JTS Torah Archive

Lacking Praise

Sep 16, 2004 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Rosh Hashanah

Hallel, the compilation of psalms recited on Jewish festivals and observances throughout the year, is the quintessential expression of joy.

Fear or Love?

Sep 4, 2004 By JTS Alumni | Commentary | Ki Tavo

By Rabbi Howard Stecker (RS’ 92)

Given the complex nature of religious life, how can we most effectively communicate religious instruction? This question occupies rabbis, educators and parents alike. While the Torah contains no explicit discussion of educational methodology, the attempt to transmit religious teachings goes back to our earliest history and is the central theme of the series of parshiyot before the High Holidays.

Shattering Our Idols

Sep 4, 2004 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Ki Tavo | Rosh Hashanah | Yom Kippur

Judaism tantalizes the senses with the sights, sounds and fragrant smells that characterize its observance. Rosh Hashanah is certainly one of those times when we are overwhelmed by the richness of Jewish symbolism. At the heart of our New Year observances, however, lies the piercing cry of the shofar. What is the meaning of the shofar? Many explanations have been offered to explain why we blow the shofar during the month of Elul into Rosh Hashanah, and at the close of Yom Kippur. Included in these interpretations are the following: it signifies creation, specifically of the beginning of God’s kingship, it is meant to remind us to hearken to the blasts echoing from God’s revelation at Sinai, it links us to the binding of Isaac since the shofar is a symbol for the ram caught in the thicket by its horns that ultimately is offered to God in place of Isaac; and, that the sharp sound of the shofar is to be understood to be a call to teshuvah, repentance.

A Psalm for Repentance

Aug 28, 2004 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Rosh Hashanah | Yom Kippur

The Hebrew month of Elul offers us an opportunity to repent. It is an auspicious time granted us each year, during which we can shake off the shackles of our spiritual apathy and seek an engaging and loving path back to ourselves, our fellow human beings, and most importantly, God. One of the traditions prescribed to arouse the feeling of teshuvah, repentance, is the recitation of Psalms.

“You must not remain indifferent”

Aug 28, 2004 By JTS Alumni | Commentary | Ki Tetzei

By Rabbi Marc Sack (RS ’82)

My grandfather was a storyteller, not by profession, but by nature. He never lost an opportunity to tell my siblings and me about his journey to this country and the travails of his life. By profession, he was a fruit peddler. He had a large van-like truck that he loaded with fruits and vegetables every morning, going out to the neighborhoods in and around Hartford to hawk his goods. Sometimes, my grandfather hired teenagers to help him on the truck. In fact, I, myself, did this for a couple of summers. One of these helpers — this must have been in the early 1950s — was an African American teen. One summer morning, my grandfather and his helper finished loading the truck and stopped at a restaurant for breakfast. They sat down at a table, but the owner said that he would not serve the young man. The way my grandfather told it, he said to the owner, “If you won’t serve him, you won’t serve me,” and they got up and left the restaurant.

A Torah of Humility

Aug 21, 2004 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Shofetim

Tension is the home in which Jewish history has thrived. Prior to and with the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, the clarion call of Zionism declared that the Jewish people must become “a nation as all other nations.” While the Zionist argument represents a plea for normalcy and acceptance within the international community, it also seems to reject the classical notion of Jewish chosenness – that the Jews are a chosen and unique people. How is it possible to reconcile this contradiction between the Zionist dream and the traditional understanding of the Jewish polity?

The Good Old Days?

Aug 21, 2004 By JTS Alumni | Commentary | Shofetim

By Rabbi Allan Schranz

Many of us have a tendency to wax eloquent about the past while deprecating the present. We tend to use dismissive statements like, “when I was a kid, children read so much more,” or “the summers were brighter and less humid then” and “people had better manners back then.” Such sentiments are common. But in truth, the good old days seem to get better the further away they are.

Including Women in the Covenant

Aug 14, 2004 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Re'eh

Every year, Shi’ite Islam recalls the martyrdom of a central figure in its sacred history of Husayn ibn Ali, grandson of Muhammad. This annual observance is called Ashura, and it occurs on the tenth of the month of Muharran. Shiites, particularly in Lebanon, Iraq and Iran, engage in a bloody ritual of self-flagellation – extreme mourning that transports the devotee to the Battle of Karbala (October 10, 680). This rite is the most graphic illustration of a Toraitic prohibition found in Parashat R’eih. At the beginning of Deuteronomy 14, we read, “You are children (banim) of the Lord your God. You shall not gash yourselves (lo titgodedu) or shave the front of your heads because of the dead.”(Deuteronomy 14: 1) What is the literal meaning of (p’shat) in this verse? How do the Rabbis reread this verse? And, what does this seemingly archaic prohibition teach us today?

Decision Time

Aug 14, 2004 By JTS Alumni | Commentary | Re'eh

By Rabbi Jay Stein

In the heat of summer, we tend to recall our childhood trips to the ice cream parlor. For me, it was Baskin and Robbins’ thirty-one flavors. I particularly loved bubblegum and Vanilla Fudge Swirl. Now, my children, big fans of Ben & Jerry’s, can choose between Phish Food and Chubby Hubby. The selection of favorite flavors of ice cream, though a critical choice for a young child on a hot summer day, certainly does not belong on a list of the ten most critical issues facing society.

What Does “Chosen” Mean?

Aug 7, 2004 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Eikev

Israel is the heart and soul of the Jewish people; it is the home of our nation. Over a very special ten days in July, I had the honor of teaching with the Jacksonville Federation’s Mission to Israel. Some eighty-five participants: fifty adults and thirty-five children, joined together to express solidarity with Israel. We witnessed first-hand the miracles of modern day Israel in the absorption of immigrants from arbah kanfot ha’aretz, the four corners of the world, and in the substantive educational programs designed to make the integration of young Ethiopian immigrants more nurturing and successful.

