Sermons
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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.…
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On the night of November 21st of 1196, a mob of crusaders burst into the home of Rabbi Elazer ben Yehudah Kalonymous, most famous for his book of Jewish ethics and practice, “The Perfumer” or Sefer HaRokeah.” Rabbi Elazar, a descendant of the famous Kalonymous family – the founding fathers of Ashkenazi Jewry, was sitting…
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My elementary school assemblies and concerts took place in the auditorium of the Ethical Culture Society of New York, Ethical Culture is a national movement for secular humanism, founded in the 19th century by Felix Adler who was, of course, a Jew from a rabbinic family. The auditorium was used by the society for their…
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Have you ever looked forward to something, even prayed for the day when it could happen, and then once you had the chance to do the thing that you were waiting for and praying for, you didn’t take advantage of the first opportunity? I will leave you to contemplate an example from your own life…
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Professor Hyim Soloveitchik is one of the most prominent historians of Medieval Jewish History, and the two graduate level courses I took with him at Yeshiva University were perhaps the most intimidating classroom experiences of my life. I vividly remember him explaining to us, early in the semester of the first course I took with…
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Here is a riddle that I learned from my children: What is black and white with a long blue tail and giant yellow wings? A penguin with delusions of grandeur. Well, if that is a penguin with delusions of grandeur, what are human beings? Are we sinners with delusions of grandeur? Weak and mortal beings…
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My first big event since the arrival of Covid was a vaccination party at Rush Hospital. On January 27th Sara and I drove to Rush Hospital where we were ushered into a large conference room along with an ecumenical gathering of several dozen rabbis, ministers, imams, and priests. Rush hospital had selected a cross-section of…
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Did you ever wonder what it must be like to live in one of the buildings next to the shul? I know it’s no fun when the security alarm goes off at 3 AM and wakes the neighborhood. But a few months ago the shul received a lovely email from one of our neighbors. A…
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Rabbi David Wolkenfeld 