Can American Judaism Change Jewish Identity in Israel?

Mar 3, 2022

THE HENRY N. AND SELMA S. RAPAPORT MEMORIAL LECTURE 鈥淭he New Jew鈥濃€攁 recent Israeli TV documentary series exploring the diverse and creative ways in which American Jews express their Jewishness鈥攚as immensely popular in Israel. What accounts for Israelis鈥� positive response to several distinctively American models of Jewish identity and practice? How can religious expression in […]

The Jewish Community of Ukraine and the Current Crisis

Mar 2, 2022 By David Fishman | Public Event video

There are between 50,000 to 100,000 Jews in Ukraine today. This talk, featuring Dr. David Fishman and senior 91抖阴 rabbinical student Alisa Tzipi Zilbershtein, analyzed the state of the community, and its reactions to the unfolding events.

Jealousy and Gender in Rabbinic Literature

Feb 28, 2022 By Sarah Wolf | Public Event video | Video Lecture

鈥淢en are more likely to have anger issues.鈥� 鈥淲omen are more sensitive than men are.鈥� We are all familiar with gendered beliefs and stereotypes about emotion in today鈥檚 world. Presumptions about gender and emotion also existed in the time of the rabbis, though not necessarily the ones we鈥檇 expect. JoinDr. Sarah Wolfto look at rabbinic texts about jealousy and other emotions that are portrayed as negative or dangerous, noticing how gender roles function in these texts, and to reflect on how rabbinic ideas about gender and emotions can help us shed light on our own.

The Sanctity of the Schoolroom

Feb 25, 2022 By Ofra Arieli Backenroth | Commentary | Shabbat Shekalim | Vayak-hel

In the Poetics of Space, Gaston Bachelard (1884鈥�1962) highlights the importance of the home for each of us: 鈥淭he house, even more than the landscape, is a “psychic state,” and even when reproduced as it appears from the outside, it bespeaks intimacy鈥� (72). This week鈥檚 parashah speaks about building a home鈥攁 home for God. Reading the description of this process underscores for me, an educator and a scholar of the arts, the importance of aesthetics and beauty in what we study, the manner in which we study, and above all, the spaces where we study.

Protected: 鈥極ut of Zion Shall Go Forth Torah鈥�: Exploring and Unpacking the Weekly Parashah

Feb 24, 2022 By Matthew Berkowitz

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

On Needing Certainty Now

Feb 18, 2022 By Yitz Landes | Commentary | Ki Tissa

Imagine, for a moment, that you are an Israelite at the foot of Har Sinai. Over the past few weeks, your life has been turned upside down: you have witnessed mind-boggling miracles, you have been freed from slavery, and you have been brought out into the wilderness, to the bottom of Har Sinai. Too scared to go up the mountain (Exod. 19:18, 23), you and your fellow Israelites remain camped out below as Moses goes up and down, eventually staying up on top as God teaches him and prepares the Tablets. You know that you are going somewhere that you should consider home鈥攖o be sure, a place that you have never seen鈥攁nd you know that many of your practices must change.

Love During the Holocaust

Feb 14, 2022 By Edna Friedberg | Public Event video | Video Lecture

The Holocaust was one of the most profound ruptures in Jewish history. And yet, the foundational human emotion of love persisted鈥攁nd even blossomed鈥攊n the most devastating circumstances. Dr. Edna Friedbergexplores the varied manifestations of love鈥攔omantic, parental, platonic鈥攁t a time of terror and loss. Each of these forms of deep affection and connection offered psychological sustenance and sometimes spurred life-saving acts of courage and altruism. The session will draw from primary sources including diaries, oral testimonies, artifacts, and historical photographs.

Garments of Light

Feb 11, 2022 By Raymond Scheindlin | Commentary | Tetzavveh

Last week, we read God鈥檚 orders to Moses for the construction of the Tabernacle and its accoutrements. This week, our parashah continues on the subject of the Tabernacle and the preparations for starting the sacrificial cult, focusing on the Tabernacle鈥檚 personnel: the priests鈥攑articularly their vestments and the rituals for the priests鈥� consecration.

Unlocking the Gates of Heaven: The Transformative Power of Grief

Feb 7, 2022 By Rachel Rosenthal | Public Event video | Video Lecture

Grief is a primal emotion, often associated with paralysis, but sometimes it has the power to generate great change in the face of loss. In this session, we will study some rabbinic sources that focus on grief and the ways that the rabbis use it to transform their circumstances and their communities.

