Sermons
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Just a few weeks ago, on a Friday afternoon, Sara and I walked with our children to shul just before our first Shabbat together in Yerushalayim. In the late afternoon on Fridays in Yerushalayim, almost everyone on the street is also walking to shul. I may have mentioned that to Sophie or somehow pointed out…
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The quest for authenticity is one of the enduring challenges of living as social beings within a community. We are constantly judging one another and being evaluated by one another and noticing the actions and character traits of one another. How do we cultivate an inner spiritual life when we know that our outer actions…
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“Are we there yet?” I am dreading that question. By this time tomorrow, I will be packed up and about to embark on a trip to Israel with our two youngest children. Sara and their older brothers have been there for almost two weeks and at last it will be our turn to join them.…
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When I was a child I would often cry on the first day of school. It wasn’t because I hated school or didn’t like my teachers. It wasn’t because I was upset about the classmates assigned to my class that year. I cried because of nostalgia for the prior school year. The experience of returning…
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Starting at age four, our children study Torah with their mother before bedtime on most evenings. Several months ago, as they learned the Mishnah of Tractate Shabbat, I overheard our twins reading a mishnah with their mother which was confusing, frightening, and even a bit offensive. :עַל שָׁלשׁ עֲבֵרוֹת נָשִׁים מֵתוֹת בִּשְׁעַת לֵדָתָן, עַל שֶׁאֵינָן…
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Some of you may know that I went to a specialized math and science high school. I don’t often draw upon that element of my education but I do want to work through an arithmetic problem with you all this morning. Five is to one hundred, as one hundred is to…. Well…five times twenty is…
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More than 800 years ago Maimonides, Rambam, penned a letter to a convert to Judaism who had taken on the name Ovadia. Ovadia had written to Rambam wondering if he could recite the same berakhot as other Jews when those blessings or prayers refer to God’s relationship with our biological ancestors and events in our…
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There are two theories of tumah v’taharah. There are two ways of thinking about the vast system of purity and impurity laws that dominate so much of the middle sections of Vayikra. One position, which was made famous by Rambam, can be summarized by the phrase “tumah happens.” I’d love to make a t-shirt with…
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There was once a Jew who lived and worked in Shushan HaBirah, the capital city of the vast and sprawling Persian Empire. This Jew had intimate access to the king of Persia and was an object of the king’s favor. Eventually, this Jew realized that the needs of the Jewish community itself needed redress and…
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You never know what will happen when you send an email to fifty thousand people. Several times a year, Sara’s employer, the Jewish educational website, Sefaria, sends out emails, in her name, to tens of thousands of regular users announcing some new educational resource, a new text that has been added to the digital database,…
- 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
- Passover
- Shavuot
- Year
Rabbi David Wolkenfeld 