Can't Stop Scrolling

We wrap up the season with a conversation between Avigayil and Avidan about chavruta learning! We cover our chavruta origin story, what makes a chavruta work or flop, the Chavruta Triangle, gender and aggression, metaphors for Torah learning, and more.

Primary Source: Taanit 7a

Other sources: Pedagogy of Partnership, powered by the Hadar Institute

As is befitting for the time between Purim and Passover, this episode features a deep dive into the verses of the story of Esther through the lens of Leah's own "4 Questions" pedagogy. We talk through a cross-country move to Chicago, the choreographies of modern dance and modern Torah learning, and analyze Leah's pedagogical style in real time!

Primary Source: Esther 5:2-5

Other sources mentioned:

• Moshe in Rabbi Akiva’s classroom: Bavli Menachot 29b
• Rav's wife who prepares peas and lentils: Bavli Yevamot 63a

In this episode, we talk about the multi-layered interpretive work of making theater about modern midrash, the potential of empty space, and if solo travel is liberating, terrifying, or both.

• Primary Source: Rabbi Jill Hammer's Sisters at Sinai, "Miriam under the Mountain"
• Other source: the commandment to send away a mother bird if you are to take the eggs from her nest: Deuteronomy 22:6–7.

dr. rafa kern joins the pod to offer his critique of Martin Buber's skills as a playwright, but more importantly to share poignant insights on making meaning of text study and of the multiple elements that make up the phenomenon of chevruta learning. We do bibliomancy in this ep - spontaneously opening up a rabbinic text and seeing what meaning we can make of it!

Primary source: Mishnah Shevuot 4:6, 4:3:

Other sources mentioned:

• Martin Buber's play Elijah, staged at Yale University in 2011
• The ritual of the "decapitated calf / Egla Arufa," Deuteronomy 21:1-9

To donate to the Yesod Fund, a mutual aid fund coordinated by Shir Tikvah Synagogue in Minneapolis: https://www.yesodfund.org/

Dogs in a perpetual state of wonder? Being an independent rabbi? A sense of newness every day? We wander towards the Burning Bush with Rabbi CB Souther, spiritual director and passionate Jewish educator, and discuss the overlap between life coaching and chavruta learning, and God as a process for good.

Primary source: Exodus 3:11-14

Other sources mentioned: The "still, small voice" of 1 Kings 19:12.

Rabbi Matthew Ponak teaches us about the Torah that is infused through everything, a return to the concept of “rav-chaver” (“friend-rabbi”) and juggling pumpkins.

Primary Source: Menachem Nachum of Chernobyl, Me'or Einayim, Shemot 3:2:

Other sources:

• R. Matthew's books Embodied Kabbalah.

• Follow R. Matthew on Facebook (RabbiMatthewPonak) and Instagram @rabbimatthewponak

https://matthewponak.com/

In this episode, Rabbi Joel Goldstein joins us to discuss if it is harder to work on a submarine or in a Jewish high school, parallels between baseball and Judaism, and hierarchies in the Beit Midrash. Plus, do Jewish educators overdo chavruta learning?

Primary Source: Vayikra Rabbah 2:1 -- Is the study of Talmud an elitist project?

Other sources mentioned:

• Ramban on Exodus 12:2., on Marheshvan: "Our Rabbis have already mentioned this matter when saying, “The names of the months came up with us from Babylon,” (Yerushalmi RH 1:2), since at first we had no names for the months. The reason for this [adoption of the names of the months when our ancestors returned from Babylon to build the Second Temple], was that at first their reckoning was a memorial to the exodus from Egypt, but when we came up from Babylon, and the words of Scripture were fulfilled (Jeremiah 16:14-15) from then on we began to call the months by the names they were called in the land of Babylon."
• Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer 10:7 on Jonah's midrashic tour of the sea.

What Hebrew letter are you feeling most like today? We talk Tu B'Shvat, seasons, sleep, and yoga with Rabbi Bluth.

Primary source: the letters Aleph א and Bet ב

• Bluth's Tu B'Shvat guide 5786
• Genesis 2:10: "A river issues from Eden to water the garden,..."
• For more from R. Bluth, check out www.rbluth.com

In this episode, we learn about Yiddish poetry and the parallels between art school critique and Torah learning with rabbi, visual artist, and Instagram star Rabbi Arielle Stein.

Primary text: “Lot’s Wife” by Rokhl Korn, translated by Sheva Zucker.

• Rabbinic Fitcheck with Rabbi Rafi Ellenson: @rabbinicfitcheck
• GRWM for Yom Kippur
• Vogue: "Meet the Rabbi With a Freaky Shoe for Every Occasion"
• More Yiddish materials from Sheva Zucker, including a Yiddish poem for every parsha: https://shevazucker.com/

For more, follow Arielle at @rabbiariellestein

In the first episode of Season Two, we learn from and with Rabbi Lauren Tuchman about finding ourselves in the text, the perils and possibilities of religious authority, and donkeys.

Primary text: Babylonian Talmud Taanit 20a & b.

Other sources mentioned in the episode:

• R. Lauren's ELI Talk: "We Were All At Sinai: The Transformative Power of Inclusive Torah"

• References to the blind Talmudic sages Rav Yosef (Kiddushin 31a) and Rav Sheshet (Berakhot 58a).
• Dr. Orit Kent and Allison Cook., The Partnership Learning Triangle,

For more from R. Lauren, see https://rabbituchman.com/