Rabbi Marc D. Rudolph

The Power of Money In this week’s Torah reading, Moses instructs twelve spies, one for each of Israel's tribes, to investigate the characteristics of the land the people are about to enter.  The Torah describes these twelve men as “notables” and “all leaders of the people”.  The spies travel throughout the land of Israel during…

All of us acknowledge that to err is human.  Yet, most of us go through life assuming that we are right about almost everything – from the big things, like global warming or whether there should be a death penalty, to the little things, like how to load a dishwasher or how to make a…

In a proclamation dated 5th of May, 1868, General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, declared that the 30th of May, 1868 would be the nations official memorial day. On that day in 1868 flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers in Arlington National Cemetery in…

Be Mindful and Multiply Recently I met in my office with a young Jewish couple who were trying to find a rabbi to marry them this New Years Eve.  After getting to know one another, they asked me to perform the ceremony, and I readily agreed.  They then asked me a question.  What are your non-negotiables? …

             Kashrut — The Hidden Wisdom of the Torah                   The first ten chapters of Leviticus deal with the laws specific to the Sanctuary. The remainder of Leviticus deals with what might be termed the Laws of Daily Life. In the eyes of the Torah, nothing human is secular. G-d’s laws embrace the totality…

The Four Freedoms Passover is the holiday of storytelling par-excellence.  We are told four times in the Torah that we must tell our children the story of Passover.  We have developed an elaborate ritual, the Seder, to fulfill this commandment, and a book, the Haggadah, literally, “The Telling” to teach our children the story.  But,…

Making Mistakes Our parasha for this week, Vayikra, deals with the types of sacrifices that may be brought to the Tabernacle.  The first three sacrifices are the olah offering, the meal offering and the peace offering. These are voluntary offerings, brought by an individual who wants to elevate themselves spiritually.  The next offering discussed is…

 What is our “Fair Share” ? This week in our Torah reading we come to the conclusion of the Book of Exodus and the conclusion of the account of the building of the Mishkan, or Tabernacle in English, the portable sanctuary that the Israelites built in the desert.  We have been reading about this for…

And oftentimes excusing of a faultDoth make the fault the worse by the excuse.~William Shakespeare  In this week’s Parasha, Ki Tissa, the Israelites, under the guidance of Aaron, build a golden calf.  When confronted by Moses as to how he could allow the people to engage in such behavior, Aaron makes… excuses.  First, he blames…

Chim-Chim-Cherubim Our Torah portion for this week is Terumah.  Moses is asked by G-d to instruct the people to bring gifts and contributions from which a place of worship, called a Mishkan, or Tabernacle, will be built. In this parasha G-d also reveals the design of the mishkan, the ark, its furnishings and its vessels,…