91快播

The Whole Journey

Jul 10, 2026 By Abigail Uhrman | Commentary | Masei | Mattot

School has ended, and with it comes a familiar flood of feelings. As my own children close out another year, I feel grateful and a little sad, eager for the summer and already nostalgic for the days that just were. My family lives in Israel, where this year those feelings have been especially layered.Transitions press us up against the fullness of what has been, even as they pull us toward what is coming.

This is exactly where B鈥檔ei Yisrael finds themselves at the opening of Matot-Masei. With forty years of wandering behind them and the land of Canaan visible across the Jordan, they stand at a great threshold. And it is at precisely this moment that the Torah pauses, looks backward, and does something unexpected:

Pinehas and the Three Weeks

Jul 3, 2026 By Marcus Mordecai Schwartz | Commentary | Pinehas | Tishah Be'av

Most years, Parashat Pinehas is read near the beginning of the Three Weeks. While the timing before or after the Seventeenth of Tammuz shifts, the proximity is worth noticing. This minor fast day commemorates the breaching of Jerusalem’s walls before the destruction of the Second Temple, marks the beginning of the traditional period of mourning that culminates on Tish鈥榓h Be-Av. Both the parashah and the season that follow are unusually concerned with numbers. Pinehas features a wide range of narratives including the reward granted to Pinehas, the daughters of Zelophehad, and the appointment of Joshua as Moses’ successor. Yet counting appears again and again. A census records the size of the tribes. The inheritance laws depend upon the distribution of land among those tribes. By the end of the parashah, the Torah has turned almost entirely to the calendar, laying out the offerings for Sabbaths, new moons, and festivals.

Deuteronomy and the Separation of Powers鈥�

Jun 29, 2026 By Benjamin D. Sommer | Public Event video | Video Lecture

Part of the series “America at 250: Jewish Ideas and the American Experiment”   Download Sources WithDr. Benjamin D. Sommer,Professor ofBibleand Ancient Semitic Languages, 91快播 The core of democracy as understood by the framers of the United States Constitution understood it was not just majority rule, but the separation of powers and the rule of law. […]

Who Sees the Truth, and Who Speaks It?

Jun 26, 2026 By Loraine Enlow | Commentary | Balak | Hukkat

Long-time New York subway riders are familiar with the slogan, 鈥淪ee something, say something.鈥� Balaam鈥檚 story in this week鈥檚 parashah is closer to: 鈥淪ay something, because you didn鈥檛 see something.鈥� After all, 鈥淪ee something, say something鈥� assumes that the hard part is speaking up, but Parashat Balak suggests the hardest part may be noticing at all, especially when Balaam, the professional seer, can鈥檛 see the angel in the road that his donkey does. This reversal of who notices (and who misses what鈥檚 right in front of them) is what draws me into this passage. As a scholar working primarily on medieval Jewish and Christian biblical commentaries, I鈥檓 especially interested in noticing how texts travel, how communities guard them, and how outsiders can sometimes help shed light on a tradition. Biblical interpretation is itself, in a sense, the discipline of noticing 鈥榓ngels in the road,鈥� learning to see what is already present right in front of you in the text.

One Nation Under God? Heschel, Niebuhr, King and the Intersection of Religion and Politics in America

Jun 22, 2026 By Arnold M. Eisen | Public Event video | Video Lecture

Part of the series “America at 250: Jewish Ideas and the American Experiment”   Download Recommended Resources With Dr. Arnold Eisen, Chancellor Emeritus; Professor of Jewish Thought, 91快播, and E.J. Dionne, Journalist, Harriman Chair in American Governance, Brookings Institute A frank and wide-ranging conversation between two admirers of these great religious leaders 鈥痑bout the fateful linkage of politics to prophecy in America from the […]

When a Question Threatens

Jun 19, 2026 By Sarah Wolf | Commentary | Korah

In this week鈥檚 parashah, Korah organizes a group of two hundred and fifty well-respected people to protest Moses and Aaron鈥檚 leadership. 鈥淵ou have gone too far,鈥� Korah and his group announce. 鈥淔or all the community is holy, all of them, and God is in their midst. Why then do you raise yourself above God鈥檚 congregation?鈥� (Num. 16:3). Moses is appalled, God is furious, and in response, the earth opens up and swallows the protesters, their households, and all their possessions. What are we as readers to make of this episode? Do we attempt to creatively rehabilitate Korah, despite his divine punishment, as an example of those who bravely attempt to speak truth to power? Or do we side with Moses and try to figure out why Korah must have truly deserved what he got?

