Ta Shma

Tefillah Toolkit #4. Dena Weiss thinks about the relationship between the physical and the spiritual.

Dena Weiss. In celebration of 10 Years of Mechon Hadar, the extended Hadar community will be learning all of Pirkei Avot together at a pace of 3-5 mishnayot a week, concluding with a Siyyum Celebration on March 2, 2017. Each podcast includes the full text, a translation with explanations, and a short Dvar Torah inspired by that week's mishnayot.

Ethan Tucker. Intention, Inclusion, and Respect. To what extent do we view our fellow Jews who reject our fundamental values as somehow not responsible for their actions (שוגג, shogeg) or deliberate rebels (מזיד, mezid)? We continue from part 1 with four models that help us understand these categories and how they are used in halakhic discussions, and some concluding thoughts.

Ever wanted to know the answer to some deep and challenging questions in halakhah (Jewish law)? Join R. Avi Killip interviewing R. Ethan Tucker with questions sent in by Yeshivat Hadar alumni and others on all sorts of details of Jewish law. This is a joint project between the Center for Jewish Law and Values and Jewish Public Media.

Tefillah Toolkit #4. Elie Kaunfer explores the themes in this prayer, some of the fascinating images, and what they can teach us. Why is a prayer about the impossibility of describing God full of synonyms that are describing God?

Ethan Tucker. Intention, Inclusion, and Respect. One of the most significant challenges of contemporary Jewish communities is navigating when and how we can share space with Jews who practice differently from us. How much can we admit people we understand to be sinners into our midst without eviscerating our own standards of behavior? When does the impulse towards love and inclusion come at the cost of either our own integrity, or an unbearable condescension towards the integrity and intentions of others?

Ethan Tucker. Music has played a central role in religious rites across cultures and throughout time. And yet, traditional Jewish practice has mainly forbidden the use of musical instruments on Shabbat and Yom Tov, days that are uniquely focused on spirituality and on transcending the mundane. Why? What is the basis for this prohibition, both in the textual record and conceptually? How should we think about this prohibition today? We will review the sources and suggests a few different models for thinking about this question.

Ethan Tucker. This podcast explores pathways towards including benot kohanim in the priestly blessing (birkat kohanim), thus allowing it to retain a role, perhaps even a central one, in our public prayer life, while still firmly anchoring it in the kehunah, and eliminating at least the optics of some of the patriarchal hierarchy that lies at the heart of the historic Jewish priesthood.

Dena Weiss. What does it mean to truly learn Torah? Is it entirley an intellectual exercise? And what can we learn from Moses?

Ethan Tucker. The kehunah—the Jewish priesthood—anchors the Jewish people in antiquity through its unbroken line of male descent. Even as Judaism moved away from the centrality of the priesthood towards a more meritocratic model that prized scholarship and observance of mitzvot, the kehunah has remained an important symbol for many, until the present day. But it is also unmistakably patriarchal. In an increasingly gender-equal environment, the maleness of so many aspects of the Jewish priesthood are glaringly out of step.