Category: Year
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Behukotai 5782: “Wrathful Indifference”
Think of a phone call that made a difference in your life. Reflect on what it feels like to be the subject of someone’s care and concern and love and how empowering and supportive that can…
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Kedoshim 5782: “Fragmentary Judaism”
Some books are able to convey the essential point of the book just in their title alone. An excellent example of that is Professor Leora Batnitzky’s book How Judaism Became a Religion. The premise of her…
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Acharei Mot 5782: “Life and Ritual in the Shadow of Death”
When the first atomic bomb was exploded in a test detonation near Los Alomos laboratory, Robert Oppenheimer, the physicist known as the “father of the atomic bomb” quoted Hindu scripture and said, “Now I am become…
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Tazria 5782: “Verbs and Nouns and Complicated Identity”
At our Passover seder, we take turns reading the paragraphs of Maggid. Each participant around the table reads a paragraph, in whichever language they wish, from whichever edition of the Hagadah they select from our collection…
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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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Pekudei 5782: “A Piece of Redemption”
I want to make a confession. As I’ve absorbed the news from Ukraine this past 8 days, I have been absolutely captivated by the names of the towns and cities of Ukraine. Odessa, Berditchev, Anapol, Kyiv,…
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Tetzaveh 5782: “Erase Me From Your Book”
Right now it’s 10:40 AM. Do you know where your children are? The Tot Shabbat kids and their parents are downstairs now and they could be singing these words. Torah Torah Torah….Torah, Torah, Torah…Torah Tzivah Lanu…..Moshe! …
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Terumah 5782: “The Wandering Jew”
I have in my hand a tractate of the Talmud. This is Massechet Beitzah, a volume of the Talmud I grabbed off a shelf in my office and it’s printing tells the story of the Jewish…
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Yitro 5782: “A Stranger in a Strange Land”
When I was a freshman in college I followed up on a referral, made a few phone calls, and left campus to spend Shabbat at the home of the Bostoner Rebbe. The rebbe, in those years…
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Beshalach 5782: “Follow the Science”
Rabbi Yishmael and Rabbi Akiva were once walking on the outskirts of Yerushalayim, and there was another person with them. A sick person approached the group, and said: My rabbis, tell me how I may be…
Rabbi David Wolkenfeld 