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Pesah: A Liberating Experience for Women

Mar 4, 2013 By Judith Hauptman | Commentary | Pesah

There is no festival more home- and family-oriented than Pesah. Sukkot may run a close second, but the seder places Pesah way ahead. Although celebrating at home with a lavish family meal should make this holiday a pleasure to anticipate, for many women this is not so. The painstaking conversion of the kitchen from leaven-filled to leaven-free status has turned the Festival of Freedom into an intense period of domestic labor rather than a celebration of personal and national liberation. That was not the intention of the halakhah.

“In God’s Hand I Place My Soul” (Part 1)

Feb 27, 2013 By Samuel Barth | Commentary

There are moments when our prayers and spiritual poetry (piyyutim) make profound declarations about life and death, about humanity and God. Often these moments are recognized as awesome and important, and there is a sense within the synagogue community of this significance; for example, in asserting the unity of God (the Shema’), God’s holiness (the kedushah), and the role of destiny (“Unetaneh tokef” on Rosh Hashanah).

The Art of Torah

Feb 27, 2013 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Ki Tissa

Too often, the arts are underappreciated in the Jewish community.

When God Said “No” to Moses

Feb 26, 2013 By Arnold M. Eisen | Commentary | Ki Tissa

It must have been a great comfort to Moses—and not only a disappointment—that God turned down his request to see God’s glory. The wind was presence enough, on top of the mountain, much of the time—the wind, and the voice in the wind. Every visit of divine speech exhausted him now. Even the words that did not demand that he do battle, climb higher, challenge Pharaoh, rebuke the Israelites yet again, or simply—on some days the hardest—endure.

Serve God With Joy

Feb 20, 2013 By Samuel Barth | Commentary

I recall reading The Adventures of Tom Sawyer while in elementary school, and being stumped by a description of the powerful singing in church of “Old Hundred.” What might this “Old Hundred” be, and why was it being sung in church with such fervor? Eventually, I found out that this was Psalm 100, and was sung by the community as it learned that Tom Sawyer was alive, and had mischievously staged his own disappearance.

Parts of a Whole

Feb 20, 2013 By Abigail Treu | Commentary | Tetzavveh | Purim

A strange fact about being human: we never see any object in its entirety. We perceive in three dimensions, but see only in two so that our seeing is always at the mercy of our believing.

Clothing Ourselves in Sanctity

Feb 20, 2013 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Tetzavveh | Purim

Clothing offers keen insight in two complementary directions. First, the garments one wears reveals one’s personality.

How We Can Build the Synagogue of the Future

Feb 13, 2013 By Arnold M. Eisen | Commentary | Terumah

If you care deeply about the present and future state of the synagogue, as I do, it’s difficult to resist the temptation to draw lessons from the remarkable vision of communal worship set forth in this week’s Torah portion. I do not intend to resist. Three aspects of the divine plan for the Tabernacle strike me as particularly relevant to our contemporary situation.

“Fill Our Eyes with Light . . . Cause Our Heart to Cling” (Part 2)

Feb 13, 2013 By Samuel Barth | Commentary

Last week we looked at the phrase “ha’er eyenynu” (Fill our eyes with the light of Your Torah), and now let us look more closely at the continuation of the same sentence: “vedabek libeinu bemitzvotekha” (and make our hearts cleave to Your mitzvot) [Siddur Sim Shalom Daily, 32].

God Helps Those Who Help Themselves

Feb 12, 2013 By Raymond Scheindlin | Commentary | Purim

How is it possible to tell a story of redemption without even once mentioning the name of God?

Taking Time to Be There

Feb 6, 2013 By Lisa Gelber | Commentary | Mishpatim

Moses needs time to immerse himself in the law and his relationship with God. He needs to experience what it meant to climb this mountain, literally and figuratively. If he didn’t yet know that, God did.

“Fill Our Eyes With Light . . . Cause Our Hearts to Cling” (Part 1)

Feb 5, 2013 By Samuel Barth | Commentary

Phrases in the siddur are filled with echoes of earlier texts and give birth to newer metaphors and meanings. The blessing immediately before the Shema’ in every morning service contains the phrase “ha’er eyneinu beToratekha vedabek libeinu bemitzvotekha” (Fill our eyes with the light of Your Torah, and make our hearts cleave to Your mitzvot.) [Siddur Sim Shalom, 32.]

The Curious Case of the Slave Who Refuses Freedom

Feb 5, 2013 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Mishpatim

Coming on the heels of the Revelation at Sinai, Parashat Mishpatim opens with laws concerning slaves.

Finding God in the Darkness

Feb 5, 2013 By Abigail Treu | Commentary | Short Video | Va'era

A video Torah commentary.

Blessings

Jan 30, 2013 By Samuel Barth | Commentary

The famous Priestly Blessing (Num. 6: 24–26) is an ambiguous text in our liturgy that appears in various guises. It is presented as a selection for study from the Written Torah each morning (Siddur Sim Shalom for Weekdays, 5), and is chanted by the leader of the service at the end of the ‘Amidah (43). The text presents the Torah verses as a memory:

How We Believe in God

Jan 30, 2013 By Eliezer B. Diamond z”l | Commentary | Yitro

The Mishnah and the two Talmuds mostly address details of Jewish observance; they rarely discuss the purpose of individual commandments, nor how the mitzvot mesh to create an integrated religious ethos.

Decimation and Affirmation: A Tale of Two Non-Israelites

Jan 30, 2013 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Beshallah

The opening of this week’s Torah reading, Parashat Yitro, stands in stark contrast to the conclusion of last week’s parashah, Beshallah.

Kol haneshamah tehallel Yah! (All that has breath shall praise God!)

Jan 23, 2013 By Samuel Barth | Commentary

This is the final verse of Psalm 150—the culmination of the book of Psalms. Every day our set liturgy includes the final six psalms (145 through 150), and, to my personal sorrow, the pacing of the so-called “preliminary service” generally allows a couple of minutes (at most) for a rushed recitation of these classic and profound poetic texts. Fortunately, in many communities—at least on Shabbat, and even on weekdays—a little more time is allowed for Psalm 150. We find a glorious array of musical interpretations of the text that exemplify the diverse approaches to religious music of contemporary Jewish life. Some examples will be found at the end of this essay.

“He Taught Him a Tree” (?!)

Jan 23, 2013 By Robert Harris | Commentary | Beshallah

This week’s parashah contains some of the most memorable narratives in the entire Torah: the splitting of the Reed Sea, the miracle of the manna, the battle with Amalek. In the midst of all these narratives comes a pithily told “little tale.”