Professor James Diamond discusses the treatment of non-Israelite slaves from Moses to Moses.

Prof. James A. Diamond is the Joseph and Wolf Lebovic Chair of Jewish Studies at the University of Waterloo and former director of the university’s Friedberg Genizah Project. He holds a Ph.D. in Religious Studies and Medieval Jewish Thought from the University of Toronto, and an LL.M. from New York University’s Law School. He is the author of Maimonides and the Hermeneutics of Concealment, Converts, Heretics and Lepers: Maimonides and the Outsider and, Maimonides and the Shaping of the Jewish Canon.

This very recently discovered audio tape has just been digitized. This lecture, although spoken almost 50 years  ago is an important contribution to the debate on Zionism. Simon Eder, Education Director of The Louis Jacobs Foundation  introduces the talk:-

Replacing this weeks podcast, we share a recording from Rabbi Dr Louis Jacobs z"l in 1981. Speaking at a rabbinic conference in Israel, he sets out clearly how a Masorti approach to Zionism differs from Religious Zionism, and yet, with no less passion, or dedication to the sanctity of the land and what our commitment to the State of Israel should entail. As we grapple today, with what the future of Zionism should mean, his words, then are just as relevant for us now. 

Dr Eve Levavi Feinstein discusses the uniqueness of the sexual prohibitions outlined in Leviticus 18 and 20. 

Dr. Eve Levavi Feinstein holds a Ph.D. in Hebrew Bible from Harvard University. Her dissertation, Sexual Pollution in the Hebrew Bible (Oxford University Press), explores the Bible’s use of purity and contamination language to describe sexual relationships. She has also written articles for Jewish Ideas Daily and Vetus Testamentum. 

Dr Rabbi David Freidenreich discusses what the dietary laws teach us about holiness. 

Dr. Rabbi David M. Freidenreich is the Pulver Family Professor of Jewish Studies at Colby College. He earned his Ph.D. at Columbia University and rabbinic ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary. He is the author of the award-winning book, Foreigners and Their Food: Constructing Otherness in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic Law.

Dr Yitzhaq Feder uncovers the parallels between The skin disease Tzaraat in Leviticus and literature of the Ancient Near East.
 
Yitzhaq Feder is a lecturer in the Department of Biblical Studies at the University of Haifa and tel aviv His research synthesizes the traditional philological study of ancient texts with the cognitive science of religions. He has conducted research on purity and pollution in the Ancient Near East, the Hebrew Bible, and the Dead Sea Scrolls, and has examined how this work can be applied to psychological and evolutionary theory. His most recent research focuses on biblical notions of taboo and their implications for understanding the relationship between emotion and morality. His latest book, Purity and Pollution in the Hebrew Bible: From Embodied Experience to Moral Metaphor, won the best book on the Hebrew Biblice from the Biblical Archaeology Society in 2023. 

Professor Berel Dov Lerner considers the commentary of Rabbi Meir Simcha of Dvinsk on the breaking of the Tablets. 

Berel Dov Lerner is currently an associate professor of philosophy at the Western Galilee College in Akko. He is the author of many articles in philosophy and Jewish studies and of the book Rules, Magic, and Instrumental Reason (Routledge 2002). His latest book is Human-Divine Interactions in Hebrew Scriptures Covenants and Cross-Purposes (Routledge 2024).

Professor Kenneth Seeskin asks just what was heard by the people, if anything, during the revelation at Sinai?

Professor Seeskin is Professor of Philosophy and Philip M. and Ethel Klutznick Professor of Jewish Civilization at Northwestern University. He received his Ph.D in Philosophy from Yale University in 1972 and has been at Northwestern ever since. He specializes in the rationalist tradition in Jewish philosophy with an emphasis on Maimonides. Publications include Maimonides on the Origin of the World (CUP, 2005), Jewish Messianic Thoughts in an Age of Despair (CUP, 2012), Thinking about the Torah: A Philosopher Reads the Bible (JPS, 2016) and Maimonides: A Guide for Today's Perplexed (Behrman House). 

Rabbi Daniel Zucker discusses the influence of Egyptian belief for understanding repeated references to Pharaoh’s heavy heart.

Rabbi Zucker, D.D. is the Rabbi of Temple Israel of the Poconos, in Stroudsburg, PA, and President and CEO of Americans for Democracy in the Middle-East. He holds an M.A. in Hebrew Letters, a Doctor of Divinity (Honoris Causa) from JTS, and rabbinic ordination from HUC-JIR. A sampling of Zucker’s many articles on the Middle-East can be found on his blog, and he is the author of “He Said: ‘It’s an Event not Pure, for it’s not Pure!’ (I Sam. 20:26b) A Political Analysis,” published in JBQ (2016).

Professor Edward Greenstein shares how the Moses story both conforms and deviates from fugitive hero narratives of the Ancient Near East?

Professor Greenstein is Professor Emeritus of Bible at Bar-Ilan University. He received the EMET Prize (“Israel’s Nobel”) in Humanities-Biblical Studies for 2020, and his book, Job: A New Translation (Yale University Press, 2019), won the acclaim of the American Library Association, the Association for Jewish Studies, and many others.  He is writing a commentary on Lamentations for the Jewish Publication Society. He has also spoken on Jewish Quest on Shemini and also Noach.

Rabbi Rachel Ain discusses the significance of the way Jacob blesses his sons and his legacy as Patriarch. 

Rabbi Rachel Ain is the Rabbi of Sutton Place Synagogue, a Conservative Synagogue in Midtown Manhattan. 

Before joining SPS, Rabbi Ain was the Senior Director for National Young Leadership at the Jewish Federations of North America, where she worked closely with lay leaders and professionals to engage the next generation of leaders for the Jewish community. 

She sits on the Chancellor’s Rabbinic Cabinet of JTS, is a co-chair of the NYC Partnership of Faith Roundtable of Faith Leaders in NYC, is on the Executive Board of the NY Board of Rabbis, and the Board of Directors of UJA Federation of NY.