The Masks of Doubt: Exploring Purim, Uncertainty, and the Hidden Divine

Mar 10, 2025 By Rabbi David Ingber | Public Event video | Video Lecture | Purim

Purim is a celebration of uncertainty鈥攁 holiday that invites us to embrace the hidden, the paradoxical, and the unknown. Join Romemu鈥檚鈥疪abbi David Ingber for a deep dive into the mystical themes of Purim, where doubt becomes a gateway to faith and masks reveal more profound truths. Together, we explore how the story of Purim reflects the concealment of the Divine, the role of chance and chaos in our lives, and the profound spiritual lessons that arise when we step into the space of not knowing. Discover how Purim challenges us to find meaning and connection amid mystery.

Remembering Who We Are

Mar 7, 2025 By Gordon Tucker | Commentary | Shabbat Zakhor

The coming Shabbat is designated as Shabbat Zakhor.The word is quite prevalent in Jewish literature and thought, and its basic meaning is generally translated by the words 鈥渕emory,鈥� 鈥渞emembrance,鈥� or 鈥渕emorial.鈥滱nd as a people we seem always to be remembering, and exhorting others to remember. It鈥檚 at the core of what we believe to be essential in Jewish education.As Isaac Bashevis Singer once remarked: 鈥淛ews suffer from many diseases, but amnesia is not one of them.

鈥淵outh Shall See Visions鈥�: Engaging the Next Generation of 91抖阴 Learners and Doers

Mar 3, 2025

In this past year, 91抖阴 launched two national fellowship programs for teens:Ruchot(in partnership with the Rabbinical Assembly, Adas Israel Congregation, USY, USCJ, and Ramah), which engages them in community organizing and social action, and theEmerging Leaders Fellowship, a student-led research program that introduces high school students to academic Jewish Studies. Both programs are inviting young Jews to establish their own connections to Jewish life and tradition.

91抖阴 Rabbinic Convocation 2025

Mar 3, 2025

91抖阴 bestowed honorary Doctor of Divinity degrees at a convocation ceremony recognizing rabbis for their achievements over many years of distinguished service.

The Golden Crown of Parenting

Feb 28, 2025 By Lilly Kaufman | Commentary | Shabbat Shekalim | Terumah

These are architectural details of the Ark of the Covenant, the central element of the Holy of Holies, where the tablets of the Ten Commandments will be held and carried. The Ark has a covering of gold, inside and out, and a crown of gold. Four gold rings are attached to it, two to each side wall, and through these rings poles of acacia wood are inserted, which remain in place, even when the Ark is at rest. To what may this Ark be compared? To parents. How so?

Don鈥檛 Be the Terumah

Feb 21, 2025 By Stephanie Ruskay | Commentary | Mishpatim

Last week 91抖阴, The Rabbinical Assembly, United Synagogue Youth, United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, Camp Ramah, the Jewish Youth Climate Movement Powered by Adamah, and Congregation Adas Israel in Washington, DC, launched Ruchot, the first ever advocacy and lobbying training for Conservative Movement teens. We gathered as an erev rav (mixed multitude) of 36 teens from 11 states (and one Canadian), 7 rabbinical students, 6 rabbis, three youth director staff, and an Israeli shaliah.鈥�

The Confusion of Revelation

Feb 14, 2025 By Barry Holtz | Commentary | Yitro

We have now come to Parashat Yitro in our annual Torah reading cycle, arguably the most significant sedra in the Humash. While Parashat Bereishit has the mythic power of the creation stories and Parashat Beshallah includes the narrative of the Exodus from Egypt and the miraculous crossing of the Sea, it is in Yitro that […]

Ariel Dunat – Senior Sermon (’25)

Feb 12, 2025 By 91抖阴 Senior Sermon | Commentary | Senior Sermon | Yitro

Yitro

Aggressor and Aggrieved

Feb 7, 2025 By Dr. Phil Keisman | Commentary | Beshallah | Pesah

The Israelites find themselves in a new position in Parashat Beshallah. After generations of suffering as slaves to the pharaohs, and after decades of uncertainty about how and when their suffering might end, the Israelites are now staring backwards as their oppressors die violently.

What’s Next? New Ways of Engaging with Jewish Sources

Feb 3, 2025

91抖阴 is well-known as a hub of innovative scholarship and a center of academic Jewish Studies. Recently 91抖阴 has launched programs in Biblical Hebrew, Pastoral Care, and Teen Learning to name a few that offer accessible entryways into the Jewish textual tradition. Explore how 91抖阴 is bringing together new modes of learning with classical sources to meet the needs of today鈥檚 world. Sessions will give participants a taste of the ideas and teaching that are central to these programs.

