Category: Year
-
Emor 5778: “Let Your Left Hand Push Away While Your Right Hand Draws Near”
I don’t know when the first human being is going to be cloned, but I do know where the first human being will be cloned and I know who that person will be and I know why.…
-
Acharei Mot-Kedoshim 5778: “In This Way Shall He Enter the Sanctuary”
What if there were only one shul in the world? Some questions would become easy to answer. “Where are you going to make the bris?”“There’s one shul in the world!” “Where will you be for Pesach?”“There’s…
-
Shmini 5778: “Seventy Years is Ripe Old Age: Zionism in a Post-Ideological Age”
How many times have you heard someway say, with pride, “you can walk into any synagogue in the world and they will be reading the very same words out of the Torah scroll?” I know I’ve…
-
Ki Tissa 5778: “Building Jerusalem: In Those Days at This Time”
Today is an auspicious day on the Jewish calendar. It is the 16th day of Adar, the anniversary of a very important event in Jewish history. According to Megilat Ta’anit, an ancient list of important dates…
-
Terumah 5778: “Two Roads Diverged in a Yellow Wood”
I hope you noticed that I was away last Shabbat. I certainly noticed. I spent Shabbat in New York City so that I could attend a wedding Saturday night. The wedding was lovely and a lot of…
-
Beshalach 5778: “God Seeks the Pursued”
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity,…
-
Bo 5778: “Planned Obsolescence”
Recently Apple admitted that iPhone software updates caused the phone to intentionally operate at a slower speed in order to preserve the lifespan of the phone’s aging battery. This admission launched a renewed look into something…
-
Vaera 5778: “A User’s Guide to Prophecy”
How do we know whom to trust? How should we make decisions under pressure? When and how should we be strong and when and how should we be flexible? What arguments are convincing to others and what arguments…
-
VaYechi 5778: “The Johnson Amendment Paradox”
In 1954, Senator Lyndon Johnson added a few lines to the Federal Tax code that was signed into law by President Eisenhower. The so-called “Johnson Amendment” forbade any 501(c)3 non-profit organization or religious organization from endorsing…
-
VaYigash 5778: “Leadership Under Pressure”
In Parashat VaYigash the story of Yosef and the story of Yehudah and the story of Yaakov all reach a climax. As these strands of the story are closer and closer breaded together, each of these heroes…
Rabbi David Wolkenfeld 