Category: Emor
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Emor 5785: Perpetually Lighting
In a few weeks I am going to spend the day in New York to attend the graduation ceremony of Yeshivat Maharat. Members of this community are graduating. Two women who interned with me are graduating.…
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Emor 5784: “Being Strict and Being Lenient”
I know two jokes about kohanim. This is the good one: A man walked up to his rabbi and said, “Rabbi, make me a kohen.” The rabbi responded, I’m so sorry, I can’t make you a…
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Emor 5783: “Crimes & Context”
On April 15th, 1936, a group of Palestinian insurgents loyal to Izz Ad-Din al-Qassam, shot and killed two Jewish motorists on the road between Nablus and Tulkaram. Days later two Palestinian laborers were shot and killed…
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Emor 5779: “For Stranger and Citizen Alike”
More than 800 years ago Maimonides, Rambam, penned a letter to a convert to Judaism who had taken on the name Ovadia. Ovadia had written to Rambam wondering if he could recite the same berakhot as…
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Emor 5778: “Let Your Left Hand Push Away While Your Right Hand Draws Near”
I don’t know when the first human being is going to be cloned, but I do know where the first human being will be cloned and I know who that person will be and I know why.…
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Emor 5777: “National Crouton Day, Mother’s Day, & Lag BaOmer”
I want to take this opportunity to wish each and every one of you a happy National Crouton Day. Today is also National Fruit Cocktail Day. One observes National Fruit Cocktail Day by eating a canned…
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Emor 5775: “Sacred Reverberations”
The preface to Micah Goodman’s book “Maimonides and the Book that Changed Judaism” begins with this delightful story: I first encountered The Guide for the Perplexed when I was nine years old. It was at Yehuda HaLevy…
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Emor / Yom Ha’atzmaut 5774: “These Are the Festivals of the Lord, Holy Occasions When You Declare Them”
When my family lived in Jerusalem 6 years ago we met and befriended a Christian family who lived in our neighborhood. We met at the local playground where we took Noam almost every day. I don’t…
Rabbi David Wolkenfeld 