Ta Shma

Ethan Tucker. How do we construct our communities? How do we think about those who practice differently from us? This is investigated through the lens of who is allowed to testify. This week, we'll see the origin of these discussions in the Torah and early Rabbinic sources.

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 #2. Dena Weiss explores what it means to try and align your will with God's. What is praying the weekday Amidah, with all of its requests in the plural, supposed to make us experience?

Ethan Tucker. Competing Frames for Shabbat in the Torah and Today. In the Torah, there are two divergent formulations of the Ten Commandments—one in Exodus and another in Deuteronomy. The difference between them regarding Shabbat is particularly striking: Exodus maintains that the goal of Shabbat is “זכור”/“be mindful”, and links its observance to the Creation of the world in seven days; while Deuteronomy begins with the word “שמור”/“guard”, and grounds Shabbat in being freed from oppression in Egypt. And yet our tradition insists that they were said “בדיבור אחד”/“in one utterance”. What could this assertion mean? And why is it so important to Hazal?

Shai Held. The Religious Worldviews of Rabbis Heschel and Soloveitchik. What does "wonder" mean in the thought of R. Abraham Joshua Heschel? Recorded in 2010.

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 #2. Elie Kaunfer analyzes the seventeenth blessing of the daily Amidah: Retzeih. What are its themes? Why does it have such a sharp change of topic at the end? And how do we think about references to sacrifices in prayers in general?

Ethan Tucker. Muktzeh and the Essence of Shabbat. We generally understand the central category of Shabbat laws to be melakhah, doing active work; the laws of muktzeh (not touching a problematic object) are a "fence" around the true prohibitions of actions. But this has not always been the case, and it may be that we need to reclaim muktzeh as a central category to maintain Shabbat in the face of technological advancement.

Nechama Barash (Pardes) asks how we can reconcile after divisive differences through the lens of Talmudic stories. Recorded live at the Community Beit Midrash, 2015.

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.