Search Results
Back to JTS Torah Online's Main page
Power in Pluralism: ΊΪΑΟΙη Community Organizing after October 7
Nov 18, 2024 By Rabbi Ayelet Cohen | Public Event video | Video Lecture
In American and Israeli societies, we often focus on what divides us and the differences in how we respond to tragedies. This session focuses on activism and organizing in ΊΪΑΟΙη religious communities across denominations, both in Israel and the US. How have we pulled together and what are the outcomes of this work?
Read More
Henrietta Szold’s Zionism and Ours
Nov 11, 2024 By Shuly Rubin Schwartz | Public Event video | Video Lecture
Henrietta Szold, JTSβs first female student, was the most learned ΊΪΑΟΙη woman in America in the first half of the last century. Attracted to the Zionist dream as a teen in Baltimore, she channeled her intellect and love for the ΊΪΑΟΙη people into Hadassah. Defying gender norms and expectations, she transformed the way ΊΪΑΟΙη women thought about their capabilities and the way many Jews approach their relationship to Zionism.
Read More
Shemini Atzeret, Rain, & Resurrection
Sep 23, 2024 By Mychal Springer | Public Event video | Video Lecture | Shemini Atzeret
In this session, we explore the unique themes of the Shemini Atzeret and hold them in dialogue with this moment of brokenness, the weight of war, the complexities of peoplehood, and the ongoing need for healing and rebirth.Β
Read More
Repentence and the Mystical ‘Rope’: The Divine/Human Relationship in ΊΪΑΟΙη Thought
Sep 16, 2024 By Shira Billet | Public Event video | Video Lecture | Rosh Hashanah | Yom Kippur
One of the most striking images of the divine-human relationship in ΊΪΑΟΙη thought is the kabbalistic image of a rope or cord that extends from God in the heavens into the soul of the human being. We explore a diverse array of ΊΪΑΟΙη thinkers over the centuries who have found this metaphor meaningful, especially in times of challenge and suffering, giving them hope to continue to strive to become closer to God. In the context of the High Holiday season, we give special attention to connections between this metaphor and themes and liturgies of the High Holiday season.
Read More
Between the Lines: Torah and Technology
Sep 10, 2024 By Library of the ΊΪΑΟΙη Theological Seminary | Public Event video | Video Lecture
In this volume,Β Torah and Technology: Circuits, Cells, and the Sacred Path,Β Rabbi Daniel NevinsΒ draws on 3,000 years of biblical and rabbinic texts to respond to pressing questions of contemporary life. These essays are presented in the form of responsa, or rabbinic guidance for Jews committed to practicing halakhah, but they are also of interest to any person who confronts ethical quandaries in our technocentric times.
Read MoreA New Understanding of Betzelem Elohim: Biblical Text Through the Lens of Disability Studies
Aug 12, 2024 By Ora Horn Prouser | Public Event video | Video Lecture
One of the most important biblical principles is that we are createdΒ betzelem Elohim,Β in Godβs image. While this idea has been used to assert value and dignity to each of us as individuals, it has also enabled us to expand our understanding of the Divine. Studying the Bible through the lens of Disability Studies has made this especially powerful.Β
Read More
Rabbi, Will You Do Our Wedding? New Approaches to Working With Interfaith Couples
Aug 5, 2024
Together we will think about the the impact and limits of disapproval policies, the purpose and meaning of the ΊΪΑΟΙη wedding ceremony and how to shift the conversation to a pastoral and relational one with a couple. A conversation that transfers responsibility for these questions from the community back to the couple, empowering them to articulate their identities and authenticities and determine their relationship to the narratives, rituals, symbols and faith statements of ΊΪΑΟΙη tradition.
Read More
Innovations in Ritual and Halakhah (Law) Around ΊΪΑΟΙη Divorce
Jul 22, 2024
What are the essential components of an egalitarian marriage ceremony and divorce?Β How can we ensure that the Conservative/Masorti movement’s ways of ΊΪΑΟΙη marriage and divorce reflect our spiritual values and ethical ideals?Β Rabbi Pamela Barmash, PhD and Rabbi Karen Weiss Medwed, PhD discussed the progress that has been achieved in this area and the challenges that remain.
Read More
Zionism and Antisemitism on Campus and Beyond
Jul 15, 2024
WithΒ Dr. Michael KayΒ (Day School Leadership Training Institute β08), Head of School, The Leffell School andΒ Rabbi Jason RubensteinΒ (Rabbinical School β11Β andΒ Kekst Graduate School β10), Executive Director, Harvard Hillel
Read More
X Troop: The Secret ΊΪΑΟΙη Commandos who Helped Defeat the Nazis
Jul 8, 2024
In June 1942, Winston Churchill and his chief of staff form a new commando unit made of ΊΪΑΟΙη refugees who have escaped to Britain. This top-secret unit, trained in counterintelligence and advanced combat, will stop at nothing to defeat the Nazis. Β
Read More
Judaism Is ΊΪΑΟΙη Love
Jul 1, 2024
In his new book Judaism is ΊΪΑΟΙη Love, Rabbi Shai Held offers the radical and moving argument that love belongs as much to Judaism as it does to Christianity. He sets out to contradict centuries of widespread misrepresentation that Christianity is the religion of love and Judaism the religion of law. Rabbi Held shows that love is foundational and constitutive of true ΊΪΑΟΙη faith, animating the singular ΊΪΑΟΙη perspective on injustice and protest, grace, family life, responsibilities to our neighbors and even our enemies, and chosenness.
