For What Should I Compromise on Religious Observance?
May 13, 2022 By Alan Imar | Commentary | Emor
To what extent should we be flexible in our adherence to religious precepts, and to what extent can we remain steadfast in our commitment to certain principles, even if they exclude others? With this dilemma in mind, I want to consider the opening lines of this week’s parashah, which discuss cases where a priest may allow himself to receive tumat met (impurity from a corpse), something he is not usually permitted to do
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Reaching for the Heavens:
The Music of Composer Gerald Cohen
May 10, 2022 By Gerald Cohen | Public Event video
Download Program Amid the Alien Corn Text Reaching for the Heavens featured the vibrant and compelling music of Gerald Cohen, a leading composer of concert and Jewish music, and a faculty member of the H. L. Miller Cantorial School for nearly 30 years, as well as the Cassatt String Quartet and other renowned performers. The […]
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Does Faith Matter? The Ancient Jewish Debate About Faith and Mitzvot
May 9, 2022 By David C. Kraemer | Public Event video | Video Lecture
One often hears it said that “Judaism cares what one does, not what one believes.” But this is a distortion, an oversimplification. When one looks at sources from the period of the birth of Rabbinic Judaism (including early “Christian” writings), one finds that there was an active debate about this matter. In this session, we will begin by considering the arguments of those ancient Jews—Paul and James—who raised the important question of faith vs. mitzvot. We will then examine echoes of the same debate in early rabbinic sources.
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Fruit Trees and Foreskins
May 6, 2022 By Naama Weiss | Commentary | Kedoshim
In Parashat Kedoshim, the Torah introduces the commandment of orlah (עָרְלָה), where one is forbidden from eating fruit that grows in the first three years after a tree’s planting.
But the use of the word orlah here has puzzled generations of commentators, for though it appears frequently in the Torah, it is not typically connected to trees. Indeed we primarily associate the term with circumcision. How are the two uses of orlah related? And can tracing this relationship reveal something new about the rite of circumcision itself?
The Gender of God in Ancient Israel
May 2, 2022 By Benjamin D. Sommer | Public Event video | Video Lecture
How did the biblical authors, and other Israelites, view the gender of God? Did they perceive God to be male? Did any of them perceive God as female? To answer this question, we examine both several biblical texts as well as archaeological evidence.
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Who is the Stranger?
Apr 29, 2022 By Linda S. Golding | Commentary | Aharei Mot
What a great invitation, I thought, to write a d’var Torah on Aharei Mot! The opening verses that include “Tell your brother Aaron that he is not to come at will into the Shrine behind the curtain . . . lest he die” came immediately to mind. The directive to be mindful and thoughtful when entering God’s presence and the presence of others certainly aligns with a chaplain’s way of being. When entering a hospital room, for example, I know that the Shekhinah, God’s healing presence, is at the head of the patient’s bed. Holiness is already in the room, and I must be prepared to pay attention.
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Between the Lines: Hélène Jawhara Piñer on the History of Sephardi Cuisine
Apr 27, 2022 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event video
Scholar and author Hélène Jawhara Piñer discusses her unique books about Sephardi cuisine and demonstrates how to make a delicious muleta
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Because You Hear the Prayers of Your People Israel in Mercy
Apr 25, 2022 By Rachel Rosenthal | Public Event video | Video Lecture
We often think of God’s choice to respond to our prayers as an act of mercy, but the rabbis in the Babylonian Talmud believed that God was powerless to ignore certain prayers. We look at five models of people whose prayers God answers and consider how they act as messengers on behalf of their communities.
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Writing Jewish: A Discussion with Nicole Krauss and Joshua Cohen
Apr 25, 2022 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event video
Part of JTS’s Opening Season Jews have always been writers of books—from books for Jews with self-consciously Jewish content to books with no obvious Jewish consciousness directed toward the general reading public. But there are also authors who create worlds filled with Jews (and others) who embody human experiences with a Jewish twist for readers […]
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Remembering Together
Apr 22, 2022 By William Plevan | Commentary | Pesah
The celebration of Pesah is an outstanding example of the central role that memory plays in Jewish tradition. Underscoring the importance of memory for sustaining human societies, Elie Wiesel wrote, “Without memory, there is no culture. Without memory, there would be no civilization, no society, no future.” Communal memory, of course, goes far beyond what any one individual can remember and experience. And yet, what makes memory so powerful as a vehicle for communal identity is that it speaks to us on a personal level.
