Search Results

Entering the Promised Land

Oct 1, 2011 By Ofra Arieli Backenroth | Commentary | Ha'azinu

What does it mean to be a leader who, for 40 long years, led the people of Israel in the desert, providing for all their needs, and, in the end, was forbidden to enter the Promised Land?

The Strength of Our Communities

Sep 18, 2011 By Abigail Treu | Commentary | Text Study | Nitzavim | Vayeilekh

At this season of self-reflection, our thoughts naturally turn to our own individual acts of the year gone by. But the teshuvah process climaxes on the Yamim Nora’im, when we stand together in packed sanctuaries, finding power in our solidarity as a community.

Call and Response

Sep 17, 2011 By Andrew Shugerman | Commentary | Text Study | Ki Tavo

While many know that a debate over the role of Hebrew in prayer led to the birth of Conservative Judaism, fewer realize that this question actually first arose with our ancient Sages 2,000 years ago.

A Call for Hope

Sep 10, 2011 By Arnold M. Eisen | Commentary | Rosh Hashanah

In the face of a litany of personal, societal, and global woes that has seemed particularly long this year; in the face of our nation’s inability to shake the economy loose or defeat our enemies or work together despite our differences, the Jewish calendar insists there is something new in store—or that there can be, if we together do as the Torah commands.

In the Shadow of the Twin Towers

Sep 10, 2011 By Judith Hauptman | Commentary | Ki Tetzei

As we approach the 10th anniversary of this tragedy, we can search in Parashat Ki Tetzei for a way to respond to it. The parashah ends with the verses about Amalek’s attack on the Israelites, shortly after they left Egypt (Deut. 25:17–19). The Torah says, “Remember what Amalek did to you . . . when you were famished and weary, [they] cut down the stragglers in your rear” (v. 18). According to the JPS translation, the words v’lo yarei Elohim (and not fearing God) at the very end of this verse refer not to the Israelites, as one might think, but to Amalek. The enemy did not fear the Divine, and so they attacked. The paragraph goes on to say that when the people of Israel reach their own land and are at peace, they should blot out all memory of Amalek itself, but always remember what Amalek did.

God Heals Our Wounds

Sep 10, 2011 By Abigail Treu | Commentary | Text Study | Ki Tetzei

The suffering of those we love stays with us and affects us deeply, years after the fact; in Deuteronomy, Moses finds himself thinking about his deceased sister’s illness and the pain he felt at her suffering many years prior, and now we find ourselves thinking about the events of 9/11 and recalling the pain we felt a decade ago.

The Pursuit of Justice

Sep 3, 2011 By Arnold M. Eisen | Commentary | Shofetim

Rousseau opened his famous essay on the ideal political order, “The Social Contract,” by stating his intention to “imagine men as they are and laws as they might be.” The same could be said of Moses’s objective in the book of Deuteronomy and particularly in this week’s parashah.

The Roots of Our Ideals

Sep 3, 2011 By Andrew Shugerman | Commentary | Text Study | Shofetim

“Peacetime” may seem today like a distant memory, yet ancient texts like the midrash above show how far we have advanced from the conflicts of biblical times. If our Sages could express that insight in their generation (nearly two millennia ago and just centuries after Israel conquered Canaan), it behooves us to appreciate how our Torah has inspired us and our non-Jewish allies to pursue peace in this global age.

Consequences as Judgement

Aug 27, 2011 By Abigail Treu | Commentary | Text Study | Re'eh

Part of the problem with the theology of reward and punishment (or blessings and curses, as it is couched in the parashah this week) is that we know it to not be true. We have all seen good people live and die tragically, and others deserving punishment living long, happy lives. It is difficult, as sophisticated thinkers, to apply the reward-and-punishment idea in any satisfying way to reality as we know it.

Do We Really Do Tzedakah?

Aug 27, 2011 By Marc Wolf | Commentary | Re'eh

By delving into the biblical and rabbinic texts concerning tzedakah, we can begin to discover that what we consider to be tzedakah may not fit the parameters of what our sacred texts are actually demanding of us.

When is Fear Positive?

Aug 20, 2011 By Andrew Shugerman | Commentary | Text Study | Eikev

Fears of crisis have filled the news this summer: political gridlock and epic heat waves here in the United States; economic woes on this continent, as well as across Europe; riots in Great Britain; the massacre in Norway; and social upheaval continuing across North Africa and the Middle East.

