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If All the Seas Were Ink
Mar 13, 2018 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event audio
At the age of 27, alone in Jerusalem in the wake of a painful divorce, Ilana Kurshan decided to begin learning daf yomi, the “daily page” of the Talmud. By the time she completed the Talmud after seven and a half years, Kurshan was remarried with three young children.
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A Precious Hebrew Manuscript
Feb 23, 2018 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Commentary
Knowing almost nothing about this beautiful manuscript, what would you guess it is? Finely decorated with gold leaf, Hebrew, small for easy carrying (these qualities are all obvious from the photo)—all of these characteristics suggest that it is a dear personal item, one that a wealthy Jew commissioned because of the importance of what it records. Knowing that it is a fifteenth-century manuscript, produced in Spain—before the age of printed books—would only highlight for us how rare it was.
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The Ruined House: A Novel
Jan 31, 2018 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event audio
Ruby Namdar’s The Ruined House received the Sapir Prize, Israel’s most prestigious literary award. Now newly translated into English, Namdar’s tale of a man whose comfortable secular life begins to unravel in the face of haunting religious visions cuts to the core of contemporary Jewish-American identity.
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Forest Dark: A Novel
Jan 17, 2018 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event video
A discussion with New York Times best-selling author Nicole Krauss on Forest Dark: A Novel.
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The Life of a Book
Dec 15, 2017 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Commentary
Every book has a life of its own, sometimes mundane and sometimes astonishing. The life of the book in which this page is found has been quite extraordinary. The book is a Hebrew Bible. It was born of fine parchment and ink, shaped by craftsmen and scribes who spared no effort to make it the best of its kind. It was written for a wealthy family in Toledo, Spain, in the 15th century, in order that they “and their children and their children’s children” might study it forever. Remarkably, it has survived to this day.
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Maimonides and the Merchants: Jewish Law and Society in the Medieval Islamic World
Dec 4, 2017 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event audio
Mark R. Cohen’s new book Maimonides and the Merchants suggests that, like the Geonim before him, Maimonides wished to provide Jewish merchants an alternative and comparable forum to the Islamic legal system and thereby shore up an important cornerstone of communal autonomy.
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What Makes a Book “Torah”?
Nov 24, 2017 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Commentary
In the manuscript age, what distinguished “Torah” from other writing? One of the key answers to this question is that manuscripts were fluid and each copy therefore different from any other, while Torah—as the word of God and the source of Jewish tradition—had to be precise and unchanging.
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Distance Learning from the Back of Shul
Oct 27, 2017 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Commentary
When we think of “the book” (as in “the people of the book”), we picture a bound volume with pages sitting open before a reader on a table or a lap. It we are speaking of the Torah, that book is typically a humash, which will often be found in the seat back of the seat in front of you in the synagogue. The same is true of a prayer book.
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Lioness: Golda Meir and the Nation of Israel
Oct 26, 2017 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event audio
Francine Klagsbrun’s definitive new biography of Golda Meir brings to life a world figure unlike any other. An iron-willed leader, chain-smoking political operative, and tea-and-cake-serving grandmother who became the fourth prime minister of Israel, Meir was one of the most notable women of our time.
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Dinner at the Center of the Earth
Oct 18, 2017 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event video
Dinner at the Center of the Earth, a new political thriller from Pulitzer finalist and best-selling author Nathan Englander, unfolds in the highly charged territory of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
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The Other Peace Process
Oct 17, 2017 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event audio
A discussion with Rabbi Ron Kronish on his new book, The Other Peace Process: Interreligious Dialogue, A View from Jerusalem.
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Licensed to Kill (Kosher Animals)
Aug 18, 2017 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Commentary | Re'eh
In Deut. 12:20–25, explicit permission is given for the slaughter and consumption of meat outside of the sacrificial system. The passage includes the phrase “as I have instructed you” (v. 21), and the Talmud identifies these words as the source of the various prescriptions for kosher slaughter (shehitah) (BT Hullin 28a).
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The Arabic Translation and Commentary of Yefet ben ‘Eli on the Book of Proverbs
May 9, 2017 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event audio
Ilana Sasson, instructor at Sacred Heart University and JTS alumna, will discuss her new critical edition of a key Arabic translation and commentary on the book of Proverbs.
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A Scroll of The Song of Songs
Apr 14, 2017 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Commentary | Pesah
This decorated scroll of Shir Hashirim (which is read on the Shabbat of Pesah) is a product of the circle of the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem, dated to circa 1930, though the scribe and artist are unidentified. The artistic movement associated with this school was informed by the Zionist ideals of the society in which it was immersed.
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Braced: A Book Talk and Discussion
Apr 3, 2017 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event audio
Aly Gerber’s young adult novel, Braced, is the story of a 12-year-old soccer player who learns she needs to wear a back brace 23 hours a day for her worsening scoliosis. As she adjusts to life with the brace, her confidence and self-image are shaken. Ultimately she discovers her own voice and learns how to face this challenge—plus all the others associated with being a preteen.
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Kohelet’s Pursuit of Truth: A New Reading of Ecclesiastes
Mar 1, 2017 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event audio | Sukkot
In his book Kohelet’s Pursuit of Truth, Rabbi Benjamin J. Segal, former president of the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem, presents an arresting new translation and commentary on Ecclesiastes that unlocks the ancient wisdom of one of the deepest and most controversial books of the Tanakh.
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Communings of the Spirit: The Journals of Mordecai M. Kaplan (Vol. 2 1934-1941)
Dec 5, 2016 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event audio
Kaplan was a compulsive diarist. His journal of twenty seven volumes is one of the longest on record. Communings of the Spirit, Volume 2 contains in vivid detail the edited selections from 1934-1941. He reacts passionately to the momentous events of the thirties paying particular attention to the rise of Fascism.
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A Venetian Ketubbah
Nov 25, 2016 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Commentary | Hayyei Sarah
This week’s parashah prominently features the mission of Abraham’s servant to find a wife for Isaac. The account includes the giving of gifts to Rebecca and her family (24:22, 53) and the assurance from Abraham’s family that they themselves are wealthy (Gen. 24:35). For thousands of years, ketubbot (Jewish marriage contracts) have established the financial responsibilities in a Jewish marriage.
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Reading Genesis: Beginnings
Nov 2, 2016 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event audio
Deuteronomy 32:47 says the Pentateuch should not be “an empty matter.” This new anthology from Beth Kissileff fills Genesis with meaning, gathering intellectuals and thinkers who use their professional knowledge to illuminate the Biblical text. These writers use insights from psychology, law, political science, literature, and other scholarly fields, to create an original constellation of modern Biblical readings, and receptions of Genesis.
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Kosher USA: How Coke Became Kosher and Other Tales of Modern Food
Sep 14, 2016 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event audio
Kosher USA follows the fascinating journey of kosher food through the modern industrial food system. It recounts how iconic products such as Coca-Cola and Jell-O tried to become kosher; the contentious debates among rabbis over the incorporation of modern science into Jewish law; how Manischewitz wine became the first kosher product to win over non-Jewish consumers; and more.
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