JTS Torah Commentary

Between the Lines: Where I Am

Jun 20, 2023 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event video

Dana Shem-Ur‘s book is a piercing novel about life abroad in a cultural setting not one’s own: Reut is an Israeli translator living in Paris with a French husband and their child. She’s made sacrifices for her family but now feels a simmering discontent and estrangement that erupts at a festive dinner party with affluent, intellectual friends. During the sumptuous meal, she navigates a tangle of cultural codes with which she’s never been fully at ease. This is a novel about big life choices that examines a woman’s attitudes toward belonging to a man, to a culture, to a language. Where I Am is an intimate, witty book portraying a profoundly human yearning to stop everything, to lay down one’s head, and to feel―if only for a moment―at home.

Always Something There to Remind Me

Jun 16, 2023 By Abigail Uhrman | Commentary | Shelah Lekha

In the same way that the Yashar projects are physical reminders of camps’ inclusive values and powerfully shape camp culture, tzitzit function to remind B’nei Yisrael of their covenantal relationship with God and encourage them to fulfill the mitzvot that God has commanded. Like camps’ newly accessible spaces, tzitzit are ever-present symbols that, at their best, help B’nei Yisrael recall their most precious values and activate their capacity to realize these ideals. 

Evolution of Torah: Muslim Spain and North Africa

Jun 13, 2023 By Marcus Mordecai Schwartz | Podcast or Radio Program

The legal culture of Muslim Spain and North Africa from the ninth to the thirteenth century focused on making the Talmud accessible through practical applications of Gaonic interpretations. This episode follows two scholars: Rabenu Hananel ben Hushiel whose approach is one of the earliest known attempt to provide a systematic commentary on the Talmud and that of Rabbi Isaac Alfasi (the RIF) whose work superseded Hananel’s within two generations. This period in general and the Rif’s work specifically kicked off the period of the Rishonim.

Between the Lines: The Confidante

Jun 13, 2023 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event video

Christopher C. Gorham discusses his book The Confidante, the first biography of Anna Marie Rosenberg, a Hungarian Jewish immigrant with only a high school education who went on to be dubbed by Life Magazine, “the most important woman in the American government.” Her life ran parallel to the front lines of history, yet her influence on 20th-century […]

God: Unchanging? 

Jun 12, 2023 By Alan Cooper | Public Event video | Video Lecture

When we sing the hymn Yigdal, we declare that God is One and unique in Unity, of mysterious and infinite Oneness. The idea that God is ineffable and unchanging is embedded in Jewish (as well as Christian and Muslim) thought. While that may be true of God, however, it does not apply to the various ways of discerning God’s Presence from biblical times to the present. In this session, we explore some of the ways in which perception of God has changed, especially in the transition from biblical religion to post-Temple and post-prophetic Judaism. 

At the Threshold

Jun 9, 2023 By Gordon Tucker | Commentary | Beha'alotekha

The ninth chapter of Numbers tells a tale that results in a rule and an institution. The first anniversary of the Exodus (on the 14th of the first month of Nisan) was approaching for the recently freed Israelites, and they were reminded that the Paschal sacrificial rites were meant to be annual observances. They were instructed by Moses to make the necessary preparations. But there were people who had recently contracted ritual impurity [tumah] by contact with the dead, perhaps because they had buried deceased relatives. And they knew that this impurity, which was beyond their control, precluded them from participating in a rite that was, in effect, an annual renewal of membership in the community of Israel. Their plaint was brought to Moses, who understood the predicament of these well-meaning Israelites, but did not know how to resolve it, and thus brought the case to God.

“Perhaps They Will Listen”: Prophets and the Art of Persuasion  

Jun 5, 2023 By Yael Landman | Public Event video | Video Lecture

While the biblical prophets wore many hats—defense attorney, miracle worker, leader, and commander-in-chief, among others—one role of the prophets was to persuade their audiences. These audiences are often portrayed as uninterested in the prophets’ words, or even violently opposed to them. In the face of resistance, the prophets deploy numerous rhetorical strategies in order to convince their audiences to listen to them; many of these strategies, which we explore in this session, are the same devices that make biblical prophecies works of art that continue to strike a chord with readers today.

