Category: Uncategorized
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Broken Vessels
Our holy Torah knows of no unflawed or perfect people. Despite the high esteem that we hold for Abraham, the Bible does not present him as without faults. When a famine drives him and his wife to Egypt, the Torah tells us that Abraham is concerned for his own safety. (Genesis 12:10-20) What if the…
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God’s Business
“Excellence I can reach for. Perfection is God’s business” – Michael J. Fox In this week’s Torah portion (Genesis 16:2) we find Sarah and Abraham childless at an advanced age. Sarah has a maidservant named Hagar. She suggests that Abraham might have a child with her, who Sarah and Abraham could then adopt and raise…
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Praise Be!
“Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation”. In this first verse of our Torah reading for this week (Genesis Chapter 6:9) Noah is described as both “righteous” and “blameless”. But later on, (Chapter 7:1) when God addresses him directly, God says, “Come into the ark, you and all your household, for I have…
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Teach Your Children
We have just concluded the Festival of Sukkot. The Torah commands us in Leviticus 23: “You shall sit in sukkot … so that your children will know….” The Chofetz Chaim derives a lesson from this verse that applies to our efforts to educate our children. He notes that the Torah first tells a parent to…
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The Mezuzah
This High Holidays I had a pulpit in Newton, New Jersey, about a three-hour drive from my home. Over Yom Kippur Middy and I stayed at a lovely Bed and Breakfast called the Ampersand Inn. The innkeeper, Irene, bought the inn three years ago after retiring from the NYU School of Law. Shortly after opening…
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A Dress Rehearsal
Do you know the story in the Talmud where Rabbi Eliezer teaches his students that they should repent the day before their death? “But how do you know the day you are going to die?” asked his students. Rabbi Eliezer replied, “Exactly, you should repent today, for who knows when you are going to die?”…
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A Story for the New Year
Two friends, Reuven and Shimon, were traveling together in the desert. At one point, they began to argue. Then Reuven slapped Shimon. Shimon did nothing, but instead wrote in the sand, “Today my best friend slapped me.” Days passed and the friends continued their journey. They came to an oasis and decided to bathe in…
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Paying Attention
According to Jewish law, one must hear the blasts of the Shofar with the proper intent in order to fulfill the mitzvah of “listening to the blast of the Shofar” on Rosh Hashanah. “Listening” implies concentrating on the sounds of the Shofar so that they can awaken us from our spiritual slumber and spur us…
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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…
Rabbi Marc D. Rudolph 