The Torah gives just one unique commandment for Rosh HaShanah, to hear the sound of the Shofar, producing that raw, emotionally complex, array of sounds that evoke: the summoning of courage for dangerous battle (such as before Jericho’s walls came…
by Aryeh Bernstein This devar torah for Parashat Ki Tavo and Labor Day was first written internally for the Avodah Service Corps, for which the author is National Jewish Educator. Around the world, Jews are nearing the conclusion of the…
Erin Graff Zivin is Professor of Spanish and Portuguese and Comparative Literature, Chair of the Department of Comparative Literature, and Director of the Graduate Certificate program in Translation Studies at the University of Southern California “The language of color blindness—like the language of…
So back in the old days, a few months ago, before the plague, I started a weekly daf podcast. When I migrated from Soundcloud to the podcast platform Buzzsprout I described the project this way: I know that all the…
To many Americans, the term “socialism” conjures immediate feelings of suspicion and paranoia. For much of the population, socialism is a threat to the fundamental economic system that the United States is founded upon: capitalism and free enterprise. Yet, from…
When T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights embarked on our Torah 20/20 project this past October (with funding from Lippman Kanfer Foundation for Living Torah), the goal was to offer Jewish wisdom and language to frame and nourish the…
Whether you’re a casual consumer of podcasts or you break into a cold sweat at the thought of not having any at the ready, check out this roundup of podcasts and podcast episodes about abortion and reproductive rights. Each of…
Laynie Soloman is a faculty member and Director of National Learning at SVARA: A Traditionally Radical Yeshiva. Chanukah is filled with miracles—long-lasting surprise pockets of oil, an unexpected military victory, the legacy of zealous resistance in the face of hegemonic…
by Rabbi Rami Shapiro On the Shabbat of Sukkot, this year October 19, we read the book of Kohelet, Ecclesiastes. But why read a book that famously disclaims the “vanity” of life on the holiday called “time of our rejoicing?”…
by Rabbi Benay Lappe in chevruta with Laynie Soloman Photo credit: Jess Benjamin, 2019 The Jewish new year season tends to have one “star of the show”—teshuva, the practice of recognizing whom we’ve harmed and repairing that harm, addressing where…