Ta Shma

In modernity, miracles have gone from the great proofs of religion to its great embarrassment. If you have doubts about whether God could suspend the laws of nature—there's a strain of miracles for you as well. This shiur explores a long-forgotten definition of miracles - moments of relief, joy, and surprise at being saved from peril and death.

We often imagine that Pesach is a celebration of our exodus from slavery into freedom. But the Torah actually emphasizes that leaving Egypt was a process of going from one form of slavery to another. Challenge your notions of the purpose of freedom as we mine Rabbinic sources for insight.

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. We release longer episodes and regular shorts. This is a joint project between the Center for Jewish Law and Values and Open Quorum.

Jeremiah and the Problem of Religious Hypocrisy. Did God command Israel to offer sacrifices—as said explicitly in parashat Tzav—or not—as Jeremiah says in this week's haftarah? Although these two passages appear contradictory, they are not. Jeremiah is not opposed to the sacrificial system laid out in parashat Tzav, or to ritual in general. But he is intensely worried that sacrifice and ritual can be used in hypocritical, counter-productive ways.

The fourth blessing of the shabbat morning amidah "Yismach Moshe" / "Moses Rejoiced" is surprisingly strange. Not only is its language unclear, its meter irregular, its connection to shabbat dubious, but it is also out of character with every other fourth blessing of the amidah in our liturgy! How did it become to be this way? Why? And what is its connection to shabbat? Using his signature method of liturgical analysis, Elie Kaunfer comes up with some answers.

What determines whether a war is just or unjust? What is "connected criticism" and why does it matter so much? What (if anything) do classical Jewish sources have to teach us about modern politics? Michael Walzer is one of the leading political philosophers of his generation, and the author of extremely important works on just and unjust wars, nationalism, Zionism, political ethics and more.

Or: What Kind of Leaders Do We Need? A seemingly innocuous grammatical point in Leviticus 4 has generated enormous controversy—and yielded profound insight into the nexus of leadership, power, sin, and transformation.

What is the role of communal prayer in a culture that values individual expression and customized experience? Two leading voices in Jewish prayer—Elie Kaunfer and Jan Uhrbach (director of Liturgical Arts at JTS), moderated by Julia Adelman (director of Community Engagement at JTS)—explore the rationale, advantages and challenges of praying together. Recorded live at the Jewish Theological Seminary.

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. We release longer episodes and regular shorts. This is a joint project between the Center for Jewish Law and Values and Open Quorum.

In conveying instructions for the building of the mishkan (tabernacle), the Torah makes two crucial points. First, God does not simply seek a place to dwell; God seeks, rather, a place constructed by human hands. Second, God has no interest in a structure erected through coercion or taxation; what God wants is an edifice built from freely-bestowed gifts. Through its portrayal of the mishkan, the Torah offers us a window on what the ideal communal project would look like: generous, ego-less, and motivated by the sacredness of the cause itself.