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A Prayer in the Face of the Storm
Oct 31, 2012 By Samuel Barth | Commentary
“Prayer invites God’s presence to suffuse our spirits; God’s will to prevail in our lives. Prayer might not bring water to parched fields, nor mend a broken bridge, nor rebuild a ruined city. But prayer can water an arid soul, mend a broken heart, rebuild a weakened will.” —Rabbi Ferdinand Isserman
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Prolepsis: How the Bible Tells Us the Future
Oct 31, 2012 By David Marcus | Commentary | Vayera
Regular screen watchers know that if in an opening scene the camera pans in on a detail like a dagger or a bicycle, then that detail—the dagger or the bicycle—will somehow have an important role to play later on in the movie. Known as foreshadowing, this cinematic technique has its parallel in literature in the rhetorical device known as prolepsis, which indicates a future event that is presumed to have occurred.
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Planting Trees, Planting Hesed
Oct 31, 2012 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Vayera
Just after the expulsion of Hagar and immediately before the binding of Isaac, a curious and somewhat cryptic episode appears in Genesis 21.
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A Palace in Flames
Oct 27, 2012 By Andrew Shugerman | Commentary | Text Study | Lekh Lekha
What inspires one to leave home, to embrace mystery, to seek insight into the nature of our world?
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Trusting the Journey
Oct 24, 2012 By Marc Wolf | Commentary | Lekh Lekha
Like many of the richest parts of the Torah, the opening lines of Parashat Lekh Lekha are fraught with ambiguity: “The Lord said to Abram, ‘Go forth from your native land and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you’” (Gen. 12:1).
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Abram’s Trek, a Journey of Generations
Oct 24, 2012 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Lekh Lekha
At the opening of this week’s parashah, Abram, the nascent visionary and patriarch of the Israelites, is given the divine command to separate from all that is known and familiar.
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Psalm 30: Dedication of the “Inner Temple”
Oct 17, 2012 By Samuel Barth | Commentary
Psalm 30 has the enigmatic introduction, “A Psalm of David for hannukat habayit—the dedication of the Temple”; enigmatic because David never built or saw the Temple. It was his dream, but a dream unrealized in his lifetime and brought to reality by his son, Solomon. So we wonder how it came to be that we have a song (psalm) ascribed to David for an occasion he could not have seen, and we also wonder why this psalm became a part of traditional Jewish liturgy, always recited at the end of the preliminary blessings, followed by the mourners’ kaddish (see, for example, the Rabbinical Assembly’s Siddur Sim Shalom, page 14).
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Daydreaming Out the Window
Oct 17, 2012 By Abigail Treu | Commentary | Noah
The ark’s window bothered the Rabbis. It is a technical problem: in Genesis 8:6, Noah “opened the window (chalon) of the ark that he had made,” but in the very thorough account of the construction of the ark earlier in the parashah, no window was ever made. “What window?” the Rabbis wonder.
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A Tiny Point of Hope
Oct 17, 2012 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Noah
Unrelenting human wickedness leads to the collapse of humanity and the world.
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When the Jews Arrived in the Iberian Peninsula (Part 1a)
Oct 12, 2012 By Benjamin R. Gampel | Video Lecture
Introduction to Sephardic History: From the Golden Age to Expulsion
The History, Society and Culture of Medieval Sephardic Jewry
The Myths of Creation
Oct 12, 2012 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Bereishit
With the celebration of this coming Shabbat, we return to the beginning—specifically, to the narrative of Creation.
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The Rule of the Visigoths (Part 1b)
Oct 11, 2012 By Benjamin R. Gampel | Video Lecture
Introduction to Sephardic History: From the Golden Age to Expulsion
The History, Society and Culture of Medieval Sephardic Jewry
The Muslims Triumph; Andalusian Jewish Community Grows and Sephardic Jewry Emerges (Part 2)
Oct 10, 2012 By Benjamin R. Gampel | Video Lecture
Introduction to Sephardic History: From the Golden Age to Expulsion
The History, Society and Culture of Medieval Sephardic Jewry
My Lips, My Mouth, My Heart
Oct 10, 2012 By Samuel Barth | Commentary
With the cycle of Festivals behind us, and approaching the Torah portion Parashat Bereishit (“In the beginning . . . ”), it is fitting to look at the very beginning of the core text of our liturgy—the ‘Amidah or tefillah. We turn to this ordered sequence of blessings in every Jewish service, whether with a community or praying privately. The structure and history of the ‘Amidah open enormous areas of reflection—to which this column will turn quite frequently—but here let us look at the phrase that comes, so to speak, even before the beginning. The words “Adonai sefatai tiftach ufi yagid tehilatekha” (God open my lips and my mouth will declare Your praise) are from Psalm 51:17, and are printed in just about every version of the siddur (in smaller type) just before the opening of the ‘Amidah (see for example the Shabbat/Festival siddur of the Rabbinical Assembly on pages 35, 115, 156).
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Who’s the Hero and Who’s the Villain?
Oct 10, 2012 By Richard Kalmin | Commentary | Bereishit
To state things up front, my claim is that Adam and Eve did not just undergo a fall, but also a significant rise; to make that claim, I’m going to argue that two of the main characters, the snake and God, have often been misunderstood. The snake has gotten a bum rap, and God has usually gotten off much too easily.
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The Rise of the Christians: Whither Sephardic Jewry (Part 3)
Oct 9, 2012 By Benjamin R. Gampel | Video Lecture
Introduction to Sephardic History: From the Golden Age to Expulsion
The History, Society and Culture of Medieval Sephardic Jewry
The Reconquista: Sephardic Jewish Culture and Society are Transformed? (Part 4)
Oct 8, 2012 By Benjamin R. Gampel | Video Lecture
Introduction to Sephardic History: From the Golden Age to Expulsion
The History, Society and Culture of Medieval Sephardic Jewry
The Riots and Conversions of 1391-1392 and their Immediate Aftermath (Part 5)
Oct 7, 2012 By Benjamin R. Gampel | Video Lecture
Introduction to Sephardic History: From the Golden Age to Expulsion
The History, Society and Culture of Medieval Sephardic Jewry
The Iberian Expulsions and their Repercussions (Part 6a)
Oct 6, 2012 By Benjamin R. Gampel | Video Lecture
Introduction to Sephardic History: From the Golden Age to Expulsion
The History, Society and Culture of Medieval Sephardic Jewry
Moses’s Final Words
Oct 6, 2012 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Simhat Torah
As we approach the end of the Five Books of Moses with our celebration of Simhat Torah, we arrive at Parashat Vezot Haberakhah.
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