JTS Torah Archive

A Symbol of Peace

Mar 3, 2017 By Daniel Nevins | Commentary | Terumah

The Arch of Titus in Rome is simultaneously one of the saddest and most exciting places for a Jew to stand. It is but a short distance from the Colosseum, the stadium made famous by its cruel sports, built with money plundered from the Jerusalem Temple in 70 CE. Titus’s Arch celebrates the destruction of our Temple, a building designated by Isaiah to be a house of prayer for all nations. A bas-relief sculpture on the arch’s inner walls depicts a sickening scene: the triumphant display of the Temple’s sacred objects, the Menorah most prominent among them, along with a pathetic procession of enslaved Jews.

Building the Mishkan in Medieval Catalonia

Mar 3, 2017 By Ariel Fein | Commentary | Terumah

Like a contract between artist and patron, Parashat Terumah details God’s commission of the construction of the Tabernacle —a task ultimately carried out by Bezalel, “who was filled with the spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding, and in knowledge of all manner of workmanship” (Exod. 31:2-3). A combination of God’s commandment and Bezalel’s artistic vision, the Tabernacle exemplifies divine creation through human mediation.

Kohelet’s Pursuit of Truth: A New Reading of Ecclesiastes

Mar 1, 2017 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event audio | Sukkot

In his book Kohelet’s Pursuit of Truth, Rabbi Benjamin J. Segal, former president of the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem, presents an arresting new translation and commentary on Ecclesiastes that unlocks the ancient wisdom of one of the deepest and most controversial books of the Tanakh.

Expanding Our Understanding of the Religious Life

Feb 24, 2017 By David Hoffman | Commentary | Mishpatim

There is a strange—little spoken about—law that my mind, particularly over the last few months, keeps revisiting. The Talmud teaches that when one builds a synagogue or house of study the structure should preferably have windows (BT Berakhot 34b). Indeed, this idea is codified as law in the foundational legal code, the Shulhan Arukh (OH 90:2).

Taking Care of Ourselves and the Stranger

Feb 24, 2017 By David Rosenn | Commentary | Mishpatim

This week’s Torah reading contains instructions for taking care of one’s own: “If you lend money to My people, to the poor among you, do not act toward them like a creditor; exact no interest from them” (Exod. 22:25).

Deuteronomy is even clearer, stating, “You shall not charge interest on loans to your countrymen, interest on money, interest on food, interest on anything that is lent for interest. But you may charge interest to a foreigner…” (23:20-21).

Power and Love

Feb 17, 2017 By Rachel Rosenthal | Commentary | Yitro

[P]ower without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.

― Martin Luther King Jr., “Where Do We Go From Here?” (1967)

Why Did Moses Listen to Yitro’s Advice?

Feb 17, 2017 By Walter Herzberg | Commentary | Yitro

Yitro heard that God had done wonders for Moses and Israel and had redeemed them from Egypt. He journeyed from Midian with Moses’s wife and sons to the Israelites’ encampment at the mountain of God. We hear nothing of Moses’s reunion with his wife and children, but rather a detailed account of Yitro’s organizational advice to Moses.

Teaching Mahshevet Yisrael: The Universalist / Particularist Issue

Feb 14, 2017

Elie Holzer: “Jews, Non-Jews, and Teaching the Hasidic Homily: Hermeneutic Approaches and Pedagogical Deliberations”

Avinoam Rosenak: “Machshevet Yisrael as an Encounter: Jewish Philosophy or Judaism as a Philosophy—Educational Implications”

The US Health Care System: What Does the Future Hold?

Feb 14, 2017 By The Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event video

The Affordable Care Act of 2010 took a giant step toward universal health insurance coverage in the United States. Although it has been quite successful in accomplishing that goal, it has remained highly controversial. The new Administration is intent on repealing the law and replacing it with an alternative model.  

Why is health care reform so challenging? Why does “Obamacare” look as it does? Could alternative plans under consideration achieve the same gains? And what are the political prospects of those alternatives? Prominent health policy expert Dr. Sherry Glied describes the past, present, and possible future of health reform efforts in the US.