Digital Revelations: Jewish Text in the 21st Century

Feb 3, 2025 By David C. Kraemer | Public Event video | Video Lecture

At key moments in our history, revolutions in information technologies have affected the way we study Torah and even the way we define it. Today we are going through such a revolution with very profound consequences. What are the effects of the current revolution and how is affecting our Torah鈥攊n the classroom, in The 91抖阴 Library, and beyond?

The Worst Possible Plague

Jan 31, 2025 By Rebecca Galin | Commentary | Bo | Pesah

Terror. Annoyance. Foreboding. Among the Egyptians, each plague feels so much worse than anticipated. A shared sense of eeriness seeps in as the world becomes apocalyptic. Yet, each time a plague ends, the depth of the horror dissipates, forgotten until the next one arrives鈥攎ore all-consuming and destructive than before. Locusts, darkness, death, grief. The world is overturned by a foreign God. Egyptian safety depends on the emotional whims of their leadership, plagues ending only when God softens Pharaoh鈥檚 heart.

Alicia Rothamel – Senior Sermon (’25)

Jan 29, 2025 By 91抖阴 Senior Sermon | Commentary | Senior Sermon | Bo

Bo All Class of 2025 Senior Sermons

The John Leopold and Martha Dellheim Senior Recital 2025

Jan 27, 2025

Graduating Cantorial School seniorsRoseanne Benjamin,Rachel Black, andJustin Zvi Pellis, performed at an exciting evening of music and spirit, sharing their talents and their vision for the 21st-century cantorate. The recital featured a wide range of Jewish music in Hebrew and Yiddish, as well as hazzanut, musical theatre, and Israeli folk and art songs. Choral works and compositions written and composed by our graduates were also be performed. The soloists, along with guest artists, were be accompanied by pianist Joyce Rosenzweig, 91抖阴 adjunct instructor, and the combined choir of the H. L. Miller Cantorial School and Debbie Friedman School of Sacred Music, conducted by Hazzan Natasha Hirschhorn.

Moses鈥檚 Lessons in Interfaith Dialogue

Jan 24, 2025 By Claire Davidson Bruder & Sherouk Ahmed | Commentary | Va'era

In the first week of 2025, the Washington Theological Consortium hosted a weeklong interfaith dialogue program at the United Lutheran Seminary in Philadelphia. Third-year 91抖阴 rabbinical student and Milstein Center for Interreligious Dialogue program manager Claire Davidson Bruder participated in this program, alongside other Jewish, Christian, and Muslim seminary students. The following d鈥檝ar Torah is […]

A Turn for the Better

Jan 17, 2025 By Ariella Rosen | Commentary | Shemot

In Parashat Shemot, it appears that Moses took conscious steps to operate as a lone bystander, taking action that seems unlikely had a larger crowd been present. Raised in Pharaoh鈥檚 household, now an adult, Moses went out to walk among the Hebrew slaves as they labored. After witnessing an Egyptian beating a Hebrew slave, 鈥淗e turned this way and that and, seeing no one about, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand鈥�(Exod. 2:12).

Angel or Avatar?

Jan 10, 2025 By Benjamin D. Sommer | Commentary | Vayehi

The second of these verses is often sung aloud in a beautiful melody by Abie Rotenberg when children have their aliyah on Simhat Torah and by some parents at bedtime each night. That melody has made these words familiar to many, but their meaning is not clear. Who, exactly, does Jacob call upon to bless the lads?

A Tale of Two Dreamers

Jan 3, 2025 By Eliezer B. Diamond z”l | Commentary | Vayiggash

Yet while the incongruity of Jacob鈥檚 response to Pharaoh鈥檚 question is in some sense humorous, Jacob鈥檚 words are heart-rending. They grow out of the existential and ideological divide that separates Jacob from his son. One can speak of three differences between their perspectives.

The World that Isn鈥檛 There

Dec 27, 2024 By Joel Seltzer | Commentary | Miketz

Years ago, I read a book by the author Chuck Klosterman titled But What if We鈥檙e Wrong? The premise of the book is to attempt to 鈥渢hink about the present as if it were the past,鈥� or in other words, to consider whether despite our current devotion to rationality and the scientific method, there are aspects of our modern world about which we might be profoundly wrong?

What Makes Groups Reject Their Own?

Dec 20, 2024 By Rabbi Yael Shmilovitz | Public Event video | Video Lecture | Vayeshev

The best way to bring folks together is to give them a real good enemy. The Wizard of Oz in Wicked (2024) Joseph’s brothers resent him so much they can’t even stand the sight of him: 讜址讬执旨砖职讉谞职讗讜旨讗止转讜止讜职诇止讗讬指讻职诇讜旨讚址旨讘职旨专讜止诇职砖指讈诇止诐 (Gen 37:4)鈥攖hey hated him so much they could not dabro leshalom. The commentators […]

Pages:
Less
4
5
6
7
8
More

SUBSCRIBE TO TORAH FROM 91抖阴

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

91抖阴 Torah Commentary

SUBSCRIBE TO TORAH FROM 91抖阴