Rabbi Steve Sager
June 29, 1951 – May 15, 2022

We invite the community to participate in the mitzvah of tzedakah by making donations designated for the Sager Visiting Scholar Fund at Beth El. Proceeds will be used to support learning with teachers and students who made a difference in Rabbi Sager‘s life and those whose lives he affected. These people will help us carry forward Rabbi Sager‘s Torah. Click here to make a donation (select Sager Visiting Scholar Fund in the fund dropdown).

 

Rabbi Sager served as Beth El’s rabbi for 32 years.  He is a graduate of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (RRC) and earned a Ph.D. in Rabbinic Literature at Duke University. Rabbi Sager has been a teacher, rabbinic advisor and mentor for students and graduates of the RRC, Hebrew Union College, Jewish Theological Seminary and the Rabbinical School of the Boston Hebrew College.  Rabbi Sager was an adjunct faculty member of Duke Divinity School and had taught at the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and in the Department of Social Medicine at the UNC Medical School.  Rabbi Sager was a Senior Rabbinic Fellow of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, where he was also a leader of the Rabbinic Programs Advisory Committee and of the Rabbinic Havurah program.  Rabbi Sager served as President of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association and of the Greater Carolinas Association of Rabbis (GCAR); co-director of the GCAR Interfaith Institute, Scholar in Residence on numerous occasions for the GCAR, as well as serving in this capacity in congregations throughout the United States.   Rabbi Sager published articles in The Reconstructionist, The Journal of Religious Education, and The Southern Medical Journal. Rabbi Sager served as the Director of Sicha, a project to stimulate conversations between classical Jewish culture and contemporary Jewish needs. Rabbi Sager passed away on May 15, 2022.

Funeral services for Rabbi Steven Sager took place on Tuesday, May 17. Click here to view a recording.

An obituary of Rabbi Sager’s life may be found here. Click here for an obituary published on JTA.org.

On May 31, the Shalom Hartman Institute hosted Torah and Stories in honor of Rabbi Sager. View the recording here.

Midrash, Stories, and Poetry

Click on the bold sessions below to view a recording:

• “The Patriarchs and Journeys of Aging, Part II, Isaac” April 12, 2022

• “The Patriarchs and Journeys of Aging, Part I, Abraham” March 13, 2022

• “Father We Thank Thee For The Night…” Rabbi Sager’s Childhood Night-Time Prayer. What Is Yours?, December 6, 2021
  (Click here to view the text)

• “I Have No Earthly Idea About God,” part two: Theology And Meteorology- Predicting The ‘Whether’ Of God, November 22, 2021

• “I Have No Earthly Idea About God! ‘Sometimes I Pray,’ ‘Prayers Preceded God'” November 8, 2021
  (Click here to view the text)

• “Great, Mighty, And Awesome” October 25, 2021
  (Texts are available here and here.)

• “Prayer is Both the Key and the Lock to the Holidays” October 11, 2021
  (Click here to view the text.)

• “Presence In The Sukkah” September 27, 2021

• “Taking Place: Blessings Within And Without” September 13, 2021
  (Click here to view text.)

 

Conversations with Rabbi Sager: “Holiday Seasons: Judaism While Standing On One Foot–At A Time”

Click on the bold sessions below to view a recording:

• “Holiday Seasons: Judaism While Standing On One Foot–At A Time” August 16, 2021
  (Click here to view texts.)

Conversations with Rabbi Sager: “Doors, Doorways, And Transitions” 

Click on the bold sessions below to view a recording:

• “Doors, Doorways, and Transitions” October 19, 2020
  (Click here to view texts.)

• “Teacher In The Door” November 2, 2020
  (Click here to view texts.)

• “Doors have Soul” November 16, 2020 
  (Click here to view texts.)

• “God is a Doorway” November 30, 2020
  (Click here to view texts.)

• “In Light Of The Door: The commandment of the Hanukkah light is to light it in the doorway closest to the public thoroughfare in order to publicize the miracle…” December 14, 2020
  (Click here to view texts.)

• “Giving in the Doorway” December 28, 2020
  (Click here to view texts.)

• “Opportunity Knocks: The Poor At The Door” January 11, 2021
  (Click here to view texts.)

• “Miracles Behind the Door” February 8, 2021
  (Click here to view texts.)

• “Elijah and the Messiah at the Entrance” February 22, 2021
  (Click here to view texts.)

• “Elijah in the Doorway” March 8, 2021
  (Click here to view texts.)

• “Elijah: Bridging Worlds”March 22, 2021
  (Click here to view texts.)

• “Torah For All And Torah For Each” April 5, 2021
  Related texts: “Torah Revealed to Each” and “Torah Not Yet Given.”

• “The Door From Sinai To Sinai” April 19, 2021
  (Click here to view texts.)

• “‘Threshold’ Experiences of Revelation” May 3, 2021
  (Click here to view texts.)

 

Conversations with Rabbi Sager: “Torah From Heaven, Heaven From Torah”

Click on the bold sessions below to view a recording:

• “My Father Was God and Didn’t Know It” June 29, 2020 
  (Click here to view texts.)

• “All Were Present at Sinai Except For One” July 13, 2020 
  (Click here to view texts.)

• “The Threatening Mountain and Loving Shelter” July 27, 2020
  (Click here to view texts.)

• “Moses Only Once Saw God’s Face and Forgot” August 10, 2020
  (Click here to view texts.)

• “Moses Received Torah from Sinai and It Became Three Things” August 24, 2020
  (Click here to view texts.)

• “A Mystical Master and a Modern Poet Receive Torah for a New Age!” September 14, 2020
  (Click here to view texts.)

About Rabbi Steven G. Sager, Rabbi Emeritus

Rabbi Sager served as Beth El’s rabbi for 32 years.  He is a graduate of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (RRC) and earned a Ph.D. in Rabbinic Literature at Duke University. Rabbi Sager has been a teacher, rabbinic advisor and mentor for students and graduates of the RRC, Hebrew Union College, Jewish Theological Seminary and the Rabbinical School of the Boston Hebrew College. Read more.

Check the calendar for Rabbi Sager’s upcoming conversations: