Rabbi Marc D. Rudolph

Years back I heard of a congregation that read only from the first book and a half of the Torah– Genesis and half of Exodus, Shabbat morning.  As you know, traditionally, we read from all Five Books of the Torah in the course of our weekly Sabbath morning services. The reason this congregation read only…

President Ronald Reagan famously exclaimed, “Trust, but verify”. The phrase is actually a saying from the Russian language.  Historians tell us that President Reagan used it often in his arms control negotiations with Michael Gorbachev in the 1980s.  “Trust, but verify could be the title of this week’s parasha. As you recall, Moses has been…

 Last Sunday morning our synagogue was buzzing. The social hall was filled with booths put up by each classroom in our Religious School.  Just imagine about 170 children, with parents in attendance collecting money for various causes.  At the booth put up by our Pre-K and Kindergarten class they were collecting for a North Shore…

Parasha Terumah In our Torah portion of this week we read about the instructions that G-d gives Moses for building the Tabernacle. The Tabernacle is like a portable synagogue where the Jewish people worshipped during their journey through the wilderness after they were freed from slavery in Egypt. This portable temple was basically a tent,…

Tonight I would like to talk about last words… Jacob Blessing His Sons  François MaitreMiniature, 1475 The Hague In Act ll of Richard the Second, Shakespeare tells us that: The tongues of dying men Enforce attention like deep harmony: Where words are scarce, they are seldom spent in vain, For they breathe truth/ that breathe their words in…

It happens three or four times a year. I will be sitting in my office and I receive a call from a Chaplain at a hospital or a social worker in a nursing home. Upon hearing from the family that they are Jewish, the Chaplain or social worker contacts me on their behalf. “There is…

Rabbi Mark Greenspan tells a story about Chanukah that he heard on a visit to Cuba two years ago. The Island of Cuba had, at its height,  a Jewish population of about 15,000 people, mostly in Havana. As a result of the Cuban revolution, 95% of the Jews left the island.  Although Jews were discriminated…

This coming Sunday morning, our congregation will host our fourth annual “Season of Twinning Event”. Members of our Beth Shalom community will join together with members of the local Muslim community to feed the hungry. We are part of an international effort to both feed the hungry and to build relationships between Jews and Muslims.…

There is a well-known story about the Israeli diplomat who was giving a news conference. A reporter shouts to him, “Mr. Ambassador-in a word, how are things”. “In a word?” he responds, “Good!”  Another reporter says to him, “Can you give us a bit more? — How about two words?” “In two words”, he says,…

This evening, in honor of Veterans Day which we observed last Wednesday, I am going to tell you a little known and long forgotten story of courage. The courage that I am going to tell you about was not ONLY about courage on the battlefield.  It is also about the courage to overcome bigotry and…