The Power of a Blessing

Jun 2, 2023 By Eliezer B. Diamond | Commentary | Naso

Anyone I know who grew up in a synagogue where the kohanim dukhened on the Yamim Tovim remembers this as one of the peak moments of their
synagogue experience. There are many reasons for this: the strange sight of men (and now women) standing with their hands extended and with their heads and upper faces covered by tallitot, the fact that we were in fact not to gaze upon this startling spectacle, and the sense of protection afforded to those of us whose parents covered them with their own tallitot during the rendering of the blessing in order to protect them from the potentially harmful effects of looking upon the kohanim.

How Should We Know God?

May 25, 2023 By Benjamin D. Sommer | Commentary | Shavuot

It’s well known that Jewish tradition assigns specific readings from the Torah and the Prophets for all the holidays. Less well known are several traditions that assign holiday readings from the Book of Psalms.[1] An Ashkenazic tradition associated with Rabbi Elijah, the Vilna Gaon (1720–1797), assigns Psalm 19 for recitation at the end of the Musaf service on the first day of Shavuot. This psalm deals with an appropriate question for the holiday of revelation: How do we come to know about God and God’s will?

Kiddush and Havdalah: Marking the Boundaries of Sanctified Time 

May 22, 2023 By Judith Hauptman | Public Event video | Video Lecture

Kiddush marks the onset of Sabbath sanctity and havdalah marks its end. Both of these ritual acts derive from the Talmud. A review of Talmudic texts reveals that although kiddush did not change much during the Talmudic period, havdalah underwent significant modification. It began as a simple statement of the end of Sabbath sanctity but evolved into a full-blown ritual in which we recite blessings, light a candle, smell spices, and drink wine.

Reliving Revelation

May 19, 2023 By Gordon Tucker | Commentary | Bemidbar

The fourth book of the Torah (“Bemidbar Sinai”) begins with a census of the (male) heads of clans among the Israelites in the second year of their freedom. And then, it lays out the pattern according to which the 12 tribes and the religious functionaries (levi’im and kohanim) are to set up camp in the wilderness. When you read it, you are struck by the attention to detail and good order, something which is rather typical in documents with a priestly source. 

Between Suns: Twilight in Rabbinic Sources  

May 15, 2023 By Sarit Kattan Gribetz | Public Event video | Video Lecture

Rabbinic sources imagine the period of twilight between the six days of creation and the Sabbath to be a mystically productive time. It was then, they explain, that God created the rainbow and the manna, letters and writing, Abraham’s ram and Moses’s staff. But when is twilight and how long does it last? Does it belong to the day that is ending, the day that is beginning, or to both days at once? These questions are not merely theoretical—their answers determine important matters of Jewish practice.

Growing Into Torah

May 12, 2023 By Megan GoldMarche | Commentary | Behar | Behukkotai

For this week’s parashiyot, Behar-Behukkotai, I might ask: What is something that you took or borrowed from someone that you know it is time to return, perhaps because it is the right thing to do or because it will make you feel lighter? This can be a physical thing like a book or shirt, or something intangible like the hope or support you received from someone. If you are hosting shabbat dinner this week I encourage you to try it out, with a brief explanation of the ideas of Jubilee and returning land to its original owners that appears in this week’s parashah.

Talmudic Writings on the Passage from this Life to the Next

May 8, 2023 By David C. Kraemer | Public Event video | Video Lecture

It may surprise you to learn that, in the opinion of Talmudic teachings and the traditions that emerge from them, death is not a moment but a process—a transition that leads from one stage of life (which we call “life”) to another (which we call “death”). These beliefs have profound implications for our understanding of Jewish rituals of death and mourning, Jewish theology, and much else. Prof. Kraemer offers a close reading of the texts that discuss these rituals as well as the beliefs underlying them.  

