Sermons
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I am so happy to be here with all of you this morning and I want to begin by thanking the community for the chance to have spent the past two weeks in Israel. I am especially grateful to each of you who stepped forward in big ways and in small ways to ensure that…
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One of the greatest scandals for Jewish philosophy is the way that Pharaoh loses his freedom over the course of the exodus as his hardened heart numbs him to the suffering of his own people and to the ethical claims of his Israelite slaves. He neither acts with crass self-interest as the king of Egypt…
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Who cries the most in the Torah? The obvious answer to that question is Yosef who cries throughout his life up to and including the moment in this week’s parasha when his brothers return to Egypt after having buried their father Yaakov which was shortly after Yosef cried when he stood at Yaakov’s deathbed at…
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My father had two contenders for the “greatest man he ever met.” One was Winston Churchill who was also a passenger on the ocean liner that brought my father to America as an immigrant in 1949. No, they did not actually meet, but because my father was only eleven years old, he was able to…
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Sometimes the words we say most frequently are the words we understand least well. How many times this week have you said the phrase “Asher Kidshanu B’Mitzvotav v’Tzivanu…”? I hope many of us have said it many times because it’s the phrase at the heart of the mitzvah berakhah that we recite before performing most…
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Miracles are embarrassing. At least that’s what Maimonides believed. A perfect God would create the world correctly the first time without needing to go back and intervene. With this starting point, we understand how Maimonides, Rambam, minimizes the miraculous or supernatural in his understanding of Judaism. Angelic visions are interpreted as dreams. Talmudic tales of…
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There is something absurd about the American “holiday season” for an observant Jew. What is so hard about hosting a Thanksgiving meal? You can turn your oven on and off and cook on Thanksgiving. You can run to the store to buy missing ingredients on Thanksgiving. You can look up recipes on your phone or…
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Three shemitah cycles ago, back in 2008, Sara and I lived and studied in Israel and had the experience of observing the special laws of shemitah, the Sabbatical year. We were not property owners and did not farm, and so the main way in which our lives were implicated by these mitzvot were through the…
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At least one time in my life I accepted rebuke. When I was eighteen or nineteen years old and in my first year in yeshiva, a group of us went somewhere together, had an interaction with someone who was not part of our group, and once we were back alone together we began to make…
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The Baal Shem Tov, the almost mythological – but actually historic – founder of the Hasidic movement in 18th century Ukraine owned magical horses. Story after story speaks of his exploits and adventures. He would climb into his carriage, his driver, Alexi, would say to him, “rabbi, where to today?” and the Baal Shem Tov…
- Parasha
- Acharei Mot
- Acharei Mot-Kedoshim
- Baha'alotcha
- Balak
- Bamidbar
- Behar
- Behar-Behukotai
- Behukotai
- Bereishit
- Beshalach
- Bo
- Chayei Sara
- Devarim
- Eikev
- Emor
- Ha'Azinu
- Hol HaMoed Sukkot
- Hukkat
- Hukkat-Balak
- Kedoshim
- Ki Teitzei
- Ki Tissa
- Kol Nidre
- Korach
- Lekh Lekha
- Ma'asei
- Matot
- Matot Ma'asei
- Miketz
- Mishpatim
- Naso
- Nitzavim
- Nitzavim-Vayeilech
- Noach
- Pekudei
- Pinchas
- Re'eh
- Rosh Hashanah
- Shavuot
- Shekalim
- Shemot
- Shimini Atzeret
- Shlach
- Shmini
- Shoftim
- Tazria
- Tazria Metzora
- Terumah
- Tetzaveh
- Toldot
- Tzav
- Va'Etchanan
- Vaera
- Vayakhel
- Vayakhel-Pekudei
- VaYechi
- Vayeilech
- Vayera
- VaYeshev
- VaYetzei
- VaYigash
- Vayikra
- VaYishlach
- Yitro
- Yom Ha'atzmaut
- Yom Kippur
- Shavuot
- Year
Rabbi David Wolkenfeld 