Interleaved: A Talmudic Podcast

Is the housing crisis really that complicated? How can we cultivate compassion within ourselves for our neighbors experiencing homelessness and displacement?

Aaron Berc is a community organizer at Jewish Community Action, an organization with the mission ​​to bring together Jewish people from diverse traditions and perspectives to promote understanding and take action on racial and economic justice issues in Minnesota. Aaron organizes JCA's Housing Justice campaign where he focuses on the fight for the rights of tenants, and making sure all of those in the community have a dignified home.

Special thanks to our executive producer, Adina Karp

View a source sheet for this episode here.

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Music from https://filmmusic.io

"Midnight Tale" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)

License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

How can limitations inspire creativity? In what ways do the laws of sukkah accommodate differences among communities?

Professor Noah Resnick currently teaches and practices in the city of Detroit, Michigan. A partner at Laavu, Resnick is also the Associate Dean and Professor at the School of Architecture and Community Development at the University of Detroit Mercy. Additionally he served as jury co-chair in the Sukkah x Detroit competition in 2018.

View a source sheet for this episode here.

Keep up with Interleaved on Facebook and Twitter.

Special thanks to our executive producer Adina Karp

Music from https://filmmusic.io

"Midnight Tale" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)

License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

CW: eating disorders/disordered eating 

Should a person suffering from or recovering from an eating disorder fast on Yom Kippur? How can we change our own harmful attitudes towards food and our bodies?

Temimah Zucker is a licensed clinical social worker providing sessions to those in New York and New Jersey who struggle with mental health concerns, eating disorders, disordered eating, and body image. She is a metro-New York supervisor at Monte Nido Manhattan and is an adjunct professor at the Wurzweiler School of Social Work. Temimah writes for the Jewish Link and speaks around the country on the subject of eating disorders and disordered eating and continues to work toward creating Tikvah V'Chizuk, an organization geared toward the Jewish community with regard to support for those in recovery as well as their loved ones.

If you or someone you know is suffering from an eating disorder, help is available. Call the National Eating Disorders Association Helpline or visit https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/help-support/contact-helpline Monday-Thursday 11 am - 9 pm ET and Friday 11 am - 5 pm for free, confidential emotional support. If you are in a crisis and need help immediately outside of these hours, text “NEDA” to 741741 to be connected with a trained volunteer at Crisis Text Line.

View a source sheet for this episode here.

Keep up with Interleaved on Facebook and Twitter.

Special thanks to our executive producer, Adina Karp

Music from https://filmmusic.io

"Midnight Tale" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)

License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

How did the Torah reading ritual evolve from its origins in the Temple service on Yom Kippur to its familiar form as we perform it today? What can Talmud-era synagogue ruins tell us about how ancient Jews performed the ceremony?

Rabbi Dr. Ruth Langer is Professor of Jewish Studies in the Theology Department at Boston College, and Interim Director of its Center for Christian-Jewish Learning. She is widely published and in addition to  a long list of articles her books include To Worship God Properly: Tensions between Liturgical Custom and Halakhah in Judaism, and Jewish Liturgy: A Guide to Research. Rabbi Dr. Langer is also the co-editor of Liturgy in the Life of the Synagogue: Studies in the History of Jewish Prayer.

View a source sheet for this episode here.

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Special thanks to our executive producer, Adina Karp

Music from https://filmmusic.io

"Midnight Tale" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)

License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

What did sacrifice mean to ancient Jews? Where do the meanings of our rituals that we are taught in school come from?

Professor Jonathan Klawans is Professor of Religion at Boston University’s Department of Religion and the Elie Wiesel Center for Judaic Studies. He has published a number of important articles on the topics of ritual sacrifice and purity in Ancient Israel, and is the author of multiple books including Impurity and Sin in Ancient Judaism and Purity Sacrifice and the Temple: Symbolism and Supersessionism in the Study of Ancient Judaism. Professor Klawans is also co-editor with Lawrence M. Wills of the recently-released Jewish Annotated Apocrypha.

Check out the source sheet for this episode here
Special thanks to our executive producer, Adina Karp

Keep up with Interleaved on Facebook and Twitter.

Music from https://filmmusic.io

"Midnight Tale" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)

License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

What lessons can we take from the Yom Kippur scapegoat to the work of social justice? How can our understanding of justice inform how we practice teshuva?

Rabbi Jessica Rosenberg has worked as a national organizer at Bend the Arc: Jewish Action, a movement of progressive Jews across the country who are fighting for justice and equality for all, and as a collective member of the Radical Jewish Calendar project. She is also the author of “An Introduction to Trauma, Healing and Resilience for Rabbis, Jewish Educators and Organizers”, published by Reconstructing Judaism.

View a source sheet for this episode here.

Special thanks to our executive producer, Adina Karp

Keep up with Interleaved on Facebook and Twitter.

Music from https://filmmusic.io

"Midnight Tale" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)

License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Why does Tractate Yoma read like a story? How did the paytanim, the liturgical poets of the post-Talmud period, turn its text into the most transcendent part of the modern Yom Kippur service?

Dr. Michael Swartz is Professor of Hebrew and Religious Studies in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at the Melton Center for Jewish Studies at The Ohio State University. He specializes in the cultural history of Judaism in late antiquity, rabbinic studies, early Jewish mysticism and magic, and ritual studies. Professor Swartz is widely published, his work includes:  Scholastic Magic: Ritual and Revelation in Early Jewish Mysticism, Avodah: Ancient Poems for Yom Kippur, The Signifying Creator: Nontextual Sources of Meaning in Ancient Judaism, and “Liturgy, Poetry, and the Persistence of Sacrifice”. He also served as the associate editor for Judaica for the second edition of the Encyclopedia of Religion.

View a source sheet for this episode here.

Keep up with Interleaved on Facebook and Twitter.

Special thanks to our executive producer, Adina Karp

Music from https://filmmusic.io

"Midnight Tale" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)

License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

CW// Violence
What can Rabbinic and other Jewish legal sources teach us about conflict resolution? And what can we gain from studying conflict?

Rabbi Dr. Howard Kaminsky is an independent researcher. He has served as a research fellow at the Pardes Center for Judaism and Conflict Resolution, and as a mediator for Community Mediation Services in Queens, NY. He holds an EdD in religion and education from Teachers College, Columbia University and rabbinic ordination from Mesivta Tifereth Jerusalem. He is the author of Fundamentals of Jewish Conflict Resolution: Traditional Jewish Perspectives on Resolving Interpersonal Conflicts. 

Special thanks to our executive producer, Adina Karp

View a source sheet for this episode here.

Keep up with Interleaved on Facebook and Twitter.

Music from https://filmmusic.io

"Midnight Tale" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)

License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

How did the Rabbis understand the role of the High Priest in the Temple? How do we trace the Levites through generations? 

Dr. Yonatan Miller is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies and Director of The Center for Religious Understanding at the University of Toledo. He has published articles in Jewish Studies Quarterly and in the Journal of Ancient Judaism and is currently at work on a monograph entitled Sacred Slaughter: Violence and the Israelite-Jewish Priesthood based on his 2015 dissertation. 

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View a source sheet for this episode here.

Keep up with Interleaved on Facebook and Twitter.

Special thanks to our executive producer, Adina Karp

Music from https://filmmusic.io

"Midnight Tale" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)

License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

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Special thanks to our executive producer, Adina Karp

Keep up with Interleaved on Facebook and Twitter.

Music from https://filmmusic.io

"Midnight Tale" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)

License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)