JTS Torah Archive

Repentence and the Mystical ‘Rope’: The Divine/Human Relationship in Jewish Thought

Sep 16, 2024 By Shira Billet | Public Event video | Video Lecture | Rosh Hashanah | Yom Kippur

One of the most striking images of the divine-human relationship in Jewish thought is the kabbalistic image of a rope or cord that extends from God in the heavens into the soul of the human being. We explore a diverse array of Jewish thinkers over the centuries who have found this metaphor meaningful, especially in times of challenge and suffering, giving them hope to continue to strive to become closer to God. In the context of the High Holiday season, we give special attention to connections between this metaphor and themes and liturgies of the High Holiday season.

Between the Lines: Torah and Technology

Sep 10, 2024 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event video | Video Lecture

In this volume, Torah and Technology: Circuits, Cells, and the Sacred Path, Rabbi Daniel Nevins draws on 3,000 years of biblical and rabbinic texts to respond to pressing questions of contemporary life. These essays are presented in the form of responsa, or rabbinic guidance for Jews committed to practicing halakhah, but they are also of interest to any person who confronts ethical quandaries in our technocentric times.

A New Understanding of Betzelem Elohim: Biblical Text Through the Lens of Disability Studies

Aug 12, 2024 By Ora Horn Prouser | Public Event video | Video Lecture

One of the most important biblical principles is that we are created betzelem Elohim, in God’s image. While this idea has been used to assert value and dignity to each of us as individuals, it has also enabled us to expand our understanding of the Divine. Studying the Bible through the lens of Disability Studies has made this especially powerful. 

Rabbi, Will You Do Our Wedding? New Approaches to Working With Interfaith Couples

Aug 5, 2024

Together we will think about the the impact and limits of disapproval policies, the purpose and meaning of the Jewish wedding ceremony and how to shift the conversation to a pastoral and relational one with a couple. A conversation that transfers responsibility for these questions from the community back to the couple, empowering them to articulate their identities and authenticities and determine their relationship to the narratives, rituals, symbols and faith statements of Jewish tradition.

Innovations in Ritual and Halakhah (Law) Around Jewish Divorce

Jul 22, 2024

What are the essential components of an egalitarian marriage ceremony and divorce?  How can we ensure that the Conservative/Masorti movement’s ways of Jewish marriage and divorce reflect our spiritual values and ethical ideals?  Rabbi Pamela Barmash, PhD and Rabbi Karen Weiss Medwed, PhD discussed the progress that has been achieved in this area and the challenges that remain.

Zionism and Antisemitism on Campus and Beyond

Jul 15, 2024

With Dr. Michael Kay (Day School Leadership Training Institute ’08), Head of School, The Leffell School and Rabbi Jason Rubenstein (Rabbinical School ’11 and Kekst Graduate School ‘10), Executive Director, Harvard Hillel

X Troop: The Secret Jewish Commandos who Helped Defeat the Nazis

Jul 8, 2024

In June 1942, Winston Churchill and his chief of staff form a new commando unit made of Jewish refugees who have escaped to Britain. This top-secret unit, trained in counterintelligence and advanced combat, will stop at nothing to defeat the Nazis.  

Judaism Is About Love

Jul 1, 2024

In his new book Judaism is About Love, Rabbi Shai Held offers the radical and moving argument that love belongs as much to Judaism as it does to Christianity. He sets out to contradict centuries of widespread misrepresentation that Christianity is the religion of love and Judaism the religion of law. Rabbi Held shows that love is foundational and constitutive of true Jewish faith, animating the singular Jewish perspective on injustice and protest, grace, family life, responsibilities to our neighbors and even our enemies, and chosenness.

Religious Misconceptions: American Jews and the Politics of Abortion

Jun 24, 2024

We begin by tracing the history of how American Jews contributed to reproductive politics by developing first amendment-based arguments for abortion rights. We also discuss the ways in which reproductive politics transformed American Judaism. In particular, we look at the many rituals that Jewish feminist leaders developed to support people undergoing abortion care and galvanize activists working for reproductive rights.  

Jews in the American Political and Public Square

Jun 17, 2024

The extent of Jewish participation in the American political process far outweighs the relative number of Jews in the population. Yet the contemporary activism of Jews is consistent with a tradition of civic involvement from the earliest days of Jewish settlement in America. This webinar explored Jewish participation in the American political system. We briefly address the foundations of religious freedom in America through the nineteenth century, and then focus on the watershed politics of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, from labor strikes to landmark legal cases. In studying these issues, we plumb the depths of what it means to be a minority in a democratic society and what it means to be a Jew in the modern world.

What is the Torah, Actually? Preparing for Shavuot

Jun 3, 2024 By Benjamin D. Sommer | Public Event video | Video Lecture | Shavuot

We’ve heard its stories; we’ve heard it chanted in synagogue; we’ve seen it hoisted in the air displaying handwritten ink on parchment; we’ve taken classes on it. But what, actually, is the Torah? A law code? A history book? An ancient novel? A saga? None of these categorizations quite fits. In this session, we consider what defines the distinctive genre of the Torah, where this genre comes from, how it reappears in Jewish culture over the ages—and what addressing these questions can teach us about the Jewish religion.

