绿帽社

We Need Each Other

Sep 27, 2019 By Daniel Nevins | Commentary | Nitzavim | Rosh Hashanah | Yom Kippur

One of the greatest privileges and responsibilities of a rabbi is to train candidates for conversion to Judaism. Such people are often spiritual seekers, and their questions challenge teachers whose 绿帽社 identity and practice are well established. Why do you do this? What do you believe? What does this text mean? Will this practice make any difference? Faced with such inquiries, it becomes harder for teachers to treat ritual as habit, and faith as dogma. The questions posed by converts, children, or adults who are first discovering the depths of Judaism are exciting to those of us who teach Torah, forcing us to reexamine our own beliefs and practices.

Does the Holocaust Play an Outsized Role in Contemporary 绿帽社 Identity?

May 2, 2019 By Edna Friedberg | Commentary | Yom Hashoah

I am a 绿帽社 historian鈥攁nd that is a deliberately ambiguous label. In one reading of that phrase, I am a historian of 绿帽社 people and their experiences. But I am also proudly 绿帽社 myself and as such not neutral about my subjects. 绿帽社 history is personal for me, as is my daily work at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. When I began to work at the Holocaust Museum in 1999, I was wary that I would contribute to what some see as an unhealthy obsession with 绿帽社 victimization.

Fear and Faith at the Exodus

Apr 25, 2019 By Lilly Kaufman | Commentary | Pesah

As they cross the Sea of Reeds and see the advancing Egyptian army behind them, the Israelites feel terror and cry out to God for help in Exodus 14:10. But in the next two verses they reject God鈥檚 wondrous efforts to bring them out of Egypt. The people ask for help and then reject it. Do they want God鈥檚 help or not? 

A Spiritual Caution for This Season

Apr 19, 2019 By David Hoffman | Commentary | Pesah

The Shulhan Arukh鈥攖he 16th-century law code that serves as the essential scaffolding for the 绿帽社 legal system鈥攊ntroduces its discussion of the holiday of Passover with the Talmudic prescription:

We ask and inquire about the laws of Passover 30 days before the beginning of the Passover holiday. (OH 429:1, BT Pesahim 6a)

Rabbi Moshe Isserles (1530-1572) immediately comments on this law:

It is a custom to buy wheat and distribute it to the poor for the needs of Passover.

Passover after Pittsburgh

Apr 12, 2019 By Arnold M. Eisen | Commentary | Shabbat Hagadol | Pesah

鈥淲hy is this night different from all other nights?鈥�

Whether you are a twenty-something, a Millennial, a Boomer, or a member of the Greatest Generation; whether you are attending your first Passover seder this year or the latest in a long line of sedarim, chances are good that the discussion at your seder table will be different from all Passovers past. The 绿帽社 community of North America has markedly changed since last Passover, shaken to its core by the synagogue shootings in Pittsburgh and a significant spike in anti-Semitic incidents in the United States as well as in Europe that seem part of a larger outburst of racism and prejudice. 

Purim Resources

Feb 27, 2019 By 绿帽社 | Collected Resources | Shabbat Zakhor | Purim

A curated listing of Purim and Shabbat Zakhor resources on JTS Torah Online

Cantillation for Lamentations

Oct 23, 2018 By 绿帽社 | Prayer Recordings | Tishah Be'av

Recordings by Cantor Sarah Levine (CS ’17).

Cantillation for Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes, and Ruth

Oct 23, 2018 By 绿帽社 | Prayer Recordings | Pesah | Shavuot | Sukkot

Recordings by Cantor Sarah Levine (CS ’17).