The Problem of Embodied Perfection

May 4, 2023 By Lauren Tuchman | Commentary | Emor

Parashat Emor (Leviticus 21–24) opens with a passage describing limitations placed on individuals whom a kohen (priest) may mourn or marry, as well as limiting sacrificial service in the Mishkan to those who are able-bodied. We learn in Leviticus 21:17 that any kohen who has a mum—blemish or defect—is explicitly forbidden from “offering the food of his God” (21:17). Kohanim thus disqualified include those who are blind, lame, have a limb length discrepancy, are hunchbacked, have a broken limb, and many others. They are forbidden from ritual leadership throughout the ages; though not stripped of their priestly status and are permitted to eat sacrificial meat. They are not permitted to come behind the curtain or approach the altar. They mustn’t profane these places which God has sanctified (21:22–23).

Can Citizens Be Friends?

May 2, 2023

How much divisiveness, anger, contempt, distrust, and fear can democratic citizens have for one another before a democratic society irreparably weakens? Political philosophers since Aristotle have wondered about what citizens owe one another; whether they ought to recognize and respect one another’s views, profound disagreements notwithstanding. The ideal of mutual respect among democratic citizens as a foundation for a thriving civil society is called “civic friendship.” Join us as we explore this idea and its potential for diminishing the “civic enmity” that afflicts the US today.

Sarah’s Laugh: Doubt, Trust, and the Ambiguity of the Womb

May 1, 2023 By Mychal Springer | Public Event video | Video Lecture

On Rosh Hashanah we read about two central biblical characters, Sarah and Hannah, who after facing infertility for many years are told that they will conceive. Many years ago, when I was undergoing fertility treatments and listened to these stories on Rosh Hashanah, I felt as if my struggles were actually at the heart of Jewish religious experience, selected by the rabbis to echo in the birth of every new year for generations of Jews. 

Making God Holy

Apr 28, 2023 By Amram Altzman | Commentary | Aharei Mot | Kedoshim

Parashat Kedoshim, the second of the two parashiyot that we read this week, ends just as it begins: with an imperative for us, the Children of Israel, to be holy. Our parashah opens with, “קדשים תהיו/You shall be holy,” and the penultimate verse tells us that, “והייתם לי קדשים/You shall be holy to Me, for I God am holy, and I have set you apart from other peoples to be Mine” (Lev. 20:26). Although almost identical, our parashahends with the idea that we are not just holy in general, but are specifically designed as holy to God. How, then, are we supposed to not just be holy, but holy to God?

The Blasphemer in Leviticus: A Marginal Figure 

Apr 24, 2023 By Alan Cooper | Public Event video | Video Lecture

The Bible abounds with characters who transgress boundaries, for better and for worse. One of these characters who comes to a bad end is the half-Israelite, half-Egyptian blasphemer in Leviticus 24:10-16, 23. It’s clear that the Bible wants this story to show the dire consequences for blasphemy, but why is the identity of the blasphemer so specific, and how does this story relate to other laws outlined in the same chapter of the Torah? We explore these issues with the aid of both traditional and modern critical commentary.

It Passes and We Stay

Apr 21, 2023 By Jan Uhrbach | Commentary | Metzora | Shabbat Rosh Hodesh | Tazria

The double parashiyot of Tazria and Metzora are devoted in their entireties to the Biblical notion of tumah, usually translated as “impurity.” In them, we learn three of the major sources of tumah: childbirth (Lev. 12); a condition known as tzara’at, which can manifest on skin, clothing, or the walls of one’s house (Lev. 13–14); and bodily secretions (Lev. 15). The two other primary sources of tumah are touching or carrying the carcasses of certain animals (Lev. 11) and contact with a human corpse (Num. 19).

But what is the essential nature of tumah, and what does it have to do with Emily Dickinson’s poem?