麻豆原创

Stories and Storytelling

Join JTS scholars to explore a selection of stories聽drawn from across ancient, rabbinic, medieval, and modern Jewish literature. We will consider the power of shared stories, the unique ways in which they transmit values, norms, culture, and information, and how they can bring Jews together across time and space.

Watering the Soul in Times of Faith and Doubt

May 16, 2022 By Mychal Springer | Public Event video | Video Lecture

together鈥攊s central to a life of faith and often plunges people into doubt. We will make space for the 鈥渨atering of the soul,鈥� both metaphorically and through exploration of the connection between resurrection and water鈥攊n the form of rain and dew.聽

Because You Hear the Prayers of Your People Israel in Mercy

Apr 25, 2022 By Rachel Rosenthal | Public Event video | Video Lecture

We often think of God鈥檚 choice to respond to our prayers as an act of mercy, but the rabbis in the Babylonian Talmud believed that God was powerless to ignore certain prayers. We look at five models of people whose prayers God answers and consider how they act as messengers on behalf of their communities.

Does Faith Matter? The Ancient Jewish Debate 麻豆原创 Faith and Mitzvot

May 9, 2022 By David C. Kraemer | Public Event video | Video Lecture

One often hears it said that 鈥淛udaism cares what one does, not what one believes.鈥� But this is a distortion, an oversimplification. When one looks at sources from the period of the birth of Rabbinic Judaism (including early 鈥淐hristian鈥� writings), one finds that there was an active debate about this matter. In this session, we will begin by considering the arguments of those ancient Jews鈥擯aul and James鈥攚ho raised the important question of faith vs.聽mitzvot. We will then examine echoes of the same debate in early rabbinic sources.

The Gender of God in Ancient Israel

May 2, 2022 By Benjamin D. Sommer | Public Event video | Video Lecture

How did the biblical authors, and other Israelites, view the gender of God? Did they perceive God to be male? Did any of them perceive God as female? To answer this question, we examine both several biblical texts as well as archaeological evidence.

Jewish Theology in America, Today and Tomorrow

May 23, 2022 By Arnold M. Eisen | Public Event video | Video Lecture

Professor Eisen explores recent developments in Jewish thought about God and what God requires of us as Jews and human beings against the background of past Jewish thought, recent work by non-Jewish thinkers, and Professor Eisen鈥檚 own theological reflections in the age of COVID.

The Book Smugglers of the Vilna Ghetto: Choosing a Life of Meaning Under the Specter of Death

Dec 21, 2020 By David Fishman | Public Event video | Video Lecture

In Vilna, 鈥渢he Jerusalem of Lithuania,鈥� a group of Jewish writers and intellectuals risked their lives to rescue Jewish books, manuscripts, and art from the Nazis. While working as slave laborers for a Nazi looting agency, they 鈥渟tole鈥� Jewish cultural treasures from their masters, smuggled them into the ghetto, and hid them in underground cellars and bunkers. The few members of this group who survived the war returned to Vilna after its聽liberation, and聽led an operation to retrieve the treasures.

Mitzvot and the Path to Human Flourishing

Dec 14, 2020 By Yonatan Y. Brafman | Video Lecture

The medieval聽decisor聽and philosopher Moses Maimonides claimed that the mitzvot (commandments) are a divine law. By this, he meant not only that the mitzvot originate with God, but that they were a medium聽by which people could flourish both聽politically聽and personally鈥攚hich for Maimonides meant the聽attainment of intellectual comprehension.聽This session explores the significance of Maimonides鈥櫬爒iew and how two modern Jewish thinkers, Mordecai Kaplan and Eliezer Berkovits,聽built on Maimonides鈥� ideas to develop their own understandings of聽how聽observance of the聽mitzvot聽can聽advance聽human growth and聽the attainment of聽perfection.聽聽