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Continuing 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.

Learning

Oct 4, 2012 By Arnold M. Eisen

Judaism gives a lot of emphasis towards learning. Every generation of Jews engaged in learning, an activity that connets us to our past. How can we, as Conservative Jews learn Torah not only seriously, but also relatably with the modern world?

Joining 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?

Mitzvah

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?

Mitzvah (Continued)

Oct 4, 2012 By Arnold M. Eisen

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?

To 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.

The 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.

Filling 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.

For 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.

Standing 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.

The 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.

Conflicted 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.

A 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.

The 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.

Sympathy 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.

A 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.

Bearing 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.

The 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.