Online Torah Classes with Rabbi Mendy Goldberg

Lesson 6

Responsa from the future

Could Artificial Intelligence decide Jewish law? Is lab-grown meat kosher? See how Jewish law is addressing the questions posed by tomorrow’s cutting-edge technology.

Cases JERUSALEM, 2003; MAALEH ADUMIM, 2009; NEW YORK, 2015; BEIT SHEMESH, 2022

Lesson 5

Answering the whole person

Rules don’t always translate easily into reality. See how sages account for the practical, social, and emotional realities around a question to ensure their ruling leads to its intended outcome.

Cases CAIRO, 1173; BARCELONA, 1300; LODMIR, 1615; LUBAVITCH, 1871; BROOKLYN, 1954; MANCHESTER, 1963

Lesson 4

When the exception is the law

Explore unexpected rulings that reveal the hidden fallback mechanisms built into Jewish law. These cases show how the law itself protects deeper values like human dignity and family harmony.

Cases PAVIA, 1450; SALONIKA, 1550; KRAKOW, 1570; LIOZNA, 1790

TETZAVEH

Where's Moses?

Why is Moshe's name absent from this week's Torah Reading?

What is so special with the 7 Adar? What was greater the day of his passing or birth?

What was the overriding factor that convinced Haman to make his plot in the month of Adar?

Learn to reveal the Moses in you.

TERUMAH

Faith Verses Reality

One of the great struggles in life is that what we see and feel feels more real than what we believe.

A religious person lives with tension. On one hand, we believe in a G-d who is beyond anything physical. On the other hand, we are physical beings. We experience the world through what we see, hear, smell, taste, and touch. And whatever we can see and feel feels powerful and convincing. It feels real. Faith is abstract. The physical world is right in front of us.

Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev once cried out: “Master of the Universe, where is the fairness? This world

You put right in front of our eyes, but Gan Eden You left in the books.” In other words, the physical world feels immediate and obvious. The spiritual world feels distant and theoretical.

So the question is: how do we stay connected to faith when the physical world is so intense and overwhelming?

MISHPATIM

How to Make a Living

There’s a Jewish idea that money is not something we earn; money is something we receive from Heaven. Money is the most influential force in the world, and Hashem does not release it freely.

Behind every coin there is a guiding hand that determines the address at which it will land. Therefore, in order to “make money,” we must understand the values that guide the Holy One, blessed be He, in the distribution of wealth. After the prayer has been accepted and we have obtained the money, we must remember what G-d expects us to do with it. In this way we become worthy of additional blessing, so that it may be expanded and increased.

Lesson 3

How the Torah stays relevant

See inside the process that enables the Torah’s ancient code to guide life in an ever-changing world. Witness the precise process of applying Talmudic precedent.

Cases 

BARCELONA, 1300; VALENCIA, 1380; PAVIA, 1478; BEREZHANY, 1908

YISRO

Is Faith A Commandment?

What is the meaning of the statement “I am Hashem your G-d”? Is faith a commandment? Can one separate from it or violate it? And more broadly, what is the point of commanding faith? If it exists naturally, there is no need to command it; and if it does not exist, what good is a command? After all, one who does not believe, Heaven forbid, does not believe in commands issued in the name of Hashem.

Lesson 2

The quest for facts

Do sages make assumptions about how reality works, or do they investigate the facts? Follow rabbis as they conduct five fascinating investigations worldwide.

Cases CAIRO, 1548; ALTONA, 1709; HAMBURG, 1772; JERUSALEM, 1866; BROOKLYN, 1958

The people who asked the questions

What do these questions reveal about our ancestors? What did they think, feel, and value? Explore five fascinating stories to find out.

Cases BARCELONA, 1300; ALGIERS, 1450; MODENA, 1530; ALGIERS, 1732; AUSCHWITZ, 1944