JTS Alumni in the World: Scholarship and Impact

May 30, 2024 By The Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event video | Video Lecture

Join esteemed JTS alumni to hear about the important contributions they are making through their work as scholars and thought leaders in their fields. Through their engagement with Jewish text, history, and thought, they are enhancing the spiritual and personal lives of individuals, building more inclusive communities, and preparing the leaders of tomorrow, ensuring a stronger Jewish future.  

Gender, the Bible, and the Art of Translation

May 20, 2024

How should English translators of the Hebrew Bible approach questions relating to gender? When should gender-inclusive language (such as “God” or “person”) be used for references to God and human beings, and when is gendered terminology (such as “King” and “man”) called for historically and linguistically? What does it mean to faithfully render biblical Hebrew into contemporary English, and how can translators share their methodologies and choices with readers and communities? We explore these questions, focusing on the newest Bible translation released by The Jewish Publication Society, THE JPS TANAKH: Gender-Sensitive Edition.

Praying for the Peace of Jerusalem

May 13, 2024 By Alan Cooper | Public Event video | Video Lecture | Yom Hazikaron-Yom Ha'atzma'ut

In Commemoration of Yom Hazikaron (Israel’s Memorial Day for Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terror)

With Dr. Alan Cooper, Elaine Ravich Professor of Jewish Studies, JTS

Art as Witness: The Work and Remarkable Survival Story of Esther Lurie

May 6, 2024 By Shay Pilnik | Public Event video | Video Lecture | Yom Hashoah

The survival story of celebrated artist Esther Lurie (1913-1998), the only Israeli artist to win the prestigious Dizengoff Prize for Drawing twice in her career, was beyond remarkable. After she made aliyah and established herself as a prominent artist in young Tel Aviv, Lurie was caught up in the claws of the Hitlerite monster while visiting her sister. From that point on, she was driven by two motivations—to survive the Kovna Ghetto and several labor camps, and to bear witness to Nazi crimes through a series of brilliant, clandestine sketches and illustrations.

From Symposium to Seder: How The Rabbinic Adoption of Roman Party Conventions Became Our Passover Seder

Apr 15, 2024 By Robert Harris | Public Event video | Video Lecture | Pesah

In the years following the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, Jewish observance of Passover underwent a seismic shift. In lieu of the now impossible sacrificial Temple ritual, the rabbis adopted the Roman symposium in order to create a new type of festival meal, one that was rooted in new rituals and intellectual discourse. Together we explore what led to the rabbinic decision to conduct the Seder in this way, rather than opting for a different way to commemorate Passover, such as instructing the Jewish people to perform the sacrifice in their homes. We also examine some of the questions and answers in the Haggadah which are central features of the Roman symposium and core to our Haggadah. 

“Awaiting the Good Hour”: Hope in the Bible as a Resource for Religious Life

Apr 8, 2024 By Amy Kalmanofsky | Public Event video | Video Lecture

The capacity to hope is integral to religious life, yet contemporary realities can make it hard to feel and express hope. We explore what hope means in the context of the Bible, looking particularly at how the prophets Jeremiah and Isaiah use maternal imagery to convey hope, and consider how the Bible can be a valuable resource for cultivating a language of hope for us today. 

Antisemitism and Free Speech on Campus

Apr 8, 2024

In the aftermath of the horrific events of October 7, issues of antisemitism and free speech have roiled college campuses, with tremendous significance for the Jewish community, the nature of higher education in our society, and democracy itself. How can universities foster both free speech and a sense of inclusion and belonging, so that all members of the campus community can flourish? Should boundaries of acceptable speech be drawn? In what ways can schools encourage civil and informed discourse across difference?  

Prayer through the Lens of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Apr 1, 2024 By Mychal Springer | Public Event video | Video Lecture

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), with its focus on beliefs, thoughts, and feelings, is a powerful modality for helping people in distress. Drawing on the work of David H. Rosmarin’s Spirituality, Religion, and Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, we explore how CBT can inform and strengthen individuals’ and communities’ prayer lives. We discuss the connections between different types of prayers—including giving thanks, engaging in dialogue, contemplative prayer, and petitionary prayer—and evidence-based therapeutic approaches to wellbeing.  

Seeing the Unseeable: Images of the Divine in Kabbalistic Texts

Mar 25, 2024

Download Sources With Dr. Eitan Fishbane, Professor of Jewish Thought, JTSand Dr. Marcus Mordecai Schwartz, Ripps Schnitzer Librarian for Special Collections; Assistant Professor, Talmud and Rabbinics, JTS This session is generously sponsored by Drora and Matti Shalev in recognition of JTS’s community learning programs. This session previews the JTS Library’s exhibit opening on March 26, […]