91抖阴

Pesah: The Great Redemption

Apr 23, 2005 By Ismar Schorsch | Commentary | Aharei Mot | Shabbat Hagadol

The Shabbat just prior to Passover is known as the Great Sabbath, Shabbat HaGadol.

Elijah the Prophet

Apr 23, 2005 By Ismar Schorsch | Commentary | Shabbat Hagadol

The Shabbat just prior to Passover is known as the Great Sabbath, Shabbat ha鈥揋adol. It is not one of the four special Sabbaths that span the month of Adar to herald the coming of Passover (Shekalim, Zakhor, Parah and ha鈥揌odesh).

The Theology of the Jewish Calendar

Apr 9, 2005 By Ismar Schorsch | Commentary | Shabbat Hahodesh | Pesah

With Shabbat ha-Hodesh, we are just two weeks away from the first seder. Passover does not usually fall this late in April. A leap year accounts for its delay. In the Jewish calendar, unlike the secular one, a leap year consists of adding an extra month, and there are seven such leap years within every cycle of nineteen years. The month that is doubled is Adar, the last month of the year, the one in which we celebrate Purim. Hence, in a leap year, Purim comes in the second Adar (adar sheni) and Passover, thirty one-days later.

God As a Tragic Character

Apr 2, 2005 By Ismar Schorsch | Commentary | Shabbat Parah | Shemini

Ours is not the first generation to discover that we live in an imperfect world.

The Power of the Mind Over Reality

Mar 25, 2005 By Ismar Schorsch | Commentary | Tzav

Judaism is a choir of many voices.

Leadership in Revelation

Mar 19, 2005 By Ismar Schorsch | Commentary | Vayikra

Modernity erupted in Jewish history in 1782 in the garb of midrash.

The Key to Salvation

Feb 26, 2005 By Ismar Schorsch | Commentary | Ki Tissa

The jarring truth about the episode of the golden calf is that it occurred at Mount Sinai.

Why Jews Light Candles

Feb 19, 2005 By Ismar Schorsch | Commentary | Tetzavveh

Judaism is hard to imagine without candles.

The Grandeur and Grace in Our Lives

Feb 12, 2005 By Ismar Schorsch | Commentary | Terumah

In Hebrew it is customary not to pronounce the name of God as written.

Reverence for Contradictory Texts

Feb 5, 2005 By Ismar Schorsch | Commentary | Mishpatim | Shabbat Shekalim

Sometimes the smallest of words contains the largest of meanings.

Society and the Stranger

Feb 5, 2005 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Mishpatim

The Power to Serve

Jan 29, 2005 By Ismar Schorsch | Commentary | Yitro

Judaism is an elaborate way of relating to God as the source of existence and the provider of ultimate meaning.

Accounting for God’s Silence

Jan 22, 2005 By Ismar Schorsch | Commentary | Beshallah

In his utterly engrossing autobiography, A Tale of Love and Darkness, which came out in Hebrew in 2002, Amos Oz describes the elderly maidservant in the home of his maternal grandparents in Ukraine as being stone deaf.

Preparing to Hear

Jan 8, 2005 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Va'era

Last week’s parashah, Sh’mot, closes on a discouraging note. Having remained loyal to the command of God, Moses and Aaron stand before Pharaoh conveying the word of God, “Let My people go…” In rage and defiance, Pharaoh not only denies the request, but further embitters the lives of the Israelites as he refuses to provide straw for the slaves. They must now break their backs gathering materials to make the same quota of bricks as before. Though lifted by a moment of hope upon hearing that God had taken note of their plight, the Israelites now become impatient and enraged, even skeptical of Moses’ message. After being reproached by a group of Israelites, Moses turns to God asks candidly, “Why did You bring harm upon this people?” This week’s parashah, Parashat Va鈥揺ra, opens in a moment of prophetic frustration and divine assurance.

Human Experiences of the Divine

Jan 8, 2005 By Ismar Schorsch | Commentary | Va'era

Maimonides’ incomparable twelfth-century code of Jewish law opens with a resounding theological preamble, “The basic principle of all basic principles and the pillar of all sciences is to realize that there is a First Being who brought every existing thing into being” (Isadore Twersky, A Maimonides Reader, 43).

Hereafter and Here Now

Dec 25, 2004 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Vayehi

Zebulun, Issachar and the Importance of Jewish Education

Dec 25, 2004 By Ismar Schorsch | Commentary | Vayehi

The enterprise of Jewish education, on which the future of the Jewish people rests, has always been a partnership between educators and patrons.

Cultivating an Ethic of Responsibility

Dec 18, 2004 By Ismar Schorsch | Commentary | Vayiggash

Jewish history unfolds as a dialectic between exile and homeland.

What’s in a Name

Dec 11, 2004 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Miketz

Names and titles speak to our very essence. This truism becomes all the more clear as we explore Parashat Miketz.

Sources of Comfort

Dec 10, 2004 By Melissa Crespy | Commentary | Vayehi

Some things, it seems, are not just coincidences. As I write these words, I am still in the sheloshim – the 30 day mourning period – for my 38-year-old brother Jonathan, who died suddenly of a massive heart attack. And our parasha deals with the end of the life of Jacob, who, though he lived one hundred and forty-seven years, described his “years of sojourn” on earth as “few and hard.” (Genesis 47:9)