Cooler Heads Ep 3 by Rabbi Scott Hausman-Weiss

Where do we Normie's find ourselves in the debate about Mahmoud Khalil, the recently graduated Columbia University graduate student who is responsible for the dissemination of vile and vitriolic hate-speech, but for what else? That is what is being debated now. What makes this question the hardest of all? Which decision would make us Jews safer?

CSK-er George Schwartz and I are excited to premiere a brand new podcast, “Cooler Heads, Thoughtful Conversations on Complex Jewish Issues.”

Here is our little blurb: “

Rabbi Scott and George Schwartz are like brothers from another mother—two minds, one mission. From the moment they met, their conversations have only grown deeper and more thought-provoking.

In today’s polarized media landscape, we believe it’s time for cooler heads to prevail. That’s why we created Cooler Heads, a brand-new podcast dedicated to lowering the temperature on divisive issues and fostering thoughtful, empirical, and less emotion-driven discussions.

Join us as we explore some of the Jewish world’s most complex and intractable conflicts with nuance, curiosity, and a commitment to deeper understanding.”

George and I will seek to produce “Cooler Heads” podcast episodes on topical issues that we believe need a bit more “digging deep” and “airing out.” We look forward to your feedback which you can offer via the comments section in the two formats with which we will share them: my podcast, "Conversations with the Rabbi" (available on Itunes) and the Congregation Shma Koleinu You Tube Channel.

Our first episode begins and ends with the lives and deaths of recently returned and deceased Israeli hostages, Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir Bibas. We discuss the situation from the breathtakingly broad intransigence that has enabled the violence in and around Israel to persevere and the breathtakingly narrow heartbreak in discovering what was done by Hamas to babies. Please give a listen and let us know what you think.

Rabbi Scott

What does free speech mean? Are there limits? What do American law and Jewish law say and how does it all apply to the latest uproars of anti-Semitism on the campus of Columbia? Rabbi Scott Hausman-Weiss and George Schwartz invite you for a 20+ minute take on these important issues and why we might understand them all with cooler heads. Please don't forget to "Like us" when you watch.

Purim is tonight, and Passover is around the corner by Rabbi Scott Hausman-Weiss

Celebrating Purim matters especially today, because the averted attacks on the Jews of Megillat Esther (scroll of Esther) were not averted on October 7, 2023. And that for reasons that I will never be able to fully grasp, there are a lot of people in the world who just don’t like Jews. They imagine we represent a threat to them, and we must keep our eyes open. It is true that we must never forget. But it’s not a matter of never forgetting the Holocaust. It’s a matter that we must never forget that we are a special people with a unique destiny and a unique relationship with God. This doesn’t necessarily make us better, but it does make who we are and what we have sacred enough to protect, preserve, and defend.

With great sorrow, we recognize that any delusions we had have dissolved.

The story of the Jewish people in a nutshell.

Finding personal meaning in ancient scripture is not only a creative approach to studying Torah it is Judaism's prime directive. The stories, especially from the book of Genesis are not meant to be memorized and regurgitated, as if they are gospel, no pun intended. Rather, they are meant to make us think critically about our lives, our relationships and the pursuit of becoming one's self, in this limited, but fantastically-filled-with-potential-life of ours.

This new American administration is going to cause many to react in extreme ways whether you are on the right or the left. Jewish tradition, spirituality in general, cautions us to slow our roll. We are canceled to calm our reactions, to assess and evaluate before determining that we know the absolute and final truth.