Podcast Episodes

R. Micha'el Rosenberg: Righteous Anger Part 1

From the Talmud to the Rambam and into the modern period, Rabbinic tradition generally views anger negatively. Anger appears as a kind of weakness, a…

1 year, 6 months ago

R. Tali Adler on Parashat Toldot: Rivkah, The Ambivalent Matriarch

We all know the story we are supposed to tell about our matriarchs and their journeys to motherhood.

The story structure is simple, even if the journe…

1 year, 6 months ago

R. Micha'el Rosenberg: Is Thanksgiving a Jewish Holiday?

What does it mean to celebrate Thanksgiving as a Jew?  In some sense, the question is a cipher for a larger one:  What does it mean to take our ident…

1 year, 6 months ago

R. Tali Adler on Parashat Hayyei Sarah: Unfulfilled Promises

At the end of this week’s parashah, Avraham—who has been promised time and time again ownership over all the land of Canaan—owns nothing but a grave.…

1 year, 6 months ago

R. Shai Held: Psalm for Monday

The psalms attached liturgically to each day of the week are often mumbled over quickly, without much attention to their meaning. In this series, we'…

1 year, 7 months ago

R. Tali Adler on Parashat Vayera: The God of Hagar

There is a script for mothers of sick children. There are imperatives: do everything.  Seek a second opinion, and a third, and a fourth.  Learn to sl…

1 year, 7 months ago

R. Shai Held: Psalm for Sunday

The psalms attached liturgically to each day of the week are often mumbled over quickly, without much attention to their meaning. In this series, we'…

1 year, 7 months ago

R. Tali Adler on Parashat Lekh Lekha: The Heir Who Might Have Been

It’s possible that if things had been different, if things had gone as planned, that Yishmael, Avraham’s half-Egyptian son of a slave, might have bee…

1 year, 7 months ago

R. Ethan Tucker: From Parchment to Practice

Last week Hadar celebrated the arrival of a newly commissioned and completed Sefer Torah, which was generously donated by the Schiller family in memo…

1 year, 7 months ago

R. Tali Adler on Parashat Noah: Surviving the Flood

We ask the wrong questions about the story of the Flood.

We ask how God could do such a thing. We ask how a God who is good could destroy a world. We …

1 year, 7 months ago