JTS Torah Archive

Everyone on the Team

Sep 23, 2016 By Craig Scheff | Commentary | Ki Tavo

Everyone on the team, from the manager to the coach, from a secretary to an owner, has a role to fulfill. That role is valuable if the team is to come close to reaching its potential. The leader must understand this. Every single member of your team needs to feel wanted and appreciated. If they are on the team, they deserve to be valued and to feel valued. Do you want someone on the team who doesn’t feel necessary and appreciated? How do they find out unless you let them know?

—John Wooden and Steve Jamison, Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court

Promises, Promises

Sep 16, 2016 By Cheryl Magen | Commentary | Ki Tetzei

Oh, promises, their kind of promises, can just destroy a life
Oh, promises, those kind of promises, take all the joy from life
Oh, promises, promises, my kind of promises
Can lead to joy and hope and love
Yes, love!

—“Promises, Promises” (from the 1968 musical of the same name), lyrics by Hal David

Why Do We Need a Reminder to Remember?

Sep 16, 2016 By Yedida Eisenstat | Commentary | Ki Tetzei

When was the last time you memorized a phone number? In the age of Gmail, iPhones, and Facebook, remembering has become a passive activity. But at the end of this week’s parashah, the Torah commands us to actively “remember what Amalek did to you… do not forget.” But what did Moses command Israel to remember and why?

Corruption Begins at Home

Sep 9, 2016 By Hillel Gruenberg | Commentary | Shofetim

Only here are three prime ministers
investigated and don’t cooperate.

Only here do I feel belonging,
Even though I’m angry about the corruption.

Our Eyes Did Not See

Sep 9, 2016 By Eliezer B. Diamond | Commentary | Shofetim

The history of murder begins with Cain’s slaying of Abel. That murder itself has a prehistory. When Adam and Eve ate forbidden fruit, God called them to account, and gave them the opportunity to acknowledge their sin and seek forgiveness. Instead, they chose obfuscation and recrimination. Adam shifted blame to Eve, who in turn argued that the serpent was culpable. As when they ate the fruit (Gen. 3:7), their eyes again were opened; each now saw that the other was capable of sin without remorse, and indifference born of self-interest.

Petition or Protest

Sep 2, 2016 By Adam Zagoria-Moffet | Commentary | Re'eh

One month from now, we turn to renew the Hebrew calendar, and our spiritual lives with it. On that day, “the day the world is born,” we read the story of Hannah (1 Sam 1:1–2:10). After struggling for years to conceive, Hannah finally gives birth to a son, Shemuel, for whom she had prayed at the temple in Shiloh.

Dwelling with God

Sep 2, 2016 By JTS Alumni | Commentary | Re'eh

By Sonia Gordon Walinsky (LC ’04) and Nina Gordon

From Rosh Hodesh Elul, this shabbat, until the end of the holiday season, Psalm 27 is recited in the daily morning and evening services. It reflects a yearning for closeness with God fitting for the time of year when we seek to make teshuvah—literally, returning to God.

Love the Stranger

Aug 26, 2016 By Ethan Linden | Commentary | Eikev

In our parashah this week we find an odd statement masquerading as banal—a revolutionary idea that at first glance seems familiar, but is something else entirely. In Deuteronomy 10:19 the Torah commands: “Ve-ahavtem et hager ki gerim hayitem be-eretz mitzrayim” (“Love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt”).

Moshe Learns to Say Good-bye

Aug 26, 2016 By Rachel Rosenthal | Commentary | Eikev

One last time
the people will hear from me
one last time
and if we get this right
we’re gonna teach ’em how to say
goodbye.
You and I—

—George Washington in Hamilton: An American Musical

The Smell of Canaan

Aug 19, 2016 By Alisa Braun | Commentary | Va'et-hannan

The smell of Canaan he has had for all his life; that he should see the land only before his death is hard to believe. . . . Not because his life was too short does Moses not reach Canaan, but because it was a human life.

