JTS Torah Archive

The Future of the Seminary in a Dogmatic Age

Mar 18, 2021 By Shuly Rubin Schwartz | Public Event video

A conversation between Chancellor Shuly Rubin Schwartz and NYU President Emeritus John Sexton. Moderated by Krista Tippett.

Conversion, Circumcision, and Ritual Murder in Medieval Europe

Mar 17, 2021 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event video

Author and professor Paola Tartakoff of Rutgers University discusses her new book, Conversion, Circumcision, and Ritual Murder in Medieval Europe, which explores the “Norwich Circumcision Case” from multiple perspectives.

When Jews Made Fellow Jews ‘Other’: Hasidism and its Opponents

Mar 15, 2021 By David Fishman | Public Event video | Video Lecture

The Hasidim, followers of the Ba’al Shem Tov and his spiritual heirs, emerged in the 18th century with controversial ideas related to Jewish practice and belief. While Hasidim coexisted peacefully with non-Hasidim in many communities, the Mitnagdim (“opponents”) in many larger Jewish centers in Eastern Europe reacted to the Hasidim not only with condemnation, but with writs of excommunication and measures to persecute the members of the new movement. This internal Jewish religious strife led to the division of the community into rival “denominations” for the first time in nearly a thousand years. We will study the conflict between the Hasidim and Mitnagdim and reflect on how the core principles of the dispute continue to shape our Jewish lives and guide our homes and institutions.   

Holy Bling

Mar 12, 2021 By Amy Kalmanofsky | Commentary | Pekudei | Vayak-hel

I loved rummaging through my grandmother’s jewelry. To my child’s eye, her jewelry box was a treasure chest filled with sparkling gems, pearls, and gold. All “paste,” I learned, but to me they were the crown jewels.

The Self, the Other, and God in 20th Century Jewish Philosophy:
Cohen, Buber, and Levinas

Mar 8, 2021 By Yonatan Y. Brafman | Public Event video | Video Lecture

her, and where does our relationship to the other Other—God—fit in? Modern Jewish philosophers, including Hermann Cohen, Martin Buber, and Emmanuel Levinas placed the intersubjective relationship—the relationship between persons–at the center of their thinking. Dr. Yonatan Brafman explores their reflections—their similarities and differences—in order to grapple with its implications for Jewish ethics.

The Path to Justice

Mar 5, 2021 By Rachel Kahn-Troster | Commentary | Ki Tissa

I’ve been a human rights activist for more than a decade, beginning my work by organizing the Jewish community to speak out against torture. One of the first things I learned—a theme that resurfaces across many of the campaigns for human rights that I have been part of—is that when people act out of fear, when their sense of safety and security is challenged, they make unfortunate choices. 

Facing the Other: Moral Dilemmas in Israeli Literature

Mar 1, 2021 By Barbara Mann | Public Event video | Video Lecture

Lyric poetry, with its unique voice and vivid imagery, offers a brief but intense opportunity to enter into the intimate space of another. Through texts by canonical Israeli authors (Dan Pagis, Yehuda Amichai, and Dalia Ravikovitch), we will trace a series of poetic encounters between Self and Other: survivor and perpetrator; mother and child; victim and hero; Jew and Palestinian.   

The Masks that We Wear

Feb 26, 2021 By Ofra Arieli Backenroth | Commentary | Tetzavveh | Purim

Growing up in Israel, Purim was a wonderful experience, full of fun and games. Dressing up, putting on masks, going to parties, and attending the Purim Parade in Tel Aviv—the Adloyada. This name is derived from a rabbinic saying in the Talmud that one should revel on Purim by drinking “until one no longer knows [how to distinguish between ‘cursed is Haman’ and ‘blessed is Mordecai’]” (BT Megillah 7b). Attending the parade was great fun, but also had a mysterious aspect. Who are the people hiding behind the masks? What are they concealing and what are they trying to reveal? It was all very colorful and happy but, in equal measure, scary and confusing.

