Ta Shma

Here Hadar's Rashei Yeshiva engage in a remarkable conversation. In this talk Shai Held and Ethan Tucker interview each other about profound Jewish questions concerning the nature of Halakhah and theology and their role in a meaningful Jewish society. They ask questions about Halakhah and values, about whether and how Halakhah unfolds over time, and about the meaning and future of theology in vibrant Jewish living. Recorded in April 2013.

Birkat HaGomeil both responds to and creates a moment of conscious interaction between people and God. What situations and realities does the berakhah stem from and respond to? How does the text express a sense both of being obligated and of being loved? What are the roles of the three main “characters”—God, community, and the person reciting the blessing—and what are their assumed interactions in the time leading up to and during the berakhah? Recorded live at the Rabbis' Yeshiva Intensive 2015.

Moses' Praise and Jonah's Fury. Parashat Ki Tissa culminates in a stirring—and enormously influential—proclamation of God’s mercy. The appropriate response to this rousing affirmation of God’s grace and benevolence would seem to be praise and thanksgiving. But for one embittered biblical prophet, these words elicit pain, desperation, and indignation instead. To understand why is to learn a powerful lesson about the vastness of God’s love—and about our own dogged but ill-fated attempts to cut God down to size.

We've all had the experience of learning something, coming back to it later, and realizing that we've forgotten what we learnt. This is one of the most frustrating experiences available to those of us who want to learn Torah. This class explores three different images that get to the redemptive—perhaps even positive—aspects of learning and forgetting, and shows us that even if we forget, we should still learn.

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.

R. Abraham Joshua Heschel taught us that "in the realm of the spirit only he who is a pioneer is able to be an heir." Yet he also insisted that "only he who is an heir is qualified to be an pioneer." Join us as Tova Hartman and Shai Held explore whether and how, in this day and age, we can combine deep fidelity to tradition, on the one hand, and openness to deep critique of it, on the other.

The Dynamics of Covenantal Commitment. Rabbinic interpretation of parashat Tetzaveh paints a powerful portrait of covenantal mutuality—of God’s commitment to Israel and Israel’s commitment to God. But it also claims, crucially, that covenantal mutuality depends less on ecstasy than on constancy. Covenant thrives, ultimately, less on high drama than on the day-to-day commitment to living with God.

Too often discussion about the mechitzah (the boundary that separates the sexes in many Jewish prayer spaces) is politically charged—the conversation becomes about movements rather than about values. This class cuts straight to the values behind the three models of sex separation we see in modern Jewish communities: (a) absolute sex separation in all parts of life; (b) denying that sex separation has a place in any part of life; and (c) maintaining sex separation in public prayer spaces but not others. What underpins each of these three positions? And how can we turn the discussion away from politics and back to the principles and values that underly them?

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.

An Island of Wholeness in a Fractured World. Biblical texts remember a perfect past and dream of a redeemed future. Jewish life offers us glimpses of those idealized moments in the hopes that they will nourish, sustain, and inspire us as we make our way through a far-less-than-perfect present. And yet potent and powerful as they are, dreams of perfection also have their dangers: they can keep us so rooted in a longed-for future that we grow indifferent—or even oblivious—to the blessings and possibilities of the present.