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Back to JTS Torah Online's Main pageThe Ruined House: A Novel
Jan 31, 2018 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event audio
Ruby Namdar’s The Ruined House received the Sapir Prize, Israel’s most prestigious literary award. Now newly translated into English, Namdar’s tale of a man whose comfortable secular life begins to unravel in the face of haunting religious visions cuts to the core of contemporary Jewish-American identity.
Read MoreForest Dark: A Novel
Jan 17, 2018 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event video
A discussion with New York Times best-selling author Nicole Krauss on Forest Dark: A Novel.
Read MoreThe Life of a Book
Dec 15, 2017 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Commentary
Every book has a life of its own, sometimes mundane and sometimes astonishing. The life of the book in which this page is found has been quite extraordinary. The book is a Hebrew Bible. It was born of fine parchment and ink, shaped by craftsmen and scribes who spared no effort to make it the best of its kind. It was written for a wealthy family in Toledo, Spain, in the 15th century, in order that they “and their children and their children’s children” might study it forever. Remarkably, it has survived to this day.
Read MoreMaimonides and the Merchants: Jewish Law and Society in the Medieval Islamic World
Dec 4, 2017 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event audio
Mark R. Cohen’s new book Maimonides and the Merchants suggests that, like the Geonim before him, Maimonides wished to provide Jewish merchants an alternative and comparable forum to the Islamic legal system and thereby shore up an important cornerstone of communal autonomy.
Read MoreWhat Makes a Book “Torah”?
Nov 24, 2017 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Commentary
In the manuscript age, what distinguished “Torah” from other writing? One of the key answers to this question is that manuscripts were fluid and each copy therefore different from any other, while Torah—as the word of God and the source of Jewish tradition—had to be precise and unchanging.
Read MoreDistance Learning from the Back of Shul
Oct 27, 2017 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Commentary
When we think of “the book” (as in “the people of the book”), we picture a bound volume with pages sitting open before a reader on a table or a lap. It we are speaking of the Torah, that book is typically a humash, which will often be found in the seat back of the seat in front of you in the synagogue. The same is true of a prayer book.
Read MoreLioness: Golda Meir and the Nation of Israel
Oct 26, 2017 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event audio
Francine Klagsbrun’s definitive new biography of Golda Meir brings to life a world figure unlike any other. An iron-willed leader, chain-smoking political operative, and tea-and-cake-serving grandmother who became the fourth prime minister of Israel, Meir was one of the most notable women of our time.
Read MoreDinner at the Center of the Earth
Oct 18, 2017 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event video
Dinner at the Center of the Earth, a new political thriller from Pulitzer finalist and best-selling author Nathan Englander, unfolds in the highly charged territory of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Read MoreThe Other Peace Process
Oct 17, 2017 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event audio
A discussion with Rabbi Ron Kronish on his new book, The Other Peace Process: Interreligious Dialogue, A View from Jerusalem.
Read MoreLicensed to Kill (Kosher Animals)
Aug 18, 2017 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Commentary | Re'eh
In Deut. 12:20–25, explicit permission is given for the slaughter and consumption of meat outside of the sacrificial system. The passage includes the phrase “as I have instructed you” (v. 21), and the Talmud identifies these words as the source of the various prescriptions for kosher slaughter (shehitah) (BT Hullin 28a).
Read MoreThe Arabic Translation and Commentary of Yefet ben ‘Eli on the Book of Proverbs
May 9, 2017 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event audio
Ilana Sasson, instructor at Sacred Heart University and JTS alumna, will discuss her new critical edition of a key Arabic translation and commentary on the book of Proverbs.
Read MoreA Scroll of The Song of Songs
Apr 14, 2017 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Commentary | Pesah
This decorated scroll of Shir Hashirim (which is read on the Shabbat of Pesah) is a product of the circle of the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem, dated to circa 1930, though the scribe and artist are unidentified. The artistic movement associated with this school was informed by the Zionist ideals of the society in which it was immersed.
Read MoreBraced: A Book Talk and Discussion
Apr 3, 2017 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event audio
Aly Gerber’s young adult novel, Braced, is the story of a 12-year-old soccer player who learns she needs to wear a back brace 23 hours a day for her worsening scoliosis. As she adjusts to life with the brace, her confidence and self-image are shaken. Ultimately she discovers her own voice and learns how to face this challenge—plus all the others associated with being a preteen.
Read MoreKohelet’s Pursuit of Truth: A New Reading of Ecclesiastes
Mar 1, 2017 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event audio | Sukkot
In his book Kohelet’s Pursuit of Truth, Rabbi Benjamin J. Segal, former president of the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem, presents an arresting new translation and commentary on Ecclesiastes that unlocks the ancient wisdom of one of the deepest and most controversial books of the Tanakh.
Read MoreCommunings of the Spirit: The Journals of Mordecai M. Kaplan (Vol. 2 1934-1941)
Dec 5, 2016 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event audio
Kaplan was a compulsive diarist. His journal of twenty seven volumes is one of the longest on record. Communings of the Spirit, Volume 2 contains in vivid detail the edited selections from 1934-1941. He reacts passionately to the momentous events of the thirties paying particular attention to the rise of Fascism.
Read MoreA Venetian Ketubbah
Nov 25, 2016 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Commentary | Hayyei Sarah
This week’s parashah prominently features the mission of Abraham’s servant to find a wife for Isaac. The account includes the giving of gifts to Rebecca and her family (24:22, 53) and the assurance from Abraham’s family that they themselves are wealthy (Gen. 24:35). For thousands of years, ketubbot (Jewish marriage contracts) have established the financial responsibilities in a Jewish marriage.
Read MoreReading Genesis: Beginnings
Nov 2, 2016 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event audio
Deuteronomy 32:47 says the Pentateuch should not be “an empty matter.” This new anthology from Beth Kissileff fills Genesis with meaning, gathering intellectuals and thinkers who use their professional knowledge to illuminate the Biblical text. These writers use insights from psychology, law, political science, literature, and other scholarly fields, to create an original constellation of modern Biblical readings, and receptions of Genesis.
Read MoreKosher USA: How Coke Became Kosher and Other Tales of Modern Food
Sep 14, 2016 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event audio
Kosher USA follows the fascinating journey of kosher food through the modern industrial food system. It recounts how iconic products such as Coca-Cola and Jell-O tried to become kosher; the contentious debates among rabbis over the incorporation of modern science into Jewish law; how Manischewitz wine became the first kosher product to win over non-Jewish consumers; and more.
A New Rabbi in 17th-Century Italy
Jul 29, 2016 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Commentary | Pinehas
Reminded that he will not be permitted to lead the people into the Land of Israel, Moses asks God to appoint a successor for him. God instructs Moses:
Read MoreSingle out Joshua son of Nun, an inspired man, and lay your hand upon him. Have him stand before Eleazar the priest and before the whole community, and commission him in their sight. Invest him with some of your authority, so that the whole Israelite community may obey. (Num. 27:18–20)
Thinking and Killing Philosophical Discourse in the Shadow of the Third Reich
May 25, 2016 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event audio
In this Library Book Talk, Professor Alon Segev discusses his book, Thinking and Killing—Philosophical Discourse in the Shadow of the Third Reich, which deals with the contribution of eight German thinkers to the discussion about the Holocaust and the Final Solution.
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