JTS Torah Commentary

Gisel Baler – Senior Sermon (RS ’24)

Oct 25, 2023 By JTS Senior Sermon | Commentary | Senior Sermon | Short Video | Lekh Lekha

Parshat Lekh Lekha All the Class of 2024 Senior Sermons

Between the Lines: Dwell Time

Oct 24, 2023 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event video | Video Lecture

In her memoir, Dwell Time: A Memoir of Art, Exile, and Repair, Rosa Lowinger, a leading sculpture and architectural conservator, interweaves the materials and science of her work with the
story of her Jewish Cuban family and their state of double exile: from Eastern Europe in the 1920s and then Cuba in early 1961.

“Two Are Better Than One:” Friendship in Jewish Text and Tradition  

Oct 23, 2023 By The Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event video | Video Lecture

Friendship is a critical component of our daily lives, our mental health, and our Jewish communal experiences. Ecclesiastes (4:9) posits, “Two are better than one,” underscoring the significance of companionship and partnership in Jewish tradition and the role they play in a life well-lived. Join JTS faculty to explore the concept of friendship through Jewish texts, history, and thought. They will consider friendship in times of joy and times of crisis, both with those in our inner circles and with our neighbors and fellow citizens more broadly. We will also consider some important paradigms for friendship and discuss the values we can distill from these models of friendship

A Friendship in the Ghetto, the Forest and Beyond: The Story of Two Yiddish Poets During the Holocaust

Oct 23, 2023 By David Fishman | Public Event video | Video Lecture

Imagine two friends surrounded by German soldiers in the forest, with a single pistol in their possession, and one of them hands the pistol to the other, saying: “Abrasha, you should live, you are the greater poet”. This was the depth of friendship between Yiddish poets Abraham Sutzkever and Shmerke Kaczerginski.  They inspired each other to creativity and acts of heroism. We explore their lives together, as fellow inmates of the Vilna ghetto, living in the same room and working in the same slave labor site, and ultimately how their friendship ended in separation after the war. 

Across the Atlantic: Lifesaving Friendships during the Holocaust

Oct 23, 2023 By Edna Friedberg | Public Event video | Video Lecture

During the 1930s and 40s, friendship ties could mean the difference between life and death, refuge and danger. In this session we learn about Americans who went to great lengths to help European Jews in need of escape–whether penpals, exchange students, or total strangers. 

What Is the Rainbow Really Teaching Us?

Oct 20, 2023 By Tani Schwartz-Herman | Commentary | Noah

In this week’s parashah we learn the origin story of the rainbow as a symbol. Following the catastrophic flood in which God destroys nearly every living thing, save for Noah and his family and the animals he brings with him onto the ark, God promises never to bring about destruction on the same scale again.  God establishes the rainbow as a sign for this covenant, declaring that it will be a reminder for God always: “When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures . . . ”

Between the Lines: Qohelet

Oct 18, 2023 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event video | Video Lecture | Sukkot

In Qohelet: Searching for a Life Worth Living, philosopher Menachem Fisch and artist Debra Band together probe the biblical thinker’s inquiry into the value of life “under the sun.”

Caring for Ourselves and Others in This Time of Crisis

Oct 17, 2023 By The Center for Pastoral Education | Public Event video

As we navigate our personal and professional roles during this distressing time, rabbis, cantors, chaplains, educators, and other leaders in helping professions are invited to gather for an online program helping us to reflect on caring for ourselves while caring for others. This session will provide a trauma-informed approach to our work and experience as religious and spiritual leaders.

An Anthology of Beginnings

Oct 13, 2023 By Benjamin D. Sommer | Commentary | Bereishit

The Torah seems to begin twice, in a way not paralleled by any other creation narrative from the ancient Near East. It uses the conventions of ancient literature in a new way. By beginning twice, the Torah announces what sort of a work it intends to be: it is less a book than an anthology, a compendium of numerous viewpoints and competing teachings.

Dancing with Torah

Oct 6, 2023 By Amy Kalmanofsky | Commentary | Simhat Torah

Judaism’s richness comes from having two Torahs—the Written Torah [Torah shebikhtav], which Moses receives from God, and which we will soon celebrate on Simhat Torah,and the Oral Torah [Torah shebe’al peh], the Torah of commentary that extends from the ancient rabbis to today’s rabbis, scholars, and students of Judaism’s sacred texts and traditions. 

Why We Gather

Sep 29, 2023 By Alisa Braun | Commentary | Sukkot

This past motzei Shabbat marked 38 weeks since the demonstrations in Israel against the judicial overhaul began. Once again my social media accounts lit up with photos of the streets of Tel Aviv engulfed in crowds, powerful images of democracy in action. I find the sight of so many people gathering to be awe-inspiring and uplifting, and in a ceremony associated with the holiday of Sukkot, I have found some clues as to why witnessing and joining such gatherings can be so moving.

