“Our time is, in the main, alien to Biblical thought and faith. God as a source of hope is recited in formal worship and called upon as a last desperate cry. Very few people really …
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A Time to Hope
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Finding Oneself
“To succeed today, one must project an image, not be oneself.” The Internet and social media have made Rabbi Olan’s statement even more true today than it was when he said it. And so the fundamental …
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Law and Morality
“Laws are for human beings who are often all too human. The philosophic anarchist, or the advocate that men live by spirituality alone are advocating a way of life for angels and not for men.” …
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The Clean and the Unclean
“…Our age exhibits two radically opposite attitudes toward morality – one which would prohibit most pleasurable experiences on the theory that they contaminate and defile. The other would unbind all controls and open wide the …
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The Most Important Event
The sermon entitled “The Most Important Event” was broadcast on April 14, 1963, in the middle of Passover week. In it Rabbi Olan maintains that the key event in Jewish history was the Exodus from …
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Religion Has Come a Long Way
“Historically, religion tends to ignore the changes which transform the world and the lives of men.” Some people criticize religious communities for not keeping up with the times. Others complain that their churches or synagogues …
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Remember Your Enemies
“Prejudice is an insult to the dignity of man, the child of God. It is contagious and like a brush fire can burn down a whole civilization unless it is stamped out right at the …
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A Modern View of the Kingdom of God
“We must move from charity toward justice which is the basic quality of God’s kingdom.” In this sermon, Rabbi Olan addresses what is arguably his core theme: how the Prophets called upon us to work …
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An Eye for an Eye
“It is of the utmost urgency for us to learn how to mete out justice with love.” In this March 10, 1963 sermon, Rabbi Olan addressed the question of responding appropriately to evil. What do …
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Man Need Not Fail
“To men of Biblical faith the Kingdom of God will be achieved and our task in life is to help.” In his sermon “Man Need Not Fail,” Rabbi Olan discusses the “bright vision of a …
Rabbi Levi A. Olan: The Conscience of the City 