JTS Torah Commentary

The Miracle of Hanukkah

Dec 27, 2008 By David Hoffman | Commentary | Hanukkah

Stories have great power. We tell stories about ourselves and about our communities because they give our lives meaning, and they help us navigate between the past and the future. We use stories to help us make sense of the world and our place in it. Not far behind the seemingly innocent plots of many of the stories we tell about our community’s religious history lie profound existential truths addressing our most pressing religious concerns.

To Fulfill a Mitzvah

Dec 19, 2008 By Eliezer B. Diamond z”l | Commentary | Vayeshev

There is an interesting moment in this week’s parashah during Joseph’s search for his brothers. Initially, Joseph seeks them in Shechem, where Jacob supposes them to be. As Joseph fruitlessly seeks his brothers, a man who perceives that Joseph is wandering aimlessly asks Joseph the purpose of his search. When Joseph replies that he is seeking his brothers, the man tells him he has heard that they are headed for Dothan. Joseph then follows his brothers there, and the story unfolds of his sale as a slave and his descent to Egypt.

Finding a Prayer Voice

Dec 13, 2008 By Marc Wolf | Commentary | Vayishlah

This past Sunday, the New York Times ran an article on praying for “God’s bailout.” Accompanying the article was an image of hundreds of worshipers gathered at the Greater Grace Temple in Detroit praying for the miraculous resolution to the imminent bankruptcy of the auto industry. Gripping much of the country and the world, this recession is particularly impacting the communities of metropolitan Detroit-autoworkers, executives, and salespeople alike. All find themselves searching, through whatever inspiration and revelation possible, for an end to the financial crisis. As the article reported, “While Congress debated aid to the foundering Detroit automakers Sunday, many here whose future hinges on the decision turned to prayer” (New York Times, December 7, 2008, “Detroit Churches Pray for “‘God’s Bailout'”). Delivering a sermon entitled, “A Hybrid of Hope,” Bishop Ellis of the Greater Grace Temple said to his congregants, “I don’t know what’s going to happen, but we need prayer. When it’s all said and done, we’re all in this thing together.” 

Learning From a Dream

Dec 5, 2008 By Burton L. Visotzky | Commentary | Vayetzei

This week’s Torah reading, Parashat Va-yetzei, begins with Jacob’s famous dream, in which he sees a ladder stretching all the way up to the very heavens. The dream ends with God’s promise to him that “the ground that you are lying upon I will give to you and your offspring. Your seed shall be as numerous as the dust of the earth, you shall spread out to the west, east, to the north and south . . . “

A Strong Woman in the Bible

Nov 29, 2008 By Daniel Nevins | Commentary | Toledot

What do you make of our matriarch Rebecca? Certainly she is the boldest and most independent of the mothers. When as a girl she sees a stranger at the well, she rushes to water his caravan of thirsty camels, and then invites him to stay at her house. When offered the chance to travel with this man back to a distant land and a mysterious husband, she volunteers without hesitation. When her pregnancy becomes difficult, she seeks out God and challenges Him with the bold question, “Why do I need this?” When her husband seems ready to bless the wrong son, she quickly conspires to rearrange the action so that Jacob will receive the primary blessing. In all of these actions, Rebecca is seen as a woman of strength and decisiveness.

The Original Walking Man

Nov 15, 2008 By David M. Ackerman | Commentary | Vayera

On the topic of walking, the rock ‘n’ roll references come fast and furious. From Lou Reed’s teasing nudge to “take a walk on the wild side,” to the Rolling Stones’ and Peter Tosh’s advice to “keep on walking and don’t look back,” and from the Grateful Dead’s reflection on “walking around Grosvenor Square,” which leads to the revelatory insight that “once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right,” to James Taylor’s evocation of the “walking man,” who “doesn’t do nothing at all,” but walk, our popular culture sees the very basic human act of walking in very personal and highly symbolic terms. 

Taking the Journey with Abraham

Nov 7, 2008 By Arnold M. Eisen | Commentary | Lekh Lekha

Five short verses after he (and we) first encounter that Land on which the Jewish future will turn ever after, a famine sends Abraham down to the place where he (and we) spend the remainder of chapter 12 of Genesis, a foreign land where he gets embroiled in a complex interaction with the Pharaoh that foreshadows a great deal of the text and history to come.

The First Mitzvah

Oct 24, 2008 By David Hoffman | Commentary | Bereishit

If the Torah is fundamentally a book of law, a work intended to instruct us on how to live a life that is holy and good, why did the Torah begin with the story of creation? More precisely, why did the Torah begin with the story of Genesis—of God’s creation of the world—and not the first commandment to the Israelites which is to establish a calendar: “This month shall be unto you the beginning of the months,” found later in Exodus 12? This is the first question that Rashi, the central medieval commentator on the Torah, asked on the opening words of the book of Genesis.

