Rabbi Marc D. Rudolph

Take Off Our Shoes Leon Wieseltier, the literary editor of the New Republic, wrote a book a number of years ago called Kaddish. It is a meditation on the year that he spent attending synagogue reciting Mourners Kaddish for his father.  He writes, “It occurred to me today that I might spend a whole year…

Something momentous has happened in Naperville, and I want to share that with you this evening.  I have been attending a class called “Total Body Fitness” twice a week for the past six years at Edward Fitness Center. It is taught by a woman named Kathy Lee – she has a last name, but nobody…

The Hidden and Revealed This week, every time I turn on the television or open a newspaper, or read online,  I hear  about  – the   crisis in the National Football League. Now, , as many of you know, I am a NFL fan, although the Bears are only my second favorite team – And after last…

Our parasha this week instructs the Israelites not to offer sacrifices in any place that they may see, but only at the places that G-d may indicate. Earlier in the Torah sacrifices are offered throughout the land of Israel – Abraham, for example, offers sacrifices in multiple sites. By the time the Israelites are about…

Some Thoughts on the Deaths of Robin Williams and Lauren Bacall This week we lost two great American actors: Robin Williams and Lauren Bacall. Fellow Americans and people from all over the world were shocked and deeply saddened by the unexpected news of Robin Williams death by his own hands. Many of us have lost…

The Answer to our Prayers Yesterday morning our adult study group read the first chapter of the Book of Lamentations – the scroll that we read on Tisha B’Av. The first chapter describes the destruction of Jerusalem and the demoralization of its inhabitants in 586 BCE. Jerusalem’s enemies wreak death and destruction and  Jerusalem’s so-called…

I Am For Peace ….. Since I last spoke from my pulpit so much has happened that it is difficult to know just where to start. While I was on vacation I constantly thought about what I wanted to – no, needed to — talk about when I returned.  As I was visiting the Holocaust…

Silencing Your Critics When does a controversy that erupts at a student organization at a small college make the front page of the New York Times?  — When that controversy involves Israel.  A few months ago the students at the Hillel at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania rebelled. They wanted to sponsor a speaker to talk…

The Purpose of One's Life This week during our studies we have taken on the big questions of life. For our Tikun lel Shauvot study, Bernie’s subject was “The Purpose in Life”. He asked us, “If someone were to ask you what the purpose of life was according to Judaism, how would you answer that…

When Donald Sterling’s racist rant was released publicly by his girlfriend, V. Stiviano, late last month, I was upset not only that an NBA owner would hold such views, but that this NBA owner was Jewish. You remember, this owner of the Los Angeles Clippers was caught on tape telling his girlfriend that she should…