Could Nature Defend Miriam? Commentary on Parashat Beha’alotekha 5783
By Rabbi Jonah Rank, President and Rosh Yeshivah of Hebrew Seminary
After publishing his 1981 bestselling book When Bad Things Happen To Good People, Rabbi Dr. Harold Kushner, of blessed memory, privately counseled grieving parents who, like he, had suffered the loss of a beloved child. Rabbi Kushner believed in a God whose interventions in the world […]
Samson and Gallant: Commentary on Parashat Naso 5783
By Rabbi Jonah Rank, President and Rosh Yeshivah of Hebrew Seminary
Among my fondest memories of Highlights for Children remains the Goofus and Gallant comic strip, illustrating what is wrong to do (what Goofus does) and. what is right to do (what Gallant does).
Image of excerpt from […]
All the Letters in the Book of Numbers: Commentary on Parashat Bemidbar 5783
By Rabbi Jonah Rank, President and Rosh Yeshivah of Hebrew Seminary
On the slow news morning of Tuesday, February 10, 1885—when the same front page also reported (as an entire story), “Wheat eighteen inches high is to be seen in California”—the Boston Journal shared a new fad in American education:
A favorite […]
Proclaim D’ror: Commentary on Parashiyyot Behar-Bechukkotai 5783
By Rabbi Dr. Laurence Edwards, Professor Emeritus of Bible, Jewish Thought, and Jewish History; Hebrew Seminary
I was eight years old when Cecil B. DeMille’s film The Ten Commandments was made. Though my father was not interested in seeing the film (“I read the book,” he said), I loved it. I was moved by Elmer Bernstein’s score, and by […]
The Bread People From Egypt: Commentary on Parashat Emor 5783
By Rabbi Jonah Rank, President & Rosh Yeshivah of Hebrew Seminary
I love to turn off my phone just as Shabbat approaches, and letting my computer enter “sleep mode” on the day of rest gives me calm. As I distance myself from those electric blue lights every Friday night, the natural reddish-yellowish light of the candles […]
Scapegoats and Scapecoins: Commentary on Parashiyyot Acharey Mot-Kedoshim
By Rabbi Jonah Rank, President and Rosh Yeshivah of Hebrew Seminary
The Titanic sank because of the Jews, argued an antisemite, riling up a mob at the bar. Fuming with anger, a Jew in the tavern put down a glass to raise a fist in the air and retorted, “Iceberg! Not Goldberg!”
So goes an old joke that must […]
Fitting In Judaism: Commentary on Parashiyyot Tazri’a-Metzora 5783
By Rabbi Jonah Rank, President and Rosh Yeshivah of Hebrew Seminary
Sensitive content notice: This week’s commentary discusses miscarriage.
New York City was a happening place then—as it continues to be—and, when I lived there, the city never lacked exceptional guest lecturers at the schools I either passed on the street or attended as a student. My rabbinical school […]
This Thing Makes God Appear: Commentary on Parashat Shemini 5783
By Rabbi Jonah Rank, President and Rosh Yeshivah of Hebrew Seminary
I trust scientists when they report that bees can see ultraviolet, a color beyond the human visible spectrum. My own time using microscopes back in a high school science lab assured me that amoebae and cells compose a dynamic microbiological world that my own eyes […]
Why God Loves Good Meals: Commentary on Passover 5783
By Rabbi Jonah Rank, President and Rosh Yeshivah of Hebrew Seminary
As we anticipate another Passover seder, our minds may be on the guests who will enter our homes and eat the food we have prepared for this holy moment. But what makes the seder the seder has never been merely the guests who grace us with […]
When Aaron Went to Eden: Commentary on Parashat Tzav 5783
By Rabbi Jonah Rank, President and Rosh Yeshivah of Hebrew Seminary
When we make a big mistake, an animal impulse inside us invites us to run away—and the bigger the mistake, the farther we may wish to flee. We may wait before we reach out again to a friend we offended, whether intentionally or not. We […]