Rabbi Wolpe - ADL Impressions

In the Torah portion this week, we have the first instance of someone weeping for a person whom they have lost. Abraham weeps at the death of his beloved wife, Sarah. He then purchases a burial cave, Me’orat Hamachpelah, in...

Reeling from the attacks in Amsterdam, our parasha has an important lesson to teach. This week, we read about the city of Sodom. An entire city is consumed by wickedness, and despite Abraham’s attempt to save the city by bargaining...

The silences of the Torah have for centuries moved people to interpretation. This week, we have one of those great silences – God appears to Abraham. But what happened before? How did Abraham have any sense that there was a...

Why build a tower of babel? The question has received many answers. One in particular is crucial for our world. Rabbi Obadia Sforno, born in the late 15th century in Italy, argues that the tower was intended to unify the...

We are a society fond of novelty, but we know that mastery demands repetition. No one is a great golfer with the first stroke or a grandmaster with the first move of a pawn. Human achievements, individual and social, require...

This has been a year of tremendous trauma. I have come to believe that Sukkot is the PTSD holiday. In several ways, it is designed to address the trauma of our lives: 1. The Hebrew name for Egypt, Mitzrayim, is...

This has been a year of tremendous trauma. I have come to believe that Sukkot is the PTSD holiday. In several ways, it is designed to address the trauma of our lives: 1. The Hebrew name for Egypt, Mitzrayim, is...

Jewish tradition pairs the holiday of Yom Kippur and the costuming holiday of Purim. It seems a strange pairing, but in fact, the biblical name Yom Kippurim can be translated as, “A day like Purim.” There are many explanations of...

Although Rosh Hashana is about the state of the Jewish world, it also asks us to look inside ourselves. I find the teaching that follows helpful both to understand how I should look at events and how I should hold...

In recent years, a movement has arisen entitled “Effective Altruism.” It is an approach to charity that has won a number of adherents, but its central principle is not only old, it is found in today’s Torah portion. Effective Altruism...