Category: Year
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Ha’Azinu 5782: “Rote Memorization”
Professor Hyim Soloveitchik is one of the most prominent historians of Medieval Jewish History, and the two graduate level courses I took with him at Yeshiva University were perhaps the most intimidating classroom experiences of my…
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Yom Kippur 5782: “The Holiday for Human Beings”
Here is a riddle that I learned from my children: What is black and white with a long blue tail and giant yellow wings? A penguin with delusions of grandeur. Well, if that is a penguin…
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Rosh Hashanah Day 2 5782: “Not a Shehechiyanu Moment”
My first big event since the arrival of Covid was a vaccination party at Rush Hospital. On January 27th Sara and I drove to Rush Hospital where we were ushered into a large conference room along…
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Rosh Hashanah Day 1 5782: “Inward and Outward”
Did you ever wonder what it must be like to live in one of the buildings next to the shul? I know it’s no fun when the security alarm goes off at 3 AM and wakes…
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Nitzavim 5781: “We are Enough”
Our daughter recently told Sara, while they were learning Humash together a few nights ago, “Moshe is so much better than Abraham and everyone else. They’re all just like: “Yes, God, okay.” Moshe has a life.”…
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Re’eh 5781: “The Place I Shall Choose”
I am going to summarize the biblical Book of Kings: “And then there was King X, who did evil in the eyes of God and did not destroy the bamot – the private altars. And then…
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Eikev 5781: “The Tablets and the Lost Ark”
Which comes first: the chicken or the egg? Is this a semantic question? Is this a philosophical question? I don’t know. How about this one: Do we store our Torah scrolls in an ark, or does…
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Va’Etchanan 5781: “Facing East”
Let’s orient ourselves geographically. Right now I am facing west with the eastern wall of the shul behind me. To my right is the north and to my left is the south. Everyone following? Good. Now,…
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Devarim 5781: “Whose Words?”
Last week the New York Times reported on a scandal that is being called “sermongate.” The newly elected president of the Southern Baptist convention was caught delivering a sermon that had been delivered just a short…
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Matot-Ma’asai 5781: “Lovingly Counted”
Last week, a day or two before Shabbat I watched a television interview with Colonel Golan Vach, one of the commanders of the Israeli rescue and recovery mission in Surfside Florida. The interviewer for CNN asked…
Rabbi David Wolkenfeld 