Posts by Rabbi David Wolpe

From Ancient Greece comes a story of rival artists, Zeuxis and Parrhasius, who competed to create the most realistic painting. Zeuxis drew grapes so realistic birds flew down to peck at them. Parrhasius brought his picture in covered in cloth. Reaching out to lift the cloth, Zeuxis was stunned to discover he had lost the contest — the cloth was really his rival’s painting. The Jewish version of this tale? In the story of Joseph, as he languishes in an Egyptian prison, two of Pharaoh’s imprisoned servants come to him. The cupbearer is given a favorable interpretation. The Baker tells…

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“The first service a child doth his father is to make him foolish.” So wrote the 17th century poet George Herbert. In the Midrash, we are told of a man who left a strange provision in his will (Mid. Ps. 92:13). The will left everything to his only child, his son, but conditionally: the son could not inherit “until he became a fool.” No one could figure out the meaning of the will, including the son’s Rabbi. So he went to consult a greater authority, Rabbi Joshua ben Karcha. There he saw through the window that Rabbi Joshua was on…

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The Talmud tells of a flute in the Temple made of reeds that survived from the days of Moses: “The King issued a command that it be plated with gold, but it no longer sounded pleasant. They removed the plating and the sound was as pleasant as before (Arakhin 10b).” The darkness that befell Egypt during the plagues is called “thick as a coin.” Money can evoke darkness. One can see through a window, but cover the glass with silver, and it creates a mirror in which you see only yourself. These examples from the Jewish tradition teach an ever-relevant…

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The Mai Hashiloah (R. Mordecai Joseph Leiner, d. 1854) points to a fascinating difference between Moses and Isaac. Moses died “with his eyes undimmed” (Deut. 34:7). For Isaac, “his eyes were dim” (Gen. 27:1). The Mei Hashiloah explains that in Isaac’s life, the major events, the Akedah and the reversal of the blessing with Jacob and Esau, God’s hand is not obvious. Isaac is not told and does not know why or how God is involved. On the other hand, Moses is constantly informed of the divine plan – he is always awake, his eyes never dimmed. In our lives,…

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Judaism values study — that is no surprise. But it also values engagement in the world. In the Talmud (Ber. 35b), there is a classic dispute: Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai says one should spend all of one’s time in Torah study, and Rabbi Yishmael says one should combine study with a worldly occupation. A later sage, Abaye, laconically sums up the dispute by noting that “many have followed the path of Rabbi Simon Bar Yochai and were not successful.” At times, we draw too sharp a dichotomy between book learning and work. Worldly enterprise helps us understand the thoughts and…

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The Tenth Commandment teaches us not to covet. How can emotion be legislated? Our tradition offers many answers. One points to the idea that you only covet that which you believe you can have. Whatever belongs to someone else should be considered strictly off limits, and if you think of it that way, you will not covet it. More radically, one Chasidic response reminds us that in the Torah, they are not called the Ten Commandments, but Aseret HaDevarim — the Ten Sayings. The first, for example, “I am the Lord your God,” does not exactly fit the structure of…

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Reading of sacrifices in the Bible, many are mortified to think that ancient Israelites would slaughter animals at the Temple. It seems primitive, bloody, even barbaric. As someone who has not eaten chicken or meat in over thirty years, I nonetheless want to defend the practice. When we buy meat, most of us do so after the animal has been killed, sliced up, packaged, and priced. We never confront the reality of our purchase or of our appetites. We don’t see the actual butchery and don’t think about it. The killing itself, even when it is kosher, has nothing like…

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When God approaches Moses at the burning bush, Moses is very reluctant to go to the people. He asks God “When I come to the Israelites and say, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you’ and they ask me ‘what is God’s name’ what shall I say?” God answers with the famously enigmatic, “Ehyeh-Asher- Eyeh”: I am that I am. Many interpretations have been offered concerning God’s name. What is not so often noticed is that, having asked for God’s name — Moses never repeats it to the Israelites. Why does Moses ask? He has been surrounded…

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In his later years, the renowned Rabbi, Samson Raphael Hirsch, suddenly announced that he was going to Switzerland to climb in the Alps. “Why?” asked his astonished students. “Because when I come face to face with the Creator of the universe,” mused Hirsch, “I know He will look down at me and say ‘So, Shimshon, did you see My Alps?’” Appreciating beauty is an act of devotion. That is why Judaism contains blessings for seeing beautiful mountains, the ocean, a rainbow, and other natural sights. The Talmud advises that one should pray only in a room which has windows. To…

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There are plants in Hawaii that are endangered because their natural pollinator is rare or extinct. People climb mountains and go from plant to plant pollinating them by hand. In certain periods of our history, an analogous process occurred. Scholars became rare in certain cities. Other scholars, the natural pollinators, would travel from community to community, bringing learning and light. They would climb mountains, both literally and metaphorically, to ensure that the nectar of Torah was spread. Modernity has blessed us with both learned individuals and the means to transmit that learning both near and far. All the apparatus of…

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