Journey with JTS

Feb 25, 2021 By The Jewish Theological Seminary

A Journey Across the Jewish Past

Feb 24, 2021 By David C. Kraemer | Public Event video

Hidden in the nooks and crannies of libraries and museums across the world are clues to an often-surprising Jewish past: a 15th-century Italian woman’s siddur that includes a special prayer thanking God for “creating her as a woman”; a Haggadah from a Nazi concentration camp; manuscripts from the Court Jews enmeshed in the intrigues of European kings.

Reading the Resisting Woman as “Other”

Feb 22, 2021 By Shira D. Epstein | Public Event video | Video Lecture

Who has the right to anger? When is defiance cast as positive in our texts and when is it silenced? We will explore the Vashti narrative through the lens of power dynamics, status shifts, performing of gendered emotions, and as an example of reading the resisting woman as “Other.”

Remembering Our Sacred Spaces

Feb 19, 2021 By Julia Andelman | Commentary | Shabbat Zakhor | Terumah

On Shabbat Zakhor—the Shabbat of remembering—we recall the Amalekites’ vicious attack on the Israelites in the desert, in which they targeted not the fighters but the weaker members of the community (Deut. 25:17–19). This year, however, I suspect many of us will be focused instinctively on remembering something else: the anniversary of the coronavirus pandemic turning our lives upside down.

A Single Life

Feb 18, 2021 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event video

A discussion with author, rabbi, and scholar Daniel Ross Goodman about his novel, A Single Life, which blends a literary style and a Talmudic sensibility with the romance tradition.

God’s Currency

Feb 12, 2021 By Gordon Tucker | Commentary | Mishpatim | Shabbat Shekalim

The arrival of Parashat Shekalim (plural of shekel) each year is what might be called the liturgical “rite of spring” in the Jewish tradition, signaling that Pesah is six–seven weeks away, and preparations (spiritual and physical) for the great festival are very soon to begin. This year, it will be observed on Rosh Hodesh Adar, when the weekly reading will be Parashat Mishpatim.

A Tour of Medieval Cairo

Feb 9, 2021 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event video

Medieval Fustat-Cairo was a burgeoning metropolis that sat strategically astride the Mediterranean, Indian Ocean and trans-Saharan trade routes, its fabulous wealth due in part to the Fatimid caliphs having founded their capital there in 969. But what was daily life like for its middling inhabitants? Marina Rustow discusses this question using fragments of the Cairo Genizah found in our collection at The JTS Library.

Different But Equal?
The Paradox of Chosenness

Feb 8, 2021 By Alan Cooper | Public Event video | Video Lecture

Jewish conceptions of chosenness or election—rooted especially in the language of Exodus 19:5-6—traditionally were hierarchical, often asserting Jewish superiority over others. Such notions run afoul of modern ideas about social justice, typically anchored in egalitarian values that would have been alien to pre-modern authors. Is it possible to uphold a version of Jewish “difference” that is simultaneously non-hierarchical yet answerable to traditional sources?  

Can God Prohibit an Emotion?

Feb 5, 2021 By Sarah Wolf | Commentary | Yitro

Part of my current research focuses on how human emotions are discussed and legislated in the Talmud and other ancient rabbinic texts, and so the last of the Ten Commandments (as counted in the Jewish tradition) raises for me some fundamental questions.

Other Gods: What the Bible Thinks about Other Nations’ Deities

Feb 1, 2021 By Benjamin D. Sommer | Public Event video | Video Lecture

The Bible frequently instructs the nation Israel not to worship “other gods” (אלהים אחרים). But the Bible never actually states that these other gods do not exist. Praying to other gods would be an act of disloyalty for an Israelite, but not an absurdity—there are apparently other gods who would hear the prayers in question. In fact, the Bible regards it as perfectly appropriate for other nations to worship them, because the “other gods” are simply the gods of other nations. In this session, we will examine the biblical attitude toward these other gods and what their existence implies about other religions. We will see, paradoxically, that the Bible remains monotheistic, even though it acknowledges the existence of many deities. 

Legacy of Blood: Jews, Pogroms, and Ritual Murder in the Land of the Soviets

Feb 1, 2021 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event video

A discussion with author and historian Elissa Bemporad about her book, Legacy of Blood: Jews, Pogroms, and Ritual Murder in the Lands of the Soviets. 

JTS Rabbinic Convocation, January 2021

Jan 31, 2021