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Between Cursing and Blessing, Peace and Truth
Jul 4, 2014 By Tim Daniel Bernard | Commentary | Balak
Read MoreThat night God came to Balaam and said, “Since these men have come to summon you, go with them, but do only what I tell you.” Balaam got up in the morning, saddled his donkey and went with the Moabite officials. And God was very angry when he went. (Num. 22:20–22)
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“How Are the Mighty [Innocent] Fallen?”
Jul 4, 2014 By Samuel Barth | Commentary
In the elegy of David for Saul and his beloved Jonathan, the Hebrew words “Eikh naflu gibborim” (2 Sam. 1:17) carry a wordless cry and howl of anguish not rendered by the translation “How are the mighty fallen?” Professor Francis Landy of the University of Alberta notes that the first word, Eikh, most of all, is onomatopoeic. Eikh is a primal groan, howl, or keening; it is giving sound to inner pain and desolation, a sound of agony that comes in the immediacy of loss, ripped from the heart and soul. It is a sound that comes before the poem of lament, the words that try to give form and focus to raw emotion and pain.
Read More![Always Strive to Be Israel](https://www.jtsa.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Matt_Berkowitz_updated_headshot-300x300.jpg)
Always Strive to Be Israel
Jul 4, 2014 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Balak
This week’s Torah reading, Parashat Balak, is primarily focused on the Moabite king’s efforts to curse the Israelites.
Read More![Moses’s Misstep: Words Not Deeds](https://www.jtsa.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Matt_Berkowitz_updated_headshot-300x300.jpg)
Moses’s Misstep: Words Not Deeds
Jun 27, 2014 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Hukkat
With the loss of both Miriam and Aaron, Parashat Hukkat marks a liminal and tragic point in the Israelite wanderings toward the Land of Israel.
Read More![The Blessing of a Sister](https://www.jtsa.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/julia_andleman_2_11.16-300x298.jpg)
The Blessing of a Sister
Jun 27, 2014 By Julia Andelman | Commentary | Hukkat
Among the many momentous events that occur in this week’s short but action-packed parashah, we read of the deaths of both of Moses’s siblings, Miriam and Aaron.
Read More![Yearning: Poetry and Prayer](https://www.jtsa.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/barth__dr._samuel_square.jpg)
Yearning: Poetry and Prayer
Jun 27, 2014 By Samuel Barth | Commentary
Psalm 42 offers an extraordinary journey through the life of the soul, and perhaps it is not by chance that traces of this psalm are found in various places in the liturgy. In a previous essay, we looked a little at poetry within the liturgy, and the way in which poetry can open channels and modes of expression not so easily found in plain narrative text. Poetry offers the chance to juxtapose images and invoke diverse metaphors that can point toward a deeper, even implicit or secret, meaning.
Read More![Korah’s Fire Pans: Relics of Rebellion to Sacred Lessons](https://www.jtsa.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Matt_Berkowitz_updated_headshot-300x300.jpg)
Korah’s Fire Pans: Relics of Rebellion to Sacred Lessons
Jun 20, 2014 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Korah
Contentiousness, dissent, and upheaval mark the opening of Parashat Korah.
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The Suffering of Loss
Jun 20, 2014 By Shira D. Epstein | Commentary | Korah
We have grown accustomed to an incessant newsfeed scrolling of horrific natural-disaster footage.
Read More![The Clothes Make the (Wo)man](https://www.jtsa.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/raucher_new.png)
The Clothes Make the (Wo)man
Jun 13, 2014 By Michal Raucher | Commentary | Shelah Lekha
During graduation season, I try to learn everything there is to know about academic dress.
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Unity and Leadership
Jun 13, 2014 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Shelah Lekha
At the very beginning of this week’s parashah, Moses organizes a mission to scout out the land of Canaan.
