Off the Pulpit: The true wisdom

June 07, 2019

By RABBI DAVID WOLPE

We often complain there is too little wisdom in the world. Actually there is too much. We have vast compendia of advice, sage writings from people who have endured much and thought deeply, legacies from civilizations worldwide...

Person in the Parsha: Bamidbar

May 31, 2019

By RABBI TZVI HERSH WEINREB 

“THE WILDERNESS FIRST“

My first exposure to the study of the Bible was in the Yiddish language. We spoke only English at home, but almost all the teachers we had in...

Off the Pulpit: The Brain, Buber and Being

May 31, 2019

By RABBI DAVID WOLPE

A decade ago neuroscientist Iain McGilchrist wrote a fascinating book, “The Master and the Emissary.” His thesis is that the different hemispheres of our asymmetric and divided brains perceive reality differently, and that increasingly over history,...

Person in the Parsha: Bechukotai

May 24, 2019

By RABBI TZVI HERSH WEINREB

“THE WALKING TOUR”

I am the type of person who has always believed that the only way to learn about something important is to buy a book about it. For example, it...

Off the Pulpit: Not Good Enough?

May 24, 2019

By RABBI DAVID WOLPE

Torah heroes generally shrink from leadership. Moses pleads with God to send someone else. Isaiah fears that he has ‘unclean lips.’ Jeremiah must be forced by God to be a prophet. In an almost satiric version,...

Person in the Parsha: Behar

May 20, 2019

By RABBI TZVI HERSH WEINREB

“THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE“

It is a lesson I first learned in a course I took on the skills of interviewing long ago. The instructor taught us that the...

Person in the Parsha: Behar

May 19, 2019

By RABBI TZVI HERSH WEINREB 

“THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE“

It is a lesson I first learned in a course I took on the skills of interviewing long ago. The instructor taught us that the way to...

Off the Pulpit: What is holiness?

May 17, 2019

By RABBI DAVID WOLPE

The Hebrew word for holiness is kadosh, which also means separate. In some sense the realm of the holy is the realm set apart – the Sabbath that is kadosh from the week, or the couple...

Person in the Parsha: Emor

May 11, 2019

By RABBI JOSEPH H. PROUSER

“A LIFE OR SANCTIFICATION“

The conditions under which we live are many and varied. Some of us live in very comfortable, even idyllic, surroundings. Others struggle with diverse hardships, including poverty, disease,...

Off the Pulpit: The right to be enchanted

May 03, 2019

By RABBI DAVID WOLPE

A sharp statement that I believe was made by the children’s writer Joan Aiken: “Anyone who does not read to their children doesn’t deserve to have them.”

She may be overstating the point, but not by...