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Jewish Journal

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Picture of Rabbi David Wolpe

Rabbi David Wolpe

David Wolpe is the Max Webb Senior Rabbi at Sinai Temple. His most recent book is “David: The Divided Heart” (Yale University Press).

We Must Condemn Heartless Bilge

September 15, 2005

\”It is not in our hands to explain the prosperity of the wicked or even the sufferings of the righteous.\” So said Rabbi Yannai in the Mishna some 2,000 years ago. The Talmud (Kiddushin 39b) insists \”there is no reward for mitzvot in this world.\” We have had a long time to read and understand the Book of Job, and we know that the calculus of reward and punishment is more perplexing and agonizing than we can know.

Than we can know, but not, apparently, than Rav Ovadiah Yosef, a former chief rabbi of Israel, can know. Rav Ovadiah is an ilui, a genius of halacha.

His memory is astonishing, his range remarkable. Unfortunately, his theology is appalling.

False Promises in Berg’s ‘Becoming’

December 16, 2004

I have never been to the Kabbalah Centre, never studied with one of their teachers, and cannot comment on their practices. My sole direct exposure was to watch a videotape produced by the center, \”The Power of Kabbalah: A Documentary,\” from 1996, in which they claim, among other things, credit for producing the Oslo accords — credit which they may be presently inclined to disavow. But no matter. I spent an infuriating hour reading \”Becoming Like God\” by Rabbi Michael Berg. If I can succeed in persuading one person not to buy this confused, contradictory, intellectually disreputable and Jewishly perverse volume it will be well worth the exasperation.

Lessons From Life’s Second Chance

February 5, 2004

\”I heard the rabbi is dying of brain cancer.\”

That was the word flying around the shul. I should have expected it. Rumors were rife, and they were uncomfortably close to the truth.

Last Oct. 23, I was speaking at the University of Pennsylvania, to inaugurate the new Hillel building on campus. At dinner, I sat beside my parents.

As I spoke, I felt a little strange, nervous and hot. I had trouble keeping to my train of thought. It occurred to me that I was coming down with a cold.

As I sat down after my speech, my father asked, \”Is there anything wrong?\”

\”No,\” I said, and that is the last thing I remember.

The Sword and the Scroll

October 2, 2003

As this Jewish year begins, we are once again assailed by the din of seemingly monumental events: the war in Iraq, the decision about our state leadership, the peril in Israel, the crises of human rights, environment, scientific progress and ethics.

Anne Frank’s Words Resonate In The Center Of World Power

June 26, 2003

There is no better place to understand the powerful forces and fault lines of American identity than Washington. I arrived in the evening at Dulles Airport, and my cab driver, I soon discovered, was Iranian. As we drove, he told me his life story: He had been an ambassador to Moscow under Khomeini, the man who \”ruined my country.\”

How did he feel about being in America?

Why Jews Don’t Accept Jesus

January 9, 2003

Why don\’t Jews accept Jesus as the Messiah or son of God?

Growing up in Philadelphia, I attended Akiba Hebrew Academy, a private Jewish school. In 11th grade, a Southern Baptist preacher came to speak to our class. He looked around the room, and with a kindly smile said, \”You seem like nice boys and girls. But I must tell you that unless you change your ways, you are all going to hell.\” I admired his honesty, but not his theology. I spent the next hour trying to think of a question that would stump him. As the class was ending, I raised my hand.

Spiritual Agoraphobia

November 14, 2002

In the late Middle Ages, some Jews first banned and then instigated the burning of the books of Maimonides, the greatest philosopher Judaism ever produced. The book burning of 1232 was one episode in a controversy that lasted for some two centuries. The fight was not over Maimonides as an individual, for all agreed he was a great scholar and a pious man, rather the dispute centered on his incorporating Greek learning into his philosophy. Maimonides revered Aristotle; he called him \”the philosopher.\” His opponents attacked him and the intellectual battle raged.

When I’m 44

October 24, 2002

Each stage of life has its characteristic depressions and delights.

Torah to Tel Aviv

July 26, 2001

We were together in a small room, about 10 of us. Four of us were from Sinai Temple in Los Angeles. I stood with Jimmy Delshad, our temple\’s past president; his wife, Lonnie, and Temple Treasurer Kam Hekmat, as well as two members of an L.A. fact-finding mission, David Rubin and Dr. Mark Barak. We were bending over the scroll of a Torah, along with five rabbis, all dressed in combat fatigues. Each rabbi was scrutinizing it with an erudite eye.

The Lessons of Yom Kippur

October 5, 2000

Today you die. No one pronounces that horrible sentence on Yom Kippur, but it is true. Yom Kippur reenacts death. We wear white, like the shrouds we will one day be buried in. We do not eat, wash, procreate; we are as corpses. We recite the \”Unetaneh Tokef,\” filled with graphic, even gruesome images about our death.

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