JTS Torah Archive

Nurturing Character, Community, and Meaning-Making Through Jewish Education

Nov 9, 2020 By Jeffrey Kress | Public Event video | Video Lecture

Even as we are zooming forward into a new, Covid-altered educational landscape, there are goals of Jewish education—whether in schools, camps, home, or other settings—that are enduring. In this session we will look at Jewish education through the lenses of character, community, and meaning-making to provide context for current discussions of online and hybrid learning, and to expand our thinking about the goals and processes of Jewish learning.

Remix Judaism

Nov 9, 2020 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event video

Relying on modern Jewish sociology, in addition to narratives running the gamut from the Talmud to timely interviews and personal stories, Remix Judaism shows how a Jewish tradition open to personal meaning can substantially deepen one’s connection to Jewish tradition. 

The Torah’s Take on Happiness

Nov 2, 2020 By Jan Uhrbach | Public Event video | Video Lecture

Moses’ final speech concludes with a declaration of the happiness of being a Jew: “Happy are you, O Israel!” But does the Torah describe any individual as happy? While the pursuit of happiness, as expressed in the Torah and its interpretations? Is the American ideal of happiness a Jewish concept at all? 

Judaism (Religions of Humanity series)

Oct 26, 2020 By Burton L. Visotzky | Public Event video

How do you portray 2,000 years of Judaism in only three volumes? That’s what co-editors Dr. Burton L. Visotzky of JTS and Professor Dr. Michael Tilly of Tübingen University discuss at this celebration of Judaism. Their new three-volume compendium offers a global view of Jewish history, an overview of Jewish literature, and insight into Jewish culture and modernity.

Spiritual Meaning and Inspiration in Hasidic Teaching

Oct 26, 2020 By Eitan Fishbane | Public Event video | Video Lecture

In this session we explore several powerful examples in which hasidic spiritual masters read the Hebrew Bible figuratively in order to often playfully and brilliantly convey deep spiritual insights about the nature of life, of the world, and of God‘s immanent presence in our lives. 

Gifts of Wisdom: The Historical Traditions and Values of the Ethical Will

Oct 19, 2020 By Stefanie B. Siegmund | Public Event video | Video Lecture

At pivotal moments that make us think about death—encounters with serious illness, the loss of loved ones, advancing age, or even bringing children into our lives—we turn to lawyers to write or revise our wills. Writing a will is an opportunity to consider our priorities as we plan to distribute our estates to the people, organizations, and causes that we care about. What if you also tried to write a letter that would be read by your descendants, perhaps even at your funeral, about your values? What would you say? How does Judaism inform these values?

Generosity, Gratitude, and Faith: Rav Eliyahu Dessler’s Integrative Approach to Creating a Meaningful Life

Oct 12, 2020 By Eliezer B. Diamond | Public Event video | Video Lecture

What is the relationship between our level of generosity and our beliefs, our attitudes, and our actions? For Rav Eliyahu Dessler (1892-1953, England/Israel), love, faith, empathy, and social bonding are consequences of generosity—not its causes. In this session, we will discuss Rav Dessler’s insights and his vision for living meaningfully. 

Anticipating Death and Finding Satisfaction in Life: The Profound Wisdom of Kohelet

Oct 5, 2020 By David C. Kraemer | Public Event video | Video Lecture

Wise people will have different views about what constitutes a “Life of Meaning.” But no one researched this question more completely than the biblical author, Kohelet (Ecclesiastes). In this session we review his report in Ecclesiastes ch. 2 and evaluate his conclusions concerning what truly makes a life “well-lived.” 

Restoring Balance: Exploring an Ancient Paradigm for Moving Beyond Our Mistakes

Sep 14, 2020 By Julia Andelman | Public Event video | Video Lecture | Yom Kippur

Yom Kippur is the Day of Atonement—yet the concept of atonement itself is rarely explored. The text of the mahzor (High Holiday prayerbook) asks God to “forgive us, pardon us, grant us atonement”—but how is atonement distinct from forgiveness and pardon? Through an examination of biblical and rabbinic sources, we will learn how our ancestors interpreted the concept of kapparah, atonement, and the great power it held in their understanding of how human beings—flawed in our very nature—can carry on in the world after we have sinned. 

