Category: 5774
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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…
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Tetzaveh 5774
If I had a bell. I’d ring it in the morning/ I’d ring it in the evening, all over this land/ I’d ring out danger, I’d ring out warning/ I’d ring out love, between my brothers and my sisters/ All…
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VaYeshev 5774: “Power Corrupts”
There was a rabbinic conference in Europe last week featuring representatives from the Council of European Rabbis, the Rabbinical Council of America, and the Israeli Chief Rabbinate. This conference was the victim of some very unfortunate timing.…
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VaYishlach 5774: “Place”
I once read a pop-psychology book that suggested that people either privileged sight or hearing as metaphors for comprehension. Someone who privileges vision might say things like, “I see what you’re saying” or “Is this clear to you?”…
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VaYetzei 5774: “Prayer for the Government”
In 1872, the British scientist, Fancis Galton, formulated a clever way to test the efficacy of prayer. The British royal family, and Queen Victoria in particular, was the beneficiary of the prayers of millions of subjects of…
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Toldot 5774
One of the most distinct features of Jewish history, as recorded in the Torah, is that numerous women suffered from infertility before eventually conceiving and giving birth to healthy children. Our matriarchs Sarah, Rivka, and Rachel…
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Vayera 5774: “Religious Humanism”
I received a fantastic email the other week: a list of 50 “intellectual jokes.” Apparently, I’m not such an intellectual because I didn’t understand all of the jokes. But I really liked this one: A linguist…
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Bereishit 5774: “Kove’a Itim”
Why is Genesis in the Torah? It is a counter-intuitive question – how could the Torah not contain the account of Creation? The flood? The stories of the patriarchs and matriarchs? But Rashi begins his commentary…
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Yom Kippur 5774
Why does God want our prayers? We are fasting. We are tired. We are hungry and we are weak. But, despite our weariness, we come together in shul to pray for hour after hour. There is…
Rabbi David Wolkenfeld 