Sermons
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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…
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Once upon a time a traveler set forth on a journey into an unknown land. After many weeks of travel he saw a light in the distance and upon getting closer he saw a birah doleket, an illuminated palace from which light shone through the windows and spread light on the barren ground that surrounded…
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Last Wednesday night I taught a shiur in Denver on behalf of the Wexner Heritage Fellowship. The students, all with leadership roles in the Colorado Jewish community, have already spent months learning together and traveling together and have formed a cohort that cares about one another and is invested in supporting each other’s contributions to…
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No Words אין מילים There are no words. In Hebrew as in English, the phrase signals our awareness that we are confronted by a circumstance that confounds are ability to understand using our usual conventional words. More times than I can count in the past ten months, I have said to some of you here…
- 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
- Shavuot
- Year
Rabbi David Wolkenfeld 