JTS Torah Commentary

Alicia Rothamel – Senior Sermon (’25)

Jan 29, 2025 By JTS Senior Sermon | Commentary | Senior Sermon | Bo

Bo All Class of 2025 Senior Sermons

Moses’s Lessons in Interfaith Dialogue

Jan 24, 2025 By Claire Davidson Bruder & Sherouk Ahmed | Commentary | Va'era

In the first week of 2025, the Washington Theological Consortium hosted a weeklong interfaith dialogue program at the United Lutheran Seminary in Philadelphia. Third-year JTS rabbinical student and Milstein Center for Interreligious Dialogue program manager Claire Davidson Bruder participated in this program, alongside other Jewish, Christian, and Muslim seminary students. The following d’var Torah is […]

A Turn for the Better

Jan 17, 2025 By Ariella Rosen | Commentary | Shemot

In Parashat Shemot, it appears that Moses took conscious steps to operate as a lone bystander, taking action that seems unlikely had a larger crowd been present. Raised in Pharaoh’s household, now an adult, Moses went out to walk among the Hebrew slaves as they labored. After witnessing an Egyptian beating a Hebrew slave, “He turned this way and that and, seeing no one about, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand” (Exod. 2:12).

Angel or Avatar?

Jan 10, 2025 By Benjamin D. Sommer | Commentary | Vayehi

The second of these verses is often sung aloud in a beautiful melody by Abie Rotenberg when children have their aliyah on Simhat Torah and by some parents at bedtime each night. That melody has made these words familiar to many, but their meaning is not clear. Who, exactly, does Jacob call upon to bless the lads?

A Tale of Two Dreamers

Jan 3, 2025 By Eliezer B. Diamond z”l | Commentary | Vayiggash

Yet while the incongruity of Jacob’s response to Pharaoh’s question is in some sense humorous, Jacob’s words are heart-rending. They grow out of the existential and ideological divide that separates Jacob from his son. One can speak of three differences between their perspectives.

The World that Isn’t There

Dec 27, 2024 By Joel Seltzer | Commentary | Miketz

Years ago, I read a book by the author Chuck Klosterman titled But What if We’re Wrong? The premise of the book is to attempt to “think about the present as if it were the past,” or in other words, to consider whether despite our current devotion to rationality and the scientific method, there are aspects of our modern world about which we might be profoundly wrong?

When Jacob Met Esau: Facing Our Fears

Dec 13, 2024 By Gordon Tucker | Commentary | Vayishlah

The story told in Parashat Vayishlah of the meeting between Jacob and Esau is well known. But a closer consideration of the details of the tale speaks to very contemporary concerns. The overall backdrop to the scene is the pervasive feeling of fear. Esau, Jacob learns, is approaching, and there are 400 men with him. Is it a lavish welcoming party? (This is not unheard of in the Middle East—I myself experienced just such a welcoming party in Egypt when I was traveling there with some American Cabinet officials in 1980.) Or is it a prelude to belligerency? Are the loud sounds they are making just the sounds of 400 excited people from a demonstrative culture, or are those cries of war? Jacob assumed the worst. He didn’t bother asking the messengers who reported Esau’s approach whether the 400 men were armed or not. Jacob reflexively got ready for battle

Going Out to Meet God and History

Dec 6, 2024 By Arnold M. Eisen | Commentary | Vayetzei

In what ways do the Jewish people, the descendants of Jacob, still reside in his “house”? How can we, who bear the name by which Jacob will be called in next week’s Torah portion, become the Israel whom Jacob henceforth struggles to become? I’d like to suggest, using the indispensable categories for Jewish self-understanding contributed by Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik, that Jacob is party to the “covenant of fate,” while Israel signifies the “covenant of destiny.” The “covenant of fate” is imposed on Jews by history and circumstance, while the “covenant of destiny” is one that Jews are called on to embrace in partnership with God.

On the Perils of Pregnancy: A Letter to Rivkah

Nov 29, 2024 By Rabbi Annie Lewis | Commentary | Toledot

Before you bravely took leave of your family, they blessed you that through your line would come thousands upon thousands of descendants. When you struggled to conceive, Yitzhak pleaded with God for you to bear children.

The Torah records how the boys thrashed about in your womb. וַיִּתְרֹצְצוּ הַבָּנִים בְּקִרְבָּהּ. You cried out, אִם־כֵּן לָמָּה זֶּה אָנֹכִי, “If this is how it is, why do I exist?” (Gen. 25:22).

“Ger Vetoshav”: A Lesson on Vulnerabilities and Humility

Nov 22, 2024 By Gordon Tucker | Commentary | Hayyei Sarah

Abraham rose, as he had to, from his wailing, because there was a necessary and sacred task to perform. And at that moment of needing to bury his dead, an enormity confronted him. Here’s how Abraham put it: “ger vetoshav anokhi”—I am merely a stranger (ger), come to be an alien resident (toshav) here. I have no place; I have no accumulated rights and privileges.

