Common Faith

What goes into a High Holiday sermon—and what happens when you return to its message weeks later? In this special episode of Common Faith, Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove and Jon Frankel look back at Rosh Hashanah at Park Avenue Synagogue, sharing two sermons delivered over the past several weeks and discussing the ideas and experiences behind them.
In his Erev Rosh Hashanah sermon, Rabbi Cosgrove turns to The Odyssey and its timeless story of homecoming. Like Odysseus returning from his journey changed by everything he has experienced, Rosh Hashanah invites us to come home—to tradition, community, God, and ourselves—carrying the wounds, wisdom, memories, and scars we've accumulated along the way.
Then, in “All in the Jewish Family,” Rabbi Cosgrove draws on the 100-year history of Park Avenue Synagogue's sanctuary to confront a very contemporary question: How can Jews remain one family amid profound disagreements over Israel, Zionism, identity, and the Jewish future? Looking back at earlier generations of American Jews who wrestled with many of the same questions, he makes the case for staying in conversation, making room for disagreement, and remembering what binds us together even when we don't see the world the same way.

Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove:
https://www.instagram.com/elliot_cosgrove
https://x.com/RabbiCosgrove
Park Avenue Synagogue:
https://www.pasyn.org
https://www.instagram.com/parkavenuesyn/#
Jon Frankel:
https://www.instagram.com/skifrankel

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

We like to believe that we enter our adult relationships as fully formed people, freely choosing whom we love and how we love them. But what if the frightened, ashamed, guilty, invisible—or even “chosen”—children we once were are still quietly making some of those decisions?
Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove and Jon Frankel welcome internationally renowned psychoanalyst and bestselling author Dr. Galit Atlas, whose new book, Come Closer: Childhood Wounds, Adult Love, and the Secrets of Emotional Intimacy, examines the unconscious connection between our earliest relationships and our adult love lives. Atlas explains why we repeatedly return to what feels familiar—even when the familiar once hurt us—and how childhood survival strategies can become patterns that follow us into marriage, intimacy, and family life.
The conversation also turns toward Jewish experience and inherited trauma. Born in Israel to parents from Iran and Syria, Atlas reflects on growing up in the shadow of the Holocaust and amid Israel's own layers of trauma. She discusses how October 7 reopened deeper wounds in the Jewish psyche and how those events have entered the therapy room—sometimes exposing profound differences within marriages and families.
Ultimately, Atlas offers a hopeful idea: our past shapes us, but it does not have to dictate our future. By recognizing the different selves we carry and understanding where our patterns began, we may gain greater freedom to create something new—in ourselves and in the relationships that matter most.

Dr. Galit Atlas:
https://www.galitatlas.com/
Come Closer: Childhood Wounds, Adult Love:
https://www.galitatlas.com/home-1-1

Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove:
https://www.instagram.com/elliot_cosgrove
https://x.com/RabbiCosgrove
Park Avenue Synagogue:
https://www.pasyn.org
https://www.instagram.com/parkavenuesyn/#
Jon Frankel:
https://www.instagram.com/skifrankel

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Sukkot may be one of Judaism’s most mysterious holidays. We leave the security of our homes for a temporary structure, welcome guests around the table, and are reminded that permanence may be more illusion than reality. Rabbi Mark Wildes joins Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove and Jon Frankel to unpack those ideas—and a particularly moving interpretation of the ushpizin: the biblical figures welcomed into the sukkah who lived in pursuit of dreams they themselves never saw fulfilled.
For Wildes, welcoming people in is more than a Sukkot tradition—it has defined his life’s work. Inspired by a mother who taught her children to notice newcomers at synagogue and invite them home for Shabbat, Wildes went on to found Manhattan Jewish Experience, creating a place for Jews who may feel disconnected, intimidated, or unsure where they belong. He explains why warmth can bring someone through the door, but substance is what keeps them there.
The conversation also explores Wildes’ book, The Jewish Experience: Discovering the Soul of Jewish Thought and Practice, and the renewed search for Jewish meaning following October 7. Wildes describes seeing more people walk through his doors asking fundamental questions: What does it mean to be Jewish? What do Jews believe about God and Torah? Why do we pray? For Wildes, the challenge—and opportunity—is not simply getting people interested in Judaism, but helping them discover that the tradition was theirs all along.