Read More![Piyyutim: Poetry of the Soul](https://www.jtsa.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/barth__dr._samuel_square.jpg)
Piyyutim: Poetry of the Soul
Jun 12, 2014 By Samuel Barth | Commentary
There is an exquisite irony that the same element of our liturgy—the traditional poems (piyyutim) within the siddur that are used in many of our services—is identified with both the greatest tedium and the most profound spiritual depths. We encounter Adon Olam and Yigdal every day and Lekha Dodi and El Adon every Shabbat. In the cycle of the year, there are the piyyutim for rain and dew (Geshem and Tal) associated with Shemini Atzeret and Pesah; Akdamut for Shavu’ot; and of course numerous poetic compositions adorn the liturgy of the Yamim Nora’im (High Holidays).
Read More![Shema’: The “Secrets” of the Eyes](https://www.jtsa.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/barth__dr._samuel_square.jpg)
Shema’: The “Secrets” of the Eyes
Jun 6, 2014 By Samuel Barth | Commentary
Much of our liturgy and liturgical experience is verbal and analytic, based upon precisely what words we say and the meaning(s) found and embedded in those words. In these essays, we have also looked extensively at the way in which music, melody, and vocal quality add levels of meaning and experience. However, we are not disembodied minds and souls, and there are more than a few occasions when the disposition of the body is engaged to greater or lesser extent in the experience of liturgy. Most dramatically, we might think of the prostrations on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, but even in the daily experience, we think naturally of standing for the ‘Amidah, among many other customs and practices.
Read More![The Working Life](https://www.jtsa.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/lilly_kaufman_900_sq-300x300.jpg)
The Working Life
Jun 6, 2014 By Lilly Kaufman | Commentary | Beha'alotekha
In my family, we are not the retiring type—although we do tend toward shyness.
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Balancing God’s Will and Our Own
Jun 6, 2014 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Beha'alotekha
Parashat Beha’alotekha gives us insight into the Israelite trek through the wilderness.
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Can the Center Hold?
May 30, 2014 By Marc Gary | Commentary | Naso
“Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world”
—William Butler Yeats, “The Second Coming”
Last week, The Jewish Theological Seminary presented an honorary degree to Philip Roth, one of the greatest American writers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. The famous author must have received this recognition from an iconic Jewish institution with a certain measure of irony and satisfaction. After all, when his first book was published more than 50 years ago, an outraged American rabbi wrote to the Anti-Defamation League asking, “what is being done to silence that man?”
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The Blessing of Happiness
May 30, 2014 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Naso
One of the centerpieces of Parashat Naso is the Priestly Blessing.
Read More![Finding Direction to Move Forward with God](https://www.jtsa.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Matt_Berkowitz_updated_headshot-300x300.jpg)
Finding Direction to Move Forward with God
May 23, 2014 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Bemidbar
This Shabbat opens the fourth book of Torah known as Sefer Bemidbar, the book of Numbers.
Read More![Mah Nishtanah . . . A Seder for Yom Ha’atzma’ut](https://www.jtsa.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/barth__dr._samuel_square.jpg)
Mah Nishtanah . . . A Seder for Yom Ha’atzma’ut
May 16, 2014 By Samuel Barth | Commentary | Yom Hazikaron-Yom Ha'atzma'ut
In recent weeks, Medinat Israel (the State of Israel) was celebrated by citizens, residents, and the worldwide Jewish community with an array of observances for Yom Ha’atzma’ut (Israel Independence Day). In synagogues of the Conservative/Masorti Movement, morning minyan included the Hallel prayer and a special Torah reading, affirming the understanding that the establishment of Israel is not merely an item in the political history of the mid-20th century, but a vital step in the spiritual story of our people and, perhaps, the world. The “Prayer for the State of Israel,” included in the Shabbat morning service in almost all synagogues, speaks of Israel as “reishit tzemichat ge’ulateinu” (the beginning of the flowering of our redemption).“Redemption,” here, must be understood as the Messianic Era of universal peace and understanding.
Read More![Between Heaven and Earth](https://www.jtsa.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Matt_Berkowitz_updated_headshot-300x300.jpg)
Between Heaven and Earth
May 16, 2014 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Behukkotai
Fertility of humans and of the land is the essence of divine blessing.
Read More![Walking Together with God](https://www.jtsa.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/danny_nevins-300x300.jpg)
Walking Together with God
May 16, 2014 By Daniel Nevins | Commentary | Behukkotai
I saw a strange thing on my walk to minyan the other morning.
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