—Franz Kafka, in a diary entry from 1921

Experiencing the Light of Torah

Aug 19, 2016 By Nicole Wilson-Spiro | Commentary | Va'et-hannan

This summer I returned to Jewish overnight camp after a 15-year hiatus. After all this time, s’mores, a love of cheering in unison (has the cheering gotten louder or am I older?), and earnest, hard-working counselors (I was one, once) are still to be found at camp. I am happy to report that the food is now much, much better than I remembered, and the supervision and attention to camper care have improved vastly, as well.

The Currencies of Justice

Aug 12, 2016 By David Hoffman | Commentary | Devarim

You shall not be partial in judgment: hear out low [katan] and high [gadol] alike. Fear no man, for judgment is God’s. (Deut. 1:17)

Philo, the great 1st-century Alexandrian Jewish thinker, was engaged in a project that in many ways was deeply modern. He sought to “translate” Judaism for the Greek-speaking world of his day, and to demonstrate to a highly educated and urbane population that the Torah was a philosophically serious work. Not only could one be a Jew and be a Greek, but in many ways a pious Jew was the truest of Greeks.

With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility

Aug 12, 2016 By Dave Siegel | Commentary | Devarim

Although I have learned from many amazing educators, the teaching that has probably had the greatest impact on me did not come from school, rabbinic literature, or even my parents. It came from Spider-Man. I can directly trace my desire to work in the nonprofit world to Spider-Man. Although there is debate about where the expression originates, the message of his origin story is clear: “With great power there must also come—great responsibility!” The idea that individuals who have the ability and opportunity to make a difference in this world are obligated to do so is the foundation of how many people try to live their lives.

The Journey or the Destination?

Aug 5, 2016 By Anna Serviansky | Commentary | Masei | Mattot

Life’s like a road that you travel on
When there’s one day here and the next day gone .  .  .

Life is a highway
I want to ride it all night long
If you’re going my way
I want to drive it all night long

A Summer of Discontent

Aug 5, 2016 By Arnold M. Eisen | Commentary | Masei | Mattot

The violent and disturbing events of this summer have given me new appreciation for the book of Numbers, and particularly for its conclusion. After chapter upon chapter of intrigue, rebellion, orgy, and mayhem, attention shifts in parashat Masei, the second part of this week’s double parashah, to a series of routine arrangements and details, elaborated at times in rhythmic repetition.

A New Rabbi in 17th-Century Italy

Jul 29, 2016 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Commentary | Pinehas

Reminded that he will not be permitted to lead the people into the Land of Israel, Moses asks God to appoint a successor for him. God instructs Moses:

Single out Joshua son of Nun, an inspired man, and lay your hand upon him. Have him stand before Eleazar the priest and before the whole community, and commission him in their sight. Invest him with some of your authority, so that the whole Israelite community may obey. (Num. 27:18–20)

Baalam’s Tents

Jul 22, 2016 By Lilly Kaufman | Commentary | Balak

Tell me, where can I go today to see a deeply good community? How will I know it when I see it? Where can I go today and exclaim, Mah tovu?

Dreaming of Being Balaam

Jul 22, 2016 By Jan Uhrbach | Commentary | Balak

The story of the heathen prophet Balaam—hired by Moabite king Balak ben Tzippor to curse the people Israel—is altogether strange. It concerns events happening outside the Israelite camp and seemingly unknown to them, characters we’ve not yet met, and a talking donkey. Its tone ranges from burlesquely funny to surreal.

Courses of Grief

Jul 15, 2016 By Shuly Rubin Schwartz | Commentary | Hukkat

Bereft, I combed through the grass in Central Park at dusk when I realized I had lost my late husband’s house keys. Yes, on some level, I knew it wasn’t about the keys. His sudden death two months earlier had devastated me in much more profound ways. And yet, I felt desperate to find those keys!

Come and Knock on a Rock

Jul 15, 2016 By Jonathan Lerner | Commentary | Hukkat

John Ritter was ready for a change. “At the beginning of the seventh season [of Three’s Company], the stuff about the three of us scrambling around for rent money was starting to get repetitive. . . . They had an episode about hiding a dog from Mr. Roper in the beginning [during season one] and then they had one about hiding a cat from Mr. Furley near the end [during season eight]. . . . That’s when I knew it was time to move on.”

—Come and Knock on Our Door: A Hers and Hers and His Guide to Three’s Company, by Chris Mann