Have you ever wondered who this famous "Josephus" is, who is so often quoted here and, in fact, all over the place?

In this episode we take a deep-dive into the life of one of the most influential Jews of all time, like him or not-- we'll talk about the drama that surrounded Josephus during his life and that has shadowed his legacy for two millennia. And, as always, we will end with a practical lesson for our own experiences as moral leaders.

Here we take a brief break from the exploration of mishnaic personalities to look back on the whole Second Temple period. If we take the time period as a whole, what are the major lessons that history is begging us to learn?

What happened when we lost everything that we thought we stood for, as a nation?

Why does the month of destruction - Av - lead right into the month of return - Elul - and what lessons can we learn for our own Avodah?

The Temple is on the brink of destruction, and Jerusalem is overrun with Romans, traitors, turncoats, and brigands. One man has the courage to stand up and take action. In this episode we will learn not only what he did, as the sole hero of the time period, but also how that decision FELT in his own inner world.

In this episode, we get so caught up in the history of the fall of the Second Temple that we run out of blessed time to speak about Chazal's rendition of events. But no worries! After all, there's always next episode!

As for now... you've always said "churban bayis", "the destruction of the Temple", but with only vague and fuzzy memories of exactly what went down, and how, and by whom, and why the whole thing actually matters, anyway.

Here, we deep dive into history and meet the bad guys (where are the good guys?!), see what happens in Judea and in Jerusalem, and learn some incredibly important lessons from the surface of history.

Next time, we will jump into the very few segments of the story that Chazal bring to our attention, and what they teach us about moral leadership.

"Happy" (??!!) listening!

What's the difference between leaders to whom we owe something as the Jewish people... and leaders to whom we "owe" the destruction of the Temple?

As we get closer to the Churban Bayis, the themes that Chazal want us to pay attention to become ever more clear....

In this episode, we meet Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel. We discuss both his accomplishments but also how he is uniquely symbolic of a shift in the Jewish people, one which Chazal want us to pay close attention to, and for good reason.

In this episode, we revisit the historical period that we delved into six weeks ago: the reign of Caligula and the fascinating and incredible "miracle" that saved the Jewish people. Why was this story forgotten? And what can the most incredible recorded instance of Jewish unity teach us about moral leadership?

Here we address one of the strangest, most incredible, and almost entirely forgotten events of Jewish history. It's an inspirational story and it SHOULD have a powerful take-home message to us, especially learning it right after Purim, and especially in the 21st century-- but can we decipher what that message is?!

In this episode we take a 400+ year detour back in time to explore a little bit about the Purim story -- and what, historically, the end of Adar used to be devoted to.

We'll learn about the essential characteristic that differentiates Jewish monarchs- the quintessential leaders- from the rest of us, and weigh in about Judaism's (surprising) conceptualization of fate vs. destiny.

We continue with our ambition to meet the leaders -- both righteous and vicious -- of the Second Temple period, and no epoch is more poignant than this one. We have the contrast of Herod, "King of the Jews" -- ruthless but relentlessly competent -- with Hillel HaZakein, whom we remember for his humility and modesty over 2,000 years into the future.

In what other leadership qualities can these two men be compared, and what difference does it make in the history of the Jewish people? Join us to find out!

Somehow, our journey through the Second Temple period is still continuing to progress from bad to worse.

In this episode we are audience to an all-out civil war between two Hasmonean brothers, and we meet their foils as the religious leadership of the nation, Shmaya and Avtalyon.

And all throughout we ask ourselves: what are the essential characteristics of a leader, anyway? And how can this small segment of history weigh in to educate us in our debate?