Rachel Rosenthal

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Dec 5, 2014, 5:16 PM

It’s Time to Leave the Beit Midrash, And Take to the Streets

She's taking a break from intellectual pursuits to seek social justice because sometimes action trumps learning

Oct 20, 2014, 1:24 AM

Private, But Not Secret: Sharing Mikvah Stories

A few years ago, I had a conversion student whose six-year-old daughter was going to convert along with her. After many months of study and immersion in Jewish life, the two of them went to the mikvah to complete...

Sep 11, 2014, 11:16 PM

Zochreinu L’Chaim: Amalek, 9/11 and the Potential of Human Goodness

Like anyone above a certain age who was in New York on September 11, 2001, I can tell you almost anything about what happened that day. I can tell you where I was when I heard, what I wore...

May 20, 2014, 4:51 PM

Keeping the Broken Next to the Whole

Masechet Brachot tells a story of R. Yochanan, who had the power to heal and restore his fellow rabbis when they fell ill. One time, R. Yochanan himself became sick. R. Chanina came to visit him, took his hand,...

Apr 8, 2014, 2:23 PM

Making Space for the Rasha

Every year at our seder, when we reach the section of the four sons (or, as we say in my family, the four children), my aunt objects vociferously to the characterization of the second child as wicked. The word...

Feb 10, 2014, 5:12 PM

Let’s start: Some follow-up thoughts

On my wall, I have a beautiful paper cut that was a gift from my chevruta when I graduated from the Drisha Scholars Circle. In the middle, it has the famous verse from Tehillim 119: Ma ahavti Toratecha, kol...

Feb 3, 2014, 8:40 PM

She's had it up to here with all the yammering about whether it's OK for her to wear tefillin

Jan 30, 2014, 9:20 PM

Finding the mikdash, inside and out

I go to a shul that meets in a gym. Not an especially nice gym either—it could use a paint job and some adornments, and also some carpeting to help us muffle the noise in a space that we...

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About Me

Rachel Rosenthal is a PhD candidate in Rabbinic Literature at the Jewish Theological Seminary and a member of the faculty at the Drisha Institute for Jewish Education, where she teaches Talmud.