Category: Parasha
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Devarim 5774: “Family History and National History”
I want to begin by thanking all of you for your sympathy and support following the death of my grandmother last week. Sara and I are very grateful. I’m returning to New York on Wednesday and our…
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Ma’asei 5774: “Reflections from Uganda”
I. The Uganda Plan is one of the most derided episodes in the history of Zionism. Stymied in his initial attempts to receive international backing for a Jewish national home in Palestine, Theodor Herzl pushed instead for…
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Matot 5774: “Shall Your Brothers Go Out to War and You Sit Here?”
I. Last Monday afternoon, AIPAC’s first rabbinic mission to Israel visited Ziv Hospital in Tzfat. This medium-sized hospital provides medical care to the Eastern half of the Upper Gallil and the Golan. For the past year, however,…
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Korach 5774: “Bring Back Our Boys”
I. In just a few moments we are going to say something absurd. After we have a chance to recite our personal Mussaf prayers, the Hazan will lead us in the “tefilah shel tzibbur” the prayer…
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Shlach 5774: “Defiantly They Marched: Fundamentals without Fundamentalism”
The sin of the spies – the het hameraglim – is the most severe sin in the Torah and it has the most serious and severe consequences – the journey to Eretz Yisrael grinds to a…
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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…
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Tazria 5774: “From Purity to Sanctity”
Ivory Soap is 99.44 % pure. What does that even mean? 99.44% pure what? Is it even clear why that’s a good thing? To be quite frank, I’m much more concerned that my soap will be…
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Pekudei 5774: “Torah is Portable”
If you’ve seen the YouTube video advertising the Purim shpiel, you know that my greatest accomplishment in the six months that I’ve been at Anshe Sholom is making sure that shul finishes on time…For a Yekke,…
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Vayakhel 5774: “The Mishkan and the Wide World Beyond”
“The first six days after Shabbat are always the hardest.” I saw that quote and it strikes me as speaking to a question which is actually quite profound. What is the relationship between Shabbat and the…
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Ki Tissa 5774
The Septuagint, the ancient translation of the Torah into Greek, was written by 70 scholars who were locked into 70 different rooms and told to produce a translation of the Torah. Miraculously, they produced the identical…
Rabbi David Wolkenfeld 