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Rabbi David Wolpe

Parashat Beha'alotcha

The Torah We Never Learned 

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Off The Pulpit: Current NewsletterRabbi David Wolpe   "A Time For Silence"
by Rabbi David Wolpe

The world will not keep quiet.

Stores play music, billboards blare, our cars, iPods, and cellphones bombard us with words, images, and music. Still, silence and absence are among our most important teachers. As a great pianist once remarked, his playing uniquely was distinguished less by the notes than the space between the notes. Mystics studied not only the black letters of the Torah, but the white spaces between them. Stillness, absence, silence — the first letter of the Ten Commandments was an aleph, which has no sound.

Ecclesiastes was certainly correct that “there is a time to speak and a time to keep silent.” Silence corresponds sometimes to a deep need inside of us for peace, for a brief cessation of the tumult that disguises our hunger and distracts our sadness. Even our tradition of words knows that words are not always welcome. The Midrash on Koheleth tells a story: The wife of Rabbi Mana died. Rabbi Abin came to pay a condolence call. Rabbi Mana asked, “Are there any words of Torah you would like to offer us in time of grief?” Rabbi Abin answered, “At times like this the Torah takes refuge in silence.”


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Download Past Off The Pulpit newsletters below.

 

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Writings By Year:  2013 - 2012 - 2011 - 2010 - 2009 - 2008 - 2007 - 2006 - 2005
Jan - Feb - Mar - Apr - May - Jun - Jul - Aug - Sep - Oct - Nov - Dec

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December 2007
Sparks in the Darkness
Do not Mock our Dreamers
Why Place Stones on Graves?
When First We Practice to Deceive
November 2007
Please Don't Forget
Two Jews, Three Opinions
The First Bad Thing
Do I Have to Listen to the Sermon?
A Spiritual Moment
What Shall We Do With The Child?
October 2007
Return to Top
What Stirs the Soul
Paradox of Growth
Against Forgetting
Piety at the University?
September 2007
Return to Top
Don't Worry - Be Happy?
Hearts and Ladders
Listening to Silence
August 2007
Everyday Miracles
Gazing on Tyrants with a Dazzled Eye
Feel Bad About Yourself
The Castle is Ablaze
Families and Magic
July 2007
Return to Top
Taking off the Veil
Past and Future Together
Relearning the Lesson
The Joys of Unworldliness
June 2007
Who is a Tabula Rasa?
Whole Clothes and Torn Hearts
Forty Years On We Remain Thankful
May 2007
Return to Top
Bearing the Burden
Love and Life
The Hardest Moment
April 2007
I'm Spiritual, but I'm not Religious
Where Are the Miracles?
The Most Astounding Statement
Contracts and Covenants
March 2007
Return to Top
Off the Pulpit Special Edition: "Atheism du Jour"
Why Matzah?
Take Your Time
Can We 'Prove' Our Faith?
Are You Really Free?
A Prayer Must Both Mean, and Be
February 2007
Letting Our Children Fail
Can You Prove There Is a God?
The Perils of Leadership
Should We Ever Doubt God's Justice?
January 2007
Return to Top
Saving a Life
Looking into the Face of the Other
Being a Messiah
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2005 - 2006 - 2007 - 2008 - 2009 - 2010 - 2011
Jan - Feb - Mar - Apr - May - Jun - Jul - Aug - Sep - Oct - Nov - Dec
 
 
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