Middot 2:2
Jan 1, 2008 By Daniel Nevins | Text Study
How can building design and building use reinforce religious values?
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The Attention Seeking Bush
Dec 29, 2007 By David M. Ackerman | Commentary | Shemot
A recent collection of one-liners and witticisms entitled 1,003 Great Things About Being Jewishcontains a section called “What Passersby Said About the Burning Bush.”
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Jealousy As a Test of Virtue
Dec 14, 2007 By Daniel Nevins | Commentary | Vayiggash
Gifts can make you crazy. Picking them is hard, and so is accepting them with grace.
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Joseph the Righteous One
Dec 1, 2007 By David Hoffman | Commentary | Vayeshev
I have always been deeply curious as to why—of all the characters in the Torah—the Rabbis attributed to Joseph the appellation, “ha-Tzadik” (the righteous).
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Jacob’s Struggle Is Our Struggle
Nov 24, 2007 By Marc Wolf | Commentary | Vayishlah
“In olden times when wishing still helped, there lived a king whose daughters were all beautiful, but the youngest was so beautiful that the sun itself, which was seen so much, was astonished whenever it shone in her face.”
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Blessings From a Deathbed
Nov 22, 2007 By Charles Savenor | Commentary | Vayehi
Laying on his deathbed, Jacob beckons for his grandchildren, Ephraim and Manasseh.
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Why Are We Called the People of Israel?
Nov 17, 2007 By Edward Feld | Commentary | Vayetzei
We are called not the People Abraham, nor the People Isaac, rather we are called the People Israel, named for the third of the patriarchal family, Jacob.
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Poor Isaac
Nov 7, 2007 By David M. Ackerman | Commentary | Toledot
Poor Isaac; wedged between “exemplary” Abraham and “vivid” Jacob, he exhibits very little personality of his own.
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The Wisdom of the Wilderness
Nov 3, 2007 By Lisa Gelber | Commentary | Hayyei Sarah
When I lived in Seattle, I set aside one day each summer to visit Mount Rainier National Park and hike some trails there.
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Subverting Abraham As a Knight of Faith
Oct 26, 2007 By David Hoffman | Commentary | Vayera
In a world in which so much violence and pain are caused in the name of religion, how can we read the story of “the Binding of Isaac” as anything but what Phyllis Trible would call a “text of terror”?
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Why the Jews?
Oct 21, 2007 By Arnold M. Eisen | Commentary | Noah
Why did the Creator of all humanity decide upon the surprising step of establishing a special relationship with one small segment of humanity?
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The Many Qualities of Abram
Oct 12, 2007 By Daniel Nevins | Commentary | Lekh Lekha
Abram in the light; Abram in the dark. Abram with men at war; Abram with women at war.
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Making Meaning From Chaos
Oct 5, 2007 By Mychal Springer | Commentary | Bereishit
The opening words of B’reishit are exhilarating. “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”
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Inauguration of Arnold M. Eisen As Chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary
Sep 5, 2007 By Arnold M. Eisen | Public Event video
Proclaiming that “we have important work to do,” Chancellor Arnold M. Eisen set forth his vision for the future of The Jewish Theological Seminary following his investiture as the seventh chancellor of JTS on September 5, 2007.
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Normalcy and Covenant
May 19, 2007 By Arnold M. Eisen | Commentary | Bemidbar
Numbers always stands in pointed contrast to Leviticus. The overarching order of the book of the Torah that we have just completed — the routines of sacrifice, the hierarchies of priesthood, the distinctions between purity and pollution, permitted and forbidden — all this soon gives way to B’midbar, “in the wilderness,” to challenges of a different sort. The book starts by counting the people and arranging the camp for travel. But soon, we know, all those counted will be held responsible for the spies’ rebellion. Moses’ cousin Korah will attempt insurrection. The camp will wander without hope of reaching the Promised Land. We turn from Leviticus to Numbers, aware that the real world awaits us there: the one in desperate need of sacred order. We, like the Israelites, clearly have a lot to learn,
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In the Wake of Tragedy
Apr 28, 2007 By Marc Wolf | Commentary | Aharei Mot | Kedoshim
In the immediate wake of tragedy, our response is appropriately silence. Aaron movingly illustrated this in the parashah from two weeks ago after he lost his sons, Nadav and Avihu. Following their shocking deaths, the Torah records Aaron’s response to Moses’ attempt at consolation simply as, “and Aaron was silent” (Leviticus 10:3). We cannot begin to imagine the sense of loss and disbelief that radiated from the depths of his soul when he learned his sons were destroyed by the God who ordained their service.
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How Do We Experience the Season of Freedom?
Apr 14, 2007 By David Hoffman | Commentary | Pesah
Freedom in biblical and rabbinic Judaism is a highly complex idea.
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“Do Not Forget.”
Apr 3, 2007 By Marc Wolf | Commentary | Shabbat Zakhor | Tetzavveh | Purim
“It is evident that we live in an age of violence and terror. There is not a continent on the globe that is not despoiled by terror and violence, by barbarism and by a growing callousness to human suffering.”
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