Category: Year
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Yom Kippur 5780: “The Prophet of Distillation”
The first and last time I tried to recite Tashlikh prayers in Israel was unlike anything I had ever seen before. When I was 18, I left home and traveled to Israel to study in a…
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Kol Nidre 5780: “Spiritual and Physical”
There is a prayer that is printed in your machzorim called Tefilah Zakah that some people recite before Yom Kippur begins. The culmination of the prayer is a poignant recognition that even the power of Yom…
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Rosh Hashanah Day 1 5780: “Beyond the Straw Hat Shul”
One Shabbat morning in the summer of 1870, Duber Ginsberg, an immigrant from Mariampol Lithuania walked into his erstwhile shul while wearing a straw hat whereupon he was promptly thrown out for his impudence and irreverence.…
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Nitzavim 5779: “Proof of Concept”
I have an annual change in diet between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. The asseret yamei teshuvah, the ten days of repentance, for me, are ten days to wean myself off caffeine before Yom Kippur. The…
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Devarim 5779: “Why We Fast”
Today is the 9th of Av. Because it is Shabbat, the fast day is postponed to tomorrow and we are left with an ominous date on the calendar and a bit more time to prepare for…
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Matot-Ma’asei 5779: “This is What Your Fathers Did”
Just a few weeks ago, on a Friday afternoon, Sara and I walked with our children to shul just before our first Shabbat together in Yerushalayim. In the late afternoon on Fridays in Yerushalayim, almost everyone…
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Pinchas 5779: “To These Will I Give the Land”
The quest for authenticity is one of the enduring challenges of living as social beings within a community. We are constantly judging one another and being evaluated by one another and noticing the actions and character…
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Shlach 5779: “But As For the Children”
“Are we there yet?” I am dreading that question. By this time tomorrow, I will be packed up and about to embark on a trip to Israel with our two youngest children. Sara and their older…
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Baha’alotcha 5779: “Egyptian Cucumbers”
When I was a child I would often cry on the first day of school. It wasn’t because I hated school or didn’t like my teachers. It wasn’t because I was upset about the classmates assigned…
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Naso 5779: “One is Obligated to Teach Torah to His Daughters: From a Feminist Satire to Democratic Elitism”
Starting at age four, our children study Torah with their mother before bedtime on most evenings. Several months ago, as they learned the Mishnah of Tractate Shabbat, I overheard our twins reading a mishnah with their…
Rabbi David Wolkenfeld 