“This Is Water” and This Is Joy

Oct 18, 2008 By Marc Wolf | Commentary | Sukkot

There is an almost organic progression from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur. However, when we get caught up in preparations for the holidays, we risk missing the intended effect. From Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur we work on deconstructing ourselves and our worlds. We stand together and seek to expose our inner selves, leaving us vulnerable and open. The language of Yom Kippur prepares us for this feeling—we are not atoning for our sins as we do at the beginning of Leviticus when the laws of sacrifice are first introduced, but on another level altogether. As we learn during our Torah reading, on Yom Kippur we atone from sin (Lev. 16:30). Through the day we literally achieve a level of purity—during the S’lichot and Avodah services we recite over and over again the verse, “on this day we are purified.” At the end of Ne‘ilah, we are left spiritually lighter.

Singing of Freedom

Oct 9, 2008 By David M. Ackerman | Commentary | Tishah Be'av | Yom Kippur

Maya Angelou’s celebrated poem, “Caged Bird” (Shaker, Why Don’t You Sing. Random House, 1983) has long inspired me, especially at this time of the year. Grippingly, the poem contrasts “a free bird [who] dares to claim the sky” with “a bird that stalks down his narrow cage,” a creature of limited vision and range. Although the “caged bird stands on the grave of dreams,” he still has longing in his heart. 

The Journey of Life

Oct 4, 2008 By Marc Wolf | Commentary | Shabbat Shuvah | Vayeilekh

There is so much fundamentally wrong with the world today. As Chancellor Eisen wrote in his High Holiday message this year, “On bad days, the problems seem utterly beyond managing. On good days, they call for a degree of judgment, sacrifice, and national unity seldom seen in our country or our world.” My fear is that we have actually become too accustomed to calamity; too proficient at responding to disaster.

The Path to Mitzvah

Sep 30, 2008 By Arnold M. Eisen | Commentary | Rosh Hashanah

If the Torah is fundamentally a book of law, a work intended to instruct us on how to live a life that is holy and good, why did the Torah begin with the story of creation? More precisely, why did the Torah begin with the story of Genesis—of God’s creation of the world—and not the first commandment to the Israelites which is to establish a calendar: “This month shall be unto you the beginning of the months,” found later in Exodus 12?

The Lesson of the First Fruits

Sep 20, 2008 By Marc Wolf | Commentary | Ki Tavo

Remarkably, no pedestrian injuries have been recorded to date.

New Beginnings

Sep 13, 2008 By David M. Ackerman | Commentary | Ki Tetzei

September marks new beginnings. Summer’s over, school years have begun, heavy traffic has returned to the roads, the new cultural season is underway.

A Passion for Justice

Sep 6, 2008 By Mychal Springer | Commentary | Shofetim

Next week we mark the seventh anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. The number seven has biblical weight to it: seven days of creation, seven years of the shemitah cycle. Looking back over seven years has a power to it as well.

How Judaism Is Like an iPhone

Aug 23, 2008 By Marc Wolf | Commentary | Eikev

Since I am a self-professed “techno-junkie,” it took considerable restraint to wait the year for the second-generation iPhone to be released. Having read every review, followed its development on blogs, and waited patiently, only recently did I purchase my iPhone. Before it was in my hand I knew everything it was capable of, yet I was surprised by one aspect: its simplicity. As an Apple aficionado, I was expecting the attractive design, but after opening the box, I realized that there was one thing missing: a manual. The iPhone expects you to intuit its functions, discover its capabilities, and just use it.

Va-ethannan’s Personal Message to Us

Aug 16, 2008 By Arnold M. Eisen | Commentary | Va'et-hannan

But what really draws me to Va-ethannan, I think, is the way it reaches out to each one of us individually, both pleading and demanding to be heard. It addresses us person by person, one-on-one, in the same way we enter into every serious relationship and tremble with each true love.

The Currencies of Justice

Aug 9, 2008 By David Hoffman | Commentary | Devarim

You shall not be partial in judgment: hear out low (katan) and high (gadol) alike. Fear no man, for judgment is God’s. (Deut. 1:17)

Philo, the great first-century Alexandrian Jewish thinker, was engaged in a project that in many ways was deeply modern. He sought to “translate” Judaism for the Greek-speaking world of his day and demonstrate to a highly educated and urbane population that the Torah was a philosophically serious work. Not only could one be a Jew and be a Greek, but in many ways a pious Jew was the truest of Greeks.

The Question of Fracking

Aug 2, 2008 By Abigail Treu | Commentary | Masei

Golda Meir famously quipped: “Let me tell you the one thing I have against Moses. He took us forty years into the desert in order to bring us to the one place in the Middle East that has no oil!”

How We Ascend the Mountain

Jul 19, 2008 By Lisa Gelber | Commentary | Pinehas

Not long ago, I set out in the middle of the night to ascend Haleakala, known as the world’s largest dormant volcano (actually, it’s not really a volcano, but that’s another conversation entirely).