A Book Like No Other

Why should God forgive us? Rabbi Fohrman and Imu trace Yom Kippur’s mystery through the Book of Jonah and across the breadth of the Torah.

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A Book Like No Other is a product of Aleph Beta, and made possible through the generous support of Shari and Nathan Lindenbaum. Aleph Beta is a Torah media company dedicated to spreading the joy and love of meaningful Torah learning worldwide.

A bizarre moment in the Manna story occurs when the Jews lament that they should have been killed in Egypt by “the hand of God.” Was this a hand that benevolently pulled the Jews out of Egypt, or that hand that smote the Egyptian firstborn? How do we teach our children the truth of that fateful night of the Exodus? Our season finale tackles the big questions of food, trauma, and the Exodus.

We love to hear from you! Click here to share your thoughts, insights, questions, and reactions by voice note, or send us an email at [email protected].

A Book Like No Other is a product of Aleph Beta, and made possible through the generous support of Shari and Nathan Lindenbaum. Aleph Beta is a Torah media company dedicated to spreading the joy and love of meaningful Torah learning worldwide.

In this episode Rabbi Fohrman puts the bitter herbs - maror - under a microscope. Why do we need to hold onto a reminder of our slavery, during a Passover seder that represents freedom? Drawing from a principle of teshuvah - repentance, our hosts carve out an incredible principle in human psychology and what it takes to heal from trauma.

Can't Skip the Bitter (to Get to the Sweet)

(Verse 1) In Egypt the bread held the taste of our tears 

Sourdough—you couldn't tell where it stopped 

The sourness baked into four hundred years 

Until the whole batch was bitter and locked

But God didn't hand us the honey that night

 Didn't say: forget it, here's something new 

He gave us flat bread with bitter alongside— 

Separated. Still there. Still true.

(Chorus) You can't skip the bitter to get to the sweet

 You can't leave the sorrow behind 

The only way forward is going back through it 

One morning at a time

(Verse 2) The manna came later, the honey came slow 

Forty years of daily bread 

Each day God was asking: do you believe now 

that you’re more than the tears that you’ve shed?

And every spring we sit down at the table 

Flat bread and bitter, side by side 

Not because we're still slaves—because we remember 

What it took to come back alive

(Chorus) You can't skip the bitter to get to the sweet 

You can't leave the sorrow behind 

The only way forward is going back through it

One morning at a time

(Bridge) Each day the same question falling

Like bread upon the ground:

Are you more than what was done to you?

Are you more than what you've done?

(Verse 3) Two families broken, made into one 

He said: leave the past where it lies

Build something new now, the future's begun 

But nobody asked who we were before the goodbyes

And forty years later I knocked on her door 

I said there's something I never did right

 I never once asked you to tell me the story 

Of who held your hand through the long, long night

(Chorus) Tell me about your mother 

What was it like when she was yours? 

Tell me about your mother I should have asked you this before

You can't skip the bitter to get to the sweet 

You can't leave the sorrow behind

 The only way forward is going back through it 

And that's what I'm doing this time

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We love to hear from you! Click here to share your thoughts, insights, questions, and reactions by voice note, or send us an email at [email protected].

A Book Like No Other is a product of Aleph Beta, and made possible through the generous support of Shari and Nathan Lindenbaum. Aleph Beta is a Torah media company dedicated to spreading the joy and love of meaningful Torah learning worldwide.

Could the flavor of Biblical food teach us about the Exodus? This new season kicks off with an unbelievable connection between how the Israelites ate manna in the desert, and how they ate their Passover meal before leaving Egypt. The secret lies in how each meal affected our tastebuds. You'll have to taste it to believe it!

For more of the parallels we discovered, check out this chart. 

We love to hear from you! Click here to share your thoughts, insights, questions, and reactions by voice note, or send us an email at [email protected].

A Book Like No Other is a product of Aleph Beta, and made possible through the generous support of Shari and Nathan Lindenbaum. Aleph Beta is a Torah media company dedicated to spreading the joy and love of meaningful Torah learning worldwide.

