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 Torah commentaries, online lectures, curricula for community use, and more.

Use the search bar and filters to find what inspires you.

Reflections on the Torah reading cycle

Learn more

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

Learn more

Live series with JTS teachers

Learn more

Learn on the go

Learn more

Videos of public events

Learn more

The tunes for Shabbat, festival, and high holiday services and Torah readings

Learn more

Featured

New Generation, Old Leaders

Jun 13, 2025 By Ute Steyer | Commentary | Beha'alotekha

To paraphrase Moses’s meltdown in Numbers 11:11–15, “Lord! I’m so done with them! I can’t take it anymore. These people are nothing but a bunch of whingeing losers.” Yet the People are doing what they have been doing since day one of the Exodus: complaining. About the lack of water, the lack of food, and now the lack of meat. So why is Moses losing his temper so completely this time?

The Problem with Priests

Jun 6, 2025 By Daniel Nevins | Commentary | Naso

Modern Judaism has a problem with the priesthood. The notion of hereditary holiness—that one segment of the Jewish people is set apart from others, given ceremonial privileges, and invited to bless the people—conflicts with our egalitarian ethos.

Counting as a Spiritual Practice: Bemidbar and the Road to Shavuot

May 30, 2025 By Marcus Mordecai Schwartz | Commentary | Bemidbar | Shavuot

Every year, without fail, we read Parashat Bemidbar just before the festival of Shavuot. This liturgical pairing is more than a scheduling convenience; it offers a profound insight into the spiritual architecture of Jewish time. Bemidbar begins with a count: “Take a census of the whole Israelite community by their clans, by ancestral houses, listing the names, every male, head by head” (Num. 1:2; בְּמִסְפַּר שֵׁמוֹת לְגֻלְגְּלֹתָם). This act of counting seems administrative on the surface, but like so much in the Torah, its spiritual depth lies beneath.

Grappling with Slavery in Parashat Behar

May 23, 2025 By Marjorie Lehman | Commentary | Behar | Behukkotai

Parashat Behar is filled with powerful messages about building a just and compassionate society, emphasizing commandments to care for the land, support the poor, and treat hired workers with fairness and dignity. However, I find that Parashat Behar stirs up more discomfort than ethical inspiration. I am always struck by the difficult distinction it makes between Israelites and non-Israelites with regard to slavery. With the themes of Passover and the Israelites’ freedom from Egyptian bondage in my mind, I find it hard to reconcile that Leviticus 25 permits the enslavement of non-Israelites while protecting Israelites from such a fate.

Meeting the Moment: Urgent Questions for Israel and American Jews

May 19, 2025 By Arnold M. Eisen | Public Event video | Video Lecture

In a time of deep internal division and existential challenges for Israel, what are the most urgent issues facing the Jewish state today—and how can American Jews meaningfully engage? Professor Arnold M. Eisen, Rabbi Gordon Tucker, and Rabbi Ayelet Cohen of The Jewish Theological Seminary had a thoughtful and wide-ranging conversation based on the themes that emerged at the Israel at a Crossroads Convening. Together, they explored how Jewish values can guide us in responding to this critical moment: bridging divides, sustaining hope, and strengthening our collective future.

Pages:

JTS Torah Commentary

Explore JTS’s Online Torah

Read weekly Torah commentaries

Holiday Learning and Resources

Join online classes

Listen to JTS podcasts

Watch lecture recordings

Nusah & Cantillation