Jewish Pentimenti & Looking Backwards For A Media Future: Jewish Media Fellowship Reflection

By Eli Hurwitz June 16, 2022

“What would these Jewish futures look like? What would our canon become, and what would new Jewish media look like? Maybe most importantly, what choices can we make to bring these Judaisms into the present?”

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Queen Esther’s Second Seder

By Zach Beer April 12, 2022

The Talmud says the story of Purim happened over Passover. Who says second night seder isn’t special?

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My queerness is more than just a Bible verse

By Amram Altzman May 6, 2016

On this weekend, five years ago, a community member of the synagogue in which I’d grown up stood up at the podium of my teen minyan, and talked about the verse in this week’s Torah portion — one that’s served as the basis for discrimination against queer Jews for decades. I had just come out…

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Baruch Dayan ha-Emet: A D’var Torah For a Shabbat Seeking Shalom

By Evan Goldstein January 9, 2015

As I write this Friday night, several things are true. A prolonged manhunt continues in France, pursuing suspects involved with an attack on a kosher supermarket. The Grand Synagogue of Paris is closed on Shabbat for the first time since World War II, a harrowing start to 2015 following a year of resurgent, ugly anti-Semitism….

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5 Layers of Soul

By David G. August 29, 2014

As someone with quite an anti-authority bent, this week’s Torah portion, Parshat Shoftim, has always been one that I have struggled with. Parshat Shoftim lays the foundations for the future government of the Kingdom of Israel, establishing five different leadership roles. These roles include judges, law enforcers, kings, priests and prophets.  The former anarchist in…

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Rage Against the Material

By David G. August 22, 2014

There is an anachronistic story in the Talmud in which Rav Ashi, a 4th Century Sage from Babylon, engages the infamous Judean King Menashe  in a debate. Rav Ashi, shocked by King Menashe’s knowledge of Jewish law, had to ask how such a great Torah scholar could commit one of the gravest sins in Judaism…

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It’s All Your Fault?

By David G. August 1, 2014

Together, we have reached the last leg of our journey through the text of the Torah, coming to the fifth and final book, Devarim, or Deuteronomy. In Parshat Devarim, from which the entire book gets its name, the Jewish people stand at the foot of a mountain, on the last leg of their own journey…

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How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Those Awkward Moments

By David G. July 25, 2014

There is this belief that the rich and famous have these amazingly exciting lives, making some of us regular people want to live vicariously through them in the form of memoirs, tabloids, and TV documentaries. Our own lives seem boring in comparison to the recorded ups and downs of celebrities. With less than three decades…

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Promises are Like Fast Food – The More You Commit to, the More Regrets You’ll Have

By David G. July 18, 2014

The typical translation for the Hebrew name of the Book of Numbers, Bamidbar, is not “Numbers,” but “In the Wilderness.” While this translation is most definitely accurate, I have discovered that there is actually a different meaning to this name. The root of the word “speak”, d’var, is actually hidden in the name of this…

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Restore the Northwest Semitic Altar: On Using Archaeology in Jewish Practice

By Jonathan Katz July 8, 2014

  It happens frequently when I go to a new synagogue now. Someone gives a dvar Torah or a talk on the Torah portion, and uses a verse to talk about how different Jews were from all their surrounding peoples. Or there is a discussion of an Israel trip, in which the (justice-obstructing) magic of…

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The Talking Animals are Telling Us Not to Hate

By David G. July 3, 2014

For several weeks now the Torah has been singularly focused on the story of the Israelites’ journey through the wilderness and the laws they received through Moses. This week, the Torah takes an interesting turn, changing its focus to one of the Israelites’ enemies, Balak, King of Moab and the prophet-for-hire Balaam. The Torah tells…

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Frozen and Unchosen

By David G. June 20, 2014

Democracy. So many people seem to love it, including one man named Korach. Yet, reading this week’s Torah portion, we might find that the Torah does not share this love of a government run by the people. When Korach leads a group to protest against Moses and Aaron’s control of the Jewish people, God punishes…

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How I Tipped the Scales in my Favor

By David G. June 13, 2014

I recently decided to finish up school while studying in Israel. I found a program, was accepted, and everything looked amazing. I would be free from the spiritually lacking world of New Jersey, where I spend all day slaving away at a keyboard, to receive Torah from amazing teachers— in Jerusalem of all places!— instead….

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Torah Secrets for Avoiding Hangovers, Cheating Partners, and Jewfros

By David G. May 30, 2014

  In this week’s Torah portion, Naso, we receive two new laws. First, is the law of Sotah, a process in which women accused of adultery are given a special water that will prove whether they are innocent or guilty, then the Nazirite, someone who has taken a special oath to not drink alcohol, cut…

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Beware of the Energy Vampires!

By David G. May 16, 2014

If you want to receive something from another person, often you have to do something for them at some point first. This week’s parsha, Bechukotai, shows us that even God is aware of this part of human nature. The parsha starts with God saying, “Hey, I get it! You’re selfish, and I can’t expect you…

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