Category: Parasha
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Miketz 5778: “In History God Casts a Vote”
Many years ago, when I was a college student spending Hannukah at my mother’s apartment, we gathered ogether with some of her closest friends to light candles. One of them, who could have been an Upper…
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VaYeshev 5778: “She is More Righteous Than I”
Our parashah this morning tells of Yosef ’s rise as the favored son of the patriarch Jacob, the owner of his own coat of many colors and the teller of dreams that appear to be delusions of…
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Chayei Sara 5778: “Thoughts and Prayers”
During the first year that I learned at Yeshivat Hamivtar, I took advantage of the pre-dinner break each day to exercise. Usually I went jogging alone along the security path that wended its way over and through…
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Lekh Lekha 5778: “The Source of Faith is Faith Alone”
We used to tell visitors that the only kosher restaurant in Princeton was our kitchen. As such, we developed a tradition of hosting the graduating seniors and their parents for a BBQ dinner the evening prior to graduation.…
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Noach 5778: “How to Grow Up and Why”
When our eldest child Noam was 6 months old or so, a professional mentor of mine saw him and said, “Oh what a cute baby! It’s so great when they are at an age when it is…
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Yom Kippur 5778: “Auschwitz and Sinai in 5778”
Ten years ago, Sara and I along with “Baby Noam,” were starting our lives as graduate students in Jerusalem. I was learning each day at Yeshivat Har Etzion, Sara was studying at Beit Morashah in Talpiyot,…
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Rosh Hashanah Day 2 5778: “The World Was Created for Me”
Some of you may know that our brothers and sisters in Israel are suffering through an acute crisis right now. It is a crisis that could have been predicted—indeed it was predicted many years ago—and yet…
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Rosh Hashanah Day 1 5778: “Why Good People Disagree”
The opposite of a truth is a lie. But the opposite of a profound truth, is sometimes another profound truth. This quote, attributed to the physicist Neils Bohr, is illustrated by the Torah readings on the…
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Shoftim 5777: “The Many Wives of Henry the VIII and the Many Lives of Biblical Verses”
King Henry VIII was married to Catherine of Aragon but wished he were married to Anne Bolyn. King Henry, at the time, was Catholic and there was no way to arrange a divorce. Instead, Henry argued that…
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Matot Ma’asei 5777: “Summertime”
This has been a hard summer for Lovers of Zion. At the beginning of the summer, right here in Chicago, at an event associated with the gay-pride weekend, a flag decorated with a Jewish star was maligned…
Rabbi David Wolkenfeld 