Rabbi Wolpe - ADL Impressions

For decades, I’ve penned a weekly column, and for the past two years, a parashah commentary for the ADL, as the inaugural rabbinic fellow. As that term comes to an end, I want to thank Jonathan Greenblatt, Gail Cohen, and...

We do complain. It is an ancient art, and Jews have developed something of a specialty in it. The ‘kvetch’ – the indignant half-whine that expresses a real grievance, has long been a constant in the Jewish rhetorical arsenal. Like...

These days we are witness to an enormously difficult and tense time in Israel: The Iran war (if it is over, say ‘the aftermath of the Iran war’) the continuing fighting in Gaza, the hostages, the international pressures surely we...

It may be the most poignant question in the entire Bible, though asked by someone not distinguished for his wisdom. In the Haftorah this week, after an angel appears to a barren woman and promises a child, her husband Manoah...

This weekend begins the holiday of Shavuot, the holiday on which we celebrate the giving of the Torah. If you read about the event in the Torah, however, the people were not only celebratory; they were fearful. They trembled, and...

Mark Twain was one of the great writers of American literature, and surely one of the funniest. He was also a famously obscene conversationalist. Helen Keller reports being shocked by how many vulgarities Twain used in everyday speech. Twain’s wife...

This week’s Torah portion begins: “After the death of Aaron’s sons.” But Aaron’s sons died back in Leviticus 10. Now we are in Leviticus 16. After a long detour through laws of skin disease and impurity, the narrative resumes with...

If you want to understand Tazria-Metsorah on a deep level, do what I did last week — walk the grounds of Auschwitz with March of the Living. There you will see barracks where life was not only extinguished, but systematically...

Two of the most resonant words in all of the Torah are recorded after the death of Aaron’s sons, Nadav and Evihu. The Torah says, “Vayidom Aharon” — and Aaron was silent. Many years ago, I wrote a book called...

The special reading for this Shabbat (Deut. 15:9-16:17) concludes by telling us that one should not appear before God during the holiday with empty hands, “but each with his own gift.” Not appearing empty handed is symbolic of a greater...