Category: Year
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
Baha’alotcha 5776: “How to Be a Mensch and Why”
In 2007 an anonymous Jewish blogger attempted to classify all 613 mitzvot of the Torah into those that were likely to be supported by Democrats and those that would be supported by Republicans. He went through…
-
Naso 5776: “Arba Avot Nezikin: Four Kinds of Damage”
On March 24, 1999, NATO warplanes lead by the United States Air Force began an eleven-week aerial assault on Serbia to prevent and reverse an ongoing humanitarian crisis in Kosovo. During the course of this brief war,…
Rabbi David Wolkenfeld 