Category: Parasha
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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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Acharei Mot 5784: Its Way of Life
When I was in high school I once picked up the Thanksgiving edition of the Village Voice and saw a humor column titled something like “Fifty things to be thankful for about living in America.” After…
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Shmini 5784: “Such Things Have Befallen Me”
Sefer Vayikra has a bad reputation as a book without much plot. Perhaps for this reason, anytime there is narrative action in Sefer Vayikra it grabs so much of our attention and the death of Nadav…
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Vayikra 5784: “Kol Nidrei of Purim”
אור זרוע לצדיק ולישרי לב שמחה “A light is sown for the righteous and joy for the noble hearted” With the agreement of God and of the community, in the heavenly council, and in the council…
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Vayakhel 5784: “Boundaries and What They Protect”
The morning of August 11, 2008 began like any other. Sara went to a routine prenatal exam and I drove to Princeton to spend the day unpacking boxes in our new home. Minutes after I arrived…
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Ki Tissa 5784: “Counting and Not Counting”
If you’ve ever seen someone trying to count by saying, “Not one, not two, not three…not four…” then you know that there is a practice to avoid counting in a direct way even when we are…
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Terumah 5784: “The Place Where People Seek the Highest”
A few weeks ago I attended the Shepherd Park Citizens’ Association potluck gathering. The event took place just up the road at the Washington Ethical Society and the room where we ate is the same meeting…
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Yitro 5784: “As One Person with One Heart”
If you ever attended a Pesach Seder at our home you would have heard my sister in law, a”h, ask how it is that we sing Dayeinu and declare that it would have been enough for…
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Beshalach 5784: “The Best of Times or the Worst of Times?”
Decades ago, one fateful afternoon, I went to the dentist. The dental hygienist, upon seeing my kipah, was excited to tell me that she and her Jewish boyfriend had just seen The Prince of Egypt in…
Rabbi David Wolkenfeld 