Welcome to the Three Hundred Eighty Second episode of Daily Daf Differently. In this episode, Rabbi Joshua Cahan looks at Masechet Shekalim Daf 3.

A comparison of the Israelites giving of the half-shekel to their giving of gold for the Golden Calf doesn’t reflect well on them. The parallels point to a painful tension in both the Bible’s and the Rabbis’ depiction of the Exodus Generation: Their direct experience of God’s power and God’s voice forms the basis for the rest of Jewish history; yet they seem to have been poorly equipped to handle those experiences.

Rabbi Joshua Cahan received his Ph.D. in Rabbinic Literature from the Jewish Theological Seminary. He teaches rabbinics at the Schechter High School of Westchester. Previously he was the founder and director of the Northwoods Kollel Talmud program at Camp Ramah in Wisconsin and Director of the Jewish Theological Seminary’s Beit Midrash study center. In 2009 Rabbi Cahan published Yedid Nefesh, a traditional, egalitarian bencher (book of sabbath songs & blessings) with commentary.

The opening and closing music for this podcast is Ufros from The Epichorus album One Bead.