Category: Uncategorized
-
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…
-
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…
-
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?”…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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,…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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”.…
Rabbi Marc D. Rudolph 