Challenging the God of Eikev

Aug 20, 2011 By Abigail Treu | Commentary | Eikev

Parashat Eikev, for me, is brutal. The crush of the Deuteronomic God, the if-then God of wrath and punishment, is overbearing. The choice that God offers in our parashah is not a choice: “And if you do obey these rules and observe them carefully, the Lord your God will maintain faithfully for you the covenant that He made on oath with your fathers: He will favor you and bless you . . . (Deut. 7:12–13). On the other hand: “If you do forget the Lord your God and follow other gods to serve them or bow down to them, I warn you this day that you shall certainly perish . . . ” (Deut. 8:19). The God of Eikev infantilizes, expecting that we will respond to an if-then choice, which is not a choice at all but rather a display of raw power.

Tears at the Moon

Aug 13, 2011 By Vivian B. Mann <em>z”l</em> | Commentary | Va'et-hannan

Throughout my youth, I sat next to my grandmother in the synagogue. When we recited the Blessing Over the New Moon, in which we beseech God for a spiritually rewarding life that knows no physical impediments, my grandmother would cry. Each month, I remember her tears and they deepen my understanding of the prayer.

Now I Am Old

Aug 13, 2011 By Abigail Treu | Commentary | Text Study | Va'et-hannan

There was a time
You would never have said, “Enough!”
A time when your passion
Burned
For me

Confronting Our Own Shortcomings

Aug 9, 2011 By Andrew Shugerman | Commentary | Text Study | Tishah Be'av

It may sound strange that I look forward every summer to observing Tish’ah Be’Av. The saddest day on the Hebrew calendar is also the one I have found most consistently meaningful since my teenage years.

“On the Road”

Jul 30, 2011 By Marc Wolf | Commentary | Masei

Standing at the precipice of the Promised Land, Moshe looks back with the people and relates their journey with the same sweeping overview that Sal Paradise narrates. “These were the marches of the Israelites who started out from the land of Egypt, troop by troop, in the charge of Moses and Aaron” (33:1). What follows through the first half of the parashah is a virtual Trip Tik of the journeys of the children of Israel.

The Blessing for What Goes Into our Food

Jul 30, 2011 By Abigail Treu | Commentary | Text Study | Masei

Are blessings over food spontaneous or rote? Do we bless our food out of gratitude for nourishment—or do we use the moments surrounding that most basic animal act of eating for spiritual uplift?

The Danger of Separation

Jul 23, 2011 By Ute Steyer | Commentary | Mattot

There seems to be great fluidity in using tribal affiliations: the story here switches between Moabites and Midianites, and the tribe who sold Josef as a slave is identified in Genesis as both Ishmaelite and Midianite (Gen. 37). Little importance is put on keeping the records straight on who did what and why. This leads me to believe that this account of the war against Midian is not about revenge at all but something else.

Justice and Mercy

Jul 16, 2011 By Abigail Treu | Commentary | Text Study | Pinehas

The feminist in me adores this midrash: a tannaitic (first- or second-century CE) work acknowledging misogyny and extolling the women in this week’s parashah who appeal to a gender-blind God for mercy. With ever-present news stories of the gender-based gap in wages and job retention, the plea of the daughters of Zelophehad is still relevant.

Balam: Prophet, Sorcerer, Saint or Sinner?

Jul 9, 2011 By Jonathan Lipnick | Commentary | Balak

Reading Parashat Balak along with Rashi, the medieval 12th-century French exegete par excellence, one quickly discovers how vilified Balaam is in Midrash. But not all biblical commentators side with Rashi. There’s a fantastic chapter by Nehama Leibowitz (1905–1997) in Studies of Bamidbar entitled “Prophet or Sorcerer?” Rabbi Jacob Milgrom (1923–2010), too, has an article on the subject entitled “Balaam: Saint or Sinner?” in his extraordinary The JPS Torah Commentary: Numbers.

Pages:
Less
54
55
56
57
58
More

Reset Search

SUBSCRIBE TO TORAH FROM JTS

Our regular commentaries and videos are a great way to stay intellectually and spiritually engaged with Jewish thought and wisdom.

JTS Torah Archive

Search Results

SUBSCRIBE TO TORAH FROM JTS

Share This Page