Sermons
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When the first atomic bomb was exploded in a test detonation near Los Alomos laboratory, Robert Oppenheimer, the physicist known as the “father of the atomic bomb” quoted Hindu scripture and said, “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds”. Oppenheimer was expressing the super-human, god-like power of nuclear fission. This power is creative…
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At our Passover seder, we take turns reading the paragraphs of Maggid. Each participant around the table reads a paragraph, in whichever language they wish, from whichever edition of the Hagadah they select from our collection or bring with them. There is always a fraught moment when we get to the four children. Nobody wants…
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This time of year, without exception, my workflow begins to change and my inbox and phone are taken over by people asking Pesach questions. I think I am asked to provide more halakhic guidance in the weeks before Pesach than at any other time of the year. Do canned tomatoes need special KLP certification? Do…
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I want to make a confession. As I’ve absorbed the news from Ukraine this past 8 days, I have been absolutely captivated by the names of the towns and cities of Ukraine. Odessa, Berditchev, Anapol, Kyiv, Uman, Mezhibozh and others jumped out of the depths of Jewish memory and onto the front pages of our…
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Right now it’s 10:40 AM. Do you know where your children are? The Tot Shabbat kids and their parents are downstairs now and they could be singing these words. Torah Torah Torah….Torah, Torah, Torah…Torah Tzivah Lanu…..Moshe! The very first thing we are meant to teach children about Judaism is the verse Devarim: תּוֹרָה צִוָּה לָנוּ…
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I have in my hand a tractate of the Talmud. This is Massechet Beitzah, a volume of the Talmud I grabbed off a shelf in my office and it’s printing tells the story of the Jewish People. These lines are the Mishnah edited in Eretz Yisrael by Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi in the year 200. These…
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When I was a freshman in college I followed up on a referral, made a few phone calls, and left campus to spend Shabbat at the home of the Bostoner Rebbe. The rebbe, in those years had a large beis medrash with a small dormitory above in which a constant stream of visitors could be…
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Rabbi Yishmael and Rabbi Akiva were once walking on the outskirts of Yerushalayim, and there was another person with them. A sick person approached the group, and said: My rabbis, tell me how I may be healed! They said to him: Formulate medication in such and such a fashion and you will be healed. The…
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In the days of Rabbi Yitzhak Kalish of Varka (1779-1848) there was a Polish minister who wanted to collect every copy of Hoshen Mishpat in Poland and burn it. Hoshen Mishpat is the section of the Shulhan Arukh that contains Jewish civil law and court proceedings and this antisemitic minister believed that it was problematic…
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Have you ever endured something hard and unpleasant that seemed to last a lifetime, and then, just when you thought that your suffering and hardship would end, it turned out that it was not over? Sound familiar? The first chapter of Sefer Shemot tells a story of a vise closing around our ancestors in Egypt.…
- 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 