Sacred Words in Liturgy and Life
Oct 11, 2024 By Shira Billet | Commentary | Rosh Hashanah | Yom Kippur
Human communication, the commitment to taking words seriously and to viewing the words we write and speak as serious commitments, has become even more imperiled in an age where our words are mediated through the technologies of social media, artificial intelligence, and the crippling social phenomena of political polarization and widespread mistrust.
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Seeking the Hiding God: A Personal Theological Essay
By Arnold M. Eisen | Public Event video | Video Lecture | Rosh Hashanah | Yom Kippur
To mark this period of spiritual atonement and reflection, Dr. Eisen discussed his rich, original, and moving work and invite us to ask, perhaps for the first time, what we actually believe about ultimate matters of faith and doubt. Those of us searching for ultimate meaning will find reassurance that the search itself can be a source of personal fulfillment, vibrant community, and great joy. The book’s three chapters include a Passover Seder with its theme of past and future redemption; the Yom Kippur liturgy that guides worshippers through the difficult work of atonement, forgiveness and return; and the day-to-day responsibilities, personal and communal, of covenant, mitzvah, and love.
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Repentence and the Mystical ‘Rope’: The Divine/Human Relationship in Jewish Thought
Sep 16, 2024 By Shira Billet | Public Event video | Video Lecture | Rosh Hashanah | Yom Kippur
One of the most striking images of the divine-human relationship in Jewish thought is the kabbalistic image of a rope or cord that extends from God in the heavens into the soul of the human being. We explore a diverse array of Jewish thinkers over the centuries who have found this metaphor meaningful, especially in times of challenge and suffering, giving them hope to continue to strive to become closer to God. In the context of the High Holiday season, we give special attention to connections between this metaphor and themes and liturgies of the High Holiday season.
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More Than the Motions
Oct 13, 2024 By Joel Seltzer | Commentary | Yom Kippur
The haftarah, from Isaiah chapter 57, was chosen precisely to prevent the type of self-congratulatory behavior that we humans exhibit when we play the “dutiful child,” while simultaneously managing to miss our larger purpose.
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The Esslingen Mahzor
By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Rosh Hashanah | Yom Kippur
In the winter of 1290 in Esslingen, a small market town in southwest Germany, a talented Jewish scribe named Kalonimos ben Yehudah completed his one surviving credited work, The Esslingen Mahzor (MS New York 9344), the earliest-dated Hebrew book made in Germany. It is a large-format prayer book created for Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot.
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Sha‘ar Bat Rabim
Sep 16, 2024 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Rosh Hashanah | Yom Kippur
Sha‘ar Bat Rabim is an extraordinary manuscript/printed-book hybrid that vividly illustrates the concept of the “lives of books.“ This volume, originally printed in Venice, serves as a prayer book for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur according to the Ashkenazic rite.
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The Toledo-Constantinople Bible
By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Rosh Hashanah | Yom Kippur
Like all Masoretic texts, the Toledo-Constantinople Bible (MS New York L6) includes precise Hebrew and Aramaic text, vocalization, and accents of the 24 books of the Hebrew canon. The colophon[1] of this Bible reveals a statement of profound resilience.
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Petition or Protest
Aug 30, 2024 By Adam Zagoria-Moffet | Commentary | Re'eh | Rosh Hashanah | Yom Kippur
Our Sages saw Hannah as trying to trap God into offering blessing, and they interpreted the same from another unlikely context, one that also occurs during this month’s Torah readings. We read about the apparently bizarre mitzvah of shilu’ah haken, the sending away of the mother bird. Deut. 22:6–7 is the sole description of this shockingly precise mitzvah: “If you happen upon a bird’s nest while on the road, whether in a tree or on the ground, whether with chicks in it or still-unhatched eggs, and the mother bird is sitting on the eggs or chicks, you shall not take the mother with the young. Instead, chase away the mother bird and take the young—in order that you be well and your days long.”
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