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Featured

What Does It Mean to Be Called?

What Does It Mean to Be Called?

Mar 24, 2023 By Burton L. Visotzky | Commentary | Vayikra

This week we begin reading the middle book of the Five Books of Moses, Leviticus. Its position in the Torah scroll is not just coincidental; the laws of Leviticus are central to the earliest rabbis’ understanding of Judaism. The rules in the book are indicated by its name in English (Latin, actually): Leviticus. These are the detailed regulations for the tribe of Levi, particularly that branch of the clan known as the kohanim, the priesthood.

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Between Words and Pictures: Medieval Illuminated Haggadot from the JTS Library  

Between Words and Pictures: Medieval Illuminated Haggadot from the JTS Library  

Mar 23, 2023 By Marcus Mordecai Schwartz | Public Event video | Pesah

Download the sources for Dr. Mordecai Schwartz’s session With Dr. Marcus Mordecai Schwartz, Assistant Professor, Talmud and Rabbinics, and Ripp Schnitzer Librarian for Special Collections  This session will explore some of the priceless treasures in JTS’s collection of Haggadah manuscripts. We will consider how the text of the Haggadah and the accompanying hand-drawn illustrations are—or […]

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On the Margins: Conversos and the Question of Jewish Belonging Throughout History

On the Margins: Conversos and the Question of Jewish Belonging Throughout History

Mar 20, 2023 By Jonathan Ray | Public Event video

Jewish law provides relatively clear standards for who is, and who is not, a member of Jewish society. But popular Jewish acceptance – or rejection – of certain people as “Jews” has often run counter to these legal definitions. From medieval Spain to the Ottoman Empire to modern day America and the State of Israel, conversion out of, or into, the Jewish community has raised tensions over who is (and isn’t) considered Jewish. We discuss the question of Jewish belonging throughout history by looking at groups of converts and the liminal space they inhabited on the margins of the Jewish world. 

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Making Space for God’s Presence

Making Space for God’s Presence

Mar 17, 2023 By Rabbi Kara L. Tav | Commentary | Pekudei | Vayak-hel | Shabbat Hahodesh

Our rededication of the hospital’s ICU echoed for me the original Jewish sacred space described in the Book of Exodus. The double Torah reading for Vayak-hel and Pekudei provides God’s blueprint for a traveling sacred space that the Israelites would build during their journey through the wilderness. As they travelled, they would carry a place for the presence of God and for revelatory encounters between God and the high priests on behalf of the people. It would be a space for doing sacred work and for being with God.

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Between the Lines: Shanda: A Memoir of Shame and Secrecy

Between the Lines: Shanda: A Memoir of Shame and Secrecy

Mar 14, 2023 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event video

SHANDA: A MEMOIR OF SHAME AND SECRECY Part of Between the Lines: Author Conversations from The Library of JTS The word “shanda” is defined as shame or disgrace in Yiddish. This book, Shanda, tells the story of three generations of complicated, intense 20th-century Jews for whom the desire to fit in and the fear of public […]

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