Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchR. Micha'el Rosenberg: On the Day the Messiah Was Born
The Talmud Yerushalmi tells a distressing and perplexing tale about a cowherd who goes off in search of the newborn baby messiah on the day the Templ…
2 years ago
R. David Kasher on Parashat Mattot-Mas'ei: Frothing With Rage
Moshe has an anger problem. He is usually able to keep it under control. By nature, he is a quiet man, a brooder. He carries out his duties faithf…
2 years ago
R. Avital Hochstein: Do Moshe's Hands Make War?
Since October 7, the word "Amalek" has often been invoked in regard to the Israel-Hames War. Is that an appropriate analogy? By looking at ancient re…
2 years ago
R. David Kasher on Parashat Pinhas: How to Read a Census
For my mother’s 75th birthday, we surprised her by taking her to visit her mother’s childhood home. I knew my grandmother had grown up in Los Angele…
2 years, 1 month ago
R. Avi Strausberg on the 17th of Tammuz: In the Depths of Sorrow
Tomorrow, we arrive at the second of the four annual fasts commemorating the destruction of the Temple. According to the Mishnah (Ta’anit 4:6), 17 T…
2 years, 1 month ago
R. David Kasher on Parashat Balak: The View From Above
Balak, King of Moab, has been made uneasy by Israel’s recent string of victories over enemy nations, and has begun to worry that he will be the next …
2 years, 1 month ago
R. Ethan Tucker: The Multivocality of Halakhah
Halakhic works are often a dizzying compendium of multiple perspectives on a given issue, often making it difficult to determine how to behave in a g…
2 years, 1 month ago
R. David Kasher on Parashat Hukkat: Language Falling on Language
There is probably no more playful instance of wordplay in all the Torah than the nehash nehoshet, the copper snake described in Parashat Hukkat. Wit…
2 years, 1 month ago
R. Dena Weiss: Serving God From Yuck to Yum
Rav Dena explores a Hassidic teaching from the Me'or Einayim which discusses a dimension of physicality that we rarely pay attention to: given that t…
2 years, 1 month ago
R. David Kasher on Parashat Korah: Hevel’s Revenge
From the very beginning of Parashat Korah, the Torah places unusually strong emphasis on his lineage. He is introduced not just with the standard pa…
2 years, 1 month ago