Welcome to Haskalah: A Podcast about Jewish History and Jewish Ideas, a monthly discussion on topics in Jewish studies and Jewish life.

In this episode, I speak with my friend and study partner Robert Portnoe, on the challenges and virtues of being a teacher of Torah in a diverse Jewish world.

Citation from episode:

-- Aaron Levine, Spirit of Nobility: Sermons on the Weekly Torah Portion: Genesis and Exodus (Maggid, 2021), "The Exchange between Rachel and Leah," 152 ff.

To reach me, email: [email protected].

To prepare for Episode 3, out in Tishrei 5785/October 2024, I encourage you to get a copy of Jodi Magness, Jerusalem through the Ages: From Its Beginnings to the Crusades (Oxford, 2024).

Music credit:

"Nigun Rebbe Maharash"

Chabad Nigunim (Vol. 2)

Nichoach (1961)

Welcome to Haskalah: A Podcast about Jewish History and Jewish Ideas, a monthly discussion on topics in Jewish studies and Jewish life.

I'm your host, Samuel Kessler, Lyons Chair in Judaic Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University, and a historian of Modern European Jewry.

In this podcast, I'll be speaking to teachers, friends, and mentors, as well as to many thinkers whom I just simply admire -- all scholarly, insightful voices who represent the best of Jewish scholarship and Jewish thought in our time. My goal in these conversations is to ask big questions about the past and present of Jewish life, and to do so in a way that is informed by a clear and critical confrontation with Jewish scholarship and Judaism's traditional sources.

To reach me, email: [email protected].

To prepare for our third podcast, out in Tishrei 5785/October 2024, I encourage you to get a copy of Jodi Magness, Jerusalem through the Ages: From Its Beginnings to the Crusades (Oxford 2024).

Music credit:

Ki Eshmerah Shabbat - Jerusalem · Richard Kaplan & Michael Ziegler