Sermons
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Have you ever had the experience of thinking of the perfect comeback to an argument once it is too late to deploy that snappy comeback in real life? This happened to me several years ago when I was sitting on an inter-denominational rabbinic panel and my Reform colleague said, “I believe in Reform Judaism because…
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For many years, Princeton University invited those high school seniors who had been accepted to Princeton to spend a weekend there in the spring as part of an effort to encourage them to accept the admissions offer. The Jewish community took this opportunity very seriously and each year a large and festive Shabbat dinner was planned and the…
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To be or not to be; that is the question. הושִׁיעָה אֶת עַמֶָ ובָרְ אֶת נַחֲלָתֶָ ורעֵם וְנַשְּׂאֵם עַד הָעולָם Old McDonald had a farm; ee ei, ee ei, oh. What do these three sentences have in common? They each have ten words and they can each be used in place of directly counting the number…
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Spring is here…well, not quite, but it’s nice to have *only* seasonly frigid weather instead of unseasonably frigid weather. There were some moments this past week that I was quite proud of and wanted to share with you. On Monday morning, schools across the region closed or had delayed opening because of the snow storm that…
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I asked you earlier to count during the asseret ha-dibrot, the so-called Ten Commandments, and to pay attention to how many commandments there are in the ten commandments. Does anyone have an answer? The answer is subject to a lot of debate. Is “I am the Lord your God” a commandment? According to Maimonides it is. According…
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I recently completed two cross-country drives with our children. We spent almost one week of their winter vacation with family on the east coast but “vacation” is really not the word that springs to mind when contemplating travel with five children for twelve hours. We spent some very special time together with family. We had a journey…
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The first verses of Parashat Shemot compress decades of history, which must have been rich with nuanced and complicated politics and multi-facetted heroes and villains, into just a few verses. The Torah, at times, packs some of those details of history into just a single word that seems out of place or unexpected and invites…
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Almost one month ago, Rabbi Moshe Lichtenstein, one of the rashei yeshiva at Yeshivat Har Etzion in Israel told the following story during a sichah, an address that he delivered in the beit midrash to the entire student body and faculty. “When I was in high school” the rosh yeshiva began, “someone did something on Purim that…
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“In the Beginning God created Heaven and Earth – the earth being unformed and void, with darkness over the surface of the deep and a wind from God sweeping over the water— God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness.…
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At this time tomorrow, in 24 hours and fifteen minutes it will be the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, one hundred years to the minute that the First World War came to an end. By the end of the war, global empires that had existed for centuries had been dissolved as independent…
- 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 