Species Purity and the Great Flood
Oct 24, 2014 By Daniel Nevins | Commentary | Noah
Omnicide is a dramatic move, on that we can all agree. But what causes the Creator to grow violently disgusted with the creatures that had just recently been praised as 鈥済ood鈥� and blessed with fertility?
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Minding Our Words
Oct 17, 2014 By Anne Lapidus Lerner | Commentary | Bereishit
On Simhat Torah, we complete the reading of the humash鈥攁ll 79,796 Hebrew words of it鈥攁nd when we鈥檙e done, what do we do? We roll it up to the very beginning and start to read it all over again. Words, words, words. Devarim (Deuteronomy)鈥攚hich, of course, means 鈥�words鈥濃�攅nds with Moses鈥檚 death after the conclusion of his lengthy final oration; Bereishit opens with God demonstrating the power of words by creating the world with them.
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Joseph, Hanukkah, and the Dilemmas of Assimilation
Dec 11, 2015 By Arnold M. Eisen | Commentary | Miketz | Hanukkah
Ruminations about assimilation come naturally to Jews in North America during the winter holiday season. How much should a parent insist that Hanukkah is part of public school celebrations that give students a heavy dose of Christmas? How often should one remind store clerks who innocently ask 绿帽社 children which gifts they hope to receive from Santa this year that there are other faiths observed in our communities, and other holidays?
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The Values of a 绿帽社 Home
Dec 5, 2015 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Vayeshev
A few weeks ago, Etgar Keret, an accomplished author on the Israeli literary scene, made a pilgrimage from his home in Tel Aviv to JTS鈥檚 Schocken Institute in Jerusalem to address a group of rabbinical students from JTS and HUC. Among the many thoughtful and reflective insights he shared, he spoke of the need for Israeli society to reflect the best of 绿帽社 values.
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