Humility Through Prayer

Aug 7, 2004 By JTS Alumni | Commentary | Eikev

By Rabbi Robert Kahn

When you have eaten your fill, and have built fine houses to live in, and your herds and flocks have multiplied, and your silver and gold have increased, and everything you own has prospered, beware lest your heart become haughty and you forget the Lord your God who freed you from the land of Egypt, the house of bondage (D’varim 8:11-14).

This passage in Parashat Eikev comes as a warning to the Israelites that in the future, when life is good, not to forget either who gave you the good life, nor how you got there. Particularly when life is good, the Torah teaches us to remember our humble beginnings.

Seeing the Good

Jul 31, 2004 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Tishah Be'av

On Tishah b’Av, commemorated this past Monday and Tuesday evenings, the Jewish community focuses on the many tragedies which have befallen the Jewish people throughout the ages. This day is of central importance to the Jewish calendar. The Mishnah of tractate Taanit 26a-b lists four events that occurred on the Ninth of Av: the decree that the generation of Israelites that left Egypt could not enter the Land of Israel; the destruction of the First and Second Temples (586 BCE and 70 CE, respectively); the capture and fall of Betar under the Romans (135 CE); and the plowing over of Jerusalem (136 CE).

The Poetry and Theology of Tishah Be’av

Jul 24, 2004 By Ismar Schorsch | Commentary | Devarim | Tishah Be'av

On the Shabbat prior to the fast of Tishah b’Av, the synagogue reverberates to the opening chapters of Deuteronomy. The name of the book and of the parashah, Devarim – Words – emphasizes the key Jewish response to calamity. Historically, Jews rebuild their shattered worlds with words of high emotion and daring imagination. Like God at the dawn of creation, we bring order out of chaos through words. The instrument has nothing to do with the magic of incantations. It mirrors the fundamental human condition. The worlds we inhabit are a construct of our minds.

Taking Stock

Jul 17, 2004 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Masei | Mattot

In these concluding parshiyot of Sefer B’midbar (Numbers), the Israelites are full of anticipation. They camp near Jericho on the plains of Moab looking forward to their entry into the Promised Land. Yet, even at this future-oriented juncture, as it does so often, the Torah takes stock of the past: “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” (Numbers 33:1). We are reminded explicitly of the Exodus from Egypt. We hear of every stop the Israelites made on their journey. Only then can God give Moses instructions about moving on to Israel (33:50).

The Sensitivity to Lead

Jul 10, 2004 By Ismar Schorsch | Commentary | Pinehas

From the paean of Balaam, we plummet to the apostasy at Shittim. The inconstancy of the real world quickly obscures the glimpse of perfection. The daughters of Moab, a tribe born of incest (Genesis 19:30-38), literally seduces the men of Israel into an orgy of idolatry. Enraged, God orders Moses to slay all those who have worshipped at the shrine of Baal-peor. But before Moses can mobilize his leadership, an Israelite male comes out of nowhere to fuel the rebellion by publicly taking a Medianite consort into a marriage chamber. In a burst of zeal, Pinhas, a young priest and Aaron’s grandson, runs them both through with a single thrust of his spear. The vigilante execution ends the plague that had already taken some 24,000 victims.

Succeeding Moses

Jul 10, 2004 By Lewis Warshauer | Commentary | Pinehas

The Five Books of Moses bears this title because of the prominence of the man, Moses. Those who accept the traditional view of the origin of the Torah, also accept this nomenclature as a matter of course. Moses transmitted the Torah to his people and taught it to them. However, not accepting this view of the Torah’s origin does not in any way diminish the role of Moses in telling the narrative of the Torah. He is the central human character in every book, starting with Exodus.

Making Our Way Through an Imperfect World

Jul 3, 2004 By Ismar Schorsch | Commentary | Balak

The story of Balaam, the gentile prophet who came to curse the people of Israel, but stayed to shower them with blessings should not be wholly unfamiliar to us. It is alluded to twice in the liturgy of the daily morning service, once indirectly and once directly. 

Finding Lessons in Miracles

Jul 3, 2004 By Melissa Crespy | Commentary | Balak

One of the most challenging aspects of the Torah for modern readers, we, who have been trained to think logically and rationally, is how to interpret the miracles that occur in the narrative. Desiring to be faithful to the text, yet, not wanting to close off the rational side of our brains, contemporary readers may be troubled by passages in the Torah that clearly contradict what they know to occur naturally.

In Memory of Zvia Ben-Yosseph Ginor

Jun 26, 2004 By Ismar Schorsch | Commentary | Hukkat

Great art is often a triumph over great suffering. In 1999, The Jewish Theological Seminary faculty suffered the grievous loss of one of its own, Zvia Ben-Yosseph Ginor, to cancer at the height of her literary power. With her keen intellect and exuberant personality, she cut a figure larger than life. Zvia had come to JTS in mid-life with impressive credentials, to pursue a doctorate in Jewish literature. She was the daughter of the founder of Israel’s airplane industry, a published Hebrew poet and a sterling adult educator. For her dissertation, she wrote on the Hebrew poetry of Abba Kovner, the legendary Vilna partisan and creator of the Diaspora Museum in Tel Aviv. Shortly after completion, the work was published in Israel.

Korah: a Rebel with a Cause

Jun 26, 2004 By Ismar Schorsch | Commentary | Korah

In the Jewish imagination, Korah personifies the archrebel. Rapacious envy appears to drive him to assemble a force of 250 “men of repute” to repudiate the leadership of Moses and Aaron. Stunned by the confrontation, Moses is unable to muster any sympathy for Korah. Moses often intercedes with God on behalf of his adversaries. Not this time.