Category: Year
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VaYetzei 5777: “Barbarians!”
“Over thousands of years, they wandered from their homeland in the Middle East to Europe and finally traveled to North America, bound by a shared history and rigid dietary restrictions. But these nomads do not keep kosher. They…
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Toldot 5777: “He Hunted With His Mouth”
During the 1968 presidential campaign, Vice President Hubert Humphrey made a campaign stop to Brooklyn to visit Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum, the leader of the Satmar Hasidic court, known simply as the “Satmar Rav.” During the meeting,…
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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…
Rabbi David Wolkenfeld 