Category: 5778
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Nitzavim 5778: “Why Courage Matters”
In 1970, David Ifshin was president of the National Student Association and an activist in the movement to end United States involvement in the Vietnam War. In one of the most controversial and extreme actions undertaken by opponents…
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Devarim 5778: “How?”
One of my teachers pointed out that two of the most common criticisms of Orthodox Judaism directly contradict each other. One criticism is that Orthodoxy is a fossil, never changing and frozen in the past. The other criticism…
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Pinchas 5778: “Transitions”
When I was in yeshiva I was told a cautionary tale of a rabbi who got into a great deal of trouble when he was caught with an entire filing cabinet in his office that was…
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Korach 5778: “Stay Away From the Tents of the Wicked”
Today is the yahrzeit of the Lubavitcher Rebbe. My grandmother was married to a veteran Lubavitcher Chassid who died before I ever got to know him, but I grew up knowing that my grandmother had an extensive extended…
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Baha’alotcha 5778: “The Menorah and Holistic Enlightenment”
Rabbi Aryeh Leib Steinman was the last living Lithuanian Talmudic scholar and rosh yeshiva whose education primarily took place in pre-War Europe. At the time of his death last winter, he was recognized as perhaps the most influential…
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Naso 5778: “Royalty”
I have discovered a new source for sermon inspiration. The sign outside of the Broadway Methodist Church often displays an inspiration quip or message and this week the sign said “Congratulations to Prince Harry and Meghan.” And indeed,…
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Behar-Behukotai: “Counting to Sinai”
Almost seventy years ago on the English calendar a very momentous conversation occurred. In the aftermath of Ben Gurion’s declaration of Israeli independence the only religious member of the provisional government, overcome with emotion recited the…
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Emor 5778: “Let Your Left Hand Push Away While Your Right Hand Draws Near”
I don’t know when the first human being is going to be cloned, but I do know where the first human being will be cloned and I know who that person will be and I know why.…
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Acharei Mot-Kedoshim 5778: “In This Way Shall He Enter the Sanctuary”
What if there were only one shul in the world? Some questions would become easy to answer. “Where are you going to make the bris?”“There’s one shul in the world!” “Where will you be for Pesach?”“There’s…
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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…
Rabbi David Wolkenfeld 