JTS Torah Commentary

Are We Taking Too Much?

Oct 4, 2012 By The Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event audio

The 2010 Bokser Memorial Lecture, “Are We Taking Too Much? Urgent values Questions Brought into Focus by the Global Recession.” Featuring an opening presentation by Dr. Noam Zohar of Bar-ilan University, followed by text study led by Dr. Eliezer Diamond and Rabbi Nina Cardin, and concluding with a panel discussion between these three, moderated by Prof. Alan Mittleman.

The Ethics of Health Care Reform

Oct 4, 2012 By Daniel Nevins | Public Event audio

Rabbi Daniel Nevins, Pearl Resnick Dean of The Rabbinical School of The Jewish Theological Seminary, delivers a lecture on “The Ethics of Health Care Reform” at Temple Beth Sholom in Cherry Hill, NJ.

Nostra Aetate Dialogue

Oct 4, 2012 By The Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event audio

Actions Speak Louder With Words

Sep 29, 2012 By Samuel Barth | Commentary

“Hareini muhan umezuman . . . I am ready to perform the mitzvah of dwelling in the Sukkah as instructed by my Divine Creator: ‘In Sukkot shall you dwell for seven days . . . ‘” (Siddur Sim Shalom, 330)

The View From Har Nebo

Sep 29, 2012 By Marc Wolf | Commentary | Ha'azinu

We cannot begin to fathom the extent of emotion that must have rushed through Moses as he faced the reality that he was not to enter the Land, but “die on the mountain” that he was about to ascend. What words were exchanged between Moses and God? What conversation is not recorded in the Torah?

Fulfilling Our Potential

Sep 28, 2012 By Jonathan Milgram | Commentary | Devarim

When the end of the week arrives and we settle into our Friday night routine of rituals, I often try to encapsulate in a few short sentences what I think is the main thought or idea in the parashah so that my children leave the table with a “takeaway” lesson.

Ultimate Questions

Sep 20, 2012 By David Hoffman | Commentary | Shabbat Shuvah | Rosh Hashanah

There are some who expect religion to provide answers. The religious experience is thought to be a refuge from the messiness of life; a peaceful, ordered worldview that may help explain life’s daunting moments. In this way, faith offers the believer comfort that life is as it was meant to be, and that one’s spiritual work centers on acceptance and “finding” one’s path. Judaism turns these ideas on their head.

How to Love Yom Kippur

Sep 12, 2012 By Arnold M. Eisen | Commentary | Yom Kippur

The importance of “permission to pray with those who have transgressed,” recited immediately before chanting Kol Nidrei, is underlined in some congregations by the practice of repeating the words three times for added emphasis. The declaration clearly has enormous rhetorical power. But what does it mean? How can these words, this claim, help propel us forward into Kol Nidrei and beyond?

Moving Forward in Prayer, Together and Alone

Sep 8, 2012 By Lisa Gelber | Commentary

Several weeks ago, I attended the West Point funeral of Major Thomas E. Kennedy, husband of my friend Kami. I’ve officiated at countless funerals and attended many others to comfort the bereaved. Although not my first military funeral, this was the first memorial for an officer I’d known personally, and my first visit to West Point.

Tip Toe Through Ki Tavo

Sep 8, 2012 By Ofra Arieli Backenroth | Commentary | Ki Tavo

This week’s Torah parashah is concerned with the Israelites’ entrance into the Promised Land. The parashah emphasizes that the Israelites should obey God’s commandments faithfully, with all their heart and soul. Since the Covenant between God and Israel establishes mutually binding obligations for both God and the Israelites, God’s commitments are also reaffirmed: the promise to make Israel a holy people.

To Go Out of the Wilderness

Sep 1, 2012 By Arnold M. Eisen | Commentary | Ki Tetzei

This week’s Torah portion is directed at Israelites about to “go out” of the wilderness; next week’s portion offers guidance to those about to “come in” to the Promised Land. Deuteronomy is anxious for the Israelites to build a society distinct from the one that had enslaved them and no less distinct from the other societies and cultures that will surround them in the Land of Canaan. It wants a people united in their new nation-state—and, to that end, propounds a series of wide-ranging laws designed to bring and keep them together.

The Blessing of Monotony?

Sep 1, 2012 By Jack Chomsky | Commentary

Many people struggle with the fact that traditional Jewish prayer is a fixed entity. The words that we say, the times that we say them, are prescribed according to traditions and Jewish law. The culture in which we live, by contrast, values spontaneity and novelty. Why not pray when one feels like it, and not be forced to shoehorn one’s intellect and emotions according to the seemingly arbitrary ideas of our ancient rabbis?

Psalm 27: The Days of Awe

Aug 25, 2012 By Alan Cooper | Rosh Hashanah

The custom of reciting Psalm 27 during the penitential season, variously understood to entail the period from Rosh Hodesh Elul through Yom Kippur, Hoshanah Rabbah, or Shemini Atzeret, is codified in Mishnah Berurah, siman 581: “In our region it is customary to recite [Psalm 27] followed by kaddish at the conclusion of the morning and evening services every day from Rosh Hodesh Elul until Yom Kippur; we customarily recite it until Shemini Atzeret.”

“Alas, Poor Yorick”: A Grave Affair

Aug 25, 2012 By Robert Harris | Commentary | Shofetim

I wish to call your attention specifically to the Torah’s prohibition of “inquiring of the dead.” Rashi seems to adumbrate Shakespeare, when he includes “one who asks questions of a skull” among the possible actions that would represent a violation of the biblical commandment. But the Torah is not imagining a philosophical discourse about life when it prohibits “inquiring of the dead,” but rather, in what is likely its original context, necromancy.

The Journey Home

Aug 18, 2012 By Abigail Treu | Commentary | Re'eh

Why should I choose a Jewish life? And more than just a “Jewish” life—which might consist of nothing more than bagels, gefilte fish, and a penchant for Seinfeld reruns: Why should I choose a life of mitzvah, of Jewish commitment and action, when there are so many other compelling religions and spiritual paths?

Finding Holiness in the Wilderness of Life

Aug 18, 2012 By Abigail Treu | Commentary | Text Study | Masei | Mattot

That life is ever changing makes us curious, grateful, wary. How are we to navigate the ‎uncertainty in a way that makes us feel rewarded?

Of Words and Hearts

Aug 11, 2012 By Samuel Barth | Commentary

“Take with you words and return to Adonai.” (K’chu imachem devarim.) —Hosea 14:3

Good Ecology Makes Good Theology

Aug 11, 2012 By Stephen P. Garfinkel | Commentary | Eikev

Last week’s reading and this week’s—which together form most of Moses’s second major valedictory speech to the people—provide two aspects of one integral message.

Remembering the Munich Eleven

Aug 4, 2012 By Marc Wolf | Commentary | Tishah Be'av

What we encounter in the text of the Talmud is the tension between communal mourning and communal celebration. We live our lives in that tension—between joy and sadness, life and death, destruction and rebuilding. All too often our moments of joy are interrupted abruptly by tragedy, and dancing turns to dirge. Just as quickly, we are taken by the hand and out of the depths of our sadness, pulled both emotionally and physically into communal celebration.

Avodah: In the Service of God

Aug 4, 2012 By Samuel Barth | Commentary

The Hebrew word avodah has a powerful history, embracing domestic service (Jacob for Laban) and enslavement (Israelites in Egypt), as well as ritual, sacrifice, and prayer. Avodah is often translated with the complex and highly ambiguous English word service, which has implications in the United States of military service, servitude, and religious gatherings.