This series finale literally has everything: a sweeping historical narrative, a textual thread that binds the Exodus to Sinai and beyond, and a gobsmacking conclusion to the question: what am I meant to feel when I hear the shofar on Rosh Hashanah?

You can find the textual chart referenced in this episode by clicking here.

We love to hear from you! Click here to share your thoughts, insights, questions, and reactions by voice note, or send us an email at [email protected].

A Book Like No Other is a product of Aleph Beta, and made possible through the generous support of Shari and Nathan Lindenbaum. Aleph Beta is a Torah media company dedicated to spreading the joy and love of meaningful Torah learning worldwide.

In our quest to discover the meaning behind the shofar blast, we continue to mine the Exodus story for a deeper meaning behind God's empathy, and why it was so important to communicate that message to Moses, to the enslaved Israelites, and to Pharoah himself.

To watch the course on the Three Lies of the Exodus mentioned in the episode, you can watch it on the Aleph Beta site here: https://members.alephbeta.org/playlist/moses-exodus-miracles

We love to hear from you! Click here to share your thoughts, insights, questions, and reactions by voice note, or send us an email at [email protected].

A Book Like No Other is a product of Aleph Beta, and made possible through the generous support of Shari and Nathan Lindenbaum. Aleph Beta is a Torah media company dedicated to spreading the joy and love of meaningful Torah learning worldwide.

To get to the bottom of the shofar's secret, we need to travel back to the Exodus story. Looking closely, we can see that Moses' encounter with God at the burning bush was more than just a long job negotiation. God was trying to convey something extremely important. So important, in fact, that He encoded it into His own name.

We love to hear from you! Click here to share your thoughts, insights, questions, and reactions by voice note, or send us an email at [email protected].

A Book Like No Other is a product of Aleph Beta, and made possible through the generous support of Shari and Nathan Lindenbaum. Aleph Beta is a Torah media company dedicated to spreading the joy and love of meaningful Torah learning worldwide.

You sit in shul. The shofar blows. What do you feel? You may not want to admit it, but for many of us the answer is: nothing. For a long time, that’s how Imu felt also. Until a chance observation, one historic Erev Rosh Hashana, sparked a conversation with Rabbi David Fohrman that would change everything. 

Come along on this deep dive through the Torah, revealing a hidden story from the Burning Bush to Mount Sinai to the walls of Jericho—that will finally make the shofar blast truly meaningful. 

In this first episode of the new season, we begin that journey of discovery with a first look at the origins of the shofar in the Torah text.

For the Rosh Hashana course Rabbi Fohrman and Imu discuss in this episode, click here. 

We love to hear from you! Click here to share your thoughts, insights, questions, and reactions by voice note, or send us an email at [email protected].

A Book Like No Other is a product of Aleph Beta, and made possible through the generous support of Shari and Nathan Lindenbaum. Aleph Beta is a Torah media company dedicated to spreading the joy and love of meaningful Torah learning worldwide.

Come spend Tisha B'Av with us! We’re going to be having a live online event in the afternoon. It’s a chance to join hundreds of Jews from around the world to learn together, connect and make this day about community instead of being alone. Click here to learn more. 

We love to hear from you! Click here to share your thoughts, insights, questions, and reactions by voice note, or send us an email at [email protected].

A Book Like No Other is a product of Aleph Beta, and made possible through the generous support of Shari and Nathan Lindenbaum. Aleph Beta is a Torah media company dedicated to spreading the joy and love of meaningful Torah learning worldwide.

After thoroughly dissecting every verse of Shir HaMaalot, the season finale attempts to put all the pieces back together. The first three verses were about moving from dreams to true joy; the second three were about Joseph and Jacob's saga. Could both of these themes somehow be related?

We love to hear from you! Click here to share your thoughts, insights, questions, and reactions by voice note, or send us an email at [email protected].

A Book Like No Other is a product of Aleph Beta, and made possible through the generous support of Shari and Nathan Lindenbaum. Aleph Beta is a Torah media company dedicated to spreading the joy and love of meaningful Torah learning worldwide.