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Mysterious Mission
Dec 5, 2012
Parashat Vayeshev represents the ceremonial and tragic opening of the Joseph narrative that will carry us to the end of the book of Genesis.
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Mattathias – a Story for Hanukkah
Dec 5, 2012 By The Jewish Theological Seminary | Podcast or Radio Program
Were the Assyrian-Greeks fighting a proxy war for the Soviets? You decide what this archival episode of The Eternal Light, first broadcast on December 2, 1956 is actually trying to say.
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These Lights Themselves Are Holy
Dec 4, 2012 By Samuel Barth | Commentary
Soon we light the candles of Hanukkah, which symbolize so many things. In this reflection, let us turn aside for a moment from the complex history and theology, and allow ourselves to enter the realm of kodesh—that which is holy. Hanerot Halalu (Siddur Sim Shalom, 193) is a curious text that we read, or sing, after lighting the hanukkiyah. It is not a blessing or a prayer, for it is not addressed to God; rather, it is a reminder to all who are gathered around the Hanukkah lights that we should not make use of them for any worldly purpose, for they are holy (kodesh hem).
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Development, Learning, and Community
Dec 4, 2012 By Jeffrey Kress | Public Event audio
Dr. Jeffrey S. Kress, associate professor and chair of Jewish Education and academic director of the Experiential Learning Initiative at JTS, talks about Development, Learning, and Community: Educating for Identity in Pluralistic Jewish High Schools. Dr. Kress’s recent book uses data drawn from a study of pluralistic Jewish high schools to illustrate the complex and often challenging interplay between the cognitive and social elements of education.
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Shomer Yisra’el—The One Who Guards Israel
Nov 28, 2012 By Samuel Barth | Commentary
In the weekday liturgy, after the ‘Amidah, we find in the siddur a little-known sequence of prayer texts known as tachanun (supplications); it can be found in Siddur Sim Shalom of the Conservative Movement, pages 59 through 63. It is not difficult to detect some ambivalence about tachanun, for there is a long list of days on which it is to be omitted, including Shabbat and all Holy Days, and all days of celebration—even the birthdays of famous rabbis.
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Assumptions and Appearances
Nov 28, 2012 By Nancy Abramson | Commentary | Vayishlah
Things are not always as they appear to be. And when assumptions are based on circumstantial or incomplete evidence, we are often surprised or disappointed by what unfolds.
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Angels of Peace
Nov 27, 2012 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Vayishlah
This week’s parashah opens with the rising tension between Jacob and Esau.
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Breaking Routine to Encounter God
Nov 21, 2012 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Vayetzei
With the threat of fratricide hanging over his head and in light of his parents’ wish, Jacob makes a quick exit from Beersheba and heads toward Haran, where he will presumably find a loving and loyal wife.
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Prayers for the State of Israel
Nov 21, 2012 By Samuel Barth | Commentary
With sorrow in our hearts, we turn this week to the dangers facing Medinat Yisrael, the State of Israel, and all who live there. The circulation of “composed prayer texts” does not in any way preclude each person from pouring out his or her inner dreams and desires to God. It is the role of the rabbinic leaders of the community to prepare words that express the thoughts, hopes, and dreams within all of our hearts, and give concrete form to the value and ideals we cherish. Rabbi Reuven Hammer writes this week from the Jerusalem: “ . . . I have added Psalm 91 to our services here during this period. I think it is particularly appropriate for this particular situation with its reference to arrows.”
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The Fiction of Teshuvah
Nov 20, 2012
Does anyone ever really change their ways? Can we become “someone new”? Is teshuvah really possible, or is it just fiction? Best-selling authors Susan Isaacs and Linda Fairstein as they discuss this topic through the characters in their books.
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How Angels Make Us Better People
Nov 20, 2012 By Arnold M. Eisen | Commentary | Vayetzei
I’ve never thought much about mal’akhim (literally, angels), and I wonder if Jacob had thought about them either, before the encounter that took place when he departed the Land of Israel in flight from his brother’s wrath.
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The Laws of Hanukkah
Nov 20, 2012 By Isaac Klein | Hanukkah
From: A Guide to Jewish Religious Practice
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Solomon Schechter: A Personal Reflection
Nov 19, 2012 By The Jewish Theological Seminary | Podcast or Radio Program
In this archival clip from the 1945 Eternal Light program entitled “Solomon Schechter,” Rabbi Louis M. Epstein, founding rabbi of Kehillat Israel in Brookline, MA, reflects on his personal memories of Solomon Schechter.
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Could “All” Be in Vain? A Liturgical Response to Ecclesiastes
Nov 14, 2012 By Samuel Barth | Commentary | Sukkot
The opening words of the book of Ecclesiastes (Kohelet) have troubled those who read the Bible for a very long time, and remain a challenge—ancient, but still provocative. “Havel havalim, . . . hakol havel” (In vain, in vain, . . . it is all futility) (Eccles. 1, 2). Last week we began to look at the passage “mah anu meh chayyeinu” found in the preliminary service (daily and Shabbat), and I noted the extraordinary feature of this “prayer”—the questions included within the text (Who are we? What is our life? etc.). If we think of prayer as addressed to God, it is remarkable to find within this prayer that we ourselves are questioned. The final words of the paragraph (in the Ashkenazic version) bring us face to face with the troubling opening of Ecclesiastes: “ki hakol havel.”(“because everything is futile” or “because everything is in vain”).
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Wellsprings of Hope
Nov 14, 2012 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Toledot
As famine envelops the Land of Israel, Isaac seeks refuge in the territory of the Philistines.
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Finding Our Way (and God’s) in the World
Nov 13, 2012 By Daniel Nevins | Commentary | Toledot
What do you make of our matriarch Rebecca? Certainly she is the boldest and most independent of the mothers. Yet Rebecca’s strength has dreadful consequences.
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From Suspense to Sensitivity
Nov 7, 2012 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Hayyei Sarah
Immediately after the drama of the binding of Isaac, we read Parashat Hayyei Sarah. Why the juxtaposition of these two parashiyot?
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“Who Are We?” A “Prayer” That Asks Questions (Part 1)
Nov 7, 2012 By Samuel Barth | Commentary
Many of us are accustomed to the idea that the “prayers” we find in the siddur will be filled with praises for God or with requests. In the first paragraph of our core prayer, the ‘Amidah, we praise God as “ha’el hagadol hagibbor vehanora” (the great, mighty and awesome God), and then continue a little further with requests for wisdom, health, good harvest, the rebuilding of Jerusalem, peace—and that our prayer be heard. There are, of course, many further examples in the pslams, in rabbinic texts, and in the great medieval poems.
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The Power of Words
Nov 7, 2012 By Marc Wolf | Commentary | Hayyei Sarah
Where Sarah and Ishmael seem to fade from the scene, Abraham actively prepares for his death. The details of the burial of Sarah and finding a wife for Isaac that occupy the parashah rest in stark contrast to the death narratives of both Abraham’s wife and firstborn son.
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A Short History of Jewish Ethics
Nov 7, 2012 By Alan Mittleman | Public Event audio
In this Library Book Talk Professor Alan L. Mittleman discusses his book, A Short History of Jewish Ethics: Conduct and Character in the Context of Covenant.
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