Sam Sokol is a veteran journalist, currently the Knesset Affairs correspondent at the Times of Israel. In this episode, we explore his journalistic background, and his unique perspective on the charedi parties in the landscape of Israeli politics.

After a long hiatus, we return with a crossover episode - Yaakov Wolff, host of the Shtark Tank podcast, interviews Rabbi Yehoshua and Rebbetzin Tamar Pfeffer.

More original episodes to come shortly!

Since inaugurating this podcast, and focusing a long series on charedim

and army service, one episode has conspicuously been missing: a full

treatment of the halachic parameters of the notion of milchemes mitzvah,

as well as an analysis commonly advanced ideals such as "Torah magneh

u'matzleh" ("Torah study protects"). In this episode we remedy that void

and address these issues that are vital to any Torah-centered Jew.

To do so, we speak with Rabbi Dr. Yitzchak Lifshitz, a noted rav and

rosh Kollel based in Yerushalayim, who has written extensively on these

topics in recent months. Rabbi Dr. Lifshiftz is also a professor of

philosophy at Shalem College.

Dr. Moshe Koppel is a leading computer scientist in Israel, with a

specific expertise in AI. But over past twenty years he has led an

intellectual movement promoting judicial reform within Israel.

Through his Kohelet Policy Forum, Dr. Koppel researches alternatives to

the entrenched judicial dynamics, and advocates for what he considers a

more balanced and democratic approach, in line with other Western

countries. Obviously, this topic has been at the center of stormy

debates and protests in Israel; while it seemed to subside in the wake

of the October 7th tragedy, this issue has returned to the foreground,

with broad implications for swaths of Israeli society, perhaps most

notably, the chareidim.

We speak today with Dr. Koppel about the history and intellectual

perspective of this movement, how and why it seemed to unravel, and

where the typically non-ideological and narrowly focus charedi public

fits in to the story.

Tzili Schneider has created one of the most remarkable bridge-building educational operations in Israel, Kesher Yehudi. Ari Koretzky has previously interviewed Tzili on his other show, Jews You Should Know.

Relevant to the Iyun Podcast, however, we focus in this episode on Tzili’s recent efforts with hostage families and NOVA survivors; she has engaged each of these populations with Shabbatonim and other outreach methods, resulting in a significant Jewish awakening fostering deep bonds of mutual love.

The charedi communities of the United State and Israel are separated physically by an ocean, but culturally and psychologically by a great deal as well. Many Americans lack basic awareness of current developments on the ground in Israel, the actual attitudes towards army service and general integration being promulgated there.

The resulting gap leads to widespread misconceptions, and inhibits Anglos from forming fully informed positions.

InStep Together is a new grassroots initiative aimed at remediating this state of affairs. Several notable Anglo-Charedi rabbinic personalities have embarked on a “hasbara tour” of sorts, holding intimate, fireside chat-style conversations in various communities. Rabbis Mordechai Becher, Ron Yitzchak Eisenmann and today’s guest, Yitzchak Adlerstein, have directed their time and talents towards helping thoughtful charedim around the United States grapple with these issues of grave importance.

Tuvia Tenenbom is quite a colorful character. An author, playwright,

mathematician, computer scientist, and all-around polymath, Tuvia was

raised in a chareidi Israeli home, in the lap of the Chazon Ish, Rav

Shach and other great luminaries. His own life veered on a different

course, but he recently returned to those ideological precincts,

spending a year in Mea She’arim, Jerusalem, fully immersed in the local

community.

The product of his embedded travels is the book, “Careful, Beauties

Ahead: My Year with the Ultra-Orthodox,” an honest and largely

flattering portrayal of his time in an otherwise closed society.

Tenenbom highlights many of the gifts - fervent religiosity, principled

living, embrace of charity and family - that animate chareidi life, yet

which so few Israeli “outsiders” ever learn about, much less witness.

In an era of intense polarization,Tenenbom’s tome is a reminder that,

for all the critique and calls for chareidi reform, the core values must

be preserved, radiating out towards the entire Jewish nation, and

beyond.

Why are we here? What’s it all about? Obviously, Judaism has quite a bit to say about this topic. In fact, it may be its entire animating essence!

Still, as expressed in contemporary living, even those who identify as strictly Torah-observant may respond divergently to this most-important question.

On this episode, Tzvi Goldstein will argue that the Chareidi mindset on “the purpose of life” is orientated towards a Next-World (Olam Ha’Ba) perspective, built on a mystical approach popularized by Rav Chaim of Volozhin.

Goldstein himself favors what he classifies as a more “centrist”, “This-Worldly” approach, championed by Rav Hirsch and Rav Soloveitchik.

Yaakov Resnick pushes back, adding nuance and sophistication to the presentation of Charedi hashkafa, and muddying the picture, just a bit.

Stay tuned for our host’s own take at the end of the episode.

This conversation was inspired by an article penned by Goldstein on the pages of online publication The Lehrhaus, provocatively titled “Rack up Those Mitzvot,” to which Resnick (along with others) responded with a letter to the editor. (See past Iyun guest Chaim Goldberg’s letter as well.)

Yaavov Resnik prefers a lower profile, but for more from Tzvi Goldstein, check out his book, Halachic Worldviews. This unique work explains the background for the "centrist" approach to Torah learning, and offers more than a dozen examples of halachic topics that might be evaluated through the lens of “Torah values.” Tzvi authors a wonderful Substack as well. Give him a follow!

Jonathan Rosenblum is a long-time columnist, pundit and observer of the Orthodox/chareidi communities in Israel and worldwide.

He joins us on this episode to explore the unique role and purpose of chareidi media.

His wonderful new volume, “Ordinary Greatness,” a compilation of many columns, and more, is available for purchase wherever great Jewish books are sold.

Rabbi Moshe Taragin is a long-time Ram at Yeshivat Har Etzion (“The Gush”), as well as a popular speaker and author on a wide variety of Torah topics. A student of Rav Aharon Lichsteinstein, zt”l and Rav Yehuda Amital, zt”l, R’ Taragin absorbed their weltanschauung over many years.

In this episode, we ask him to sketch out, for the uninitiated, the “Dati Leumi” community in which he lives and teaches. Many people beyond this large and vibrant society may be unaware of the variegated options therein, or of just how serious and committed are many of its adherents to limud ha’Torah and shmiras ha’mitzvos. Hopefully, this show can offer a modest corrective to that reality.

R’ Taragin speaks with great humility and ahavas Yisroel, and all of his works are well worth our listeners’ attention. Hear some of his classes here and here. And purchase his powerful book about faith post-October 7th, Dark Clouds Above, Faith Below.