(01:22) A Jewish Spiritual Renaissance

At several points in the program Krista mentions that Rabbi Brous is part of a Jewish spiritual renaissance taking place in various forms across the United States. Congregation Bnai Jeshurun in New York City and Rabbi Brous's community in Los Angeles, IKAR, are two exemplars of a diverse movement to integrate spiritual renewal, deepened Jewish identity, and social justice engagement. Brous is also a rabbi to REBOOT — a gathering of Jewish cultural creatives started in 2003. The group fosters collaborations that result in projects, books, records, films, salons, and events in an effort to engage a younger generation in the Jewish community and the world.

Rabbi Brous cites (download the unedited conversation with Krista) the Institute for Jewish Spirituality, led by Rabbi Rachel Cowan, as a respected and highly watched development shaping this new renaissance. The Institute offers retreats across the country for Jewish educators and lay people, in an effort to deepen their spiritual practice by melding traditional prayer and Torah study with mindfulness meditation, yoga, and concerns for social justice. The group was founded in response to a "dream of praying from the heart and of creating communities of justice, compassion, and truthfulness.

(03:17) Seminal Prayer/ Poem of Unetanah Tokef

Unetanah tokef — translated as "we shall ascribe holiness to this day" — is a religious poem that is chanted during the liturgies of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. It precedes the prayer sanctifying God's name, the Kedushah, and is considered to be the seminal point of the Rosh Hashanah liturgy.

We shall ascribe holiness to this day.
For it is awesome and terrible.
Your kingship is exalted upon it.
Your throne is established in mercy.
You are enthroned upon it in truth.
In truth You are the judge,
The exhorter, the all-knowing, the witness,
He who inscribes and seals,
Remembering all that is forgotten.
You open the book of remembrance
Which proclaims itself,
And the seal of each person is there.
The great shofar is sounded,
A still small voice is heard.
The angels are dismayed,
They are seized by fear and trembling
As they proclaim: Behold the Day of Judgment!
For all the hosts of heaven are brought for judgment.
They shall not be guiltless in Your eyes
And all creatures shall parade before You as a troop.
As a shepherd herds his flock,
Causing his sheep to pass beneath his staff,
So do You cause to pass, count, and record,
Visiting the souls of all living,
Decreeing the length of their days,
Inscribing their judgment.
On Rosh Hashanah it is inscribed,
And on Yom Kippur it is sealed.
How many shall pass away and how many shall be born,
Who shall live and who shall die,
Who shall reach the end of his days and who shall not,
Who shall perish by water and who by fire,
Who by sword and who by wild beast,
Who by famine and who by thirst,
Who by earthquake and who by plague,
Who by strangulation and who by stoning,
Who shall have rest and who shall wander,
Who shall be at peace and who shall be pursued,
Who shall be at rest and who shall be tormented,
Who shall be exalted and who shall be brought low,
Who shall become rich and who shall be impoverished.
But repentance, prayer and righteousness avert the severe decree.

For Your praise is in accordance with Your name. You are difficult to anger and easy to appease. For You do not desire the death of the condemned, but that he turn from his path and live. Until the day of his death You wait for him. Should he turn, You will receive him at once. In truth You are their Creator and You understand their inclination, for they are but flesh and blood. The origin of man is dust, his end is dust. He earns his bread by exertion and is like a broken shard, like dry grass, a withered flower, like a passing shadow and a vanishing cloud, like a breeze that blows away and dust that scatters, like a dream that flies away. But You are King, God who lives for all eternity! There is no limit to Your years, no end to the length of Your days, no measure to the hosts of Your glory, no understanding the meaning of Your Name. Your Name is fitting unto You and You are fitting unto it, and our name has been called by Your Name. Act for the sake of Your Name and sanctify Your Name through those who sanctity Your Name.

(04:07) High Holy Days

Rosh Hashanah falls on the first and second day of the first month of the Jewish calendar, Tishrei. Jews believe that God completed the creation of the world on this day by creating Adam. It is the only Jewish holiday that occurs on the first day of a Hebrew month. Rosh Hashanah, which means "head of the year," is known by several other names: Yom Teru'ah, the day of sounding the shofar; Yom HaDin, the day of judgment; and Yom Hazikaron, the day of remembering.