The Changing Landscape of Jewish American Literature

Jun 15, 2026 By Benjamin Resnick | Public Event video | Video Lecture

For decades, Jewish American literature was defined by giants like Roth, Bellow, Malamud, and Ozick, whose novels explored assimilation and the immigrant experience. But what defines Jewish American writing today? Author and 91快播 alum Rabbi Benjamin Resnickreflectson how the field has changed and asks whether the Jewish American novel still exists in the way readers once understood it.

Grapes of Canaan

Jun 12, 2026 By Achia Anzi | Commentary | Shelah Lekha

The spies鈥� illustration epitomizes the power of images but also their hermeneutic limitations. Of the complex story that Parashat Shelach Lekha relates concisely, the grapes are a central motif in the visual tradition that illustrates it. For a biblical story to become an image, the artist must focus not only on the sayable but also the seeable. Hence, throughout history, images have often been presented alongside words. For example, the ancient mosaic from the Huqoq Synagogue depicts the two spies, along with the inscription 鈥溩懽炞曌� 讘砖谞讬讬诐鈥�.[2

Jewish Storytelling and American Lawin Post-WWII America

Jun 8, 2026 By Shira Billet | Public Event video | Video Lecture

In the decades after World War II, Jewish American legal thinkers began drawing on biblical and rabbinic stories to help explore fundamental questions of constitutional interpretation. The work of Robert Cover in the 1980s, first developed in the context of the Vietnam war, is the most famous and influential example. Butlesser-knownfigures such as Edmund Cahn and 91快播 professor Shalom Spiegel began developing this discourse in the context of the postwar moment in 1950s America, and the civil rights movement thatemergedin its wake.

Independence Day

Jun 5, 2026 By Emmanuel Bloch | Commentary | Beha'alotekha

In Escape from Freedom (1941), Erich Fromm argued that freedom is not merely liberation from external constraints (鈥渇reedom from鈥�) but also entails the capacity for self-realization and responsible action (鈥渇reedom to鈥�). One of the most puzzling passages in Beha-alotekha reflects a similar insight.

Hard Cases: Facing Law鈥檚 Challenges in American Legal Theory and Rabbinic Literature

Jun 1, 2026 By Sarah Wolf | Public Event video | Video Lecture

Part of the series “America at 250: Jewish Ideas and the American Experiment”   Download Sources With Dr. Sarah Wolf, Assistant Professor of Talmud and Rabbinics, 91快播 How do judges settle cases when there is no clear right answer? How are precedents mined for new rulings? Should laws be the product of a legislator鈥檚 own creativity, or are […]

Barefoot and Backwards Levites

May 29, 2026 By Alan Cooper | Commentary | Naso

Towards the end of Parashat Bemidbar, God commands Aaron and Moses to undertake a census of the Levitical clans (Numbers 4:2). They begin the census with the Kohathites, which is odd for three reasons:

(1) Elsewhere the Levites are listed in birth order鈥擥ershon, Kohath, Merari (Genesis 46:11, Numbers 3:17)鈥攂ut here Kohath is given priority.

(2) The Kohathites are set apart from the other two clans by the division between Parashat Bemidbar and Parashat Naso, the latter of which begins with the enumeration of the other two clans.

