Podcast Episodes

Faith and Doubt in Our Final Hours: A Conversation Between Dr. Lydia Dugdale and R. Shai Held

For many of us, confronting death raises urgent questions of faith, doubt, and the meaning and purpose of our lives. Yet we live in a culture that av…

1 month, 1 week ago

R. Avital Hochstein on Parashat BeHar-BeHukkotai: A Reality Without Fear

The Book of Leviticus, and Parashat BeHukkotai that brings it to a close, makes a clear and recurring claim: reality is not an act of fate, but the o…

1 month, 1 week ago

R. Elazar Symon on the Omer: Counting Old and New

According to a midrashic tradition, the counting of the Omer (that may have seemed to be nothing but a calendrical counting of the days from Pesah to…

1 month, 2 weeks ago

R. Avital Hochstein on Parashat Emor: Where Do Sinners Come From?

In Parashat Emor, we encounter the story of the blasphemer. This blasphemer undermines, degrades, and treats with levity the very foundation of the r…

1 month, 2 weeks ago

Faith WithHeld: A Conversation Between Sarah Wildman and R. Shai Held

When the unthinkable happens, what remains of faith? Journalist Sarah Wildman, who lost her young daughter, joins Rabbi Shai Held in a searching conv…

1 month, 3 weeks ago

R. Avital Hochstein on Parashat Aharei Mot-Kedoshim: “Will You Hear My Voice, My Distant One?”

Drawing close is no simple matter.  At times, it can be difficult—even dangerous.  And yet, to come near is also wondrous: it can nurture, enrich, an…

1 month, 3 weeks ago

R. Elazar Symon on Yom HaZikaron/Yom Ha'Atzma’ut: Unless God Builds the House

Dedicated in loving memory of my nephew, Yishai Elyakim Urbach, who fell in Gaza one year ago, a few weeks after setting out to build his own home.

Te…

1 month, 4 weeks ago

R. Avital Hochstein on Parashat Tazria-Metzora: Giving Birth to Hope

Chapter 12 of the Book of Vayikra deals with the sacrifice of the woman who has given birth.

2 months ago

R. Elazar Symon on Yom HaShoah: After the Silence: Rebuilding from the Holy of Holies

When we think of the Holocaust, we can only be silent.

We are incapacitated emotionally, morally, theologically.  At times it seems that the countless…

2 months ago

R. Avital Hochstein on Parashat Shemini: Can Death Be Explained?

The opening scene of Parashat Shemini is both brief and dramatic.  It depicts the final day of the dedication of the mishkan (tabernacle)—the very da…

2 months, 1 week ago