JTS Torah Commentary

Stoking the Perpetual Fire of Freedom

Mar 20, 2013 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Shabbat Hagadol | Tzav

As we approach the festival of Passover, the domestic excitement and drama increase. This anticipation is seamlessly reflected in Parashat Tzav.

Beyond the Four Questions: Creating Fun and Meaningful Seders for Children

Mar 19, 2013 By Deborah Miller | Video Lecture | Pesah

Ever wonder how to make the seder fun and meaningful for youth and children? Join Dr. Deborah Miller as she explores the rich educational structure of the seder while giving practical tips and advice on how to keep children ages 0 to 15 engaged in this powerful ritual.

Approaching Pesah, Part 1: “Turning the Heart”

Mar 13, 2013 By Samuel Barth | Commentary | Pesah

Two seemingly disconnected texts offer an insight into the experience of Pesah. On Shabbat Hagadol (the Shabbat before Pesah, this year on March 23), the haftarah from Malachi ends with the powerful words, “before the coming of the great and awesome day of God I will send you the prophet Elijah; he will turn the hearts of parents to [their] children, and the hearts of children to parents” (Mal. 3:23).

Pesah: A Liberating Experience for Women

Mar 4, 2013 By Judith Hauptman | Commentary | Pesah

There is no festival more home- and family-oriented than Pesah. Sukkot may run a close second, but the seder places Pesah way ahead. Although celebrating at home with a lavish family meal should make this holiday a pleasure to anticipate, for many women this is not so. The painstaking conversion of the kitchen from leaven-filled to leaven-free status has turned the Festival of Freedom into an intense period of domestic labor rather than a celebration of personal and national liberation. That was not the intention of the halakhah.

Parts of a Whole

Feb 20, 2013 By Abigail Treu | Commentary | Tetzavveh | Purim

A strange fact about being human: we never see any object in its entirety. We perceive in three dimensions, but see only in two so that our seeing is always at the mercy of our believing.

Clothing Ourselves in Sanctity

Feb 20, 2013 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Tetzavveh | Purim

Clothing offers keen insight in two complementary directions. First, the garments one wears reveals one’s personality.

God Helps Those Who Help Themselves

Feb 12, 2013 By Raymond Scheindlin | Commentary | Purim

How is it possible to tell a story of redemption without even once mentioning the name of God?

Little Purim

Feb 12, 2013 By The Jewish Theological Seminary | Podcast or Radio Program | Purim

A 1951 episode of “The Eternal Light” radio program about a boy and his violin on Purim.

Purim: The Triumph of Understanding Over Hatred

Feb 12, 2013 By The Jewish Theological Seminary | Podcast or Radio Program | Purim

Taken from the archives of “The Eternal Light” radio program, this 1954 commentary on Purim is delivered by Murray Bellow, a noted civic leader of the time.

The Laws of Passover

Feb 11, 2013 By Isaac Klein | Pesah

From: A Guide to Jewish Religious Practice

Finding Meaning in the Festival of Lights

Dec 11, 2012 By Daniel Nevins | Video Lecture | Hanukkah

The days are getting shorter. The sky is getting darker. Many cultures celebrate to light up this dark part of the year. Judaism follows this with Hanukkah, or the Festival of Lights. But some have a hard time finding meaning in the traditional stories and rituals of Hanukkah, so Rabbi Daniel Nevins has delivered a Lunch and Learn about how to find meaning in Hanukkah.

Holy Innovation and the Festival of Hanukkah

Dec 11, 2012 By Daniel Nevins | Commentary | Hanukkah

What is the essential message of Hanukkah, the beloved Festival of Lights? Like many of our holidays, this celebration is protean, shifting shape to accommodate our changing Jewish needs. 

The Fiction of Teshuvah

Nov 20, 2012

Does anyone ever really change their ways? Can we become “someone new”? Is teshuvah really possible, or is it just fiction? Best-selling authors Susan Isaacs and Linda Fairstein as they discuss this topic through the characters in their books.

The Laws of Hanukkah

Nov 20, 2012 By Isaac Klein | Hanukkah

From:  A Guide to Jewish Religious Practice

New American Haggadah

Oct 5, 2012

An extraordinary conversation with one of America’s most acclaimed and influential young authors discussing the timelessness of the Passover story, the thinking behind the New American Haggadah, the secret desire of Jewish writers to be rabbis, and more.

Ushpizin in the Sukkah

Oct 5, 2012 By Rabbi Ayelet Cohen | Commentary | Sukkot

By Rabbi Ayelet Cohen

Immediately on the heels of the intense spiritual work of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, Sukkot challenges us to turn our lives inside out again, this time quite literally. The Talmud tells us that for the duration of Sukkot we must leave our permanent dwellings and reside in temporary dwellings (BT Sukkah 2b). By its very nature, the sukkah must feel temporary; we must experience the elements in a way that we do not when we are at home.

Ultimate Questions

Sep 20, 2012 By David Hoffman | Commentary | Shabbat Shuvah | Rosh Hashanah

There are some who expect religion to provide answers. The religious experience is thought to be a refuge from the messiness of life; a peaceful, ordered worldview that may help explain life’s daunting moments. In this way, faith offers the believer comfort that life is as it was meant to be, and that one’s spiritual work centers on acceptance and “finding” one’s path. Judaism turns these ideas on their head.

How to Love Yom Kippur

Sep 12, 2012 By Arnold M. Eisen | Commentary | Yom Kippur

The importance of “permission to pray with those who have transgressed,” recited immediately before chanting Kol Nidrei, is underlined in some congregations by the practice of repeating the words three times for added emphasis. The declaration clearly has enormous rhetorical power. But what does it mean? How can these words, this claim, help propel us forward into Kol Nidrei and beyond?

Remembering the Munich Eleven

Aug 4, 2012 By Marc Wolf | Commentary | Tishah Be'av

What we encounter in the text of the Talmud is the tension between communal mourning and communal celebration. We live our lives in that tension—between joy and sadness, life and death, destruction and rebuilding. All too often our moments of joy are interrupted abruptly by tragedy, and dancing turns to dirge. Just as quickly, we are taken by the hand and out of the depths of our sadness, pulled both emotionally and physically into communal celebration.

The Source of Hope

Jul 21, 2012 By Mychal Springer | Commentary | Masei | Mattot | Tishah Be'av

In a dramatic reversal of the ordinary mourning process, ‎which begins in its starkest intensity and lifts over time as the mourners are comforted, ‎these are weeks of increasing mourning that move, inevitably, to the destruction of ‎God’s house and the banishment of the People into exile. The prophetic readings drive ‎home that we have brought this horrible tragedy on ourselves.