January 21, 2021 2:01 pm Rabbi Yehuda Yudi Dukes, the longtime director of JNet, a worldwide Chabad educational program, was among the longest-hospitalized COVID-19 patients. (Itzik Roitman/Merkos302/Courtesy of JNet)
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(JTA) Rabbi Yehuda “Yudi” Dukes, a Hasidic father of six who became sick with COVID-19 in late March and spent nearly 10 months in the hospital as he struggled with the effects of the disease, died Thursday. He was 39.
Dukes’ wife, Sarah, announced his death in a Facebook post Thursday morning hours after she exhorted her many followers on social media to pray for her husband.
Dukes became a symbol of the toll of the pandemic to many in the Chabad Hasidic community and around the world as Sarah documented his condition in Facebook and Instagram posts throughout his hospital stays. People around the world performed mitzvahs Jewish rituals and good deeds that including saying prayers and learning Torah in his ho
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The parasha moves quickly through events: the loss of historical memory with the rise of a new Pharaoh, the enslavement of Bene Yisrael, the psychology of that enslavement and its concomitant cruelties, the emergence of Moshe’s existential self-understanding as he moves from a position of privilege and aligns himself with slaves, Moshe’s flight to Midian, his epiphanic encounter with God at the burning bush, and his return to Egypt as a God’s emissary.
These events describe the foundational experiences of who we are and need constantly to become as Jews. The events of Egypt impact us in an even more seminal way than the encounter at Mt. Sinai. I suggest that because together with the creation of the world, we mention the exodus from Egypt during the amidah of virtually every holiday, during every kiddush, in the daily recitation of the Shema, and by reciting the haggadah in the transformative ritual of the seder. This parasha raises the moral challenges that lie at the h
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Me and Itai holding Hebrew Translations of the Kuzari after a wonderful discussion
Coming off a first episode launch is very exciting, but as is the nature of episodic things, it is time to look ahead. I do a Podcast about Jewish Authors with my good friend Itai, and in less than a week everyone will be able to hear us talk