My Jewish Learning: Articles By Jeffrey Spitzer

Articles By Jeffrey Spitzer

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Jeffrey Spitzer is Chair of the Department of Talmud and Rabbinics at Gann Academy, The New Jewish High School, Waltham, Mass., and a member of the Institute's Tichon Fellows Program.

An Aramean Destroyed My Father

Commentaries on the Haggadah contrast the evil of Laban with Pharaoh and see Laban as a symbol for political, sociological, and psychological evil.
To What is God Similar?

Rabbinic parables explicitly compare God to a variety of human analogues, reflecting the rabbis' subtle, complex, and diverse images of God.
Shema as a Love Story

The three paragraphs of the Shema can be interpreted allegorically by connecting each of the three paragraphs to a different stage of a growing, loving relationship.
The Non-Jew in Jewish Law

Rabbinic authorities have used different arguments to redress inequities in the way halakhah treats non-Jews.
The Synagogue and the Study House

These two institutions reflect the dynamism and the tensions in late antique Jewish society.
Babylonian Exile

The Temple's destruction, the transfer of leadership to Babylon, and the Persian return to Israel reflect the larger political conflicts of the ancient world.
The Birth of the Good Inclination

In rabbinic texts, the distinction between childhood and young adulthood is the birth of the yetzer hatov, the good inclination.
Maimonides' Eight Levels: A Comtemporary Reading

Jeff Spitzer mines Maimonides' 8 levels of Tzedakah for guidance on contemporary issues in tzedakah.
God as a Wife-Beater

Does this text (or any text) deserve to be excluded from the larger category of Jewish teaching
Valuing Debate and Conversation

Jewish tradition, informed by the precedent of the Talmud, prefers to promote discussion rather than correctness.