Explore JTS’s Online Torah

We invite you to search our vast collection of today’s most compelling Jewish conversations, teaching, and resources, including weekly parashah commentaries, public lecture recordings, curricula for community use, and more.

Use the search bar and filters at right or below every page to find what inspires you.

Read weekly parashah commentaries

Reflections on the Torah reading cycle

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Pesah Learning and Resources

Commentaries and more on the themes, texts, and liturgy of Pesah.

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Join online classes

Live series with JTS teachers

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Listen to JTS podcasts

Learn on the go 

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Watch lecture recordings

Videos of public events

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Bring curricula to your community

Programs for facilitators to teach in their locales

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Featured

Struggling to Celebrate

April 30, 2021by Naomi Kalish | Commentary | Emor

While Parashat Emor contains one of the Torah’s discussions of holidays and instructions for their observances, rabbinic literature provides guidance for their observance in the context of the complexities of the participants’ lives, even those who might be struggling to celebrate.

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The Palace of Torah Expanded: 15 Years Later

April 23, 2021by Daniel Nevins | Commentary | Aharei Mot Kedoshim

For many modern readers, engaging with Torah presents a paradox. Biblical and rabbinic voices reaching us from the distant past are like starlight emitted millennia ago—brilliant and often shockingly current, but also artifacts from light sources that may have dimmed or even expired. This paradox can be constructive, drawing modern readers out of our own cultural assumptions, challenging us to notice wonders that we might otherwise miss. The Torah’s poetry, its stirring demands for justice, and its vast system of devotional rites prime us for faith and sanctity. And when we encounter a Torah text that rings false or hurtful, we may use that encounter to clarify our own understanding, to articulate our community’s sacred values. 

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The Jewish Music of Leonard Bernstein

April 22, 2021by The Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event video

Hazzan David F. Tilman examines the works of Leonard Bernstein using a rich variety of musical recordings and archival photographs.

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Dangerous Religious Ideas: The Deep Roots of Self-Critical Faith in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam

April 20, 2021by The Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event video

In Dangerous Religious Ideas, Rabbi Mikva argues all religious ideas are dangerous—not only those we might consider extremist, but even those that stand at the heart of faith. Because most religious traditions have always understood this peril, they have transmitted tools of self-critique as essential to their teachings.

 

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