Rabbi Steven Wernick

19/10/2026

The Theft of the Story | New on the Times of Israel blog

Rashi defines chamas, the sin that brought the Flood, in a single word: gezel, robbery.
Rabbi Yochanan goes further: "Come and see how great is the power of robbery… their sentence was not sealed until they extended their hands and engaged in robbery" (Sanhedrin 108a).

On October 7th, Hamas called its attack Tufan al-Aqsa, the Al-Aqsa Flood, borrowing the Qur'an's word for Noah's deluge and casting itself as the agent of divine judgment.

The name isn't proof of anything; documents are, and they show years of planning. But the name tells us how the attackers saw themselves. And it belongs to a very old pattern: take the Jewish story, invert it, and hand it back to us as an indictment.

https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/the-theft-of-the-story/

06/10/2026

Tomorrow marks three years since October 7. On the Hebrew calendar, the yahrzeit came Saturday, on Shemini Atzeret, and we said Yizkor at Beth Tzedec.

Rashi teaches that on this day God says to us, like a king at the door, "Please stay one more day. Your parting is hard for me."

In my new Times of Israel piece, I write about Lee Yaron's 10/7: 100 Human Stories and what the bereaved families she went back to are teaching us. Tamar Torpiashvili's mother told her: "When I feel happy, I feel closer to Tamar. When I sink into grief, she drifts away."

Whose name will you carry tomorrow?

30/09/2026

We don't know how this turns out. Judah didn't either—and he stepped forward anyway. Rabbi Steve Wernick's Rosh Hashanah sermon on exhaustion, agency, and the oldest Jewish habit there is: acting before we know. Watch the complete video at youtube.com/

30/09/2026

The shofar is an animal's horn carrying a human breath. Dust and spirit in one sound. Rabbi Steve Wernick's Rosh Hashanah Day 2 sermon on dehumanization, and the instruction underneath it all: you are called human. Watch the complete video at youtube.com/

30/09/2026

"For the sake of Zion, I will not be silent. For Jerusalem's sake, I will not be still." Watch the full Kol Nidrei from Rabbi Steven Wernick at youtube.com/

30/09/2026

"I'm not asking for any of us to be hopeful. I am asking us whether hope, real hope, costly hope—the kind that requires courage rather than optimism—might be exactly what we're called to practice right now, right here."

Watch Rabbi Steve Wernick's full sermon from Yom Kippur at youtube.com/BTzToronto

30/09/2026

"Rabbi Wernick, Rabbi Fryer Bodzin, Cantor Ezer, I want to thank you for taking the time to visit with the Veterans in the Sukkah today. I have received feedback that the Veterans really enjoyed themselves and are already asking when they can return to Beth Tzedec.

I am grateful to be part of the engaged and supportive community that you create and enable."

-Eric

Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre Rabbi Steven Wernick Robyn Fryer Bodzin

24/09/2026

Read "Belleville was not a bolt out of a clear sky" at The Globe and Mail opinion section.


Federation of Greater Toronto CJA Jewish Federation of British Columbia

23/09/2026

The question I hear most, from students and congregants alike: can a person be against Israel and not hate Jews?

My answer on Kol Nidre was this. Criticism says Israel did wrong. Antizionism says Israel is wrong to exist. Criticism wants Israel to be better. Antizionism wants Israel to be gone, and it has never stopped at Israel's borders.

A person can oppose a government and love Jews. A person cannot seek to erase the only Jewish state and claim to have left the Jews out of it.

The answer to antizionism is not silence about Israel's failures. It is refusing to let anyone delete our name while we argue about them.

Robert Brym's survey of Canadian Jews this year found that 92% supp...

14/09/2026

Rosh Hashanah morning as part of Unetaneh Tokef we say k'vakarat ro'eh edro -- as a shepherd examines his flock, passing each one under the staff. One at a time.

That's the whole point. Dehumanization counts in bulk. Rosh Hashanah counts one at a time.

This years second day sermon was about staying human in a moment built to make that hard -- from ancient forgeries about our own tradition, to the rhetoric of the Gaza War, to disagreements splitting families.

Atem keruyim Adam. You are called human. Not a description -- an instruction.

Full sermon linked below. Shanah tovah.

Rabbi Steven Wernick reflects on how easily fear, tribalism, and po...