Category: 5784
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Ki Teitzei 5784: Commemoration and Interpretation
Last Wednesday night I taught a shiur in Denver on behalf of the Wexner Heritage Fellowship. The students, all with leadership roles in the Colorado Jewish community, have already spent months learning together and traveling together…
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Devarim 5784: “No Words”
No Words אין מילים There are no words. In Hebrew as in English, the phrase signals our awareness that we are confronted by a circumstance that confounds are ability to understand using our usual conventional words.…
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Pinhas 5784: Prayers for Peace
It is wonderful to be back with you all in shul. My time in Israel was thought provoking and rewarding and I know I will be processing my reactions for many weeks to come. I am…
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Shlach 5784: Spy vs. Spy
We inaugurated a new tradition this Shabbat by having all of the Torah reading this morning read by men named Joshua. Yeshar Koach to all the Joshua’s who participated this morning and Mazal Tov to all…
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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…
Rabbi David Wolkenfeld 