(08:13) Shofar

The sounding of the shofar, the ram's horn, on Rosh Hashanah represents the Jewish people's proclaiming God as king of the universe. The "cry" of the shofar also calls Jews to repentance for ten days, beginning with Rosh Hashanah and culminating in Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. The sound of the shofar on Rosh Hashanah reminds Jews of the anniversary of man's first sin and recalls the Binding of Isaac, in which a ram took Isaac's place as an offering to God. During the course of the Rosh Hashanah service, the shofar is sounded 100 times.

(08:58) Citation from Maimonides

Rabbi Moses Maimonides — also known by his acronym, Rambam (Rabbi Moshe Ben Maimon) — is a 12-century Jewish philosopher and physician who is remembered as a great questioner of the Torah. He composed the Mishneh Torah, a book that intended to guide Jews on how to behave in all situations by reading the Torah, without having to spend large amounts of time searching the Talmud. A Guide to the Perplexed by Maimonides is one of the most important systematic formulation of Jewish theology. For an accessible and interesting history of the great rabbi, read Sherwin Nuland's biography.

(09:30) Liturgy of High Holy Days

The Viddui is a confessional prayer that works through every letter of the Hebrew alphabet. On Yom Kippur, two viddui prayers are recited several times — the Ashamnu and the Al Chet. The Ashamnu is an alphabetical acrostic of different sins committed. The listing of sins proceeds in order of the Hebrew alphabet. The prayer is always said in the plural ("we do this"), because even if the reciter hasn't committed a particular transgression she confesses because all Jews are held responsible for the community's actions. Customarily, during the prayer, worshippers beat their breasts as a sign that the sins rose from within.

(23:15) Talmud and Midrash

The Talmud is a body of teaching, commentary, and discussion of Jewish oral tradition that is meant to be studied and not only read. The Talmud is a compendium of ancient scholarly interpretations of the Torah — the first five books of the Bible — that were formulated over a 1000 years time, beginning around 500 BCE and finally codified near the end of the sixth century CE.

There are two separate Talmuds produced by the Palestinian and Babylonian academies. In general, reference to the Talmud usually applies to the Babylonian Talmud because of its expansive nature and better preservation of the complete text.

Although a specific definition of the term midrash can be difficult to pin down, it is a central part of Jewish life and rabbinic practice, an intellectually lively and creative approach to searching for new and deeper meanings in biblical texts. Most formally, midrash refers to a category of literature of classical rabbinical commentary on each of the five volumes of the Torah.

In The Particulars of Rapture, Avivah Zornberg offers her working definition of midrash with the caveat that the term remains "essentially undefined":

Midrash, derived from the root darash, "to seek out" or "to inquire," is a term used in rabbinic literature for the interpretive study of the Bible. The word is used in two related senses: first, to refer to the results of that interpretive exegesis; and, second, to describe the literary compilations in which the original interpretations, many of them first delivered and transmitted orally, were eventually collected.

Midrash can be divided into two categories: Midrash Aggadah and Midrash Halakhah. Both of these use similar interpretive techniques to delve into two different realms of Torah. Midrash Aggadah deals with the narrative portions of the Torah, while Midrash Halakhah deals with the legal elements of Torah, sometimes even using narrative portions of Torah, as a source for the derivation of law.

Since midrash is a type of interpretation of scripture, it's found in many rabbinic works, including the Talmud. Other rabbinic works are made up primarily of midrash and are referred to by that name, such as Midrash Rabbah and Midrash Tanhuma. There is at least one midrash for most books of the Bible, and there are several different midrashim for others. One of the most notable of these interpreters is the 11th century French rabbi, Shlomo Yitzchaki (1040-1105), more commonly known by his acronym, Rashi, whose commentary plays an integral role in Jewish culture's basic interpretation of the Torah.

(45:14) New York Times Article

Krista cites Jane Gross' article, "From No Quorum to No Room; A Talmudic Quandary for a Shul: Growth or Intimacy," published in December 6, 1996 issue of the The New York Times.