Category: Parasha
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Shlach 5775: “We Were Like Grasshoppers in Our Eyes, and So Too in Their Eyes”
Perhaps you saw reports in the papers this week that Israeli computer viruses had infected the European hotels where P5 +1 talks with Iran have been taking place. Whenever I hear about Israeli intelligence operatives getting…
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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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Acharei Mot-Kedoshim 5775: “Does Judaism Recognize an Ethic Independent of Halakhah”
You may have noticed that my family was not in shul last Shabbat. (I actually hope you did notice that we weren’t here)! Last Shabbat we took a short and much appreciated family vacation to exotic Columbus,…
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Vayakhel-Pekudei 5775: “Hashem is Here, Hashem is There”
My first exposure to Jewish philosophy came, not from Rambam or Rav Saadia Gaon, but rather from that famous source of wisdom, Uncle Moishy, the children’s musician. Hashem is here.Hashem is there.Hashem is truly everywhere.Up, up, down,…
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Ki Tissa 5775: “My Trip to Washington”
My father-in law taught me to remember all of the public fast days on the Jewish calendar by this simple mnemonic: The black and the white, the long and the short, the man and the woman. The…
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Terumah 5775: “He saw it. He loved it. He ate it.”
Years before he became famous, Brian Selznick, the author and illustrator of The Invention of Hugo Cabret, which was turned into the Academy Award winning movie “Hugo” worked at a children’s bookstore in New York near the apartment…
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Beshalach 5775: “The Wide World of Sports”
Shabbat Shalom. It’s great to be back in Lakeview this Shabbat. To be honest, being in Miami last Shabbat was also pretty great. The weather was great. The company was great – there were over 400…
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Vaera 5775: “Can Religious Tolerance Have Passion?”
Usually when we find a contradiction in a text, we interpret that as a weakness in the text itself. When we edit things that we write, we try to remove any contradictions that may be there.…
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VaYechi 5775: “The People of Which Book?”
Two weeks ago the Israeli Ministry of Education launched Project 929. Directed by Rabbi Benny Lau and a woman named Gal Gabai, and with the blessings of the President of the State of Israel, Project 929…
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VaYigash 5775: “Short and Bitter Have Been the Years of My Life”
Where was the first Jewish homeland? I would wager that 99 our of 100 people would answer, “Eretz Yisrael.” Indeed, when Avraham reaches Eretz Canaan, God tells him, “to you I shall give this land.” We are…
Rabbi David Wolkenfeld 