91快播

From the Outside In:
How a History of Marginalization Affects Jewish Responses to Marginal Populations Today

May 10, 2021 By Daniel Nevins | Public Event video | Video Lecture

In the book of Numbers, the gentile prophet Balaam says that the people Israel are 鈥渁 nation that dwells apart.鈥� This has been both a blessing and a curse. How has the experience of marginalization defined Jewish identity? Join Rabbi Daniel Nevins to look at classical Jewish texts and then consider their implications for the role of Judaism in addressing marginalization in contemporary contexts.

Why Do Jews Still Adhere to the Torah鈥檚 Covenant?

May 7, 2021 By Jeremy Tabick | Commentary | Behar | Behukkotai

Why do we, as Jews, have fealty to the Torah? Why do many of us feel bound by the Torah鈥檚 laws?

Entering Our Mother鈥檚 House:
The Book of Ruth as a Model for Welcoming the Other

May 3, 2021 By Amy Kalmanofsky | Public Event video | Video Lecture

The book of Ruth tells the story of a Moabite woman who marries an Israelite man and ensures the future of the house of Israel. Join Dr. Amy Kalmanofsky to examine how this remarkable book understands the formation of identity and how it offers a model of inclusion that remains relevant and essential today.

Racial Justice and Jewish Values

May 2, 2021 By Gordon Tucker

Struggling to Celebrate

Apr 30, 2021 By Naomi Kalish | Commentary | Emor

While Parashat Emor contains one of the Torah鈥檚 discussions of holidays and instructions for their observances, rabbinic literature provides guidance for their observance in the context of the complexities of the participants鈥� lives, even those who might be struggling to celebrate.

“It is the music that makes us the Abayudaya:” The Cantors Assembly in Uganda

Apr 29, 2021 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event video

In winter 2019, members and affiliates of the Cantors Assembly traveled to Uganda on a mission of solidarity, learning, and peoplehood with the Abayudaya Jewish community. Trip participants Dr. Amanda Ruppenthal Stein and Hazzan Jeremy Stein discuss the experiences by the CA mission鈥檚 participants. Part of Musical Journeys with The Library of 91快播.

Like It鈥擮r Not? The Existential Tension of Similarity and Difference

Apr 26, 2021 By Jan Uhrbach | Public Event video | Video Lecture

Foundational Jewish texts point to a series of irresolvable dilemmas or polarities at the heart of the human condition, among them the way in which each of us is bothlike, andunlike,allothers. How does this fundamental tension manifest in our personal relationships, our collective challenges, and our religious expressions, and what wisdom does our tradition offer to help us manage, and even grow from, our differences?

The Palace of Torah Expanded: 15 Years Later

Apr 23, 2021 By Daniel Nevins | Commentary | Aharei Mot | Kedoshim

For many modern readers, engaging with Torah presents a paradox. Biblical and rabbinic voices reaching us from the distant past are like starlight emitted millennia ago鈥攂rilliant and often shockingly current, but also artifacts from light sources that may have dimmed or even expired. This paradox can be constructive, drawing modern readers out of our own cultural assumptions, challenging us to notice wonders that we might otherwise miss. The Torah鈥檚 poetry, its stirring demands for justice, and its vast system of devotional rites prime us for faith and sanctity. And when we encounter a Torah text that rings false or hurtful, we may use that encounter to clarify our own understanding, to articulate our community鈥檚 sacred values. 

The Jewish Music of Leonard Bernstein

Apr 22, 2021 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event video

Hazzan David F. Tilman examines the works of Leonard Bernstein using a rich variety of musical recordings and archival photographs.

Dangerous Religious Ideas: The Deep Roots of Self-Critical Faith in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam

Apr 20, 2021 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event video

In Dangerous Religious Ideas, Rabbi Mikva argues all religious ideas are dangerous鈥攏ot only those we might consider extremist, but even those that stand at the heart of faith. Because most religious traditions have always understood this peril, they have transmitted tools of self-critique as essential to their teachings.

Nonhuman Others: The Jerusalem Talmud on Animal Ethics

Apr 19, 2021

When we think of others, we often think of human others鈥攖hose different from ourselves. Yet we live in a world populated by a multitude of other animals that we interact with in a variety of roles such as companions, laborers, helpers, and food.

What does the Jewish tradition tell us about how we ought to treat and behave toward these animals that fill our world? Through a close reading of a narrative in the Jerusalem Talmud, we will uncover how one may use animals as workers, or for the sake of human needs, while also treating them as subjects, noticing and caring for their sufferings. This, according to the Talmud, is the ideal ethical stance for how to behave towards nonhumans. 