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Which Is “Wiser”: The Story of the Exodus or the Laws of Pesah?
Apr 15, 2022 By Jeremy Tabick | Commentary | Pesah
One of the core aspects of the Torah’s Pesah commentary is the education of the participants. In its very introduction, in the reading for the first day of Pesah, the concern of education is placed front and center: “When your children will ask you, ‘What is this service for you?’ you will say, ‘It is a pesah sacrifice to God . . .’” (Exod. 12:26–27). Indeed, justifying the practice of Pesah to children comes up in the Torah no less than four times.
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Evergreen Lessons from the Haggadah
Apr 8, 2022 By Shuly Rubin Schwartz | Commentary | Shabbat Hagadol | Pesah
The Passover seder—the most celebrated Jewish ritual—serves as a symbolic reenactment of the journey of the Israelites from slavery to freedom. The Haggadah commands us to experience it annually as a way of developing historical empathy for all who are oppressed, enslaved, displaced, and hoping for liberation; we have ritualized the recounting of our people’s enslavement and deliverance in part to cultivate a sense of moral responsibility toward those suffering in our own day.
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Jewish Community Voices from Ukraine
Apr 7, 2022 By David Fishman
Since Russia invaded Ukraine, millions of people have been forced to make impossible decisions. Jewish community organizations responded to the needs of these communities. Dr. David Fishman will moderate a discussion between Tania Batanova, Sasha Nazar, and Reuven Stamov, three leaders from the Ukrainian Jewish Community. They will share their reflections on life before the […]
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The Still, Small Voice: A Journalist and Her Rabbi on Regaining Intimate, Authentic Conversation
Apr 6, 2022 By The Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event video
Two years ago, when the pandemic first hit, good friends Dahlia Lithwick and Rabbi Jan Uhrbach decided it was time to begin the weekly Jewish study session they’d been talking about for a while.
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Mandatory Fun: The Commandment of Joy
Apr 4, 2022 By Sarah Wolf | Public Event video | Video Lecture
Usually we think of the mitzvot, the commandments of Jewish law, as involving specific actions. Yet the Torah also commands us to feel certain emotions, including love for God and joy on the festivals. Dr. Sarah Wolf to explores rabbinic texts that grapple with questions about what fulfillment of such a commandment should look like.
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Here I Am, Tzara’at and All
Apr 1, 2022 By Rachel Rosenthal | Commentary | Shabbat Hahodesh | Tazria
When I was 12, a few weeks before my bat mitzvah I went in to meet with one of the rabbis of my synagogue. At the time, the synagogue newsletter included a “pasuk of the week,” a verse from that week’s Torah portion that was particularly interesting or thought provoking. However, as the rabbi confessed to […]
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Hate on Trial: The Charlottesville Case
Mar 30, 2022
In August 2017, white nationalists orchestrated a rally in Charlottesville, Virginia—with torch-carrying marchers chanting, “Jews will not replace us.“ The result was intimidation, violence, and death. In November 2021, at a landmark trial in Charlottesville, a jury found the rally organizers liable and awarded more than $25 million in damages.
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Divine Rage
Mar 28, 2022 By Amy Kalmanofsky | Public Event video | Video Lecture
God’s anger has been a problem for generations of theologians. Dr. Amy Kalmanofsky explores the power and purpose of divine rage and the different ways the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel use God’s anger.
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The Deathly Power of the Holy
Mar 25, 2022 By Marcus Mordecai Schwartz | Commentary | Shabbat Parah | Shemini
Finding the right words after loss is hard, but Moses’s comments to Aaron in this week’s parashah are unusually difficult. At the moment that God fills Aaron’s hands with abundance, appointing him as high-priest and his descendants as an eternal priesthood, his two eldest die when they attempt to offer incense with a flame brought from outside the newly dedicated sanctuary—a strange, uncommanded offering. “And fire came forth from the LORD and consumed them . . .”
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Loneliness as a Spiritual Crisis
Mar 21, 2022 By Mychal Springer | Public Event video | Video Lecture
Rabbi Mychal Springer explores the existential issues related to belonging and abandonment, drawing on Jewish spiritual resources that help foster a loving embrace, divine and human, even when we must carefully balance distance and proximity in the face of contagion.
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