How Shall It End?

Sep 26, 2023 By Gordon Tucker | Public Event video | Video Lecture | Shemini Atzeret

The Torah presents Shemini Atzeret—the “Eighth Day of Assembly”—as an add-on to the seven days of the Sukkot pilgrimage festival. The lulav is set aside, and the sukkah vacated. So, is it a “holiday about nothing”?  Or can we see in it a most meaningful coda to the Days of Awe, in which we learn profound lessons about endings? Through a close reading of Kohelet (Ecclesiastes), the Yizkor prayer, and other significant texts, we explore answers to these questions.   

Weren’t We Just Forgiven?

Sep 22, 2023 By Joel Seltzer | Commentary | Ha'azinu | Shabbat Shuvah

On all other days, this blessing is a powerful reminder of the countless missteps that befall us every day of our lives. And each day, by asking God for forgiveness, we are being conscious and intentional about the types of people we wish to be. We recount—then we recommit. But on motzei Yom Kippur, this blessing makes little sense. Is it possible that I committed a sin in the last thirty seconds since the gates closed at the end of the Ne’ilah service? Shouldn’t this be my most blameless moment of the entire year, and yet, here I am, beating my breast and beseeching God for forgiveness yet again?

The Yom Kippur Avodah as a Template for Spiritual Practice 

Sep 19, 2023 By Eliezer B. Diamond | Public Event video | Video Lecture | Yom Kippur

It is generally thought that the Yom Kippur Haftarah taken from Isaiah is supposed to be read as being in tension with the Torah reading from Aharei Mot (Leviticus 16).  While the Torah reading focuses almost exclusively on the rites performed by the High Priest in the Temple on Yom Kippur, Isaiah declaims that the ritual piety without social justice and Shabbat observance is nothing more than worthless hypocrisy. 

While this observation has merit, it can encourage the view that ritual has no ethical or spiritual content. In this session we see that the Avodah, the Temple rites, can indeed serve as a model for a life of spiritual discipline.

Clay in the Potter’s Hand

Sep 15, 2023 By Joel Seltzer | Commentary | Yom Kippur

Several years back, my wife and I took a summer vacation on Block Island, a 17-mile sanctuary of beaches, water, and biking off the southern coast of Rhode Island. We checked into a lovely bed and breakfast and made our way down the path towards our secluded beach cottage. The room was tiny, but a […]

The Torah’s Stories—and Our Own

Sep 15, 2023 By Shuly Rubin Schwartz | Commentary | Rosh Hashanah

During these Yamim Noraim—these Days of Awe—we might expect to be poring over biblical texts that exhort us to act honestly, compassionately, and justly: the Ten Commandments perhaps, or the Holiness Code of Leviticus 19. Instead, the Torah portions we read as we usher in the New Year are stories that are filled with unbearable pain—first, in Genesis 21, Abraham banishes his wife Hagar and their son Ishmael, and then, in Genesis 22, he almost sacrifices his son Isaac. As we gather to celebrate Rosh Hashanah, why do we hear stories that are filled with themes of alienation, betrayal, and loss?  

The Sacrifices of Hagar, Ishmael, and Isaac

Sep 12, 2023 By Aaron Koller | Public Event video | Video Lecture | Vayera | Rosh Hashanah

In the Torah readings for Rosh Hashanah, we read about the dissolution of Abraham’s family. First Ishmael is banished and nearly dies in the desert; Hagar leaves the household where she has lived for decades; and finally God commands Abraham to sacrifice his remaining son, Isaac. How do these stories come together, and how do they contribute to the ‘biography’ of the first patriarch? We see how these linked narratives develop some of the themes of Genesis—and why they are appropriate for the New Year. 

After Dobbs: Jewish Advocacy for Abortion Rights

Sep 11, 2023 By The Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event video

The Bernard G. Segal Memorial Lecture in Law and Ethics The U.S. Supreme Court overturned 50 years of constitutional protection for abortion in June 2022. Since the landmark ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, many states have banned or severely limited abortion access, leading the Jewish community to become increasingly involved in advocacy efforts […]

Returning with God

Sep 8, 2023 By Mychal Springer | Commentary | Nitzavim | Vayeilekh

This week’s Torah Portion, Nitzavim, speaks profoundly about teshuvah, the literal and figurative struggle to return to God. When we turn back to God “with all [our] heart and soul,” the parashah tells us, then God “will bring you together again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you” (Deut 30:3). Being scattered is a state of disorientation and disconnection. Teshuvah represents a coming home.

The Torah of the New Year

Sep 6, 2023 By The Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event video | Video Lecture | Rosh Hashanah | Shemini Atzeret | Yom Kippur

Join JTS faculty for a close reading of several of the biblical texts that we read during the fall holiday season. Discover new insights into these readings and reflect on what meanings they hold for us today.