![Humility](https://www.jtsa.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/rabbi_judy_greenberg__fall_2012__hi_res_square-300x300.jpg)
Humility
Jun 5, 2015 By Judith Greenberg | Commentary | Beha'alotekha
While wandering in the wilderness, when God’s cloud of glory rests on the Tabernacle, Israel dwells in their camp. When the cloud lifts, they journey onward. In the first half of this week’s parashah, Beha’alotekha, life is orderly and peaceful, with each tribe and each leader in their place in the procession.
Read More![The Good Ol’ Days](https://www.jtsa.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/upbin_for_fb-300x300.jpg)
The Good Ol’ Days
Jun 5, 2015 By Danielle Upbin | Commentary | Beha'alotekha
When the going gets tough, who doesn’t pine for the “good ol’ days”? Even when those past realities had challenges of their own, we tend not to remember them that way. It is human nature to favor selective memory. Consider our ancestors in this week’s parashah, crying for the fleshpots they enjoyed in Egypt, the cucumbers, garlic, and leeks (Num. 11:5). Did they forget about the slaughter of their firstborn, the harsh labor, the separation of families? In a moment of hunger and thirst for something they didn’t have, they forgot that they had actually been slaves in Egypt.
Read More![Biblical Waterboarding](https://www.jtsa.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/rayshweiss_square-300x274.png)
Biblical Waterboarding
May 29, 2015 By Raysh Weiss | Commentary | Naso
A representation of the sotah (suspected adulteress) ritual from this week’s parashah (Num. 5:11–31).
Read More![From Duty to Community and Back](https://www.jtsa.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/nigel_savage-300x300.jpg)
From Duty to Community and Back
May 29, 2015 By Nigel Savage | Commentary | Naso | Shavuot
Two weeks ago I was amongst a group discussing the nature of obligation in Jewish tradition and contemporary life. I played some role in convening the group because this is—for me—a central and often unaddressed paradox in the world we live in today. One can argue about the bounds of halakhah and about the nature and pace of its evolution. But it is hard to argue that we are not a people with a halakhic tradition. Halakhah is too engrained in Jewish tradition and in Jewish history to argue otherwise.
Read More![The Revelation in Sci-Fi](https://www.jtsa.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/ryan_20dulkin_bio-300x300.jpg)
The Revelation in Sci-Fi
May 22, 2015 By Ryan Dulkin | Commentary | Shavuot
As the sun rises over a craggy, barren landscape, the first rays of light penetrate the cavernous sleeping quarters of a family of primates. Off in the distance arise the sounds of an other worldly choir, an inchoate chorus. Agitated, the apes approach the entrance of their cave, situated on the side of a desert mountain, and find a mysterious object—a thin, pitch-black, rectangular monolith—standing erect, singing to them.
Read More![The Wilderness Speaks](https://www.jtsa.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/danny_nevins-300x300.jpg)
The Wilderness Speaks
May 22, 2015 By Daniel Nevins | Commentary | Bemidbar
The summer after graduating college, I went backpacking with a friend in North Cascades National Park in Washington. The sun shone brightly on Lake Chelan as we were ferried deep into the woods, landing at the little outpost of Stehekin to begin our weeklong trek. It was a euphoric beginning, but soon both the weather and my mood grew darker.
Read More![God’s Earth: Between Blessing and Curse](https://www.jtsa.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/arnie_eisen-300x300.jpg)
God’s Earth: Between Blessing and Curse
May 15, 2015 By Arnold M. Eisen | Commentary | Behar | Behukkotai
Here is Leviticus—in many ways the most intimate of the Torah’s five books, because it usually meets us frail, mortal, human beings where we live, in our skins and with our families, in private spaces of home and tabernacle—instructing us as a society, as a species, that divine blessings of rain and sun will turn to curses if we do not do our part in stewarding God’s earth properly. The text insists that a fateful choice is in our hands. And it seems far from confident that we will make the choice wisely.
Read More![A Little Black Mark](https://www.jtsa.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/bovitz.jpg)
A Little Black Mark
May 15, 2015 By Rachel Bovitz | Commentary | Behar | Behukkotai
In his autobiography, Benjamin Franklin describes a personal practice that involved daily focus on 13 moral virtues. Franklin’s memoir, translated into several languages in the late 18th century, became widely influential, reaching even Eastern Europe, where Rabbi Menahem Mendel Lefin of Satanov wrote Heshbon Hanefesh, published in 1808. Rabbi Lefin included justice and most of the other virtues in Franklin’s list when he created his 13 primary middot (moral virtues) to be focused upon in mussar practice (the Jewish approach to cultivating these virtues). Rabbi Lefin’s definition of tzedek (justice) paraphrases a classic Talmudic teaching attributed to Hillel: “What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor.”
Read More![All This Has Come Upon Us](https://www.jtsa.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/jtslogo_pms173___high_res_square-1-300x300.jpg)
All This Has Come Upon Us
May 12, 2015 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event audio
An evening with Mark Podwal, artist, physician, author, and former Op-Ed artist of the New York Times
Read More![Bodies and Their Critics](https://www.jtsa.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/jtslogo_pms173___high_res_square-300x300.png)
Bodies and Their Critics
May 8, 2015 By JTS Alumni | Commentary | Emor
By Yonah Kirschner (DS ’15)
Cassey Ho, a fitness blogger, recently posted a video she created in response to the many body-shaming comments she was receiving from critics online. The video went viral. It first shows Cassey, clearly athletic and healthy, walk over to a mirror, smiling happily. But as the video progresses, a barrage of unpleasant social media comments appear. Cassey’s hand then becomes an image-editing tool, and we watch as Cassey, now humiliated, sadly scrapes away parts of her body. The dejection communicated by the music and her facial expressions makes it a powerful experience for the viewer, difficult to watch as she mutilates her body into a caricature of the “perfect” body.
