Prayer as Resonance

Prayer as Resonance

Mar 29, 2024 By Luciana Pajecki Lederman | Commentary | Shabbat Parah | Tzav

According to sociologist Harmut Rosa, the main role of rituals is to produce axes of resonance, through which we not only affect but also open ourselves to being affected by God, people, and even things around us. In conceiving of Jewish prayer, our ancient rabbis indicate a concern with creating resonance, by balancing “affecting” and “being affected.”

Read More
Amalek and the Torah of Purim

Amalek and the Torah of Purim

Mar 22, 2024 By Yitz Landes | Commentary | Purim

The Purim most of us celebrate is one that marks a moment of redemption – when a descendent of Amalek tried and failed to destroy the Jews. It is the holiday that best encapsulates the sentiment “they tried to kill us, we won, let’s eat”. And yet, Jewish thinkers have also understood Purim as a day that touches upon the cornerstone of Judaism itself: the covenant between God and Israel via the acceptance of the Torah. How is this connection formed? What is the relationship between Torah and Purim? And, in a calendar already chock full of holidays celebrating the Torah, what place is left for Purim?

Read More
Playing Hide and Seek with God

Playing Hide and Seek with God

Mar 15, 2024 By Cecelia Beyer | Commentary | Pekudei

Our quest for the Divine is not a new one; we’ve been playing “hide and seek” with God since we left Egypt. In Parashat Pekudei, our ancestors also strove to come close to the Divine Presence, through assembling and dedicating the Tabernacle as a place for encountering the Divine: “When Moses had finished the work, the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the Presence of Adonai filled the Tabernacle” (Exod. 40:33–34). The dedication of the Tabernacle, God’s “dwelling place” on earth, was completed as God’s Presence filled and rested upon it

Read More
The People Step Up

The People Step Up

Mar 8, 2024 By Robert Harris | Commentary | Shabbat Shekalim | Vayak-hel

By this point in the Book of Exodus, the story outlines are probably familiar: the people—having been redeemed from Egypt and covenanted with God on Mt. Sinai, and having already sinned a terrible sin by building the Golden Calf—respond to God’s detailed instructions to build a Tabernacle by donating so generously that the collection of the material with which to construct the sanctuary has to be stopped midway, even as the people are still in the process of donating.

Read More
The Desperate (and Comprehensible) Project of the Golden Calf

The Desperate (and Comprehensible) Project of the Golden Calf

Mar 1, 2024 By Ilana Sandberg | Commentary | Ki Tissa

After the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt, the Torah focuses on the project of how they could ensure God’s immanence, or retained presence, within their world. God instructs the Israelites to build the Mishkan, or Tabernacle, and establishes the sacrificial system to insure God’s continued presence. The episode of the Golden Calf seems like a grave error in this process that demands interpretation. Why would the people violate the second commandment they had just received and turn to idolatry?

Read More
Senior Sermons: Class of 2024

Senior Sermons: Class of 2024

Feb 29, 2024 By JTS Senior Sermon | Commentary | Senior Sermon

Each year, student in their last year of Rabbinical School give a Senior Sermon for fellow students, faculty, and special guests and offer a sample of their unique Torah. All of the Class of 2024 will have their sermons listed here.

Read More
Ilana Sandberg – Senior Sermon (’24)

Ilana Sandberg – Senior Sermon (’24)

Feb 29, 2024 By JTS Senior Sermon | Commentary | Senior Sermon | Ki Tissa

Ilana Sandberg shares her senior sermon for Parshat Ki Tissa

Read More
The Jewelry of a Master Teacher

The Jewelry of a Master Teacher

Feb 23, 2024 By Lilly Kaufman | Commentary | Tetzavveh | Purim

Without using alchemy, the 16th-century Italian commentator Seforno (1470–1550) turned gems into gold. Writing a few short words about the gemstones that adorned the clothing of the High Priest, described in Parashat Tetzavveh, Seforno shares a truly fine insight about achieving greatness as an educator.

Read More
Terumah—The Gift That Elevates

Terumah—The Gift That Elevates

Feb 16, 2024 By Eitan Fishbane | Commentary | Terumah

Sometimes we all feel like we’re giving more than we get, that we do more than our share, or that our individual needs are being sacrificed for the sake of someone else’s happiness. It is an emotional struggle that we encounter in our families and friendships. Why should I give when the other person doesn’t reciprocate in the way that I would want? If I give, will I also get what I deserve?

Read More
How Can Humans Uphold Divine Justice?

How Can Humans Uphold Divine Justice?

Feb 9, 2024 By Caleb Brommer | Commentary | Mishpatim

In Parashat Mishpatim, the Ten Commandments are immediately followed by a more thoroughgoing account of the Israelite legal code. God, through Their intermediary Moshe, reveals some of the particularly sticky, tricky, and challenging cases of civil law. Mishpatim begins to answer the questions “What happens when human beings are slammed together in community? What happens when they disagree, make mistakes, and cause incidental or intentional harm? What happens when they kill each other?”

