A Leader’s Limits
Aug 16, 2019 By Hillel Gruenberg | Commentary | Va'et-hannan
The very title of this week’s parashah, Va’et-hannan (“and I pleaded”), presents the larger-than-life figure of Moses in a humbling place. Before sharing with the people fundamental elements of the faith that they have taken on and the civilization that they aspire to become, Moses confessed to them that his exclusion from the destined land of promise was against his will, and in spite of emotional pleas to God (Deut. 3:23–26). The man who chose to forgo the trappings of a life among the royal Egyptian elite to lead an at-times ungrateful band of liberated slaves through the desert would ultimately be barred from tasting the final fruit of his sacrifice.
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Hope Amid Destruction
Aug 9, 2019 By Sara J. Bloomfield | Commentary | Devarim | Tishah Be'av
Tishah Be’av, which begins immediately after this Shabbat, is a moment on the Jewish calendar when we pause to reflect on the nature, impact, and significance of destruction. I’ve spent 33 years working at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, so naturally I’ve thought intensely about what the catastrophic destruction of European Jewry means for me, for Jews, and for humanity.
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Boundaries on the Move
Aug 2, 2019 By Benjamin D. Sommer | Commentary | Masei | Mattot
Every week, we read a parashah from the Torah during our Shabbat morning service, and then the beginning of the next parashah during our Shabbat afternoon service. The result of reading from two parashiyot on a single day can be surprising. This week, as we read first from Masei, the last parashah of Numbers, and then from Devarim, the first from Deuteronomy, we can hear an ancient debate about an issue that remains deeply contested: where to draw the line.
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In the Face of Violence, a Covenant of Peace
Jul 26, 2019 By Marc Gary | Commentary | Pinehas
Karen Armstrong, the scholar of religion and popular author of such works as The History of God, relates that wherever she travels, she is often confronted by someone—a taxi driver, an Oxford academic, an American psychiatrist—who confidently expresses the view that “religion has caused more violence and wars than anything else.” This is quite a remarkable statement given that in the last century alone, tens of millions of people have been killed in two world wars, the communist purges in the Soviet Union and its satellites, and the Cambodian killing fields of the Khmer Rouge, none of which were caused by religious motivations.
The Sorcery in Our Midst
Jul 20, 2019 By Jonathan Milgram | Commentary | Balak
In this week’s Torah reading, Parashat Balak, we read a riveting story of the diviner, Balaam, who was commissioned by Balak, king of Moab, to curse the Israelites (Num. 22:2–24:25). Balak’s goal was to weaken the Israelites, encamped at the borders of Moab, so that he could defeat them in battle. Balaam is richly and, at times, inconsistently described in our detailed narrative. Part of the story’s complexity is due to the historical fact that two narratives about Balaam were conflated in the finally redacted text of the Bible.
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What Now? Episode 5 podcast transcript
Jul 18, 2019
The following is a transcription of episode 5 of the podcast What Now?, “Getting Honest With Yourself” with Eliezer Diamond, provided for accessibilty for all website visitors. [Music] Sara Beth Berman: Welcome to What Now?, a podcast from the Jewish Theological Seminary that asks how we respond when it all goes wrong. I’m Sara Beth […]
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What Now? Episode 9 podcast transcript
Jul 18, 2019
The following is a transcription of episode 9 of the podcast What Now?, “Restoring Balance” with Julia Andelman, provided for accessibilty for all website visitors. [Music] Sara Beth Berman: Welcome to What Now?, a podcast from the Jewish Theological Seminary that asks how we respond when it all goes wrong. I’m Sara Beth Berman, your […]
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What Now? Episode 10 podcast transcript
Jul 18, 2019
The following is a transcription of episode 5 of the podcast What Now?, “This One Goes to Eleven” with David Fishman, provided for accessibilty for all website visitors. [Music] Sara Beth Berman: Welcome to What Now?, a podcast from the Jewish Theological Seminary that asks how we respond when it all goes wrong. I’m Sara […]
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What Now? Episode 11 podcast transcript
Jul 18, 2019
The following is a transcription of episode 5 of the podcast What Now?, “On a Scale of One to Ten” with Sarah Wolf, provided for accessibilty for all website visitors. [Music] Sara Beth Berman: Welcome to What Now?, a podcast from the Jewish Theological Seminary that asks how we respond when it all goes wrong. […]
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What Now? Episode 4 podcast transcript
Jul 18, 2019
