Category: Year
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Noach 5777: “A Window for the Ark”
Earlier this week I witnessed several heated disagreements on social media that were each about the very same controversial topic. Each conversation began with someone whom I know presenting his opinion on this particular controversial and sensitive…
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Ha’Azinu 5777: “Don’t Let the Light Go Out”
Before I speak I thought I’d share a story. It happened here in shul, just last night. As we often do, we had a group of college students visiting as part of their study of religious…
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Yom Kippur 5777: “This Has Been a Test of the Emergency Broadcast System”
I’m going to tell a story about a fierce debate about something with no practical application whatsoever. Rabbi Eliezer and the Sages had a dispute about the legal status of an oven constructed out of small…
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Rosh Hashanah Day 1 5777: “90 Seconds”
Shannah Tovah. This year, I anticipate that our services will end 90 seconds later than last year. I know how sensitive everyone is to the end of services so I wanted to give you all a…
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Rosh Hashanah Day 2 5777: “Smile for the Camera”
During my final year in yeshiva, a film crew came to the beit midrash to record our prayers and studies. The film crew was filming footage for a PBS mini-series that chronicled several young Americans as…
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Nitzavim 5776: “40 Years”
Earlier this week, Prime Minister Netanyahu convened his cabinet and made the observation that it was the first time ever that the cabinet of Israel had met without Shimon Peres. As the last surviving founding father of…
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Devarim 5776: “From Jerusalem to Lawndale: Tisha b’Av 5776”
I’ve just read the opening paragraphs of an article published in the Chicago Tribune this past week reported by Alexandra Chachkevitch and Peter Nickeas. The story shook me to the core and I had to fight back…
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Matot-Ma’asei 5776: “Patriarchy and Progress”
I received a package in the mail this week which filled with terror when I opened it and saw what was inside. I opened the large white envelope and out…slipped…the Ezras Torah Luach for 5777 which begins…
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Pinchas 5776: “The Audacity of Leadership”
The least appreciated verse in the Torah must be “וידבר ה׳ אל משה לאמור“ The second least appreciated verse in the Torah is… “וידבר ה׳ אל משה לאמור.“ And the third least appreciated verse in the…
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Shlach 5776: “The Only Thing We Have to Fear is Fear Itself”
In 1933, when Franklin Roosevelt spoke at his first inauguration, the country was in the grip of the Great Depression. Millions of Americans were unemployed, millions faced homelessness and hunger. In a nation without Social Security, close to…
Rabbi David Wolkenfeld 