Aiden Pink – Senior Sermon (RS ’25)

Nov 21, 2024 By JTS Senior Sermon | Commentary | Senior Sermon | Hayyei Sarah

Aiden Pink – Hayyei Sarah

Can You Spell Check the Tanakh?

Nov 15, 2024 By David Zev Moster | Commentary | Vayera

There is a puzzling word in this week’s parashah: מֵחֲטוֹ “from sinning” (Genesis 20:6). God appears to Abimelekh in a dream and says, “I myself have kept you from sinning (מֵחֲטוֹ) against me [with Sarah].” The word מֵחֲטוֹ is unusual because it should be spelled with an alef, either as מֵחֲטֹא in 1 Samuel 12:23 or as מֵחֲטוֹא in Psalm 39:2. We know there should be an alef because the Hebrew root חטא “to sin” appears 603 times in the Tanakh and has an alef 99.2% of the time. So, is the missing alef of מֵחֲטוֹ a spelling error? It depends on who you ask.

Claire Shoyer – Senior Sermon (RS ’25)

Nov 14, 2024 By JTS Senior Sermon | Commentary | Senior Sermon | Vayera

Claire Shoyer’s Senior Sermon on Vayera

Alex Friedman – Senior Sermon (RS ’25)

Nov 13, 2024 By JTS Senior Sermon | Commentary | Senior Sermon | Vayera | Rosh Hashanah

Alex Friedman’s Senior Sermon on Vayera

How Can We Be a Blessing?

Nov 8, 2024 By Cantor Rabbi Shoshi Levin Goldberg | Commentary | Lekh Lekha

I have often pondered the meaning of the expression that a deceased person’s memory should be a blessing or will be for a blessing. Proverbs 10:7 teaches that “the name of a righteous person is invoked in blessing”—זֵ֣כֶר צַ֭דִּיק לִבְרָכָ֑ה . Originally, this likely referred to invoking the name of a well-known righteous person as an exemplar and conduit for our own blessing. The Babylonian Talmud also teaches (Kiddushin 31b) that after the death of a parent, we may continue to fulfill the mitzvah of honoring our parents, and by extension other beloved relatives and friends, by saying “zikhronam livrakhah,” “may their memory be for a blessing.”

Sass Brown – Senior Sermon (RS ’25)

Nov 6, 2024 By JTS Senior Sermon | Commentary | Senior Sermon | Lekh Lekha

Sass Brown Senior Sermon for Lekh Lekha

Living With Difference

Nov 1, 2024 By Naomi Kalish | Commentary | Noah

Is the story of the Tower of Babel about human unity, or about human diversity? At the critical point when the Torah transitions from the story of Noah and its universal themes to the particular family of Abraham, the Tower of Babel conveys ambivalence about both unity and diversity. In doing so, it provides us with a model for how we can navigate our own complex social dynamics, especially in times of crisis and trauma.

God’s Partners in Torah

Oct 25, 2024 By Robert Harris | Commentary | Bereishit

The ancient rabbinic Sages taught that the people of Israel must consider themselves, שותפיו של הקדוש ברוך הוא במעשה בראשית “God’s partner in the work of creation” (BT, Shabbat 119b and elsewhere). Often overlooked is that reading the Torah’s opening (בראשית ברא אלהים…, which I am deliberatively leaving untranslated for now) demands a similar type of partnership. The reason for this is that the opening of the Torah contains impenetrably difficult syntax. Let us consider the very first verse:  בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֵת הָאָרֶץ. If we were to translate this verse literally, and absolutely retaining the order of the words, we would understand it along these lines: “In the beginning of, he-created God (did), heavens and earth . . . ” This is a far cry from the affecting cadence of the majestic King James Bible’s translation, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” The question is, given the difficult syntax, what does this verse “actually” mean? 

Rebecca Galin – Senior Sermon (RS ’25)

Oct 22, 2024 By JTS Senior Sermon | Commentary | Senior Sermon | Bereishit

Rebecca Galin’s Senior Sermon on Bereishit

Lessons from Kohelet: If There Is Nothing New Under the Sun, How Do We Solve Our Gigantic Contemporary Problems?

Oct 16, 2024 By Stephanie Ruskay | Commentary | Sukkot

Kohelet (Ecclesiastes) is read during Sukkot, and at this moment I’m finding it to be precisely the wisdom I need. When I feel worried about the many crises we face, the idea that there is nothing new under the sun can be comforting. To me it means we have what we need to address the problem. We need to have humility and consider the tools God has given us and those humans have developed over time. Our main task is to find the right formula. Though breakthrough discoveries and new inventions exist, often what we seek is the right old tool in the proper configuration. It is a question of titration.