Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchR. Aviva Richman on Parashat Vayikra: "Calling In"
The first verse in Vayikra seems mundane and predictable; God speaks to Moshe in the mishkan (tabernacle), as God does throughout much of the Torah. …
4 years, 5 months ago
Dena Weiss: The Lost Sons of Avraham
How can Avraham bear to sacrifice his son Yitzchak without any show of emotion or despair? Dena Weiss offers an explanation to this question, using m…
4 years, 5 months ago
R. Aviva Richman on Parashat Pekudei: Shifting Expectations
The Book of Shemot ends in a striking tension: God’s presence fills the mishkan but also precludes Moshe from entering. Having shepherded the people …
4 years, 5 months ago
R. Elie Kaunfer: The Strange Case of Moshe's Death
In rabbinic midrash, Moshe brings his case for immortality to God. What does Moshe argue and why does he believe he should be exempt from death? As R…
4 years, 6 months ago
R. Aviva Richman on Parashat VaYakhel: Moshe's Gamble
There is a classic debate about the order of the Torah with respect to the passages about the mishkan (tabernacle) and the golden calf. In one view, …
4 years, 6 months ago
R. Aviva Richman on Parashat Ki Tissa: A Radical Shabbat
For most of the week, and most of our lives, we devote ourselves to the hard work of slowly getting closer to what we most hope for and long for, in …
4 years, 6 months ago
R. Shai Held: When Mercy Trumps Justice
“God said, 'let us make human beings in our image'” (Genesis 1:26). Who is God speaking to and what does it mean to be made in God’s image? Rabbi Sha…
4 years, 6 months ago
R. Aviva Richman on Parashat Tetzaveh: The Pulse of Prayer
Terumah and Tetzaveh offer a visual landscape of the mishkan, its structure, its furnishings and the dress of those who served in it. One thing that …
4 years, 6 months ago
R. Avi Killip: Modern Women's Midrash as a Tool for Reading our Most Difficult Texts
For centuries, midrash has helped reconcile problematic, troubling, and hurtful texts by understanding them in a new light. In this lecture, Rabbi Av…
4 years, 6 months ago
R. Aviva Richman on Parashat Terumah: Redemptive Relationship, Epilogue
Parashat Terumah brings us to what is a sort of epilogue—though also, in some ways, a prologue—of the love story in three scenes we saw between Israe…
4 years, 6 months ago