Category: Year
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Yitro 5784: “As One Person with One Heart”
If you ever attended a Pesach Seder at our home you would have heard my sister in law, a”h, ask how it is that we sing Dayeinu and declare that it would have been enough for…
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Beshalach 5784: “The Best of Times or the Worst of Times?”
Decades ago, one fateful afternoon, I went to the dentist. The dental hygienist, upon seeing my kipah, was excited to tell me that she and her Jewish boyfriend had just seen The Prince of Egypt in…
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Bo 5784: “Say Little and Do Much”
There are two great movie versions of the story of Yetziat Mitzraim, the exodus from Egypt: Steven Spielberg’s Prince of Egypt and Cecille B. Demille’s The Ten Commandments. Both draw heavily from midrashim to flesh out…
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VaYechi 5784: “Instruments of Cruelty”
Before we were married, before we were even formally engaged to be married, Sara and I each spent a portion of the summer of 2001 studying Torah in Israel. The terror wave that characterized the Second…
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VaYeshev 5784: “Between Persecution and Salvation”
When Sara, Noam, and I lived in Jerusalem we befriended a Christian family whom I met in the playground. There was some exchange among the parents where my ability to speak both in English and Hebrew…
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VaYetzei 5784: “Gratitude”
One who has been held captive and been released, and also someone who has recovered from a dangerous illness and also one who has completed a dangerous journey, whether by land or by sea, should recite…
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Lekh Lekha 5784: “And You Shall Be a Blessing”
I never get as much done “after the hagim” as I hope to. There are always too many deferred plans and meetings and tasks to accomplish when the holiday season comes to an end. I am…
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Yom Kippur 5784: “Qualitative & Quantitative”
Three books are opened on Rosh Hashanah. The fully righteous are written and sealed immediately for life. The fully wicked are written and sealed immediately for death. And those in the middle have their judgment suspended…
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Rosh Hashanah Day 2 5784: “Education and Choice”
When I was a teenager, whenever my friends did something slightly edgy, we would say to one another, “what you just did is illegal in 5 states.” Well, times have changed and federalism is fun, and I…
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Rosh Hashanah Day 1 5784: “Writing the End of the Story”
There are sad stories, and there are happy stories and there are Jewish stories. As every student of drama and literature knows, tragedies end in a funeral; comedies end with a wedding. Everyone attending a Shakespearean…
Rabbi David Wolkenfeld 