “infants are born praying. They are so close to God that every sound they utter, from coos to gurgles and whimpers to screams, is prayer.”
So I ask us tonight: How do we, now that we have so many words, pray?
Can we first tap into some of that infant’s prayer, some of those coos and screams?
Can we, for just a few moments, first remember how to pray without words?
And then let us rest our words atop that prayer.
Academic Speaking
Fordham University Jewish Studies: “From HIV/AIDS Epidemic to Pride Shabbat: Liturgical and Cultural Transformations in Progressive Judaism,” A Conversation with Deborah Megdal and Elazar Ben Lulu - June 2020 (Rabbi Megdal’s main presentation begins at 24:00)