Person in the Parsha: Va’era

January 05, 2018

By RABBI TZVI HERSH WEINREB

“ON THE SHOULDERS OF GIANTS”

“They don’t make them the way they used to.” We have all heard this comment with reference to all sorts of things, usually tools and utensils....

Say Little, Do Much: A New Beginning

January 03, 2018

By RABBI JOSEPH H. PROUSER

“Kol Hatchalot Kashot,” say the Sages: “All new beginnings are difficult” (see Mechilta d’Rabbi Yishmael, Rashi, etc.).  A long popular Israeli song, written by Nisan Friedman, takes this Rabbinic adage as its title and refrain. This...

Person in the Parsha: SHEMOT

January 03, 2018

By RABBI TZVI HERSH WEINREB

“SLEEPLESS NIGHTS!“

Can you sleep at night? There is so much trouble in the world. Violence, wars large and small, natural disasters, disease. We all personally know many who...

Off the Pulpit: A Sabbatical Farewell Message

December 29, 2017

By RABBI DAVID WOLPE

For over twenty-five years I have written the weekly “Musings” column for The New York Jewish Week, which for more than a decade we have sent out as “Off The Pulpit.” Now, after some 1,300 weekly...

Parsha Vayechi: What It Takes To Forgive

December 29, 2017

By RABBI LORD JONATHAN SACKS, former British Chief Rabbi 

Joseph forgives. That, as I have argued before, was a turning point in history. For this was the first recorded act of forgiveness in literature.

It is important here to make...

Off the Pulpit: Judging Favorably

December 22, 2017

By RABBI DAVID WOLPE

As a nation we suffer from imputing bad intentions. Too many people on the left assume that those on the right must be racist, and those on the right too often assume those on the left must...

Person in the Parsha: VAYIGASH

December 15, 2017

By RABBI TZVI HERSH WEINREB

“FORGIVENESS: A JEWISH VALUE”

This has got to be one of the oldest “rabbi” jokes in the entire repertoire of American Jewish humor.

It tells us of the young rabbi,...

Off the Pulpit: Welcoming The Stranger

December 15, 2017

By RABBI DAVID WOLPE

Billy Wilder, legendary Hollywood writer and director of such classics as “Sunset Boulevard” and “Some Like it Hot” was a refugee who left Germany for Paris as the Nazi party gained power.

He made it briefly...

Off the Pulpit: Does God Take Checks?

December 08, 2017

By RABBI DAVID WOLPE

We live in an age of unprecedented wealth. Do we, therefore, live in an age of unprecedented charity?

Many studies have demonstrated that paradoxically, rich people give a much lower percentage of their income to charity...

Person in the Parsha: MIKETZ (Shabbat Chunukah)

December 08, 2017

By RABBI TZVI HERSH WEINREB

“JOSEPH, CHANUKAH AND WISDOM“

Wisdom is the rarest of all important human qualities. Observers of the contemporary state of affairs often remark that wisdom, which is especially necessary in this...