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 […]

Here and Wherever: Commentary on Parashat Vayyikra 5783

By Rabbi Jonah Rank, President and Rosh Yeshivah of Hebrew Seminary

Translated into polite English, an old Yiddish saying roughly goes, “You can’t dance at two weddings with only one body.” Once Zoom became so prominent in the pandemic, we grew accustomed to entering spaces virtually while remaining physically at home. Somehow where we were in body was […]

The Head of the Heart, Through the Hand: Commentary on Parashiyyot Vayyakhel-Pekudey 5783

By Rabbi Jonah Rank, President & Rosh Yeshivah of Hebrew Seminary

There are three kinds of H-Jews: Head Jews, Heart Jews, and Hand Jews. So goes a teaching that has been attributed variously to two great North American rabbis: Dr. Harold Schulweis (1925–2014) and Dr. Neil Gillman (1933–2017). The Head Jew is an […]

A Time for Apes and God: Commentary on Parashat Ki Tissa 5783

By Rabbi Jonah Rank, President and Rosh Yeshivah of Hebrew Seminary

When a few Jewish researchers exposed the resident apes at the Chimpanzee Human Communication Institute to a few ritual objects that epitomize the Passover seder, one chimp examined the maror and, in a chimpanzee dialect of American Sign Language, signed “BITTER CRY FOOD.”* […]