When Rudyard Kipling’s popularity was at his height, the story goes, he used to receive 10 shillings a word for his stories. Two students at Oxford mischievously sent him a letter enclosing 10 shillings, explaining that they had heard of his rate per word, and asking Kipling to send them one of his best. Kipling wrote back, “Thanks.” The first words tradition asks us to say in the morning are words of gratitude – modeh ani. We should be grateful for the privilege of each new day that we are able to experience the variety and wonder of this life….
Posts by Rabbi David Wolpe
Here To Stay
After Yom Kippur comes Sukkot. Repentance, then rain. Sukkot actually reinforces the theme of Yom Kippur in a powerful way. The Day of Atonement teaches the brevity of life – who shall live and who shall die. Coming off the day we might feel insecure, knowing that we are fleeting, as if singled out to be momentary beings on the face of time. But Sukkot reminds us that nothing lasts – not the structures of human beings, not even the natural materials from which we compose our homes. Judaism recognizes only the permanence of God. Everything else moves through the…
Divided Creatures
Each of us faces two kinds of intertwined struggles: those with the world and those inside oneself. True, if you change yourself you are likely to act differently toward others, and if you act differently it will trigger changes in the self. Yet we still appreciate that these are somehow distinct. Meditation and prayer we understand as essentially internal. Feeding the hungry or taking part in political demonstrations, for example, we think of as mostly external. There is a large Jewish literature on practicing even if one does not feel the desire to do so, in the belief that action…
Blessings and Bereavements
As a pulpit rabbi, I look out each High Holidays at a different congregation. The year before we chanted “who shall live and who shall die.” I see absences – people who were there the year before who are no longer there. Bereavements have left spaces in our community. The congregation is also different because I have learned about many of my congregants in the interim. Some have married or had children; others divorced or suffered some sort of personal setback or tragedy. Some have come to speak to me and confided something about their lives or the lives of…
Praying For Fear
On Rosh Hashana we repeat U’vchein ten Pachdecha which is literally – grant your fear. Since fear seems such a negative concept, why is this phrase so central to the prayers? Fear can be a more powerful motivator than love. You may love others, but a police car behind you will be more effective in getting you to drive safely than the love of the driver in front of you. And while it is true that fear sometimes prevents us from doing what we might, it is also true that a bit more fear might help prevent us from doing…
The Music Inside Us
In this month of Elul before Rosh Hashana we blow the shofar each morning after the minyan. Several years ago I used to listen to the shofar masterfully blown by Rabbi Mark Fasman, who was also a concert trumpet player. I once asked him why he chose the trumpet and he gave a beautiful answer: “I wanted to play an instrument where the music came from inside me.” What Rabbi Fasman said reminds us of the shofar’s lesson. We use various kinds of tools and instruments in the world, but the music must come from inside of us. In our…
A Deep Teaching
A beautiful question-and-answer in the name of the Gerer Rebbe: When strangers come to visit Abraham (Genesis chapter 18), e Torah tells us that Abraham, who was in God’s presence, rushes out to visit the strangers. The Talmud comments on this that we learn it is more important to greet strangers than to bask in the Divine presence. The Rebbe asked – we learn this lesson from Abraham, but how did Abraham know? How did he have the chutzpah, the audacity, to walk away from God to greet the strangers? His answer: It is actually because Abraham was in God’s presence that…
Be a Turtle
Almost every week public figures are attacked or embarrassed for what they have put on social media. We are reminded of the perils of ease – make your thoughts too quickly public and you are likely to regret it. We have forgotten the old advice of slowly counting to ten, of writing something and then revisiting it before you publish. There are merits to meeting resistance. Easy lends itself to excess. Forage for food and you probably won’t overeat. Open the refrigerator full of food and you probably will. If you have to test your argument, think about it, practice…
Serious or Funny?
“Mr. McCabe thinks that I am not serious but only funny, because Mr. McCabe thinks that funny is the opposite of serious. Funny is the opposite of not funny, and of nothing else.” So wrote G.K. Chesterton, reminding us that some of the most penetrating observations about life are made through humor. You do not have to be somber to be serious. Jewish humor has not only enabled an often oppressed people to cope with the world, but taught a great deal about that world. When Henny Youngman tells us that Jews don’t drink because it interferes with their suffering,…
How to Live
I once wrote about our baby proofer. His wisdom has grown even greater over the years. After leaving the house, ensuring that no prying baby hands could open dangerous drawers, climb perilous steps or fall on sharp corners, he turned to me and said — “Now remember, you can’t take your eyes off of her for a second!” In a larger sense what that wise safety maven meant is that the world can be made safer, but not safe. Having lived through both a brain tumor and lymphoma, both AFTER I began eating a vegetarian diet, I often think bemusedly…
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