The Values of a Jewish Home

Apr 16, 2021 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Metzora | Tazria | Yom Hazikaron-Yom Ha'atzma'ut

In the precious days 鈥淏efore the Coronavirus Era鈥� (B.C.E.), the parshiyot of Tazria-Metzora seemed wholly disconnected from our lives, presenting the perennial challenge of relevance (or irrelevance) to even the most talented darshan (sermonizer). How are we to connect leprous plagues attacking both body and abode to our daily lives? And to what extent does the experience of quarantine resonate with our modern reality? These are only two of the many questions that we would have posed in a pre-Covid world.

Cantors, Controversy, & Compassion: Searching for God in Musical Complexity

Apr 15, 2021 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event video

What are the spiritual possibilities of music? Five-hundred years ago, rabbis, cantors and Jewish musicians began to explore this question in dramatic new ways. Extended niggunim, orchestras to welcome the Sabbath bride, meshorerim (musical assistants to the cantor), new Hebrew treatises on music, and the borrowing of European musical technique and style contributed to this experimental climate in the synagogues of early modern Europe. But these changes also incited concern and anger from traditionalists, who worried that musical complexity would compromise the halachic and spiritual integrity of authentic prayer.

91快播 Changemakers: What’s Next for Jewish Life?

Apr 15, 2021 By 91快播 | Public Event video

A year of pandemic has upended almost every aspect of Jewish life. But it has also opened our eyes to new ways of learning, praying, gathering, and celebrating. 91快播’s Rabbi Danny Nevins asks four 91快播 alumni, each a leading Jewish thinker and innovator: what comes next for Jewish life? How can the lessons of Covid strengthen the way we build community going forward?

Learning Torah from the Talmud鈥檚 Greatest Gentiles

Apr 12, 2021 By Rachel Rosenthal | Public Event video | Video Lecture

The Talmud, in Sanhedrin, says that it is forbidden for non-Jews to learn Torah. However, throughout rabbinic literature, the rabbis frequently imagine themselves engaging in dialogue about religious issues with non-Jews, be they kings or merchants. Why do the rabbis use these gentiles as repositories of Jewish wisdom and questions, and what might that tell us about how they understand their relationship to the larger world?

The Seed of the Rabbinic Revolution

Apr 9, 2021 By | Commentary | Shemini

How important is intention in Jewish law? Do I need to be mentally present when performing commandments, or is it enough to go through the motions and get it done? How often does the Torah care about what I鈥檓 thinking? For many of us the answers to these questions would seem obvious: Of course, God demands active engagement with the commandments! Why are mitzvot worth doing if I鈥檓 not going to be mindful in their performance? In reality, these answers are a product of the revolutionary interpretations of the Torah by the early rabbinic sages.

Playing for Our Lives: Terezin as a Composer鈥檚 Inspiration

Apr 8, 2021 By Gerald Cohen | Public Event video

Cantor Gerald Cohen, composer and assistant professor in the H. L. Miller Cantorial School, will speaks about his composition, Playing for Our Lives, written as a tribute to the music and musicians of the Terezin, perform the composition.

All the Horrors of War

Apr 6, 2021 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event video

All the Horrors of War follows Hugh Llewelyn Glyn Hughes, a high-ranking British officer, and Rachel Genuth, a Jewish teenager from the Hungarian provinces, as they navigate the final, brutal year of World War II. Their stories converge before the war鈥檚 end, in Bergen-Belsen, where Hughes finds himself responsible for an unprecedented situation: thousands of war-ravaged inmates are in need of immediate hospitalization, including Genuth.

Looking Back at Jews and the Civil Rights Movement

Apr 5, 2021

The story of how Jews were key allies to African Americans in the Civil Rights Movement is well known. But when historical narratives become conventional wisdom, it can lead to stagnation. Now, many are asking when it comes to Black-Jewish relations, where do we go from here? In this session, led by Dr. Jason Schulman, we will look back at the story of Jews and the Civil Rights Movement to explore some new directions for the study of the field and new bases for honest dialogue.

Learning from God to Anticipate the Reactions of Others

Apr 2, 2021 By Walter Herzberg | Commentary | Pesah

Why do we eat matzah on Passover? According to the instructions that God conveyed to Israel prior to the Exodus we eat matzah because we are commanded: 鈥淪even days you shall eat unleavened bread (matzot)鈥� (Exod. 12:15). However, according to Exod. 12:39, where the narrative of the events is related, we eat matzah because the Israelites, having been driven out of Egypt, were unable to linger to allow time for the dough to rise: 鈥淎nd they baked unleavened cakes (matzot) . . . because they were thrust out of Egypt and could not tarry.鈥� If so, why does the Torah present the mitzvah (the command) before the Exodus has actually taken place?