Press play below to listen to the podcast, you can also find us on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, and Spotify.  According to Jewish tradition, the holiday of Rosh Hashanah—the Jewish New Year—marks the “birth” of man on the sixth day of creation. But what else was created along with him? According the sages of […]

Press play below to listen to the podcast, you can also find us on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, and Spotify.  With the exception of shabbat, there is probably no practice that distinguishes pious Jews more than the observance of kashrut—the Jewish dietary laws. Whether at a business meeting or an everyday social gathering, Jews […]

Press play below to listen to the podcast, you can also find us on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, and Spotify.  It was just a few years ago that the so-called “New Atheists” played an outsized role in American culture. Scientists like Richard Dawkins and polemicists like the late Christopher Hitchens wrote page after page […]

Press play below to listen to the podcast, you can also find us on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, and Spotify.  In just over a week, Jews the world over will recount the biblical story of the exodus from Egypt and celebrate ancient Israel’s journey from slavery to freedom. But is there any proof for […]

Press play below to listen to the podcast, you can also find us on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, and Spotify.  Rabbi David Wolpe is the Max Webb Senior Rabbi of Sinai Temple, one of America’s flagship conservative synagogues. The author of eight books and countless essays and articles, he is one of America’s leading […]

Press play below to listen to the podcast, download it in the iTunes Store, or stream it via Stitcher.  Chapter 1: The Eve of the Suez Crisis Chapter 2: Personal Suffering, Collective Suffering, and the Shoah Chapter 3: The Six Knocks Chapter 4: Responding to God, Responding the Fellow Jews “Hark, my beloved knocks! ‘Let me in, my […]

Press play below to listen to the podcast, download it in the iTunes Store, or stream it via Stitcher.  Chapter 1: Law in Heaven and Hell Chapter 2: The Weightier Matters of the Law Chapter 3: Jerusalem, Athens, and Rabbinic Legal Discourse Chapter 4: Halakhah in Exile, Halakhah in Israel “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For […]

The story of the Tower of Babel is one of the most enigmatic in the entire Hebrew Bible. Though terse—the narrative is just nine verses long—this tale has inspired reams of commentary seeking to understand why humanity wished to build a tower, why doing so was sinful, and what God’s punishment—the confounding of mankind’s speech—had […]

For modern readers, the story of Pinhas is one of the most vexing episodes in the Hebrew Bible. The Israelites have been seduced by foreign women, and the head of the tribe of Simeon has ceremoniously escorted the daughter of Midian’s king into his tent. In an act of seemingly unsanctioned zealotry, Pinhas take his […]

Press play below to listen to the podcast, download it in the iTunes Store, or stream it via Stitcher.  Chapter 1: Anti-Biblical Bias Chapter 2: Against the Imperial State Chapter 3: Subtleties and Trade-Offs Chapter 4: From Tribal Anarchy to the Limited State In the last decade, a fascinating area of political thought has begun to receive increasing […]