The Power of Partnership and Positive Thinking

Feb 26, 2014 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Pekudei

The raising of the Tabernacle was a daunting task for the Israelites.

Offerings As Devotion and Redemption

Feb 25, 2014 By Stephen A. Geller | Commentary | Pekudei

Parashat Pekudei ends with a tremendous scene, one of the highlights of the Bible: the divine Glory, the kavod, comes down from heaven and settles into the newly completed Tabernacle so that Moses cannot enter it.

Vayikra鈥擫ean Out

Feb 24, 2014 By Burton L. Visotzky | Commentary | Vayikra

This week we begin reading the middle book of the Five Books of Moses, Leviticus. Its position in the Torah scroll is not just coincidental; the laws of Leviticus are central to the earliest rabbis鈥� understanding of Judaism.

On Doubt and Prayer (Part 4): 鈥淪oul鈥� of Prayer

Feb 19, 2014 By Samuel Barth | Commentary

In the preliminary section of the morning service, the siddur guides us through some of the most basic concepts of our existence. We ask each day, 鈥�Mah anu? Meh chayeinu?鈥� (Who are we? What are our lives?), and I confess that I always wonder if the questions are rhetorical or if they demand from us, each day, an answer. Each day, we also turn to two paragraphs that address the core nature of every human being: the siddur invites us to affirm that we are more than 鈥渁 body with vessels and glands, organs, and systems of wondrous design鈥� (Siddur Sim Shalom for Weekdays, 4), and presents the challenging, inspiring, and even comforting words, 鈥�Elohai neshamah she-natata bi tehorah hi鈥� (My God, the soul You planted within me is pure). Very starkly, the soul is identified as a gift from God, created by God and 鈥渂reathed into us,鈥� that will one day be taken from the body. Unlike Descartes, who in his Meditations on First Philosophy reflects extensively on where precisely in the body the soul is to be located, the siddur does not deal with this question.

Wisdom of the Heart

Feb 19, 2014 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Vayak-hel

In many ways, Parashat Vayak-hel repeats the instruction of previous parashiyot.

The Future of Judaism and Islam on American Campuses

Feb 18, 2014 By 91抖阴 | Public Event video

Judaism and Islam have quite a bit in common, so how can these two religions learn from each other, especially in the collegiate setting? This topic is discussed in this Annual John Paul II Center Lecture, including panelists Imam Abdullah Antepli of Duke University, Rabbi Gail Swedroe of the University of Florida Hillel, and Professor Mehnaz Afridi of Manhattan College, and moderated by Huffington Post Executive Religion Editor Rev. Paul Raushenbush.

Moses As Prophetic Psychologist

Feb 12, 2014 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Ki Tissa

The notorious centerpiece of Parashat Ki Tissa is the episode of the Golden Calf.

On Doubt and Prayer (Part 3)

Feb 11, 2014 By Samuel Barth | Commentary

The droughts experienced recently in California and Israel became so severe that religious leaders of many faith traditions called for special prayers for rain. In the context of the history of Jewish liturgy, this is especially resonant, for much of our earliest data about rabbinic liturgy is based upon the detailed description of prayers for rain in the Mishnah (see Mishnah Ta鈥檃nit chapters 1 and 2, and extensive discussion in the Gemara). However, prayers for rain, especially in modernity, also bring us immediately into some of the most challenging contemporary reflections about prayer and ritual: 鈥淒oes it work?!鈥� Even though meteorology is far from an exact science, I suspect that there are few (if any) climate scientists who would include ritual gatherings, no matter how sincere, among the variables that determine the likelihood of rain.

Arts and Crafts: Commentary on Parashat Ki Tissa

Feb 11, 2014 By Alan Cooper | Commentary | Ki Tissa

There are aspects of the Bible鈥檚 account of the construction of the Tabernacle in the wilderness that seem incredible; so much so that early critical commentators tended to reject its historical accuracy out of hand.

Patient Autonomy in the Dying Process: A Jewish Perspective

Feb 10, 2014

This lecture explores Rabbi Moses Feinstein’s approach to establishing an appropriate balance between the strong Jewish legal mandate to preserve life and the value of maximizing patient autonomy. Rabbi Feinstein’s biblical and talmudic sources, as well as the philosophical and ethical implications of his theory for end-of-life issues in Jewish and comparative law, were discussed.

Dreamland of Humanists: Warburg, Cassirer, Panofsky, and the Hamburg School

Feb 10, 2014 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event audio

The recent discovery of a new trove of Nazi-looted art in Germany has awakened us to the world of culture and ideas that was lost when Hitler came to power. Dreamland of Humanists: Warburg, Cassirer, Panofsky, and the Hamburg School tells the forgotten story of Hamburg’s emergence as a center of that early 20th-century intellectual world.

The Eternal Light of Torah

Feb 5, 2014 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Tetzavveh

At the beginning of Parashat Tetzavveh, Moses is commanded to instruct the Israelites:

bring clear oil of beaten olives for lighting, for kindling lamps regularly. Aaron and his sons will set them up in the Tent of Meeting, outside the curtain which is over the Ark, to burn from evening to morning before the Lord. It will be a statute for the Israelites throughout all time, throughout the ages鈥� (Exod. 27:20鈥�21).

A Dress Code for Judaism

Feb 4, 2014 By Arnold M. Eisen | Commentary | Tetzavveh

I received a valuable insight into this week鈥檚 Torah portion over lunch one day about 20 years ago at the Stanford University Humanities Center. Across the table sat a female professor from China, newly arrived on her first visit to America. I was the first Jew she had ever met, and at some point the conversation shifted from the books we were writing to how Judaism differed from other faith traditions and communities in America. That鈥檚 when she startled me with an observation I shall never forget. 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 be significantly different from anyone else in this country. You are dressed exactly the same as they are.鈥�

Memory and Covenant

Feb 3, 2014 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event audio

Memory and Covenant: The Role of Israel’s and God’s Memory in Sustaining the Deuteronomic and Priestly Covenants combines a close reading of texts in the Deuteronomic, Priestly, and Holiness traditions with analysis of ritual and scrutiny of the different terminology regarding memory that is used in each tradition.

On Doubt and Prayer (Part 2)

Jan 29, 2014 By Samuel Barth | Commentary

Dan Savage offers a reflection on prayer that is both humorous and poignant, noting that, as a self-identified 鈥渓apsed Catholic,鈥� he prays only when he feels his life is in danger (in planes and when driving with his partner), and then never follows up, making him 鈥渘ot only an ingrate, but also a hypocrite鈥� (). Perhaps this is an updated version of the old adage, 鈥淭here are no atheists in foxholes.鈥�

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