Category: Shmini
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Shimini 5785: Big Tents and Open Tents
One of the most powerful metaphors used in both communal life and politics is the “big tent.” It evokes gracious hospitality and open-hearted tolerance. Who does not want to be a host in a big tent…
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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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Shmini 5782: “Kashrut in a World of Uncertainty”
This time of year, without exception, my workflow begins to change and my inbox and phone are taken over by people asking Pesach questions. I think I am asked to provide more halakhic guidance in the…
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Shmini 5778: “Seventy Years is Ripe Old Age: Zionism in a Post-Ideological Age”
How many times have you heard someway say, with pride, “you can walk into any synagogue in the world and they will be reading the very same words out of the Torah scroll?” I know I’ve…
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Shmini 5777: “A Unified Theory of Halakhah”
I truly love being asked to provide halakhic guidance. It’s literally what I went to school to learn how to do – which is more than I can say about some of the other questions that…
Rabbi David Wolkenfeld 