Editorial & Opinion | Musings

A Fragile Peace

09/27/2012 | David Wolpe | Special to the Jewish Week | Musings

The evening prayer for peace, the Hashkeveinu, asks God to “spread a sukkah of peace” over us. Why a “sukkah” of peace?

The most important characteristic about the sukkah is that it is fragile. If a sukkah is too sturdily built it is not kosher. From the outside it may appear as if it will endure, but a single powerful wind threatens the entire structure.

Our Many Selves

09/19/2012 | David Wolpe | Special To The Jewish Week | Musings

On Yom Kippur we confess to sins we did not commit (as well as a bunch we did commit).

One explanation is that we do not only speak individually, but also confess as Clal Yisrael, the entire people Israel. Another is that the confession is intended to remind us how many impulses, ideas — how many selves — we truly are.

The ‘Evidence’ Of Kaddish

09/11/2012 | David Wolpe | Special To The Jewish Week | Musings

Why do we recite the mourner’s Kaddish? In his lyrical, insightful “Kaddish,” Leon Wieseltier speaks of the child reciting Kaddish as “evidence” — he is the proof that his parent lived such that he raised a son competent enough and concerned enough to recite the prayer.

But why this prayer? The Kaddish glorifies God but makes no mention of death. For many interpreters, it is an affirmation of life — in community we express our gratitude for the years we have left in the shadow of the death we memorialize.

Children And Books

09/04/2012 | David Wolpe | Special To The Jewish Week | Musings

The new book “Jews and Words,” co-authored by Amos Oz and his daughter Fania Oz-Salzberger, quotes Jesus’ saying: “Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of God.” The authors go on to say: “The directive sounds very Jewish, but the reasoning is quintessentially Christian: it rests on the assumption that the least learned are the purest human beings. It bonds innocence with ignorance.

A Generational Message

08/28/2012 | Rabbi David Wolpe | Special To The Jewish Week | Musings

The Torah tells us that Noah was a “tzaddik b’dorotav” — righteous in his generation — and our sages note that the word for “generation” is really plural. One interpretation is that righteousness is lasting, affecting those alive in the age of the righteous individual and those who live after.

Chain Of Command

08/21/2012 | Rabbi David Wolpe | Special To The Jewish Week | Musings

How to get a family to sit down for a Shabbat dinner? I used to wonder how my parents did it. They didn’t use threats or coercion. One day I ran across a passage in Patrick O’Brien’s “Master and Commander,” his first novel of the British navy, that explained it to me:

“A commander is obeyed by his officers because he is himself obeying; the thing is not in essence personal; and so down. If he does not obey, the chain weakens.”