Read More
Talia Kaplan – Senior Sermon (’24)

Talia Kaplan – Senior Sermon (’24)

Feb 7, 2024 By JTS Senior Sermon | Commentary | Senior Sermon | Mishpatim

Mishpatim All the Class of 2024 Senior Sermons

Read More
The Limitations God Shares with Us

The Limitations God Shares with Us

Feb 2, 2024 By Gordon Tucker | Commentary | Yitro

But how do you reconcile the idea of God’s transcendent power with such things as a failure to anticipate human flaws, or a weakness for the smell of roasting meat, or jealousy, or suffering the travails of exile? Texts such as these raise eyebrows because they seem to lower God in our estimation.

Read More
Amalya Volz – Senior Sermon (RS ’24)

Amalya Volz – Senior Sermon (RS ’24)

Feb 1, 2024 By JTS Senior Sermon | Commentary | Senior Sermon | Yitro

Yitro All the Class of 2024 Senior Sermons

Read More
Destiny in the Details

Destiny in the Details

Jan 26, 2024 By Rachel Rosenthal | Commentary | Beshallah

Why are those small moments so poignant? It seems to be a strange question to ask at this climactic point of the Torah. This week’s parashah, Beshallah, contains one of the Torah’s biggest moments. The Israelites finally break free of the Egyptians, crossing the Red Sea on dry land while the Egyptians drown in the closing sea behind them. Jubilant in their triumph, they sing to God, led by Moses and Miriam. For a brief moment, they are united in their faith and in the glory of the moment.

Read More
Lilli Shvartsmann – Senior Sermon (RS ’24)

Lilli Shvartsmann – Senior Sermon (RS ’24)

Jan 25, 2024 By JTS Senior Sermon | Commentary | Senior Sermon | Beshallah

Beshallah All the Class of 2024 Senior Sermons

Read More
What Do Tefillin Do?

What Do Tefillin Do?

Jan 19, 2024 By Lara Rodin | Commentary | Bo

Our sages explained that the placement of our tefillin as a “sign upon our hands” and a “reminder on our foreheads” is meant to represent the intellect (tefillin shel rosh) and the physicality (tefillin shel yad) of a person. For Keli Yakar, Rabbi Shlomo Ephraim ben Aaron Luntschitz, both the tefillin that sits on our arm and the tefillin that sits above our eyes are meant to represent the dichotomy that is at play between thought and action.

Read More
When the Nile Gave Up Its Terrible Secret

When the Nile Gave Up Its Terrible Secret

Jan 12, 2024 By Eliezer B. Diamond | Commentary | Va'era

Rabbinic commentators, in referring to an earlier exegete, sometimes say, “His interpretation requires its own interpretation.” All the more so it can be said that a midrashic interpretation sometimes needs its own midrashic interpretation, for in an effort to solve theological or textual difficulties, the midrash can present us with farfetched, even phantasmagoric, scenarios. Upon deeper reflection, however, we often discover that these phantasms are actually manifestations of profound truths. Let’s consider such a midrash, which both illuminates and is illuminated by a passage in this week’s Torah portion.   

Read More
Moshe the Mindful?

Moshe the Mindful?

Jan 5, 2024 By Lilliana Shvartsmann | Commentary | Shemot

Moshe’s journey mirrors the struggles many face in navigating transitions and seeking purpose amidst uncertainty. The 19th-century Polish commentator Ha’emek Hadavar suggests Moshe intentionally led his flock to the most remote location, a place no other shepherd dared venture, seeking solitude. He needed such desolation to encounter God. While we don’t know if Moshe had his own meditation, journaling, or spiritual practices that promoted solitude, his courage and strength in recognizing the necessity of solitude are evident.

Read More
Is it Heretical to Ask God for Protection?

Is it Heretical to Ask God for Protection?

Dec 29, 2023 By Marcus Mordecai Schwartz | Commentary | Vayehi

Jacob’s words of blessing to Joseph in chapter 48 surprise me every time that I read them. Though putatively an attempt to bless his son, they are primarily directed at his grandsons, Ephraim and Manasseh, and gain authority from Jacob’s fathers and from the shepherding and redeeming God he has known so intimately throughout his life.

Read More
The Reason(s) Jacob Went Down to Egypt

The Reason(s) Jacob Went Down to Egypt

Dec 22, 2023 By Ira Tokayer | Commentary | Vayiggash

Parashat Vayiggash is a good place to illustrate the modern scholarship, which sees the Torah’s Joseph story as a combination of three source documents with separate accounts of how and why Jacob descended to Egypt.

Read More
Reset Search

SUBSCRIBE TO TORAH FROM JTS

Our regular commentaries and videos are a great way to stay intellectually and spiritually engaged with Jewish thought and wisdom.