David Z. Vaisberg, at The Blogs

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May 31, 2021, 12:18 AM

A letter to a friend

A friend tells me that he cares about me, that he cares about the Jewish people, and that he cares about human beings. And then my friend asks, “Are you willing to condemn Israel for destroying the media building in Gaza?” Tell me, friend, why...

Mar 2, 2018, 10:37 PM

The Friend Israel Needs Most

Its ways are ways of pleasantness and all its paths are peace (Proverbs 3:17) To be a nation free in our land, the land of Zion and Jerusalem (Hatikvah) These two principles are core tenets of my Jewish being. All legitimate paths of Torah are...

Dec 6, 2015, 4:45 AM

A Crisis of Conversation

Sermon delivered at Temple Emanu-El of Edison NJ on Friday December 4, 2015, Human Rights Shabbat When we think of arch-enemies, who do we think of? Superman and Lex Luthor? America and the Soviet Union? Harvard and Yale? Or, maybe, the great rabbis, Hillel and Shammai....

Oct 14, 2015, 12:19 AM

Does Israeli safety matter to anyone?

The headline reads “Stabbing, and Deadly Responses, Add to Israel’s Security Challenge” (NYTimes, Isabel Kirshner, Oct 12, 2015). And I thought, maybe, for the first time in this recent Palestinian uprising of guerrilla violence in Israel, my choice newspaper, the New York Times, would address...

Oct 9, 2015, 5:58 PM

Two Canadian Jews take on American Thanksgiving

As Canadian clergy working in a Reform congregation in New Jersey, we encountered our share of confusion about American Thanksgiving during our integration into life in this country. Cantor Marer: I’ll never forget the time I tried to convince my boyfriend (now husband) that we should go out of town during American...

Sep 22, 2015, 3:47 PM

There’s a story told among certain Hasidic circles of the second Lubavitcher Rebbe, a great scholar, who was once so intent on his studies that he failed to hear the cries of his baby son. The first rebbe, his father, heard these cries, and went...

Sep 22, 2015, 7:47 AM

Some of you may remember a commercial from Ally Bank from a year or two ago where they were advertising their new “raise your rate” feature for Certificates of Deposit, or CDs. As the lead in this commercial, they cast Thomas Sargent, an accomplished economist....

Sep 14, 2015, 12:40 AM

To help or not to help

There’s an old Hasidic story about Reb Nahman Kossover, a friend of the Baal Shem Tov, the founder of Hasidic Judaism. Now a priority for a mystic, and for a hasid, is to always be aware of God’s presence — the hebrew term is d’veikut, a...

Sep 14, 2015, 12:37 AM

A monk, a priest and a rabbi are meeting together for an interfaith clergy meeting, and all of a sudden the lights go out. What do they do? The monk takes the opportunity to teach his colleagues about the importance of meditation as a pathway...

Aug 6, 2015, 2:37 AM

A letter to Israel’s leaders

Dear _________, I hope this message finds you well. My name is David Z. Vaisberg. I am a rabbi in the United States (Canadian originally), and I am a deep lover of Israel. I believe in the Jewish state as a home and refuge for...

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About Me

Rabbi David Z. Vaisberg is Senior Rabbi of Temple B'nai Abraham in Livingston, New Jersey.

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