Category: Year
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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…
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Bo 5782: “Go to Pharaoh”
In the days of Rabbi Yitzhak Kalish of Varka (1779-1848) there was a Polish minister who wanted to collect every copy of Hoshen Mishpat in Poland and burn it. Hoshen Mishpat is the section of the…
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Shemot 5782: “A Long Time After That”
Have you ever endured something hard and unpleasant that seemed to last a lifetime, and then, just when you thought that your suffering and hardship would end, it turned out that it was not over? Sound…
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VaYigash 5782: “Approaching and Holding Back”
On the night of November 21st of 1196, a mob of crusaders burst into the home of Rabbi Elazer ben Yehudah Kalonymous, most famous for his book of Jewish ethics and practice, “The Perfumer” or Sefer…
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Miketz 5782: “Holy Ground”
My elementary school assemblies and concerts took place in the auditorium of the Ethical Culture Society of New York, Ethical Culture is a national movement for secular humanism, founded in the 19th century by Felix Adler…
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VaYishlach 5782: “A Reconciliation Postponed”
Have you ever looked forward to something, even prayed for the day when it could happen, and then once you had the chance to do the thing that you were waiting for and praying for, you…
Rabbi David Wolkenfeld 