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Being Abba: A Civilizational Text Study
The roles, values, and obligations associated with fatherhood have evolved over the course of Jewish history. In this text study, originally created for the 2008 JRF Convention, Rabbi James Greene examines that evolution with an eye toward contemporary responsibilities of Jewish fatherhood.
Rabbi Jacob Staub discusses Parashat Miketz with Shmuel Rosner of the Jewish Journal of Los Angeles.
In this short talk, Rabbi Lester Bronstein brings 18th and 19th-century Hasidic thought into dialogue with contemporary Reconstructionist theology.
This selection of midrashim on the crossing of the Red Sea provides a window into the tradition’s ethical concerns surrounding this well-known story.
This text study, prepared by Rabbi Nina Mandel, contains pairs of passages examining biblical and contemporary notions of what “Promised Land” means, and how it has been interpreted by Jewish thinkers over the millennia.
Yigdal, one of the most beloved of the medieval piyyutim (liturgical poems) summarizes the thirteen principles of the Jewish faith as formulated by Moses Maimonides (RaMBaM; late 12th century C.E.). Reconstructionists often proudly assert that when we pray with a Reconstructionist siddur, we feel that we can 'say what we mean and mean what we say,' because our liturgical language reflects Reconstructionist theology. How might a Reconstructionist interpret the words of Yigdal in this way?
This printable resource pairs selected quotes from Solomon Northup’s autobiographical memoir, “12 Years a Slave,” with quotes from the Exodus and other Jewish texts.
An easily-accessible text study about the ethnic ambiguity that the Torah presents us with regarding the midwives who refused to obey Pharaoh's orders.
In the first two chapters of the Torah, we find two different accounts of the creation of humanity. In this text study, Rabbi Maurice Harris explores the tension between these two stories, and presents a teaching from Midrash Bereishit Rabbah that presents food for thought about gender, essentialism, and the nature of humanity.
A study sheet on the two sets of tablets in the Sinai/Golden Calf story.
Study sheet and leader’s notes on the Jewish sources, ethics and interpersonal consequences of lying and truth-telling.
Rabbi Toba Spitzer explores texts related to the Eternal Light and its symbolism.
The Torah commands us to “wipe out the memory of Amalek…do not forget!” (Deut. 25) But is Amalek an external enemy—or something inside us?
The Torah commands us to “wipe out the memory of Amalek…do not forget!” (Deut. 25) What exactly does “Amalek” represent, and what might it mean to remember (or blot out) that memory?
A civil-rights era song proclaimed, “No easy walk to freedom.” In this text study based on Parashat Behukotay, we examine what it means to “walk upright.”
Study sheet on the different interpretations of “sin” throughout Jewish history.
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