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All Creatures Great and Small
At the conclusion of the Book of Jonah, Jonah becomes angry at God because God does not punish the people of Ninveh after they repent. God responds to Jonah, “Shall I, (God) not take pity on Ninveh in which there are more than 120,000 people who do not know their right hand from their left,…
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A Season of Change
This week we entered the Hebrew month of Elul. It means that Rosh Hashanah, the beginning of the New Year, is fast approaching. As we look forward to the High Holidays, we also look backward to the past year and review our lives. The month of Elul is a time of cheshbon hanefesh – of…
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Repentance and Return
It is a Jewish custom to place a small rock on the headstone of a parent or relative when one visits a cemetery. Apparently, this custom dates from medieval times. No one knows exactly why we do this. Perhaps it is simply an indication that we have visited the resting place of our departed. God…
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Rewards
Our Torah reading for this week (Deuteronomy 7:12) begins by assuring us that if we live our lives according to God’s Will we will be blessed. How does God want us to live? The prophet Micah teaches that we should pursue justice, show compassion to our fellow creatures, and be humble. I recently attended my…
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A God You Can Believe In
In this week’s Torah reading we have the verse that may be the closest that Judaism comes to articulating a creed. Synagogue goers know this verse and the paragraph that follows as “The Shema”. It is recited in our evening and our morning prayers. “Hear O Israel, The Lord our God, the Lord is One”.…
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Do you Believe in Miracles?
In the Book of Deuteronomy, Moses assembles the Israelites on the plains of Moab, poised to enter the Land promised to our ancestors. In a series of three speeches, Moses recounts the history of the past forty years, reviews old laws and imparts new ones, exhorts the people to follow the commandments and castigates them…
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Death and Burial
Cremation has become an increasingly popular way of final disposition of remains in the United States. Today there is a 60% cremation rate. By 2040 cremation is expected to account for 80% of all funerals. Yet, the Jewish way of dealing with death is through burial. I heard a beautiful explanation of the process life…
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God Spoke and the World Came into Being
In the kiddush for Friday night, Shabbat is referred to as “Zikaron L’ma-aseh Beraisheet” – a reminder of creation. It is the only holy day mentioned in the Torah that is connected to creation. “On the seventh day God finished the work that had been undertaken: God ceased on the seventh day from doing any…
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Measure for Measure
Our Torah reading this week (Numbers 16) concerns the most serious rebellion confronted by Moses in all of the forty years in the desert. A man named Korach leads an uprising of 250 Israelites, “chieftains of the community …. men of repute” against Moses, saying, “All of the community is holy, all of them, and…
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Rahab and the Spies
In this week’s prophetic portion, (Joshua 2: 1-24) or Haftarah, Joshua sends two spies to Jericho in anticipation of attacking and conquering the city. The two spies take up lodging with a woman named Rahab, who is described as a harlot. The King of Jericho hears of the infiltration of the spies. He seeks out…
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Rabbi Marc D. Rudolph 