Rabbi Marc D. Rudolph

  This week marked a first, I believe, in Naperville history – the placement of a menorah next to the Christmas tree on Naperville’s Riverwalk.  Newspaper reports, ever on the lookout for the sensational or controversial to sell their papers, highlighted the perceived threat of a lawsuit should the Park District not acquiesce to Chabad’s…

Six year old Jacob approached me on the bima following a recent Friday night Family service. “This is what it is all about,” he proclaimed, “this is the way it should be, and this is the way it will always be someday.”  Intrigued, I asked him what he meant.  “Everybody sings together,” he replied, “and…

Tonight is the first night of Chanukah.  I don’t know about you, but all week my thoughts have been turned to the image of the heroic champion striding across the field of battle defeating all.  The victories over the many, coming it were, one after another, is a true miracle. The years of struggle and…

Chaye Sarah 5770 G-d Blessed Abraham BaKol This week’s parasha opens with the death of Sarah and Abraham’s purchase of the cave of Machpelah in which she will be buried.  After mourning and burying his wife, scriptures tells us the Abraham was old, “and G-d blessed Abraham “bah-kol”.  It is conventionally translated as “G-d blessed…

Lifelong Learning   We are first introduced to Abraham at the conclusion of the book of Noach.  We are told very little about him.  It is striking, in fact, that when we are introduced to Noah he is called an “ish tsadik”, a righteous man. But when we are introduced to Avraham there is no…

A rabbi is brought to speak before a congregation that is seeking a new spiritual leader. “What will you be talking about?” the president asks the rabbi as they walk to the synagogue. “Sabbath observance — the need for Jews to make this day truly holy, without shopping, without spending money.” “I wouldn’t do that,”…

In Pirke Avot – the Ethics of the Fathers – we find the following saying of Ben Azzai: Run as fast as you can to do a minor mitzvah.. for one mitzvah leads to another. The Hebrew for “one mitzvah leads to another” is “mitzvah gorreret mitzvah”.  In this pithy statement there is only one…

The Gift of Life One evening a number of years ago my family was sitting at dinner when one of our sons asked my wife and I an intriguing question — “If you and mom never met each other, whose child do you think I would be?” Well obviously, if we never met he would…

Averting the Severe Decree?   On the face of it, unetaneh tokef is a pretty fatalistic prayer.  Listen: “As a shepherd herds his flock, and causes them to pass beneath his staff. So YOU pass us before you, and count and number and record every living soul You define the limits of every creature’s life…

  Who is he anyhow, an actor?” “No.” “A dentist?” “…No, he's a gambler.” Gatsby hesitated, then added cooly: “He's the man who fixed the World Series back in 1919.” “Fixed the World Series?” I repeated. The idea staggered me. I remembered, of course, that the World Series had been fixed in 1919, but if…