Read More
Religious Misconceptions: American Jews and the Politics of Abortion
Jun 24, 2024
We begin by tracing the history of how American Jews contributed to reproductive politics by developing first amendment-based arguments for abortion rights. We also discussΒ the ways in which reproductive politics transformed American Judaism. In particular, we look at the many rituals that ΊΪΑΟΙη feminist leaders developed to support people undergoing abortion care and galvanize activists working for reproductive rights.Β Β
Read More
Jews in the American Political and Public Square
Jun 17, 2024
The extent of ΊΪΑΟΙη participation in the American political process far outweighs the relative number of Jews in the population. Yet the contemporary activism of Jews is consistent with a tradition of civic involvement from the earliest days of ΊΪΑΟΙη settlement in America. This webinar explored ΊΪΑΟΙη participation in the American political system. We briefly address the foundations of religious freedom in America through the nineteenth century, and then focus on the watershed politics of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, from labor strikes to landmark legal cases. In studying these issues, we plumb the depths of what it means to be a minority in a democratic society and what it means to be a Jew in the modern world.
Read More
What is the Torah, Actually? Preparing for Shavuot
Jun 3, 2024 By Benjamin D. Sommer | Public Event video | Video Lecture | Shavuot
Weβve heard its stories; weβve heard it chanted in synagogue; weβve seen it hoisted in the air displaying handwritten ink on parchment; weβve taken classes on it. But what, actually, is the Torah? A law code? A history book? An ancient novel? A saga? None of these categorizations quite fits. In this session, we consider what defines the distinctive genre of the Torah, where this genre comes from, how it reappears in ΊΪΑΟΙη culture over the agesβand what addressing these questions can teach us about the ΊΪΑΟΙη religion.
Read MoreJTS Alumni in the World: Scholarship and Impact
May 30, 2024 By ΊΪΑΟΙη | Public Event video | Video Lecture
Join esteemed JTS alumni to hear about the important contributions they are making through their work as scholars and thought leaders in their fields. Through their engagement with ΊΪΑΟΙη text, history, and thought, they are enhancing the spiritual and personal lives of individuals, building more inclusive communities, and preparing the leaders of tomorrow, ensuring a stronger ΊΪΑΟΙη future.Β Β
Read More
Gender, the Bible, and the Art of Translation
May 20, 2024
How should English translators of the Hebrew Bible approach questions relating to gender? When should gender-inclusive language (such as βGodβ or βpersonβ) be used for references to God and human beings, and when is gendered terminology (such as βKingβ and βmanβ) called for historically and linguistically? What does it mean to faithfully render biblical Hebrew into contemporary English, and how can translators share their methodologies and choices with readers and communities? We explore these questions, focusing on the newest Bible translation released by The ΊΪΑΟΙη Publication Society,Β THE JPS TANAKH: Gender-Sensitive Edition.
Read More
Praying for the Peace of Jerusalem
May 13, 2024 By Alan Cooper | Public Event video | Video Lecture | Yom Hazikaron-Yom Ha'atzma'ut
In Commemoration of Yom Hazikaron (Israelβs Memorial Day for Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terror)
With Dr. Alan Cooper, Elaine Ravich Professor of ΊΪΑΟΙη Studies, JTS
Read More
Art as Witness: The Work and Remarkable Survival Story of Esther Lurie
May 6, 2024 By Shay Pilnik | Public Event video | Video Lecture | Yom Hashoah
The survival story of celebrated artist Esther Lurie (1913-1998), the only Israeli artist to win the prestigious Dizengoff Prize for Drawing twice in her career, was beyond remarkable. After she made aliyah and established herself as a prominent artist in young Tel Aviv, Lurie was caught up in the claws of the Hitlerite monster while visiting her sister. From that point on, she was driven by two motivationsβto survive the Kovna Ghetto and several labor camps, and to bear witness to Nazi crimes through a series of brilliant, clandestine sketches and illustrations.
Read More
From Symposium to Seder: How The Rabbinic Adoption of Roman Party Conventions Became Our Passover Seder
Apr 15, 2024 By Robert Harris | Public Event video | Video Lecture | Pesah
In the years following the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, ΊΪΑΟΙη observance of Passover underwent a seismic shift. In lieu of the now impossible sacrificial Temple ritual, the rabbis adopted the Roman symposium in order to create a new type of festival meal, one that was rooted in new rituals and intellectual discourse. Together we explore what led to the rabbinic decision to conduct the Seder in this way, rather than opting for a different way to commemorate Passover, such as instructing the ΊΪΑΟΙη people to perform the sacrifice in their homes. We also examine some of the questions and answers in the Haggadah which are central features of the Roman symposium and core to our Haggadah.Β
Read More
βAwaiting the Good Hourβ: Hope in the Bible as a Resource for Religious Life
Apr 8, 2024 By Amy Kalmanofsky | Public Event video | Video Lecture
The capacity to hope is integral to religious life, yet contemporary realities can make it hard to feel and express hope. We explore what hope means in the context of the Bible, looking particularly at how the prophets Jeremiah and Isaiah use maternal imagery to convey hope, and consider how the Bible can be a valuable resource for cultivating a language of hope for us today.Β
Read MoreSUBSCRIBE TO TORAH FROM JTS
Our regular commentaries and videos are a great way to stay intellectually and spiritually engaged with ΊΪΑΟΙη thought and wisdom.