Jeremy Rosen
ARTICLES BY: Jeremy Rosen
Rosh Hashanah, 2023
In one sense you could say that Rosh Hashanah is a festival about parents and children. From the Torah, we read about Abraham’s tortured relationships. Sarah...
Should We Experience Love and Joy on Yom Kippur This Year?
We are now in the Jewish month of Elul, where we say goodbye to the "lazy days of summer," and get back to business. The...
Here Is What the Torah Tells Us About the Land of Israel
When you enter the land that your God is giving you as a heritage, and you possess it and settle in it, you shall take...
The Reality of Holocaust Trauma
We all experience traumas of different kinds. Some are obviously far more serious than others. Jews in particular have been subjected to constant horror and...
What Does the Torah’s Promise of a ‘Long Life’ Mean?
There are two laws in this week's Torah portion that specifically promise that if one carries them out, the person will have a long life. The...
Shabbat Shoftim: The Torah Demands a Legal and Judicial System
In the ancient world, all governments had three elements. The king or queen was the political head, and the representative of God on earth. The...
Even on Vacation, We Should Take God and Our Values With Us
The month of August is the season of traveling and going on vacation. The very idea resonates with our wandering in the desert for 40...
Shabbat Re’eh: Adding or Subtracting From Our Laws
There is a well-known phrase in this week's Torah reading, which is often misunderstood. In Chapter 13:1, as part of the great speech of Moses,...
Why Jews Are Called the ‘Chosen’ People – and Why It’s Often Misunderstood
It still amazes me how often I hear non-Jews claim that Jews are arrogant and exclusive because we claim to be the Chosen People. And...
Shabbat VaEtchanan: Law or Lore
This week's Torah reading is remarkable because it combines the two most important texts in the Torah: The Ten Commandments and the Shemah. Although the...
The History of the Books of the Torah
Why do we call the fifth book of the Torah, which we start this week Devarim, but non-Jews (and some Jews) call it Deuteronomy? The text...
Choose a Society and Friends That Support Your Values
In this week's parsha, as the children of Israel approach the Promised Land, they had to pass through what is now Transjordan. In those days,...
Parshat Pinchas: Succession
Pinchas was the grandson of Aharon, the zealot who took the law into his own hands. There was a crisis over the leadership in response...
All Religions Can Be Laughed At — Even Judaism
In 1979, “The Life of Brian” by Monty Python comedians was a tremendous hit in Britain -- and a scandal. The cast was composed of...