The following is a transcription of episode 4 of the podcast What Now?, “The Wholeness of a Broken Heart” with Mychal Springer, provided for accessibilty for all website visitors. [Music] Sara Beth Berman: Welcome to What Now?, a podcast from the Jewish Theological Seminary that asks how we respond when it all goes wrong. I’m […]
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What Now? Episode 7 podcast transcript
Jul 18, 2019
The following is a transcription of episode 8 of the podcast What Now?, “Sympathetic Teachers and Rebellious Rabbis” with David Kraemer, provided for accessibilty for all website visitors. [Music] Sara Beth Berman: Welcome to What Now?, a podcast from the Jewish Theological Seminary that asks how we respond when it all goes wrong. I’m Sara […]
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What Now? Episode 8 podcast transcript
Jul 15, 2019
The following is a transcription of episode 8 of the podcast What Now?, “From Loss to Action” with Stephanie Ruskay, provided for accessibilty for all website visitors. [Music] Sara Beth Berman: Welcome to What Now?, a podcast from the Jewish Theological Seminary that asks how we respond when it all goes wrong. I’m Sara Beth […]
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What Now? Episode 6 podcast transcript
Jul 15, 2019
The following is a transcription of episode 8 of the podcast What Now?, “We Were Strangers” with Abigail Uhrman, provided for accessibilty for all website visitors. [Music] Sara Beth Berman: Welcome to What Now?, a podcast from the Jewish Theological Seminary that asks how we respond when it all goes wrong. I’m Sara Beth Berman, […]
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Handling Our Anger
Jul 12, 2019 By Abigail Uhrman | Commentary | Hukkat
Among the many stories in Parashat Hukkat, perhaps the most discussed is when Moses, in response the Israelites’ grievances, is instructed by God to “order the rock to yield its water.” Moses, instead, strikes the rock twice with his rod. Water comes forth, but God rebukes Moses for disobeying his instructions: “Because you did not trust Me enough to affirm my sanctity in the sight of the Israelite people, there you shall not lead this congregation into the land that I have given them” (Num. 20:2–13).
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How to Challenge Authority
Jul 5, 2019 By Rachel Rosenthal | Commentary | Korah
When is it appropriate to challenge a leader? While this week’s parashah, Korah, is perhaps the most dramatic attempt to answer this question in the Torah, this question percolates from the beginning of Moses’s tenure. At first glance, the answer would seem to be that Moses should never be challenged. As God’s chosen leader, the Israelites should submit to his authority in all cases. After all, things end badly for those who do not follow this course, as the story of Korah shows.
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The Power of One
Jun 28, 2019 By Judith Hauptman | Commentary | Shelah Lekha
This week’s parashah, Shelah Lekha, opens with the famous episode of twelve scouts going on a reconnaissance mission to the land of Israel. As most of us know the story, upon their return, ten of them recommend returning to Egypt, whereas just two, Joshua and Caleb, encourage the Israelites to continue their journey to the Promised Land. When we look at the verses of chapter 13, we discover that that is not exactly what they say.
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Modeling Behavior for the Sake of Humankind
Jun 21, 2019 By Walter Herzberg | Commentary | Text Study | Beha'alotekha
In the last narrative in Parashat Beha’alotehkha, it seems that Miriam and Aaron are speaking against their brother Moses—though the nature of the complaint is far from clear. Whatever the complaint may be, God summons Miriam and Aaron and takes them to task for not being “afraid to speak against My servant Moses.”
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What Now? Episode 2 podcast transcript
Jun 19, 2019
The following is a transcription of episode 2 of the podcast What Now?, “Talking Back to God” with Benjamin Sommer, provided for accessibilty for all website visitors. [Music] Sara Beth: Welcome to What Now? A podcast from the Jewish Theological Seminary that asks how we respond when it all goes wrong. I’m Sara Beth Berman, […]
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What Now? Episode 1 podcast transcript
Jun 19, 2019
The following is a transcription of episode 1 of the podcast What Now?, “We Suffer Becasue We Care” with Alan Mittleman, provided for accessibilty for all website visitors. [Music] Sara Beth: Welcome to What Now? A podcast from the Jewish Theological Seminary that asks how we respond when it all goes wrong. I’m Sara Beth […]
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Both/And podcast transcript
Jun 19, 2019
The following are transcriptions of the podcast Both/And: 250 Years of Conservative Judaism in 80 Minutes with Chancellor Arnold M. Eisen, provided for accessibilty for all website visitors. Episode 1 | Episode 2 | Episode 3 | Episode 4 | Episode 5 | Episode 6 | Episode 7 | Episode 8 Julia Andelman: Welcome to Both/And, the JTS podcast series where Chancellor Arnie Eisen teaches us how Conservative Judaism became what […]
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