Guest/Bio:

This week we welcome the amazing Rabbi Shai Held to talk all about his brand new book, "Judaism is About Love."

Rabbi Held is a philosopher, theologian, and Bible scholar and the President and Dean at the Hadar Institute. He received the prestigious Covenant Award for Excellence in Jewish Education, and has been named multiple times by Newsweek as one of the fifty most influential rabbis in America and by the Jewish Daily Forward as one of the fifty most prominent Jews in the world.

Held attended Ramaz High School and studied at Yeshivat HaMivtar in Efrat, Israel. He earned his A.B. from Harvard University in Religion, and went on to earn his M.A. in Jewish philosophy at the Jewish Theological Seminary in addition to rabbinic ordination. He earned a PhD from Harvard University in Relgious Studies; his dissertation is titled,"Reciprocity and Responsiveness: Self-Transcendence and the Dynamics of Covenant in the Theology and Spirituality of Abraham Joshua Heschel."

Rabbi Held worked at the Harvard University HIllel from 1999-2002 as the Conservative Rabbinic Advisor and the Director of Education. He has taught at Meah at Hebrew College, the Rabbinic Training Institute at the Jewish Theological Seminary, the Skirball Center for Adult Jewish Learning, and synagogues and institutions across the country. He was also an adjust professor of Jewish Philosophy, Talmud and Rabbinics, and Informal Jewish Education at the Jewish Theological Seminary from 2005-2008. From 2003-2008, Held served as the scholar-in-residence at Kehilat Hadar, an independent minyan in New York City.

In 2006, Held co-founded Mechon Hadar: An Institute for Prayer, Personal Growth, and Jewish Study. He has taught Modern Jewish Thought, Midrash, Talmud, Tanakh, and other topics. He heads the social program at Yeshivat Hadar, meeting with residents at the Jewish Home and Hospital in Manhattan and training students in bikkur holim (visiting the sick).

Guest (Selected) Works: Abraham Joshua Heschel: The Call of Transcendence; The Heart of Torah; Judaism is About Love.

Guest Links:

www.hadar.org

Facebook: @ShaiHeld

X: @HeldShai

Special Theme Music:

Forrest Clay

X: @clay_k

Instagram: @forrestclaymusic

YouTube: www.youtube.com/claykmusic

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Songs used on this episode were from the Recover EP

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This episode of The Deconstructionists Podcast was edited, mixed, and produced by John Williamson

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