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Posts by Rabbi David Wolpe

Do We Need Experts?


In the years when I played tournament chess I would wander over to the boards of the top players and was often surprised to spectators with lesser skills (like myself) make whispered pronouncements about the play of the masters. I realized then that level of skill and level of confidence are two entirely different things. In modern society we are often called upon to make judgments about things in science, technology, politics, economics — for which we have little training and less knowledge. Yet it does not seem to diminish, for many, the confidence with which they pronounce. Judaism is…

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All of Israel


The book of Deuteronomy begins by telling us that Moses spoke these words “to all of Israel.” As the Vilna Gaon points out, it is obvious they were spoken to all of Israel, but the phrase is included because there are shades of meaning. The words of Torah are simple and available to all. The phrase “all of Israel” also means that they are infinitely deep, and each person can comprehend them according to that individual’s capacity. “All of Israel” also implies an eternity. It was not only spoken to the Israelites standing before Moses that day, but to all Israel for all…

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Honoring “And”


Can one combine Torah and secular study, religious devotion and participation in the world? In a letter written shortly before his death, Rabbi Shagar (Shimon Gershon Rosenberg) put it this way: “It should be interpreted in the vein of Franz Rosenzweig, who described the ‘and’ as the keystone that supports the entire edifice and imbues it with meaning.” It is easy to put up hard and fast walls and ignore the reality that everything we are and think interpenetrates, that we are raveled as rugs. As another great Jewish thinker, Rabbi Harold Schulweis, once wrote: “Beware of split thinking, schizophrenic…

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Thunder Road


“From the crooked timber of humanity” said Immanuel Kant, “nothing straight can be made.” This famous shot of pessimism from one of history’s preeminent philosophers makes an interesting contrast with the rabbinic comment in the Talmud: “Thunder was created only to straighten the crookedness in a human heart (Ber. 59a).” The Rabbis were as cognizant as Kant of all the wickedness people do. But they believed that being shocked into reflecting on God’s majesty and the wonder of the natural world, could serve as a corrective. Just as when we beat our breasts during the confessional, hearts can be roused to goodness. In…

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A Holy Man Of Laughter: My Encounter With The Dalai Lama


The first thing that strikes a visitor to the Dalai Lama is the absence of majesty. You walk up bare concrete steps, past some trees and a building and hear street sounds. This is not the Vatican, or the White House; though it houses a man as well known as any in the world, the only indication is the rigorousness of security. Your cell phone is taken and you are frisked thoroughly — really thoroughly. The man standing next to me had the security guard comb through his Afro with his fingers several times, and everyone surrendered a passport. My…

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A Sabbatical Farewell Message


For over twenty-five years I have written the weekly “Musings” column for The New York Jewish Week, which for more than a decade we have sent out as “Off The Pulpit.” Now, after some 1,300 weekly columns, I am taking a break. I will be on a six month sabbatical, traveling and writing, from January to June. I won’t be on e-mail or Facebook. A real break. I plan to be back in the summer, but in the meantime, I would like to thank those of you who have read the column over the years and have occasionally written with…

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Judging Favorably


As a nation we suffer from imputing bad intentions. Too many people on the left assume that those on the right must be racist, and those on the right too often assume those on the left must hate America. We have never been more desperately in need of the simple wisdom of the Rabbis, to judge people favorably. We can cherish certain values and defend them without thinking that people on the other side are venal or wicked. It is helpful to remember how often in life we have believed something we later decided was wrong; perhaps we were where someone else is…

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Welcoming The Stranger


Billy Wilder, legendary Hollywood writer and director of such classics as “Sunset Boulevard” and “Some Like it Hot” was a refugee who left Germany for Paris as the Nazi party gained power. He made it briefly to America but had to leave and reapply. Wilder told the story of coming to the American Consul in Mexico, desperate to return to the U.S.           Wilder knew that many waited for years, others were never admitted. He was terrified. He explained that he had almost no documentation because it was all left behind.  The Counsel asked him, ‘What do you do?’ ‘I write movies,’ said Wilder….

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Does God Take Checks?


We live in an age of unprecedented wealth. Do we therefore live in an age of unprecedented charity? Many studies have demonstrated that paradoxically, rich people give a much lower percentage of their income to charity than poor people. As wealth accumulates, giving does not usually follow suit. There are exceptions of course; but the rule seems to hold.  For many people giving is a numbers game. Their livelihood will not be affected no matter how much they give. It is a matter of numbers on a page or a screen. Yet the psychological obstacles to generosity are real. Many who could give don’t simply because…

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Biblical Karma


Jacob fools his father Isaac, disguising himself as Esau and taking the blessing. How does the Torah itself regard his action? The subtle critique can be found later on in Jacob’s story. He works for seven years to marry Laban’s daughter Rachel. At the end of that time however, he wakes up in bed next to Leah. The Rabbis imagine that when he upbraids Leah for conniving with her sister, she answers — “are there teachers without disciples?” In other words, you had it coming, buddy. Jacob pretended to be his brother. He was deceived by Leah pretending to be her sister. He fooled…

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