In the latest edition of his Search for Meaning podcast, Stephen Wise Temple Senior Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback hosts writer, filmmaker, linguist, and self-described "nerdy Indiana Jones" Alan Niku, who may or may not moonlight as a vigilante superhero.

The Berkeley-educated Niku has a unique background, coming from an Iranian Jewish family. That background spurred his lifelong love of language and a deep and abiding sense of curiosity.

That curiosity led Niku—who grew up speaking Farsi—to delve into the language his Kurdish grandfather spoke. The more he learned, the more he realized that his grandfather wasn't speaking Kurdish, but a dialect of Aramaic—the language of the Talmud and parts of the Hebrew Bible.

Niku has used language as a window to history, as he has used linguistics to explore the development and nuance in the politics, culture, and faith, not to mention sociology, psychology, and human geography. Through Persian and Jewish languages, he has charted the unique blend of Jewish ritual and worship that developed in Persian Jewish communities.

You won't want to miss a minute of this fascinating look into Jewish history, including a manuscript dating from the 1700s.