Category: Year
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VaYeshev 5783: “They Could Not Speak Peaceably Unto Him”
I want to tell you a story about a brilliant idea that I had for a shul program and why I never implemented the program. I thought it would be a valuable experience for our shul…
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Toldot 5783: “And She Went to Inquire of the Lord”
Many of you know that our twins have been serving as weekday gabba’im since they each became bar mitzvah about 18 months ago. It has been a big relief for me to have them help to…
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Chayei Sara 5783: “Oxymorons and Modern Orthodoxy”
An oxymoron is a two word phrase that is made up of two opposite words like “civil war” “sweet sorrow” “plastic silverware” “old news” and “deafening silence.” These words manage to associate with one another despite…
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Noach 5783: “Ambiguity”
One festive day when we lived in Princeton we joined many of our students to celebrate a hachnasat sefer Torah – the dedication of a new Torah scroll that was sponsored by a Jewish organization on…
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Ha’Azinu 5783: “With Great Joy He Put on His Own Clothes”
The Prophet Elijah, Eliyahu HaNavi convened a great theological debate with the idolatrous prophets of Baal. As recounted in I Kings 18, Eliyahu alone was left alive among the true prophets of God and he had…
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Yom Kippur 5783: “V’Takneinu B’Eitzah Tovah: Inspired for Redemption”
Where do you go for help when you are facing a hard decision? This summer in Israel I had a chance to chat and learn with an old teacher of mine and he told me a…
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Kol Nidre 5783: “Emulating God Emulating Us”
The Torah shares that on the holiest day of the year, Yom Kippur, the holiest person alive (the kohen gadol, the high priest), would enter the holiest place on earth (the Kodesh HaKodashim – the Holy…
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Rosh Hashanah Day 2 5783: “Avraham Avinu & The Eclipse of Social Judaism”
People often share things with friends that they would be embarrassed to tell their rabbi. A family friend made a disclosure like that over the summer when we were in Israel. When he and I spoke,…
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Rosh Hashanah Day 1 5783: “Resume Writing & the Sefer HaHayyim: On Writing and Creating a Legacy”
This August the New York Times published a story on electronic productivity-monitoring of white-collar employees, many more of whom are now working remotely away from the watchful eye of their supervisors and colleagues. The article drew…
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Nitzavim 5782: “This Day”
A week or so ago I helped Akiva and Hillel complete a homework assignment for their 9th grade Talmud class. Their assignment was to prepare a selection from the commentary of Tosafot to the chapter of…
Rabbi David Wolkenfeld 