Harvard Torah

As we begin our Torah's book of Deuteronomy, Moses retelling the wilderness years to the people, Rabbi, Professor, Historian, and Theologian Arthur Green joins the Harvard Torah conversation along with Folklore, Mythology, and Religion scholar Daniel Frim '14, to discuss the theme of Story.

As we read about Tribes – Matot – and about the Journeys of our people – Mas'ei – Adam Nahari '20 and Ellie Blum '20, who have led hundreds of Harvard peers of many faiths and backgrounds on the Harvard College Israel Trek over several years, join the Harvard Torah conversation to speak from their experience of shepherding people to the Promised Land.

"Then it came to pass, after the plague..." says our Torah this week.  

Professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases Yonatan Grad and incoming student Paz Meyers '25, who has spent this past year in SARS- CoV-2 research, join the Harvard Torah conversation to reflect on where we now are, what's ahead, and what we have learned.

As our Torah gives us the rite of the Red Heifer, and the death of Miriam, and Moses' striking the rock, and the foreign prophet Balaam's awestruck blessings of the Israelite camp, and more and more, Professor of the Comparative and Historical Study of Religion Kimberley Patton and Harvard Divinity School graduate Shira Mogil join the Harvard Torah conversation, to discuss tremendous and fascinating and even terrifying mystery, and how we (and other creatures on this earth) may touch it – not without hazard.

Avishay Ben-Sasson Gordis of Harvard's Government Department, research fellow at the Berl Katznelson Foundation and at Molad: The Center for the Renewal of Israeli Democracy, joins the Harvard Torah conversation for a special episode focused on the current governmental debacle in Israel, on the theme of Rebellion – as our Torah gives us the story of the revolt of Korach and his band of discontented Levites against Moses and Aaron, and as the longtime Prime Minister of Israel asks rhetorically, with reference to his own present situation and this week's Torah-reading, "How did God deal with rebellion against Moses our Master?"

Founder of the Harvard Kennedy School's Center for Public Leadership, Dr. Ronald Heifetz, and Sarah Bolnick '22 join the Harvard Torah conversation to discuss Courage, as we read of the Israelite scouts surveying the Promised Land, and as Harvard students committed to Israel face challenges among their peers. (Listeners interested in learning more about the ethical, logistical, and political issues regarding Israel, the Palestinian territories, and vaccinations, touched upon by our guest toward the end of this conversation, may wish to read the article on the subject in the 5/5/21 edition of the Times of Israel.)

As we read in the Torah of the menorah and its lights in our ancient sanctuary, Professor of Astronomy Karin Öberg and astronomy student Natasha '21 (who likes to keep a low internet profile, hence the first name-only introduction) join the Harvard Torah conversation – to follow the example of our ancient ancestors who took this reading as an occasion to speculate on the luminaries of the heavens.

Dr. Judith Kates, Radcliffe and Harvard alumna, Professor of Jewish Women's Studies at Hebrew College, and formerly the first coordinator of Harvard's Committee on Women's Studies, joins Harvard Ph.D. Candidate and Assistant Director of Undergraduate Studies in Harvard's program in Religion, Rachel Slutsky, in the Harvard Torah conversation, to reflect on women making pathways through the landscape of our heritage and sources – as our cycle of scriptural readings and of holidays brings us to the Sotah, the woman suspected of adultery, in our Torah, and to the Book of Ruth in the recent holiday of Shavuot.

Dr. Mira Bernstein, who applies mathematical insights to addressing gerrymandering, apportionment of representatives, and other problems of present-day democracy and society, and Cara Kupferman '20, who has worked in the back rooms and on the front lines of a U.S. election, join the Harvard Torah conversation – as we read about the counting of the Israelite people, tribe by tribe, and the naming of their leaders – while, in the present, we see the results of a U.S. Census, and a new Pew Research Center study on Jewish Americans.

Professor Joseph Singer, who teaches property law, legal philosophy, and federal Indian law at Harvard's Law School, and Gabriel Karger '18, who is now pursuing a PhD in Political Philosophy at Princeton and a JD at Columbia Law School, join the Harvard Torah conversation to discuss the ethics of Ownership, as we conclude the book of Leviticus with its laws about land, property, and release from debts and indentured servitude in the Jubilee year.