Ta Shma

Listen as Mechon Hadar faculty members Elie Kaunfer, Dena Weiss, Aviva Richman, Shai Held, and Avi Killip explore the deeper meanings and wisdom found in the pages of the Haggadah.

Ethan Tucker. Intensive study of the topic of niddah (the set of laws and practices surrounding female uterine bleeding and sex) remains a core part of rabbinic training in many yeshivot and its practice is a central part of the sexual lives of many Jews. It is a topic that has suffered, in my view, from an excess of apologetics and evasion. My goal in this series is to lay out some of the main sources and issues in this area of law and practice, while offering honest, open and critical responses to the different ways we might approach it.

Ethan Tucker. Intensive study of the topic of niddah (the set of laws and practices surrounding female uterine bleeding and sex) remains a core part of rabbinic training in many yeshivot and its practice is a central part of the sexual lives of many Jews. It is a topic that has suffered, in my view, from an excess of apologetics and evasion. My goal in this series is to lay out some of the main sources and issues in this area of law and practice, while offering honest, open and critical responses to the different ways we might approach it.

Shai Held. The Religious Worldviews of Rabbis Heschel and Soloveitchik. A God Who Cares. Recorded in 2010.

Ethan Tucker. In medieval Germany, there was a community that defined forbidden fat differently from everyone else. How can we assess this situation using our values of pluralism, integrity, and community? What are the assumptions that made these communities continue to have community over food with each other?

Ethan Tucker. In medieval Germany, there was a community that defined forbidden fat differently from everyone else. How can we assess this situation using our values of pluralism, integrity, and community? What are the assumptions that made these communities continue to have community over food with each other?

A major part of what it means to serve God is to protect the vulnerable and pursue justice. Shai Held, Co-Founder and Dean of Mechon Hadar, and Jill Jacobs, Executive Director of Tru'ah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, explore the place of social justice activism in Jewish theology, spirituality, and ethics; they discuss such pressing questions as race in America, mass incarceration, the global environmental crisis, and the future of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Shai Held. The Religious Worldviews of Rabbis Heschel and Soloveitchik. Heschel, the Rambam, and Revelation. Recorded in 2010.

Ethan Tucker. Many of the greatest challenges of contemporary Jewish life revolve around the desire to bring together Jews of disparate practices and beliefs. This has always been so: Jews have been arguing over key matters of Jewish practice and commitment even as they have still attempted to create community with one another. And yet, for all that this is an old problem, it is in many ways more acute than ever before. How do we navigate these issues in the modern world?

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.