Search Results
Back to JTS Torah Online's Main pagePeoplehood
Oct 4, 2012 By Arnold M. Eisen
Judaism, especially Conservative Judaism sees the need for Jews to be a people, different from the rest of the community in which they live. However, Conservative Judaism is also inherently pluralistic, in that Conservative Jews can feel comfortable in a variety of services, whether they are Orthodox or Reform. What other ways can peoplehood benefit Judaism?
Read MoreContinuing the Conversation
Oct 4, 2012 By Arnold M. Eisen
Chancelor Eisen has previously recorded three essays relating to Conservative Judaism. One on Covenant, one on Community, and one on Peoplehood. All of these essays received many comments, and such a debate is encouraged. Therefore, Chancellor Eisen now responds to a selection of the comments he received.
Read MoreJoining the Conversation of Torah
Oct 4, 2012 By Arnold M. Eisen
The basic requirements of Conservative Jewish learning, regardless of venue, level, or age group, follow directly from the movement’s distinctive vision. How can you and your community engage in learning Torah with this vision in mind?
Read MoreMitzvah
Oct 4, 2012 By Arnold M. Eisen
The modern world is one in which people are very individualistic. This continues to how many Jews practice their Judaism today. They see being commanded to do something to be dishonest to how they feel about that mitzvah. However, can mitzvot and the modern world work hand in hand?
Read MoreMitzvah (Continued)
Oct 4, 2012 By Arnold M. Eisen
The modern world is one in which people are very individualistic. This continues to how many Jews practice their Judaism today. They see being commanded to do something to be dishonest to how they feel about that mitzvah. However, can mitzvot and the modern world work hand in hand?
Read MoreHow 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?
Read MoreTo Go Out of the Wilderness
Sep 1, 2012 By Arnold M. Eisen | Commentary | Ki Tetzei
This week’s Torah portion is directed at Israelites about to “go out” of the wilderness; next week’s portion offers guidance to those about to “come in” to the Promised Land. Deuteronomy is anxious for the Israelites to build a society distinct from the one that had enslaved them and no less distinct from the other societies and cultures that will surround them in the Land of Canaan. It wants a people united in their new nation-state—and, to that end, propounds a series of wide-ranging laws designed to bring and keep them together.
Read MoreThe Humanity of Moses
Jun 30, 2012 By Arnold M. Eisen | Commentary | Hukkat
Readers of the Torah suspect that, by this point in his long life, Moses does not much care for the work he does so selflessly. He seems worn down by the incessant kvetching of his people, and has long since grown used to the inscrutability of the God he loves and serves. We are drawn to this man. We want to know him and learn from him. In this way as in so many others, he accomplishes the Torah’s wishes, if not God’s. He draws us into the story, and makes us proud to be its heirs.
Read MoreFilling Life with Life
May 5, 2012 By Arnold M. Eisen | Commentary | Aharei Mot | Kedoshim
“The deeds of the ancestors are a sign for their descendants,” said the medieval commentator Nahmanides. Sometimes it seems that the weekly Torah portion captures the situation of our generation with remarkable prescience. So it is with Aharei Mot-Kedoshim.
Read MoreFor Our Students
Mar 31, 2012 By Arnold M. Eisen | Commentary | Shabbat Hagadol
I got valuable help this year in writing my annual Shabbat Hagadol message to teens and 20-somethings from six teens and 20-somethings who are studying at The Jewish Theological Seminary’s Albert A. List College of Jewish Studies.
Read MoreStanding with Moses on the Mountaintop
Feb 18, 2012 By Arnold M. Eisen | Commentary | Mishpatim | Shabbat Shekalim
Readers of Mishpatim cannot fail to be struck by the contrast between the main body of the parashah and its conclusion. The former consists for the most part of rather dry case law, covering such things as goring oxen, robbery by day and by night, and release from indentured servitude. The end of the parashah could not be more different in subject and tone.
Read MoreThe Whimsy, Confusion, and Hope of Purim
Feb 11, 2012 By Arnold M. Eisen | Commentary | Purim
Purim is probably the most confusing of all Jewish holidays.
Read MoreConflicted Relationships
Nov 25, 2011 By Arnold M. Eisen | Commentary | Toledot
At the start of this week’s parashah, and again at its conclusion, we confront the complex, conflicted relationship that binds Isaac’s twin sons to one another and to their father. The middle section of the parashah, by contrast, is concerned with the no less complex and conflicted relationship that binds Isaac and his family to their neighbors.
Read MoreA Call for Hope
Sep 10, 2011 By Arnold M. Eisen | Commentary | Rosh Hashanah
In the face of a litany of personal, societal, and global woes that has seemed particularly long this year; in the face of our nation’s inability to shake the economy loose or defeat our enemies or work together despite our differences, the Jewish calendar insists there is something new in store—or that there can be, if we together do as the Torah commands.
Read MoreThe Pursuit of Justice
Sep 3, 2011 By Arnold M. Eisen | Commentary | Shofetim
Rousseau opened his famous essay on the ideal political order, “The Social Contract,” by stating his intention to “imagine men as they are and laws as they might be.” The same could be said of Moses’s objective in the book of Deuteronomy and particularly in this week’s parashah.
Read MoreSympathy for Korah
Jun 25, 2011 By Arnold M. Eisen | Commentary | Korah
I have a great deal of sympathy for Korah and his rebel faction, despite the fact that they made life difficult for Moses, Aaron, and God.
Read MoreA New Question for Passover
Apr 16, 2011 By Arnold M. Eisen | Commentary | Shabbat Hagadol | Pesah
The means to ultimate redemption—and a sure sign that redemption has arrived—is peace between the generations. We can’t hope for redemption of the world, the prophet says, if the hearts of fathers and sons (the literal translation of the prophetic verse) are not “returned upon” each other.
Read MoreBearing Witness to Torah
Jan 22, 2011 By Arnold M. Eisen | Commentary | Yitro
Everything that precedes Sinai in the Torah’s narrative leads up to it. Everything that comes afterward—in the Torah, the Bible and Judaism as a whole—follows from the fact of Covenant and works out its consequences for Israel and the world. Your life and mine are shaped by the account presented in this week’s parashah. I would like to suggest two major ways in which that is so.
Read MoreThe Graves of Our Ancestors
Oct 29, 2010 By Arnold M. Eisen | Commentary | Hayyei Sarah
I went to visit the graves of my parents the other day, and could not help but think—with this Torah portion looming—of the times when I went with my father (whose name was Abraham, until he changed it) to visit my mother’s grave.
Read MoreSUBSCRIBE TO TORAH FROM JTS
Our regular commentaries and videos are a great way to stay intellectually and spiritually engaged with Jewish thought and wisdom.