On Yom Kippur 5769 (2008 ), Rabbi Brigitte Rosenberg stood on United Hebrew’s bimah and delivered a sermon that explored what the holy day is about: “change.” As she got further into the speech, she noticed that she overlooked something. Every time she said the integral word “change,” half of her congregation nodded in approval or attentively or grinned, while the other half shifted their focus away in rejection, lowering their shoulders or frown. Rosenberg had overlooked the fact that it was just weeks before the Obama-McCain Presidential election — and Obama’s slogan was “Change.”

Though people may see rabbis as influential leaders of their congregations, they may not realize that the frequent sermons entail meticulous writing.  Rabbis must choose their words with care.

“Part of this job is being a columnist every week,” said Bais Abraham Congregation Rabbi Ben Greenfield. “Every seven days, I come up with some thought that’s worthwhile, and meaningful, and well-structured and well-written… And that’s an interesting experience.” 

Although rabbis like Greenfield must think of topics each week, they do have one core idea source — a source one could say God gave them: scripture. 

“What I typically like to do is… connect whatever I’m speaking about to the [weekly] Torah portion,” said Rosenberg. “So, I have an idea weeks and months in advance of what the Torah portion is. But I will say [that] sometimes, the ideas kind of percolate during the week and then really start to solidify probably Thursday or Friday.”

It is in this “percolating” that Rosenberg really ponders how to get her point across. She doesn’t just consider what she wants to say, but also how the congregants will interpret it. 

“Sometimes you may have every intent of saying something, but it’s being heard in a different way than you actually mean,” said Rosenberg. “That was a lesson and it’s still a lesson that I take to heart today.”

One approach a rabbi may take in a sermon is incorporating a personal experience or life story. Rabbi Orrin Krublit of Congregation B’nai Amoona does this to connect with his community. His stories are unique in the sense that they reject the popular notion of leading by an example of perfection, but instead show congregants that their rabbi is a real person with real struggles. In other words, he is not one for pretending everything is perfect.

“[Presenting] like you are the example… like you are perfect… sort of nauseates me a little bit because I think what we have to do as rabbis — as clergy people even — is we have to say, ‘Look, we’re not perfect people.’ It’s OK to fail, and it’s OK to be vulnerable, and to share your flaws with people. I think that’s important message because it gives them permission to share their own flaws,” said Krublit. “We need to be symbolic exemplars of imperfection.”

Because the sensitive topics of Krublit’s sermons are rarely talked about, they may come as a shock to some. 

“I’ve spoken before about my mom who passed away when I was 16 and her issues with addiction. She was an addict, and she also had hepatitis C as a result of sharing needles by injecting heroin,” said Krublit. So luckily, I didn’t catch anything — like, I didn’t get hepatitis C when I was born… I talked about her addictions, I talked about sort of growing up with an addict as a parent.”

Krublit once gave a sermon about the last words he had with his mom before she died. He thinks his openness with personal experiences is, in part, a result of his congregation’s warm community. Primarily, however, Krublit stresses that life — and all of its baggage — is nothing to be ashamed of.

“It’s OK to talk about these issues in public. And not only is it OK, but they can be holy issues because everybody has their stuff, whatever their negative stuff is, right?” said Krublit. “Nobody goes through this world really perfect. I think the more we acknowledge that, the more we show how Torah and Judaism can actually speak to reality and not just some fantasy land where everything is good and great.”

Sometimes, there is breaking news that the rabbis do not include in their sermons. In these cases, the three of them often mention the news to their congregants to let them know it is on their minds. Because its scripture is not that of a “fantasy land,” Judaism connects to plenty of hot topics of today.  Naturally, rabbis may want to explore these issues. But they must avoid getting political and going beyond their rabbinic realm. 

“It’s hard to speak about politics, and almost everything in current events is political,” said Greenfield. “On the other hand, it’s a shame to not speak about politics, because it’s a realm in which people’s moral sense and vision for the future are at play. And those are intrinsically religious subjects.”

Krublit tends to incorporate current events in his sermons more often than Greenfield. Krublit says, however, that he would not give a sermon solely on health care or gun control.

“I’m interested in exploring what Judaism has to say about those topics,” said Krublit, who is leaving B’nai Amoona in late June.  “Judaism says lots of different things about a lot of different topics. And [I’ll] try and present both a view that is intellectually honest and balanced, and recognizing my own biases for these different issues.” 

In addition to current events, a variety of other sources may inspire a rabbi for her sermon. Rosenberg, for example, has taken cues from radio programs, newspapers and books.

“One of the things I used to often take inspiration from — before she went off the air — I was an avid watcher of Oprah,” said Rosenberg. “Like, every day, I would TiVo it or go home, and I would watch her shows.”

Though their writing is inherently stressful, rabbis have each other for help. Greenfield has a WhatsApp group of rabbis while Rosenberg has one on Facebook, which serve as idea-sharing and idea-tweaking platforms.

“I have a very good friend of my youth, who I do a lot of idea bouncing off of. So when my sermons are percolating, especially for the holidays, she’s my go-to person.” said Rosenberg. “She’ll say, ‘This is really good, but I think you need an illustration here,’ or ‘I would tone that down,’ or ‘I would take this out,’ or ‘it’s really good, but I think you could shorten it.’” 

Once the three rabbis get ideas, they plant them in Google Drive to sprout into colorful sermons. Though Rosenberg has a folder, all three rabbis are primarily digital. Perhaps this is because, as Greenfield said, “everything’s got to be searchable.” 

Despite this preparedness, writing plenty of sermons for the public to hear is inherently stressful. The high holidays are particularly stressful because of the high concentration of services – and therefore sermons. Rosenberg sometimes even edits her sermons between services of the same holiday.

“There are very few times in the year that somebody – even myself included – wants to hear a sermon. On the holidays, people want to hear a sermon; it’s part of what they expect, it’s part of the experience.” Greenfield said. “So it’s like, I got one shot to say something that will impact people’s lives, or at the very least will show them that Torah is beautiful. That’s a really unique opportunity.”