91快播

Going to the Head of the Prayer Line

May 25, 2018 By Joel Alter | Commentary | Naso

Sharp elbows at shul extend beyond the kiddush table line and back into the sanctuary. Prayer鈥攐r giving honor to God鈥攃an be a competitive business. There are lots of reasons why this is so, and some of them even have to do with loving God. But showing off how we love God can get us into trouble.

Reading Ourselves into Rabbinic Readings of Scripture

May 25, 2018 By Jeremy Tabick | Commentary

Wherever Midrash is taught, we are trained in two schools of reading: Rabbi Yishmael鈥檚 stuck to straightforward readings of the biblical texts; Rabbi Akiva鈥檚 spun far-fetched interpretations, relying on the smallest of details.

This picture has been incredibly influential in Jewish life and discourse. Reactions are strong to both approaches. 

Making Torah Our Own

May 18, 2018 By Galeet Dardashti | Commentary | Text Study | Shavuot

The piyyut below was written by Rabbi Ya鈥檃kov Abihatzeira, an important religious figure in 19th-century Morocco. Sung in Moroccan communities primarily in honor of Shavuot, the piyyut portrays the Israelites鈥� acceptance of the Torah at Sinai. It depicts God as the beloved bridegroom entering into a figurative marriage with Israel, the bride, and playfully riffs on the Ten Commandments.

Politics as a Jewish Vocation

May 18, 2018 By Arnold M. Eisen | Commentary | Bemidbar

The book of Bemidbar, which aims to help its readers navigate the chaotic wilderness in which the Children of Israel have always lived and wandered, deals more directly than any other book of the Torah with what the great sociologist Max Weber called 鈥淧olitics as a Vocation.鈥�

The Theology of Meteorology

May 11, 2018 By Daniel Nevins | Commentary | Behar | Behukkotai

Imagine if your weather app displayed not images of sun and clouds, but icons of good and evil, like this: 鈽� 鈽�. Each city might have a virtue index鈥攚ith the weather forecast tracking not the jet stream but morality, indicated by a friendly or fierce face. City X has been charitable, so they can expect light rains followed by sunny skies, but City Y has seen an uptick in violent crime, so it is in for a drought or hurricane. Such a system sounds absurd, and yet it is basically what the Torah presents as a theology of weather.

A History of Holiness

May 11, 2018 By Alan Mittleman | Commentary

The term 鈥渉oly鈥� (kodesh as a noun or kadosh as an adjective) appears frequently in the Bible. The more abstract idea of holiness (kedushah) appears in rabbinic literature. We use holiness-language in everyday speech in English, as well as words such as 鈥渟acred.鈥� But do we know what we mean when we use these terms?

Who Belongs?

May 4, 2018 By Rachel Rosenthal | Commentary | Emor

Who is the Other? This question, which is asked more and more often in our world, is not often easy to answer. Can one choose to be part of a community? Are people who were once outsiders ever fully welcomed as insiders? In Judaism, these questions are especially important. While Judaism has categories to define and even praise non-Jews, opting into the Jewish community is not simple. However, the Talmud tells us that once someone converts to Judaism, we are supposed to treat them as any other Jew. Unfortunately, this is a mission in which many communities fail.

Sustaining the Popularity of Pirkei Avot

May 4, 2018 By 91快播 Alumni | Commentary

By Rabbi Martin S. Cohen (RS 鈥�78, GS 鈥�82) 

Given its age and the many places it diverges from modern sensitivities, it鈥檚 amazing just how popular Pirkei Avot has remained鈥攁nd, indeed, it would be more than fair to say that no part of our rabbinic heritage has launched more sermons or divrei torah. 

How to Be Holy

Apr 27, 2018 By Raymond Scheindlin | Commentary | Aharei Mot | Kedoshim

This week, we read two parashiyot from Leviticus: Aharei Mot and Kedoshim. Taken together, they cover five clearly defined topics. Aharei Mot deals with the rituals of the high priest on Yom Kippur; regulations governing the slaughter of animals for food and sacrifice; and the prohibition of various sexual relations, especially incest. This last subject is resumed at the end of Kedoshim. Between the two discussions of sexual relations is the famous Chapter 19, which opens Kedoshim.

It Passes and We Stay

Apr 20, 2018 By Jan Uhrbach | Commentary | Metzora | Tazria

A Light exists in Spring
Not present on the Year
At any other period鈥�
When March is scarcely here

The double parashiyot of Tazria and Metzora are devoted in their entireties to the Biblical notion of tumah, usually translated as 鈥渋mpurity.鈥� In them, we learn three of the major sources of tumah: childbirth (Lev. 12); a condition known as 迟锄补谤补鈥檃迟, which can manifest on skin, clothing, or the walls of one鈥檚 house (Lev. 13鈥�14); and bodily secretions (Lev. 15). The two other primary sources of tumah are touching or carrying the carcasses of certain animals (Lev. 11) and contact with a human corpse (Num. 19).

A Radical Rebbe

Apr 20, 2018 By 91快播 Alumni | Commentary

By Dr. Morris M. Faierstein (GS 鈥�75)

Rabbi Menahem Mendel of Kotsk (1787鈥�1859) is one of the most interesting and challenging figures of Hasidism in the nineteenth century. His search for truth and battles against falsehood and spiritual compromise are the subject of many legends. Though he was irascible and demanding, he inspired the loyalty of disciples who went on to become the dominant leaders of Hasidism in Poland from the middle of the nineteenth century until the destruction of Polish Jewry in the Holocaust.

