Rabbi David Wolkenfeld

Sermons

  • Korach 5775: “Being or Becoming, Adjective or Aspiration”

    Sometimes in an argument two people can use the same word, or two groups can make reference to the same concept, but they can mean that word or concept in opposite ways.   That dynamic can be seen at the threshold of Parashat Korach in the opposite ways that kedushah – sanctity – is deployed within just a…

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  • Shlach 5775: “We Were Like Grasshoppers in Our Eyes, and So Too in Their Eyes”

    Perhaps you saw reports in the papers this week that Israeli computer viruses had infected the European hotels where P5 +1 talks with Iran have been taking place.   Whenever I hear about Israeli intelligence operatives getting the best of their American counterparts, I’m reminded of the old story about the American president who is flummoxed by…

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  • Emor 5775: “Sacred Reverberations”

    The preface to Micah Goodman’s book “Maimonides and the Book that Changed Judaism” begins with this delightful story:   I first encountered The Guide for the Perplexed when I was nine years old. It was at Yehuda HaLevy Synagogue in Jerusalem’s Katamon neighborhood where my parents prayed. After the services one Shabbat morning, while waiting for the bustling…

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  • Acharei Mot-Kedoshim 5775: “Does Judaism Recognize an Ethic Independent of Halakhah”

    You may have noticed that my family was not in shul last Shabbat. (I actually hope you did notice that we weren’t here)! Last Shabbat we took a short and much appreciated family vacation to exotic Columbus, Ohio, where very good friends of ours are now professors at The Ohio State University. We feel that we have…

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  • Vayakhel-Pekudei 5775: “Hashem is Here, Hashem is There”

    My first exposure to Jewish philosophy came, not from Rambam or Rav Saadia Gaon, but rather from that famous source of wisdom, Uncle Moishy, the children’s musician.   Hashem is here.Hashem is there.Hashem is truly everywhere.Up, up, down, down.Right, left, and all around.Here, there, and everywhere.That’s where He may be found.   That all seems straightforward, and yet…

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  • Ki Tissa 5775: “My Trip to Washington”

    My father-in law taught me to remember all of the public fast days on the Jewish calendar by this simple mnemonic: The black and the white, the long and the short, the man and the woman. The man and the woman are Tzom Gedaliah and Ta’anit Esther. The long and the short are Asarah B’Tevet and the…

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  • Terumah 5775: “He saw it. He loved it. He ate it.”

    Years before he became famous, Brian Selznick, the author and illustrator of The Invention of Hugo Cabret, which was turned into the Academy Award winning movie “Hugo” worked at a children’s bookstore in New York near the apartment where I grew up. Selznick was a “window painter” – he decorated the bookstore’s windows with seasonal decorations and illustrations…

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  • Beshalach 5775: “The Wide World of Sports”

    Shabbat Shalom. It’s great to be back in Lakeview this Shabbat. To be honest, being in Miami last Shabbat was also pretty great. The weather was great. The company was great – there were over 400 runners who had raised money for Chai Lifeline, including quite a few members of ASBI and ASBI “alumni.” On…

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  • Vaera 5775: “Can Religious Tolerance Have Passion?”

    Usually when we find a contradiction in a text, we interpret that as a weakness in the text itself. When we edit things that we write, we try to remove any contradictions that may be there. But sometimes, a contradiction is so obvious, that it was clearly intended for us to notice and then explain.   Such…

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  • VaYechi 5775: “The People of Which Book?”

    Two weeks ago the Israeli Ministry of Education launched Project 929. Directed by Rabbi Benny Lau and a woman named Gal Gabai, and with the blessings of the President of the State of Israel, Project 929 is a curriculum to study one chapter of Tanakh, one chapter of the Hebrew Bible, each day, five days…

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