Read More![The Rigors of Leadership](https://www.jtsa.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Matt_Berkowitz_updated_headshot-300x300.jpg)
The Rigors of Leadership
May 8, 2015 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Emor
In the wake of violent religious extremism that plagues our world today, why are some religious leaders not expressing their opposition to bloodshed in the name of God? By turning a blind eye and silencing their voices, religious leaders tacitly give their approval to the violence—both tarnishing their reputation as leaders and diminishing God’s presence in this world. Leadership, especially religious leadership, demands scrupulousness and accountability.
Read More![Timothy Cardinal Dolan: 50 Years of Nostra Aetate](https://www.jtsa.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/jtslogo_pms173___high_res_square-300x300.jpg)
Timothy Cardinal Dolan: 50 Years of Nostra Aetate
May 7, 2015 By The Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event video
His Eminence Archbishop Timothy Cardinal Dolan celebrates Jewish-Catholic relations on the 50th anniversary of Nostra Aetate.
Read More![Pepper, Silk & Ivory: Amazing Stories about Jews and the Far East](https://www.jtsa.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/jtslogo_pms173___high_res_square-1-300x300.jpg)
Pepper, Silk & Ivory: Amazing Stories about Jews and the Far East
May 7, 2015 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event audio
A discussion with authors Rabbi Marvin Tokayer and Dr. Ellen Rodman.
Read More![The Saint and the Zohar](https://www.jtsa.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/vivian_mann-300x300.jpg)
The Saint and the Zohar
May 1, 2015 By Vivian B. Mann <em>z”l</em> | Commentary | Aharei Mot | Kedoshim
We often think of Jewish life in Spain in terms of the massacres of 1391 and the Spanish Expulsion in 1492. But the art made for the Church between those two dates presents a more nuanced view of Christian–Jewish relations.
Read More![A Holy Tongue: Kedushah and the Ethics of Speech](https://www.jtsa.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/marc_gary-300x300.jpg)
A Holy Tongue: Kedushah and the Ethics of Speech
May 1, 2015 By Marc Gary | Commentary | Aharei Mot | Kedoshim
A few years ago, my wife and I attended a retreat at Camp Ramah Darom in northern Georgia. The scholar-in-residence for the Shabbat was Rabbi Joseph Telushkin, a widely respected author of popular books on Jewish literacy and Jewish ethics. He suggested that all of us in attendance—approximately 100 adults—commit to one of the most difficult challenges we had ever faced: refrain from talking about other people for the duration of Shabbat. That is to say, for an entire day, we should speak not a word of gossip. I will not tell you whether we succeeded or failed in that challenge, but I will tell you that it was a very long 25 hours indeed.
Read More![The American Jewish Conversation about Israel](https://www.jtsa.edu/wp-content/themes/jts/dist/img/logo_red_bush.jpeg)
The American Jewish Conversation about Israel
Apr 30, 2015
Once a great source of unity and pride for American Jews, Israel now often leads to impassioned conflict, heated debate, and even alienation within our community. J.J. Goldberg, Jonathan Tobin, and Rabbi Melissa Weintraub explore whether anything can and should be done to bridge our polarization; whether there should be any “red lines” in discussing Israel, either for individuals or for Jewish communal organizations; and how the way we talk to each other about Israel impacts the American Jewish community, especially among younger generations, and how it affects Israel.
Read More![Outside the Camp](https://www.jtsa.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/julia_andleman_2_11.16-300x298.jpg)
Outside the Camp
Apr 24, 2015 By Julia Andelman | Commentary | Metzora | Tazria
The double parashah of Tazria-Metzora ranks at the top of the list of parshiyot to avoid for a bar or bat mitzvah. Its detailed lists of bodily ailments—rashes, colorations, emissions, and secretions—associated with ritual impurity are not the stuff of religious inspiration in contemporary times. I confess to having once colluded with congregants to subtly move the date of their daughter’s bat mitzvah celebration slightly further away from her Hebrew birthday, in order to provide her with a more palatable Torah reading to chant and speak about than Tazria-Metzora. But this year—the year of #BlackLivesMatter—has caused me to read Tazria-Metzora through a new and painfully relevant lens.
Read More![Deeper Than the Skin](https://www.jtsa.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/lewis2-300x300.jpg)
Deeper Than the Skin
Apr 24, 2015 By Yitzhak Lewis | Commentary | Metzora | Tazria
Your body is a map of roads
To be taken,
And not taken
Alone.
Your skin enfolds what
Your eyes shut behind them,
All your past is bored into it
Every day with the awl of time.
![The Liberated Bird: Let’s Talk Turkey](https://www.jtsa.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/anne_lapidus_lerner-300x300.jpg)
The Liberated Bird: Let’s Talk Turkey
Apr 17, 2015 By Anne Lapidus Lerner | Commentary | Shemini
The main course at my Thanksgiving dinner—and perhaps at yours as well—is determined by a few verses in this week’s parashah, Shemini. After all, Leviticus 11 defines which living things are fit for kosher consumption, granting it a major impact on the Thanksgiving menu of kosher aviavores.
Read More![God, Faith & Identity From the Ashes](https://www.jtsa.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/jtslogo_pms173___high_res_square-1-300x300.jpg)
God, Faith & Identity From the Ashes
Apr 16, 2015 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event audio
How have the children and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors shaped their identity and developed their attitudes toward God, faith, Judaism, the Jewish people, and the world?
Read MoreSUBSCRIBE TO TORAH FROM JTS
Our regular commentaries and videos are a great way to stay intellectually and spiritually engaged with Jewish thought and wisdom.