Faith, Forgiveness and Prayer: Finding Meaning in the Days of Awe

Aug 31, 2020 By Jan Uhrbach | Public Event video | Video Lecture | Rosh Hashanah | Yom Kippur

A series of online classes with JTS faculty and staff

Isaac Unbound: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam read the Offering of Abraham’s Beloved Son

Aug 31, 2020 By Burton L. Visotzky | Public Event video | Video Lecture

By reading texts from the New Testament, Church Fathers, and Quran we can see how Christians and Muslims read this seminal story. A medieval midrash shows how Rabbis responded to the interpretations of the other “Abrahamic religions.” The class concludes with a discussion of the problem with the ideology of martyrdom that all three religions read in the harrowing tale of Genesis 22.

From Self-Interest to Self-Surrender: Confronting the Challenges of Prayer

Aug 31, 2020 By Benjamin D. Sommer | Public Event video | Video Lecture | Rosh Hashanah | Yom Kippur

Why do many modern Jews find tefillah so difficult? We’ll grapple with this question by exploring attitudes toward prayer among thinkers including Rambam and Heschel, and we’ll contrast assumptions about what makes for a genuine and meaningful prayer in Jewish tradition and in American culture. In particular, we’ll discuss our expectations of what happens when we pray and the possibilities that emerge when we don’t put ourselves at the center of the prayer experience. Along the way, we will touch on Thomas Aquinas, Quakerism, Thomas Merton and yoga, and the light they shed on traditional Jewish conceptions of prayer. 

Covid, Triage, and Jewish Ethics

Aug 25, 2020 By The Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event video

In the coming months we hope that an effective Covid vaccine will be approved, but it may take months to produce mass quantities. Who should receive priority status for the early batches? Front line health workers? People with high risk factorss? The elderly? Politicians? 

The ethical dilemma of triage can be divisive. What does Judaism teach about deciding who shall live and who shall die? A distinguished panel explores these timely issues. 

Seeking and Offering Forgiveness: What are We Doing and How Do We Do It?

Aug 24, 2020 By Eliezer B. Diamond | Public Event video | Video Lecture | Rosh Hashanah | Yom Kippur

Forgiveness is at the heart of the High Holy Days season, yet it is far from clear what we mean by this term. Employing insights from rabbinic sources, mussar literature and psychology, we will think out loud about what we hope to achieve and how to achieve it as we seek forgiveness for ourselves and are asked to forgive others.

God of the Faithful, God of the Faithless: Belief and Doubt in Prayer

Aug 17, 2020 By Jan Uhrbach | Public Event video | Video Lecture | Rosh Hashanah | Yom Kippur

Do we need “faith” in order to pray? Can synagogue services be worthwhile and meaningful even if we’re not sure what we believe? We are hardly the first generation to struggle with contradictions among our intellectual beliefs, traditional Jewish liturgy, and the act of prayer. What do biblical and rabbinic texts about prayer, and the prayerbook itself, teach us about these conflicts, and how can they help us connect to prayer even in times of doubt or faithlessness?

First Failures: Falling Apart and Starting Over in the Book of Genesis

Aug 10, 2020 By Jan Uhrbach | Public Event video | Video Lecture

The first book of the Torah is filled with stories of crisis, brokenness, disappointments, and failure, both human and Divine. What religious meaning can we derive from the Torah’s focus on failure rather than success? Through a close look at some of its key narratives, we will mine the Book of Genesis for strategies for living through difficult times, and as the grounding of a hopeful and resilient theology. 

Times of Crisis and Possibility

Aug 10, 2020 By The Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event video | Video Lecture

A series of online classes exploring pivotal moments in the Jewish experience with JTS faculty and fellows.

Halakhic Responses to Past Pandemics

Aug 3, 2020 By Daniel Nevins | Public Event video | Video Lecture

Our ancestors have contended with outbreaks of disease over the centuries, and rabbis have often responded with daring halakhic activism. We will focus in particular on the case of Rabbi Haim Yosef David Azulai, who served at as the rabbinic leader of Leghorn (Livorno) in Italy, the home of a quarantine facility. 

Israel’s Prophets as Innovators During Crisis

Jul 27, 2020 By Amy Kalmanofsky | Public Event video | Video Lecture

Prophets were social and political change-makers and theological mavericks. They offered bold responses to grave challenges that enabled their communities to survive crisis and that paved the way for Judaism. This session explores how prophets Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Isaiah offered innovation in the face of destruction. 

American Jews and Race: Past, Present, and (Charting a) Future

Jul 21, 2020 By The Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event video | Video Lecture

Our country currently faces a reckoning with structural racism. As Jews, we have faith that our tradition represents a moral voice for justice and equality. Yet we also recognize that we have often failed to fully heed that voice and so must confront the enduring influence of racial discrimination and white privilege in our community. JTS’s Hendel Center for Ethics and Justice presents a discussion with two leading thinkers on the issue.