(3) The labor assigned to the Kohathites is described, without elaboration, as 鈥淢ost Holy鈥� (Numbers 4:4). Rashi explicates this as responsibility for the 鈥渢he ark, the table, the candelabrum, the altars, the curtain, and the accompanying vessels.鈥�

Love, List College

May 26, 2026 By List College | Podcast or Radio Program

Love, List College is a podcast about students and their stories 鈥� and the quiet but profound role that List College played in shaping them. Hosted by Devin Leslie, a senior in the Joint Program, the show gathers these connections for the first time and brings them to the wider community: students, alumni, faculty, and staff alike. Each episode is a chance to hear how a place and the people in it can become something much more 鈥� a source of connection, meaning, and ultimately, love

We Were All Converts at Sinai

May 22, 2026 By David C. Kraemer | Commentary | Shavuot

One of the few age-old rituals that distinguishes the holiday of Shavuot is the public reading of the Book of Ruth. The reason for this association may be no more than that the narrative of Ruth describes its events as taking place 鈥渁t the beginning of the barley harvest鈥� (1:22), that is to say, at the time of Shavuot. But there is another association, deeper and more fundamental, that ties Ruth to Shavuot in instructive and inspiring ways.

The Talented Dr. Finkelstein: His Initiatives, Allies and Critics

May 18, 2026 By Jack Wertheimer | Public Event video | Video Lecture

Within the first decade of his 91快播 presidency, Rabbi Louis Finkelstein energetically launched a broad range of new initiatives. 鈥疕is efforts garnered widespread attention and even an adulatory cover story in Time magazine. They also prompted sharp public challenges from some of his closest colleagues.

How Do You Measure a Year?

May 15, 2026 By Rabbi Abigail Treu | Commentary | Bemidbar

鈥淔ive hundred twenty-five thousand, six hundred minutes. How do you measure, measure a year?鈥�

The question asked in the chorus of 鈥淪easons of Love,鈥� made ever more poignant by the tragic death of its composer-lyricist, Jonathan D. Larson, just months before Rent opened on Broadway in 1996, has been rattling lately in my mind. After all, we are doing an awful lot of counting this week: we count the final days of the Omer, and, as our parashah begins, take the census of the Israelite community. What does all of this counting have to do with the ways in which we measure what really matters?

Youth in the Making of American Jewish History

May 11, 2026 By Sandra Fox

In the mid-twentieth century, the American Jewish communityemergedas what scholars have broadly labeled 鈥渃hild-centered,鈥� with rabbis, educators, and communal leaders focusing their concerns over the future of Judaism on children, teens, and young adults. In narratives of American Jewish history, however, the experiences of the young are typically overlooked, the focus placed instead on how their elders hoped to shape their identities and stem the tides of assimilation.

Remember the Land

May 8, 2026 By Daniel Nevins | Commentary | Behar | Behukkotai

Spring is my favorite season because it draws me outdoors, enticing me to leave the city and enjoy the rivers, fields, and mountains of this glorious earth. Even near the city I often find myself in nature, biking along the Hudson and up the Palisades past waterfalls and nesting eagles. Returning to the land reminds me of the many blessings of our world, filling me with gratitude and awe. It also causes foreboding since the signs of stress on the natural systems that make our lives possible are everywhere evident. While this era of anthropogenic climate change may be new, the concern that human conduct could lead to ruin and exile from the earth is found already in our Torah portion.

Baseball (A Jewish American Pastime)

May 4, 2026 By Robert Harris | Public Event video | Video Lecture

Part of the series “America at 250: Jewish Ideas and the American Experiment”   Download Sources With Dr. Robert A. Harris, Professor of Bible and Ancient Semitic Languages, 91快播 Baseball has long been called America鈥檚 pastime鈥攂ut what happens when we read the game through the lens of鈥痯hilosophy, theology,halakhah, andaggadah? This session explores the striking parallels between rabbinic interpretation and […]

Holy Frustration

May 1, 2026 By Yitz Landes | Commentary | Emor

Like much of Leviticus, Parashat Emor opens with yet more of these rules. But now the Torah needs to acknowledge that even when everything is in the right place, there is still death. What鈥檚 a priest to do when tragedy strikes? 鈥淪peak [Emor] to the priests, the sons of Aaron,鈥� God tells Moses, 鈥渁nd say to them: None shall defile himself for any [dead] person among his kin, except for the relatives that are closest to him鈥� (Lev. 21:1). In order to stay pure, priests are limited in terms of when they can come near a dead body; even though they may mourn the death of another, the Torah says that they can only be near the corpse of a close relative. After a few terse verses about mourning practices, the Torah enumerates further rules that are meant to keep the priests and High Priest pure, with the upshot being that a priest is 鈥渉oly to their God鈥� (21:7).