If There Is No Bread, There Is No Torah: The Other Careers of the Talmudic Rabbis
Nov 15, 2021 By Rachel Rosenthal | Public Event video
We often think of the rabbis in the Talmud as having careers as full-time rabbis. However, numerous narrative traditions tell us about their other jobs and their financial struggles. If one cannot make a living learning Torah, how should we balance Torah with more mundane concerns? We’ll study some of these stories together and look at some models for lives that are enriched both by Torah and by work.
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A Nice, Jewish Teacher: How American Elementary Education Became “Women’s Work”
Nov 1, 2021 By Shira D. Epstein
Early 20th century elementary school teaching became synonymous with being female, and particularly in NYC, with being the right kind of Jewish young woman.
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The Jewish Middle Class in an Age of Social Justice
Oct 25, 2021 By Nancy Sinkoff | Public Event video
his session will explore the historian Lucy S. Dawidowicz’s challenging essay, “The Business of American Jews: Notes on a Work in Progress” (1992), which called for a reassessment of Jewish economic social mobility as a positive value in Jewish life.
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Even God Makes Time for Leisure: Rabbinic Narratives About God’s Work, Play, and Rest Schedule
Oct 11, 2021 By Sarit Kattan Gribetz | Public Event video
Genesis 2:2-3 announces that, after working hard to create the world and humanity over the course of six days, God took a day off to celebrate the Sabbath. Other passages in the Bible build upon God’s day of rest to mandate that all created beings rest, and that heads of households ensure that everyone under their control be allowed to rest on the seventh day. Divine time, we learn, alternates between periods of creative work and deliberate rest. But what does God’s work entail, how does God manage divine time, does God make time for leisure, and does God have a schedule?
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Six Days Shall You Labor: Shabbat and the Meaning of Work
Oct 4, 2021 By David C. Kraemer | Public Event video
Shabbat, a day on which “work” is forbidden, also offers a commentary on work—on its place in our lives, its importance, and its limitations. Notably, the rabbinic Sabbath—that is, the “traditional” Sabbath—offers a perspective that differs from that of the Torah, both original and unique. Join Dr. David Kraemer to explore biblical and rabbinic views of the Sabbath as commentaries on the significance of work.
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The Power of Emotion: Judaism and the Inner Life
By The Jewish Theological Seminary | Video Lecture
Joy. Grief. Anger. Shame. Love. Emotional experience is often at the center of our lives. JTS scholars explore perceptions of emotions in Jewish texts and offer surprising and useful insights for understanding the feelings that make up our inner worlds.
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A Wandering People: Jewish Journeys, Real and Imagined
By The Jewish Theological Seminary | Video Lecture
Notions of home and homeland have been redefined by Jewish wandering. Drawing on literary, spiritual, and historical sources and responses, JTS scholars explore what happens when Jews—whether by force or voluntarily, whether in reality or in the imagination—travel from one place to another.
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The Other in Jewish Text and Tradition
Jan 12, 2021 By The Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event video | Video Lecture
We live in a time of such polarization—political, racial, economic, religious—that the gaps between us sometimes feel insurmountable. But this is not a new condition for Jews, either within or outside of the Jewish community. JTS scholars guide us on an intellectual journey through Jewish history and text to understand how these gaps have been understood and, at times, bridged.
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