Rabbi Mark Wildes:
https://www.markwildes.com/
https://www.jewishexperience.org/our-team
The Jewish Experience: Discovering the Soul of Jewish Thought and Practice:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/159264712X?lv=shuf&channelId=500&plpRedirect=mhFallback

Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove:
https://www.instagram.com/elliot_cosgrove
https://x.com/RabbiCosgrove
Park Avenue Synagogue:
https://www.pasyn.org
https://www.instagram.com/parkavenuesyn/#
Jon Frankel:
https://www.instagram.com/skifrankel

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Yom Kippur asks us to reflect, repent and repair—but what happens when repair cannot return us to what was? Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove and Jon Frankel begin with the meaning and traditions of Judaism’s holiest day before welcoming Rabbis Nicole Guzik and Erez Sherman, the husband-and-wife co-senior rabbis of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles. Their conversation begins with their own preparation for Yom Kippur: the relationships that may never look the same, the stories that remain untold, and the possibility of making room for hope even when remorse or regret remains.
That idea takes on deeper meaning through their book, Grieving a Child: A Companion Guide for Clergy. Born from years of conversations with a family that experienced the death of a child, the guide addresses what religious training and traditional rituals cannot always prepare clergy to face: what happens before, during and long after devastating loss. From navigating shiva and anniversaries to remembering milestones a child never reached, Guzik and Sherman argue that pastoral care cannot end when the formal mourning period does.
At the heart of the conversation is a powerful image: the scar. Repair may be possible, Rabbi Guzik explains, but repair does not mean returning to what existed before. A scar remains; what can change is how we see it, carry it and allow it to become part of our lives. The rabbis also offer practical wisdom for anyone trying to comfort a grieving family: don't make their loss about your own experience, don't offer assurances, don't be afraid to speak about the child—and don't disappear once shiva ends. Sometimes the most meaningful words are simply, this is heartbreaking, and I'm still thinking about you.
As Yom Kippur draws near, the conversation becomes ultimately not only about death, but about life: the people we remember, the relationships we carry, and the community that surrounds us as we enter another year.

Rabbi Nicole Guzik:
https://www.sinaitemple.org/about/clergy-senior-staff/rabbi-nicole-guzik/
Rabbi Erez Sherman:
https://www.sinaitemple.org/about/clergy-senior-staff/rabbi-erez-sherman/
Grieving a Child: A Companion Guide for Clergy:
https://momentmag.com/clergy-child-loss/?srsltid=AfmBOorNTf4Eket9D6YuZSPKW8lfVDlfzqHhrL1VYkOUBqIwx8xAEuXD

Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove:
https://www.instagram.com/elliot_cosgrove
https://x.com/RabbiCosgrove
Park Avenue Synagogue:
https://www.pasyn.org
https://www.instagram.com/parkavenuesyn/#
Jon Frankel:
https://www.instagram.com/skifrankel

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What does Rosh Hashanah ask of us beyond apples, honey and the promise of a new beginning? Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove and Jon Frankel begin their Rosh Hashanah special with a candid conversation about the High Holidays—the joy of renewal, the weight of Yom Kippur and the difficult work of repairing relationships before we ever enter the synagogue.
They are joined by renowned theologian, scholar and activist Rabbi Irving “Yitz” Greenberg, who reframes Rosh Hashanah as something even more fundamental: the holiday of creation. For Greenberg, recognizing that life is finite gives every human being a responsibility to decide how we will use the time we have. Every word, relationship and action presents a choice between forces that strengthen life and those that diminish it.
That idea also sits at the heart of Greenberg’s new collection, Life Against Death. The conversation moves from the Holocaust and the renewal of Jewish life to October 7, Israel, Zionism and the increasingly difficult relationship between Israel and American Jewry. Greenberg and Cosgrove wrestle with how Jews can defend Jewish self-determination while remaining willing to criticize Israel and its government—and why a healthy Jewish community needs room for disagreement, competing voices and genuine pluralism.
At the beginning of a new year, Greenberg ultimately offers both a challenge and a hopeful vision: human beings have extraordinary agency. We cannot perfect the world all at once, but moment by moment, choice by choice, we can move it toward life.

Rabbi Irving “Yitz” Greenberg:
https://www.hadar.org/about/people/rabbi-yitz-greenberg
Life Against Death:
https://tinyurl.com/y3vby2r7


Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove:
https://www.instagram.com/elliot_cosgrove
https://x.com/RabbiCosgrove
Park Avenue Synagogue:
https://www.pasyn.org
https://www.instagram.com/parkavenuesyn/#
Jon Frankel:
https://www.instagram.com/skifrankel

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.