Rabbi Wallk's Writing

27 Tevet 5785 / Monday, January 27, 2025 International Holocaust Remembrance Day falls today, Jan. 27.  A few years ago, I wrote a column comparing this day — International Holocaust Remebrance Day — to Yom HaShoah V’HaG’vurah ~ the Day of Remembering the Holocaust and Resistance, set for the 27th day of Nisan, which usually falls mid-to-late April, just a week or so after Passover. I am reprinting parts of my previous column with edits and updates given what our Jewish world has encountered in the last two years. What’s in a name? Shoah is a biblical Hebrew word for

20 Tevet 5785 / Monday, January 20, 2025 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. The Book of Exodus. The three go together more often than not. Heschel and King are forever immortalized in a famous photo (shown above) from Selma, AL in 1965. And on the calendar, the three are frequently together given King’s birthday (15 January), Heschel’s yahrzeit (18 Tevet), and the annual Torah reading cycle which places Exodus’ beginning, typically, in January. Today, we mark King’s birthday. This past Shabbat, we marked the 53rd yahrzeit of Heschel and we began the Book of Exodus.

20 Tevet 5785 / Monday, January 20, 2025 For the last three months or so, we as a community have been counting the days that our people have been held hostage in Gaza. We erected a sign on our lawn as a way of reminding the world that innocent Israeli men, women and children were kidnapped on October 7.  We wanted everyone who drives on Dickinson Street to see the number of days our people have been stuck in Gaza.  And of course, each time any of us drove to the Temple, we were reminded.  Either Mark or I have

13 Tishrei 5785 / Tuesday, October 15, 2024 I relay a wonderful story from Philip Goodman’s “The Rosh Hashana Anthology”: At the conclusion of the service, the cantor approached Rabbi Vevel, the maggid of Wilna, to extend New Year greetings and to be complimented for the manner in which he led the congregation in prayer. The rabbi returned the greeting and added: “It says in Pirke Avot: ‘The world is based on three things: Torah, prayer and deeds of kindness.’ Blessed is our congregation which fulfills these three requisites. I teach them Torah; you pray for them; and they perform

10 Tishrei 5785 / Saturday, October 12, 2024

2 Tishrei 5785 / Friday, October 4, 2024

1 Tishrei 5785 / Thursday, October 3, 2024

1 Tishrei 5785 / Thursday, October 3, 2024