Jewish Particularism and Universalism

Feb 13, 2017

Marc Silverman: “‘Free Jews’ and Their Views on Jewish Culture and Its Interface with Other Peoples’ Cultures”

Yossi Turner: “Jewish Learning and the Non-Jew: Toward a New Particularist-Universalist Paradigm”

Teaching Jewish History and Teaching Israel: The “Other” is Within “Our” Subject Matters

Feb 13, 2017 By Ofra Arieli Backenroth | Public Event video

Ofra Backenroth and Alex Sinclair: “‘Present Absentees’: On the Place of Non-Jewish Israeli Narratives in Israel Education”

Meredith Katz and Jeffrey Kress: “Middle School Students and ‘The Other’ in an Online Jewish History Simulation Activity”

Teaching Jews about the “Other” and Teaching the “Other” about Jews

Feb 13, 2017 By Sarah Tauber (z”l) | Public Event video

Sarah Tauber: “A Jewish Professor and Christian Students Meet: Teaching and Learning in an Introduction to Judaism Course at a Christian Seminary”

Michael Gillis: “Teaching About Other Religions in Jewish Education”

Seeing the “Other” in Jewish Canonical Texts

Feb 13, 2017

Adriane Leveen: “Biblical Narratives of Israelites and their Neighbors”

Matt Goldish: “Reading the Gospel through Talmudic Eyes: John Lightfoot’s Revolution”

Thinkers with an Educational Orientation: Exploring the Universal and the Particular

Feb 12, 2017

Ari Ackerman: “Universalism and Jewish Nationalism in the Educational Philosophy of Mordecai Kaplan”

Daniel Marom: “Jewish Educational Roots and Implications of Zamenhof’s Global Esperanto Movement”

Israel’s Departure

Feb 10, 2017 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Beshallah

Rabbi Judah said to Rabbi Meir: one tribe said, “I will not be the first to go into the sea”; and another tribe said, “I will not be the first to go into the sea.” While they were standing there deliberating, Nahshon the son of Aminadav of the tribe of Judah sprang forward and was the first to go down into the sea. Because it was Nahshon who came forward, Judah obtained royal dominion in Israel: “The sea saw him and fled” (Psalm 114:3). (Mekhilta Derabbi Yishmael, Beshallah, Mas. Devayehi 5)

Crossing the Sea Every Summer

Feb 10, 2017 By Jacob Cytryn | Commentary | Beshallah

As a camp director, Beshallah speaks to me in certain rather obvious ways. It is focused on the power of song—both the Song of the Sea (Exodus 15:1-18) and Deborah’s Song (Judges 5:1-31) in the haftarah—and camp is nothing if not filled with song and music. Experience, similarly, is central to the entire endeavor, especially as recounted in the Passover seder. And Beshallah also represents the birth of possibility, the beginning of an independent community. In other words, this week’s parashah encapsulates the basic work we in the camp business embark on every summer.

“Us” and “Them”

Feb 3, 2017 By Paula Rose | Commentary | Bo | Pesah

“They tried to kill us, we won, let’s eat.”

This tongue-in-cheek summary of most Jewish holidays applies most strongly, perhaps, to the Passover Seder. We retell the story of the Exodus from Egypt, we praise and thank God for redeeming us, and then we eat a festive meal. Cast in that light, the story of the Exodus seems so straightforward. The Israelites are innocent victims, somehow pawns in God’s larger plan. The Egyptians, and especially Pharaoh, are wicked, oppressing the Israelites with forced labor.

From Generation to Generation Activism is Alive!

Feb 3, 2017 By Jonathan Lipnick | Commentary | Bo | Pesah

My son Noah and I like to take walks together. It affords us time to connect—to talk about food, sports, relationships, and politics, and, once in a while, to explore an existential question.

“If I had never met my grandfather,” Noah once asked me, “is it true to say that I will never really know him?”

Change a Story and You Can Change the World

Feb 1, 2017 By David G. Roskies | Podcast or Radio Program

By learning the power of twice-told tales, three restless, rebellious Jews—Rebbe Nahman of Braslav, I. L. Peretz, and I.B. Singer—were reborn as Yiddish storytellers. By returning to fantasy and the live, spoken language of the people, they turned storytelling into an autonomous, highly creative and potentially explosive activity. A series of three podcasts.

Precious Sufferings: The Dynamics of Transformation

Jan 27, 2017 By E. Noach Shapiro | Commentary | Va'era

Listening to Moses try and wrap his mind around becoming an agent of change and transformation for the Israelites and the Egyptians is, at times, painful. As we eavesdrop on the early exchanges between God and Moses, a raw intimacy between Moses and us emerges. In his back and forth with God about his assignment to be God’s voice in Egypt, Moses immediately reveals his deep insecurity: “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and free the Israelites from Egypt?!” (Exod. 3:11).