Six Takes on a Leader鈥檚 Attributes

Apr 13, 2018 By Walter Herzberg | Commentary | Shemini

In chapter eight of Leviticus, Moses is essentially serving as temporary kohen gadol, high priest, during the dedication of the Mishkan, the Tabernacle. On the eighth day, according to Rashi, Aaron and his sons are officially inaugurated into the priesthood. Moses transfers the position to his brother Aaron, who along with his descendants will officially serve as priests and high priest. 

What Can Jewish Music Do?

Apr 13, 2018 By Nancy Abramson | Commentary

Music allows us to navigate through the loudness, to find the silence. Music organizes the loud sounds so that we can recognize the power of the quiet, acting as an intermediary between God鈥檚 loud, external 鈥減ersona鈥� and the quiet, holy, inner being where truth is found. Music hangs in the subtle balance between sound and silence. It is music that tunes up our beings, that tunes up the entire world, to allow for an interchange between the soft, inner and the loud, outer manifestations of truth.

Freedom through Torah

Apr 5, 2018 By David Hoffman | Commentary | Pesah

鈥淭he tablets were God鈥檚 work, and the writing was God鈥檚 writing, incised upon the tablets鈥� (Exod. 32:17). Do not read, 鈥渋ncised,鈥� (harut), rather [read] 鈥渇reedom鈥� (herut)鈥攆or no person is truly free except the one who labors in Torah. (Mishnah Avot 6:2)

Freedom in biblical and rabbinic Judaism is a highly complex idea. Consider the mishnah above. At first glance one might think the law, the Ten Commandments carved on the two tablets, would be limiting, constraining human freedom. Counterintuitively, the Sages argue that true freedom only comes from an engagement with Torah! How might 鈥渓aboring in Torah鈥� and living a life according to the demands of the Torah induce freedom?

The Pogrom that Endured

Apr 5, 2018 By Barbara Mann | Commentary

The sun shone, the blossom bloomed, and the slaughterer slaughtered.

The image of the slaughterer in springtime is an indelible part of the DNA of twentieth-century Jewish experience, juxtaposing as it does the casual brutality of history with the most mundane of natural events. Its source is Bialik鈥檚 epic poem about the Kishinev pogrom of 1903. Despite the many words written about the events of that April鈥攑ersonal testimony, journalistic reportage, memorial texts, poetry, and even a Broadway play (The Chosen People by Evgenii Chiriko)鈥攖he warp and woof of this particular incident simply won鈥檛 let us alone.

The Challenges of Change

Mar 30, 2018 By Mona Fishbane | Commentary | Pesah

I love Pesah, the holiday of intergenerational narrative. When we used to host the seder, our parents, siblings, and young children would join us at the table as we passed on and renewed the tradition each year. My husband鈥檚 puppet show was a favorite鈥攈e would spin a story from his vivid imagination鈥攊ncluding, in one memorable year, how the bad guys stuffed Matzah into the Omphalos, the center of the world, causing havoc and chaos, and how Moshe had to get it unstuck and open the pathways. Sesame Street meets Kabbalah.

Jews Behaving Badly

Mar 30, 2018 By 91快播 Alumni | Commentary

By Dr. Edward Portnoy (GS 鈥�08)

As a graduate student, I logged many, many hours in the old 91快播 Library (which has a special place in my heart) reading the seminal texts of Jewish life and history. I hunkered down next to my most beloved Jewish texts, Yiddish periodicals. While Yiddish newspapers and magazines may not be considered among traditional Jewish texts, they comprise an incredibly rich resource for the study of Jewish life from the 1860s through the 1930s.

Heroes of Jewish Heritage

Mar 23, 2018 By David Fishman | Commentary

Several months ago, I gave a lecture in Lviv, Ukraine, on my new book to a young non-Jewish audience. There are very few Jews left in Lviv (formerly Lemberg), even fewer than in Vilnius (formerly Vilna), where my book鈥檚 events take place. The audience listened attentively as I described the rescue of cultural treasures from the Nazis by a group of ghetto inmates nicknamed the Paper Brigade: a diary by Theodore Herzl, rabbinic manuscripts, Sholem Aleichem鈥檚 letters, paintings and sculptures.

Four New Questions from the Four Children

Mar 23, 2018 By Arnold M. Eisen | Commentary | Shabbat Hagadol

Here鈥檚 a challenge for the rising generations seated around the seder table this year: make sure your Four Questions address the ways in which things truly are different in 2018 from how they have been at Passovers in the past.

Leviticus on Love

Mar 16, 2018 By Arnold M. Eisen | Commentary | Vayikra

I was on a small cruise ship with my family in Alaska this summer, when a couple whom I had come to like and admire asked me with great respect a question that Jews have been been hearing from Christians for many centuries, one that had been put to me more than once by students at Stanford: 鈥淗ow can Jews worship the God of the Old Testament, so full of harsh judgment and wrath, and so unlike the God of the New Testament, who calls to human beings in love?鈥