Sermons
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Several weeks ago, on the 7th of Adar, I attended the annual dinner of our local Hevra Kadisha. The seventh of Adar, according to rabbinic tradition, is the anniversary of Moshe’s death. The Torah records that Moshe was prepared for burial and buried by God alone and so God, at that moment on the 7th…
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I want to begin this morning by thanking the congregation for stepping up in such a significant way during the weeks when I was in Israel. Sara has shared with me how impressed she was by the volunteers who did whatever was necessary to ensure that shul ran smoothly in my absence. And I was…
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I have learned a lot about diverse understandings of the Torah from the lessons that our children have brought home through the decades from the various schools they attended. (Our five children have attended a total of ten schools between them). When they were very young it was sometimes a challenge to reconstruct precisely what…
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Many years ago when we only had one child and he was only six months old a wise mentor said to me, “it’s such a special age when they are too young for you to be angry at them.” I had no idea what she meant. Like any parent of an infant I had experienced…
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Avraham was the first individual whom the Torah describes as being elderly וְאַבְרָהָ֣ם זָקֵ֔ן בָּ֖א בַּיָּמִ֑ים but Yaakov was the first old Jewish man. Of course not every Jewish man who ages becomes an old Jewish man but Yaakov in Parashat Vayigash acts in a way that I exclusively associate with old Jewish men. Pharoah…
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In 2019 the shul where I worked was firebombed by an incompetent assailant who managed to cause no damage whatsoever and whose early-morning attack would have gone altogether undetected if the custodian hadn’t noticed some broken glass on the parking lot, prompting us to look at the prior night’s security camera footage. As a result…
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Contranyms, sometimes called “Janus words” are words that mean the same as their opposite – like the figure Janus in Greek mythology who had two faces that looked in opposite directions. To bolt is to secure something to prevent escape…and it means to escape. Consulting means soliciting advice and offering advice. Cleaving is severing and…
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“The owl of Minerva flies only at dusk.” This famous observation of Hegel, the great philosopher of history, reminds us that clarity is only possible when the sun sets and we can look back at what occurred during the day. Think of Avraham and Sarah and every moment in Parashat Lekh Lekha. They journey to…
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A seven year old girl, who attends a shul with her family where a friend of mine is the rabbi, recently learned in school about the custom of eating challah with honey starting on Rosh Hashanah and continuing through the end of the holiday season on Simhat Torah. She came home from school and asked…
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One of the saddest experiences I have had over the course of a very sad year was listening to the livestream broadcast of Rachel Goldberg Polin speaking at the funeral of her son Hersh, just days after his murdered body was recovered and brought to Israel for burial. An extended clip of that hesped was…
- 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
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- Shemot
- Shimini Atzeret
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- Tazria Metzora
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- VaYechi
- Vayeilech
- Vayera
- VaYeshev
- VaYetzei
- VaYigash
- Vayikra
- VaYishlach
- Yitro
- Yom Ha'atzmaut
- Yom Kippur
- Passover
- Shavuot
- Year
Rabbi David Wolkenfeld 