Shtender

Rabbi Knopf offers a special Shabbat-evening meditation at a “Hope and Healing” service, providing solace and guidance for those grappling with the tragic events in Charlottesville, Virginia the previous Shabbat.

Rabbi Knopf’s message at an interfaith prayer vigil in Richmond, held at Third Street Bethel AME Church in the wake of the Charlottesville tragedy, reminding us why we should not despair.

In his Friday evening message for Shabbat Nahamu (August, 2017), Rabbi Knopf discusses how we might alleviate some of our suffering by recognizing that almost all pain is temporary.

In his Saturday message for Parashat Korach (June 24, 2017), Rabbi Knopf discusses some insights from the Torah about dealing with the “difficult people” in our lives.

In his Saturday message for Parashat Naso (June 3, 2017), Rabbi Knopf makes spiritual sense of an obscure birth order anomaly in the Book of Numbers.

In his sermon for Shavuot (May 31, 2017), Rabbi Knopf argues that the 2nd of the 10 Commandments ought to ban Confederate monuments like those that stand on Richmond’s Monument Ave.

In his Saturday message for Parashat Bemidbar (May 27, 2017), Rabbi Knopf argues that the wilderness setting of the giving of the Torah is a powerful argument for the spiritual importance of taking moments for quiet in our lives.

Elections across the West represent the apotheosis of a big trend – people are rejecting institutions and traditional authority in a big way. While understandable in some ways, it is also a destabilizing and even dangerous phenomenon. What wisdom does the Torah have to offer for this moment? In his Shabbat message for parashat Aharei Mot-Kedoshim (May 6, 2017), Rabbi Knopf shares some thoughts.

In his Shabbat message for Parashat Tazria-Metzora (April 28, 2017), Rabbi Knopf discusses the relationship between the biblical leper and the modern-day refugee, and how the Torah calls us to action in our time.

In his Yizkor message for Pesach (April 18, 2017), Rabbi Knopf explains how the Jewish holidays sensitize us to God’s time, which, in turn, sensitizes us to the eternality of all life.