Off the Pulpit: What Our Adversaries Teach

May 19, 2023

By RABBI DAVID WOLPE

Right before Moses strikes the rock, the sin that will prevent him from entering the land of Israel, he yells at the people: “Listen now, rebels (hamorim)” [Num. 20:10]. Yet that same word, morim, can mean “teachers.”

Person in the Parsha: Bamidbar

May 12, 2023

By RABBI TZVI HERSH WEINREB

“AN ODE TO THE DESERT”

We were exhausted, burned out. We felt that we needed a break.

There were just two of us: me...

Off the Pulpit: Thoughts and Prayers

May 12, 2023

By RABBI DAVID WOLPE

“Our thoughts and prayers are with you.” What can this mean in the wake of something horrible? If prayer is a way of changing the world, it is too late. What good can prayers do the...

Person in the Parsha: Behar-Bechukotai

May 05, 2023

By RABBI TZVI HERSH WEINREB

“BULLYING”

It is an old word, and it describes a behavior that has been around since the very beginning of history. Yet the word seems to me to be...

Off the Pulpit: Poets and Armies

May 05, 2023

By RABBI DAVID WOLPE

I spent my junior year of college at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. There I studied English and Scottish literature and wrote a letter home to my parents about how I had fallen in love...

Person in the Parsha: Emor

April 28, 2023

By RABBI TZVI HERSH WEINREB

“BECOMING A KOHEN”

In every group, there is one person who stands out as special. In childhood, it is often the kid with the greatest athletic prowess. Later in...

Off the Pulpit: 75 Years of Home

April 28, 2023

By RABBI DAVID WOLPE

The Torah begins with the letter bet (ב‎), the same letter that begins bayit in Hebrew, home. Some have taken this as a signal – here is a home in the Torah. Yet it is an uneasy home,...

Person in the Parsha: Acherei Mot – Kedoshim

April 21, 2023

By RABBI TZVI HERSH WEINREB

“HOLINESS: A DEFINITION“

He never returned phone calls. He certainly never returned e-mails. He rarely smiled.

He had very sophisticated tastes in wine and fine liquor. A seven-course gourmet dinner with a wine...

Off the Pulpit: The Scars to Prove It

April 21, 2023

By RABBI DAVID WOLPE

“You shall arise as a lion each morning to do the will of your Creator.” That stirring sentence opens the Shulchan Aruch, the code of Jewish law. It reminds us that at the heart of our...

Off the Pulpit: Old and Young

April 14, 2023

By RABBI DAVID WOLPE

The ancient world was long ago, but it was not ancient. Rather, it was when the world was very young. We are the old ones hurtling toward the encroaching end, not the bright beginning, of human history. In his...