Who Are You? A Question For All Of Us
May 21, 2014 By Eliezer B. Diamond | Short Video | Shavuot
Read MoreA Deer In The Sheepfold: A Conversion Tale
May 21, 2014 By Anne Lapidus Lerner | Short Video | Shavuot
Read MoreBrothers: Isaac And Ishmael
Sep 9, 2014 By Burton L. Visotzky | Short Video | Rosh Hashanah
Read MoreChoosing Love and Life
Jul 14, 2012 By Andrew Shugerman | Commentary | Pinehas | Tishah Be'av
Every summer I find striking the juxtaposition of Parashat Pinhas with its place in our calendar. This portion either soon follows (as it does this year) or immediately precedes 17 Tammuz. We always read the complete description of the biblical holidays’ offerings with the calamities listed above also in mind. This litany of misfortunes does not only include those related to the end of Temple-based worship; it also locates within the Torah the origin of each of these infamous dates observed as fast days. Those interpretations teach a deeper lesson about Jewish unity when considered with this week’s Torah portion and current events.
Read MoreEating in the Wilderness
Sep 24, 2010 By Alan Cooper | Commentary | Sukkot
With Sukkot on my mind, the wilderness controversy prompted me to imagine what the Israelites’ experience of the wilderness might be like nowadays in contrast to biblical times. How much of the hardship of their forty-year trek from Egypt to Canaan might they have been spared if their four-wheel (instead of four-legged)-drive vehicles had been guided by GPS rather than meandering pillars of fire and cloud, or if the signage in the desert had amounted to more than a few indecipherable graffiti (even more obscure than Garden State Parkway markers)?
Read MoreBirth and the Giving of the Torah
Jun 7, 2003 By Melissa Crespy | Commentary | Shavuot
As I write these words, I am waiting for the imminent birth of a child which my husband and I hope to adopt.
Read MoreRemembrance, Childbirth, and Renewal
Sep 27, 2003 By Melissa Crespy | Commentary | Rosh Hashanah
Remembrance. Childbirth. Renewed hopes and dreams.
Read MoreAn Environmental Journey
Oct 14, 2014 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Sukkot
One of my sweetest memories as a rabbinical student at The Jewish Theological Seminary relates to the holiday we welcome this week, Sukkot.
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