Off the Pulpit Archives

We live in a time of mutual incomprehension. People do not argue with one another as much as serially lecture each other. We listen to anticipate an answer, not to comprehend. Victory has become more urgent than understanding. Passover reminds...

Elijah is the prophet who will announce the coming of the Messiah in Jewish teaching. In the bible Elijah does not die – he is carried off to heaven in a chariot – and so the tradition expected his return....

While traveling in Southeast Asia I learned that certain cultures refer to housework as “invisible work” because if it is done you cannot see it. Only if it is undone do you realize it is needed. Entropy operates in our...

When you were two years old could you imagine what it was to be an adult? Not only could you not imagine it, but you didn’t understand what it was that you could not imagine. In the Jewish tradition, the...

Every intellectual or academic discipline has its apostles of obscurity. There are novels which cannot be read without a teacher or a guidebook. Much modern poetry defeats the most resolute attempt to unravel its enigmas. And even when pundits try...

When the famed writer Isaac Bashevis Singer reached the age of sixty, he told his friend he knew he would live to 120. “How can you be so sure?” his friend asked. “Because” explained Singer, “when I went for my...

Purim is a holiday of masks. A mask doesn’t fully change you, but it obscures identity, distorting who you are. A mask permits you to assume a slightly different way of being in the world. The boy who dresses as...

In an internet age, there is a great deal of discussion about the right to privacy.             The Torah already contains a provision for privacy – a creditor may not enter a debtor’s home even to...

One of the characteristics of great sages is that they rise above their times and express truths despite the prevailing climate of opposing opinion. The following was written in the 16th century: “Even if his words are spoken and directed...

There is a poignant story of Reb Aryeh Levin, a saintly and renowned Rabbi of Jerusalem who passed away in 1969. Once before the holiday of Sukkot, when people were busily seeking the perfect etrog (the fruit used for the...