Holding God, Our Tradition, and One Another Close

Feb 4, 2022 By Jacob Blumenthal | Commentary | Terumah

As a leader in the Conservative-Masorti Movement, I see my own ambivalence around the use of technology on Shabbat and to form minyanim shared among many communities, clergy, and synagogue leaders. How should we position ourselves? Should the new opportunities provided by these technologies lead the way? Should we temper our enthusiasm? Should we heed Abraham Joshua Heschel鈥檚 call to experience Shabbat 鈥渋ndependent of technical civilization鈥� and trust in our inherited traditions to hold us together (The Sabbath, 28)?

Emotions and Reason, Experience and Intellect: Two Views of the Book of Psalms

Jan 31, 2022 By Benjamin D. Sommer | Public Event video | Video Lecture

What sort of religious experience does the Book of Psalms reflect and encourage? Does the book primarily appeal to our emotions, or is it first and foremost a work to be studied on an intellectual level? JoinDr. Benjamin Sommerto see how the Book of Psalms provides its own answers to these questions. By addressing these questions, we will have an opportunity to think about the relative places in Judaism of emotion and reason, heart and mind, and to explore the relationship between prayer and text-study in the Bible and rabbinic Judaism.

The Torah鈥檚 Creative Team

Jan 28, 2022 By David Shmidt Chapman | Commentary | Mishpatim

The metaphor of a playwright and director crafting a new play together can be applied to our parashah. The playscript God is developing is the set of mishpatim (rules), expanding on the Ten Commandments. God begins developing the 鈥渟cript鈥� in a speech to Moses in Exodus 21:1: 鈥淎nd these are the rules that you shall set before them . . . 鈥�

Between the Lines: When I Grow Up

Jan 26, 2022 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event video

Author Ken Krimstein discussed his book,When I Grow Up, a graphic narrative based on newly discovered, never-before-published autobiographies of Eastern European Jewish teens on the brink of WWII鈥攆ound in 2017 hidden in a Lithuanian church cellar.

Between the Lines: Sanctified Sex

Jan 24, 2022 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event video

Author Noam Zion discusses his book,Sanctified Sex, which draws on 2,000 years of rabbinic debates addressing competing aspirations for loving intimacy, passionate sexual union, and sanctity in marriage.

The Importance of Shame in Rabbinic Tradition

Jan 24, 2022 By David C. Kraemer | Public Event video | Video Lecture

We often think of shame or embarrassment as an experience to be avoided, and, to be sure, rabbinic tradition considers shaming someone else in public to be a grievous sin. But the Talmud also teaches that the capacity to feel shame is important, for the fear of shame will keep one from sin. JoinDr. David Kraemerto discuss this complicated emotion and how Jewish tradition 鈥渇eels鈥� about it.

Strangers at a Revelation

Jan 21, 2022 By Miriam Feldmann Kaye | Commentary | Yitro

Parashat Yitro is framed by the geographical and conceptual ideas of exile and homecoming. Against the backdrop of Bereishit, the notion of movement is critical in framing the experiences of biblical characters: the exile from Eden; the exile of Cain; the 鈥渃alls鈥� to Abraham, Jacob, and others to move, relocate, and find new homes.

Commanded to Remember

Jan 14, 2022 By Nicole Wilson-Spiro | Commentary | Beshallah

In our Torah portion, after Amalek鈥檚 unsuccessful attack on the Israelites, God says to Moses, 鈥淲rite this as a memorial in the book and tell it to Joshua because I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven鈥� (Exod. 17:14). Deuteronomy 25:17鈥�19 repeats the injunction: 鈥淩emember what Amalek did to you on your way after you left Egypt . .

Between the Lines: Embers of Pilgrimage

Jan 11, 2022 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event video

Dr. Eitan Fishbane talks about his book,Embers of Pilgrimage(Panui Publications), a collectionoforiginal poems incorporating imagery from the Zohar and other Jewish mystical works.

Between the Lines: Remember KHURBM: The Forgotten Genocide

Jan 10, 2022 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event video

Author Alexander Gendler shared his book,KHURBM 1914-1922: Prelude to the Holocaust. The Beginning, a collection of eyewitness testimonies and other sources that reveal the destruction of Jewish life by the Russian army during World War I.

Teach Your Children Well

Jan 7, 2022 By Dov Kahane | Commentary | Bo

In Parashat Bo, we read about 鈥淧esah Mitzrayim鈥濃€擥od鈥檚 instructions to the Israelites for the eve of their exodus鈥攊ncluding slaughtering the lamb and placing its blood on the doorposts as a marker of divine protection. In Exodus 12:21鈥�28, Moshe conveys these rites, including the need to explain them to children. Many of these passages are most familiar to us from the Passover Haggadah. What can we learn from the way they have been incorporated there?

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