JTS Torah Commentary

Submitting to a Higher Ideal

Oct 30, 1993 By Ismar Schorsch | Commentary | Vayera

Circumcision is the oldest of Jewish rituals and still going strong. In his 90th year Abraham was instructed by God to “circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, and that shall be the sign of the covenant between Me and you. And throughout the generations, every male among you shall be circumcised at the age of eight days (Gen. 17:11-12).” Accordingly, when Isaac was born ten years later, Abraham circumcised him on the eighth day (Gen. 21:4).

Do Not Oppress the Stranger

Oct 23, 1993 By Ismar Schorsch | Commentary | Lekh Lekha

As my bar-mitzva parasha, Lech Lecha has always carried a special measure of meaning for me. It marks the beginning of Jewish history with a story of exile. “The Lord said to Abram, `Go forth from your native land and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you'”(Gen. 12:1). And so did the Schorsch family, millennia later in December of 1938 from Nazi Germany. I even bear the name of Abraham’s son Isaac, born in this same parasha. Yitzhak is a joyous name filled with hope and affirmation. It means “he shall laugh.” For Abraham, Yitzhak signified the capacity of having a child in old age in a strange land. For my parents, Yitzhak bespoke an act of defiance in dark times. Faith has the power to shape reality, as it is said of Abraham in our parasha: “And because he put his trust in the Lord, He reckoned it to his merit” (Gen. 15:6). In short, my bar-mitzva in 1948, some eight years after we arrived in America, linked my life forever with Lech Lecha.

The Quest for Righteousness

Oct 16, 1993 By Ismar Schorsch | Commentary | Noah

How quickly does God’s joy in creation turn to regret! In the space of a single parasha, in a matter of ten generations, humanity taints the earth with violence, turning paradise into perdition. 

Back to the Beginning

Oct 9, 1993 By Ismar Schorsch | Commentary | Bereishit

Back to the beginning! Without losing a step, we move from the death of Moses back to the story of creation. Israel circles the Torah much as the earth does the sun, with Simhat Torah to mark the moment when one cycle ends and the next begins. From its light we draw our wisdom, our identity, our cohesion as a people. To hear it read weekly in the synagogue is to keep the experience of Sinai alive. But we need to prepare ourselves or else the power of the event will elude us. Hence, the study of the parasha should be the religious curriculum of our week.

Shavuot Day 2

Jan 1, 1980

²² You shall set aside every year a tenth part of all the yield of your sowing that is brought from the field.

Shabbat Rosh Hodesh

Jan 1, 1980

¹ Thus said the Lord:
The heaven is My throne
And the earth is My footstool:
Where could you build a house for Me,
What place could serve as My abode?

Kedoshim

Jan 1, 1980

¹ The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ² Speak to the whole Israelite community and say to them:

You shall be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy.

Terumah

Jan 1, 1980

²⁶ The Lord had given Solomon wisdom, as He had promised him. There was friendship between Hiram and Solomon, and the two of them made a treaty.

Vezot Haberakhah

Jan 1, 1980

¹ After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ attendant:

² “My servant Moses is dead. Prepare to cross the Jordan, together with all this people, into the land that I am giving to the Israelites.

Ki Tavo

Jan 1, 1980

¹ When you enter the land that the Lord your God is giving you as a heritage, and you possess it and settle in it, ² you shall take some of every first fruit of the soil, which you harvest from the land that the Lord your God is giving you, put it in a basket and go to the place where the Lord your God will choose to establish His name. 

Ki Tavo

Jan 1, 1980

¹ Arise, shine, for your light has dawned;
The Presence of the Lord has shone upon you!

Vezot Haberakhah

Jan 1, 1980

¹ This is the blessing with which Moses, the man of God, bade the Israelites farewell before he died.

Sukkot Day 1 & 2

Jan 1, 1980

²⁶ The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ²⁷ When an ox or a sheep or a goat is born, it shall stay seven days with its mother, and from the eighth day on it shall be acceptable as an offering by fire to the Lord.

Sukkot

Jan 1, 1980

¹² On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, you shall observe a sacred occasion: you shall not work at your occupations

Sukkot Day 1

Jan 1, 1980

¹ Lo, a day of the Lord is coming when your spoil shall be divided in your very midst!

Vayera

Jan 1, 1980

¹ A certain woman, the wife of one of the disciples of the prophets, cried out to Elisha: “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know how your servant revered the Lord. And now a creditor is coming to seize my two children as slaves.” 

Vayera

Jan 1, 1980

¹ The Lord appeared to him by the terebinths of Mamre; he was sitting at the entrance of the tent as the day grew hot.

Lekh Lekha

Jan 1, 1980

²⁷ Why do you say, O Jacob,
Why declare, O Israel,
“My way is hid from the Lord,
My cause is ignored by my God”?

Lekh Lekha

Jan 1, 1980

¹ The Lord said to Abram, Go forth from your native land and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you.

Noah

Jan 1, 1980

¹ Shout, O barren one,
You who bore no child!
Shout aloud for joy,
You who did not travail!
For the children of the wife forlorn
Shall outnumber those of the espoused
— said the Lord.