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An Israel to Celebrate
When I spoke regularly from the pulpit, I would often talk about Israel. My pulpit, I determined, would be a place where Israel’s goodness, promise, and achievements were emphasized. Heaven knows, my congregants could hear criticism of Israel from many places, but my pulpit would be a place of “ahavat Yisrael” – love of Israel.…
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Finding Ones Voice
This week I share a teaching from The Sefat Emet, Rabbi Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter (1847–1905), one of the most influential Hasidic masters of the late 19th century. He comments on the very first verse of the Book of Deuteronomy, our parsha hashavuah, our Torah portion for this week: “These are the words that Moshe…
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Promises, Promises
Our teaching today comes from Rabbi Tsvi Hersch Bonhardt, a German-born rabbi who became a prominent maggid, or preacher in Wodzisław, Poland in the early 1700s. Rabbi Tsvi Hersch was the father of the better-known Hasidic master Rabbi Simcha Bunim Bonhardt of Peshiskha. He comments on verse 3 of this week’s Torah reading: “If a…
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The Perennial Struggle for Justice and Equality
One storyline in the PBS series Downton Abbey centered on who would inherit the Grantham estate and title. The Earl of Grantham, Robert Crawley, and his American-born wife, Cora, had three daughters: Lady Mary, Lady Edith, and Lady Sybil. Under English law, however, the estate and title had to pass to a male heir when…
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Transforming Darkness to Light
This week’s thought for Shabbat is dedicated to the memory of Rabbi Philp Lazowski, who passed away on June 18 at the age of 96. Rabbi Lazowski was a childhood survivor of the Holocaust. He immigrated to this country with his father and brother after the war and was ordained as a rabbi in 1962.…
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A Special Moment
“Blessed are You, Sovereign of the Universe, who keeps us in life, who sustains us, and who enables us to reach this time.” The Shehecheyanu blessing is recited at moments when we feel joy and gratitude simply for being alive. It expresses thanks for God’s gift of allowing us to arrive at a meaningful moment…
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We Looked like Grasshoppers
In this week’s Torah portion, the Israelites are a little over two years removed from the Exodus from Egypt. They are encamped at Kadesh, in the Wilderness of Paran, about 50 miles south of present day Ber-Sheva. Moses sends spies to reconnoiter the Promised Land in preparation for a military invasion. But the spies return…
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The Flame Within
Every Friday night Jews around the world initiate the Sabbath with the lighting of the Shabbat Candles with the following blessing: “Barukh Ata Adonai …….Lehadlik ner shel Shabbat”. On Chanukah, we also light candles with a blessing — ……. “Lehadlik ner shel Chanukah”. In both blessings, the Hebrew word for “lighting” is “Lehadlik”. But in…
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I Have a Confession
Those of us who have attended Yom Kippur services may be familiar with the term Vidui (vee-DOO-ee) — confession. The prayers that make up the Vidui are recited ten times over the course of Yom Kippur! The best‑known among them are Ashamnu and Al Chet — the latter more familiar to many by its English…
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A Judaism without Israel?
In his great legal code, the Mishneh Torah, Maimonides praises the discipline of silence: “One should always cultivate silence and refrain from speaking, except about matters of knowledge or things necessary for one’s physical welfare. It was said that Rav, the disciple of our saintly teacher Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi, never uttered an idle word in…
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Rabbi Marc D. Rudolph 