The Curious Jew

Following our episode on death and the afterlife, Rabbi David Silverstein welcomes Rabbi Steven Gotlib back to the podcast for the flip side of that question: what does it actually mean to be alive? More specifically, why do we have conscious experience at all?

They start with what philosophers call the “hard problem of consciousness” and the main secular attempts to solve it. Maybe consciousness emerges once a system is complex enough. Maybe it’s an illusion. Or maybe, as panpsychists argue, consciousness runs through all of reality. From there, they turn to Jewish sources: God breathing life into Adam in Bereishit, the Tanya’s claim that our separateness from God is only apparent, Rav Kook’s idea that the world exists within God, and the Rambam’s view of prophecy as a natural capacity that only a few are allowed to reach. They close with AI. If a machine can imitate a conscious mind convincingly, what separates it from us, and where does the soul fit in?

About the Guest: Rabbi Steven Gotlib is a pulpit rabbi serving a diverse Jewish community in Philadelphia. A graduate of the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS) at Yeshiva University, he is a frequent contributor to The Lehrhaus, 18Forty, and writes regularly on his personal Substack.

AMA: In an upcoming episode, R' David will respond to listener questions! Submit them to be considered here: https://forms.gle/EHknAEyZUVFXARWJ7

Chapters:
01:11 From Death to the Hard Problem of Consciousness
09:22 Materialist Answers: Emergence and Illusion
23:10 Panpsychism: Is Consciousness Everywhere?
28:27 Bereishit: Is the Soul Consciousness?
33:40 The Tanya: Is Separateness from God an Illusion?
39:39 Rav Kook and Panentheism
43:35 The Rambam's View
47:18 AI, Consciousness, and the Soul
54:26 Where Science, Philosophy, and Religion Meet

R’ David Silverstein sits down with Rabbi Dr. Jason Weiner, a hospital chaplain who spends his days at the bedsides of dying patients at one of the largest medical centers in California, to ask what Judaism actually has to say about death.

Recorded days before Rosh Hashanah, the conversation starts with a simple observation: Jews get antsy around death. We walk out for Yizkor. We avoid learning the laws of mourning. R' Weiner argues this isn't a Jewish problem but a human one, and that the Torah is built to push back against it. From there they move into the debate over when a person is actually dead, and why that turns out to be a philosophical question before it is a medical one. R' Weiner describes what patients say in their final hours, what he has witnessed at the bedside that he cannot explain, and why he is wary of rabbis who offer grieving families tidy answers. They close on prayer: what is left to say when a family tells a rabbi that his prayers failed, and why "I don't know" may be the most honest thing a rabbi can offer.

About the Guest
Rabbi Dr. Jason Weiner is Senior Rabbi and Executive Director of Spiritual Care at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, where he oversees a multi-faith chaplaincy team. He came to hospital chaplaincy from the pulpit and went on to earn a master's in bioethics and health policy and a doctorate in clinical bioethics. He writes and teaches widely on Jewish medical ethics and end-of-life care.

Submit Your Questions
Submit your questions for a future AMA episode at https://forms.gle/bPNdfLc3P4kL9ujm9 or by emailing [email protected].

Chapters
00:00 Introduction
01:02 Life as a hospital chaplain
05:41 Why we avoid talking about death
13:03 When does a person actually die?
17:32 What happens to the soul
22:22 Sleep, dreams, and consciousness
25:26 Watching your life back on two screens
30:44 "I saw Grandma": a story from this hospital
37:40 Can consciousness exist without the brain?
44:30 Rabbi Soloveitchik and the power of "I don't know"

In this special AMA episode of The Curious Jew, the tables turn: producer R’ Corey Gold steps out from behind the scenes to put host R’ David Silverstein in the hot seat, tackling questions submitted directly by listeners.

The conversation ranges widely: from why denominational labels like “Modern Orthodox” are more modern invention than Sinai-given category, to how we can know that our own moral intuitions -- or Judaism itself -- are actually true. R’ David opens up about his own evolution on aliyah, from halakhic technicality to non-negotiable default, and reflects on what real Jewish unity requires in a moment of rising antisemitism and internal division. Along the way, he touches on rabbinic authority, the surprising depth behind the laws of bishul akum, and what it really means to reclaim Jewish identity today.

If you’ve got a question for R’ David, you can submit it for a future episode at this link (https://forms.gle/bPNdfLc3P4kL9ujm9) or email [email protected].

Chapters

00:02:04 Denominational Labels & Tribalism

00:08:00 Is Modern Orthodoxy the True Heir to Sinai?

00:11:26 How Do We Know Judaism Is True?

00:20:22 When Moral Intuition Clashes With Halakha

00:27:14 Why We Still Need Rabbis

00:32:18 Rethinking Aliyah as the Default

00:38:36 Sinat Chinam, Achdut, and Jewish Unity Today

00:42:58 Antisemitism and the Reawakening of Jewish Identity

00:46:43 The Hidden Depth of Bishul Akum

00:49:31 A Listener's Challenge: What Defines the Brit?

Are we turning our backs on 90% of Klal Yisrael? If Modern Orthodoxy has the perfect vocabulary to engage the contemporary world, why has it abandoned the field of outreach?

In this episode of The Curious Jew, Rabbi David Silverstein sits down with Rabbi Steven Gotlib to examine why the Modern Orthodox community so often struggles to prioritize active outreach (kiruv). Drawing on his own journey from a traditional Conservative upbringing in Fair Lawn through the high school worlds of NCSY and a secular path at Rutgers, Rabbi Gotlib shares a deeply personal perspective on transitioning into mainstream Orthodoxy.

They confront a critical shift in modern Jewish life: why Modern Orthodoxy has largely focused inward on fortifying its own enclaves while ceding active outreach to Yeshivish and Chabad frameworks. Pushing back against demographic triumphalism and indifference toward assimilation, they critique the lack of an internal drive within Centrist Orthodoxy to engage the broader Jewish world. It is an urgent, candid call to reclaim our sense of collective responsibility for the future of the entire Jewish people

About the Guest: Rabbi Steven Gotlib is a pulpit rabbi serving a diverse Jewish community in Philadelphia. A graduate of the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS) at Yeshiva University, he is a frequent contributor to The Lehrhaus, 18Forty, and writes regularly on his personal Substack.

AMA: In an upcoming episode, R' David will respond to listener questions! Submit them to be considered here: https://forms.gle/EHknAEyZUVFXARWJ7

Chapters

00:00:00 - Episode Intro & Rabbi Gotlib's Personal Journey

00:04:47 - Navigating the Conservative Movement & the Social Move to Orthodoxy

00:11:47 - The High-Pressure Ultimatum & Leaving Observance Behind

00:26:24 - Stumbling into Yeshivish Learning & The Intellectual Return

00:39:15 - Arriving at RIETS: Confronting Triumphalism and Demographics

00:47:14 - The Out-of-Town Enclave vs. Serving Diverse Communities

00:50:08 - The Missing Theological Motivation for Outreach in Modern Orthodoxy

00:55:07 - Activating Peer-to-Peer Campus Connections Beyond the Enclave

00:59:45 - How Engaging the Secular World Forces an Intellectual Expansion

Rabbi David Silverstein sits down with Rabbi Yehoshua Pfeffer — dayan, author, and founder of the Iyun Institute — to ask one of the most charged questions in contemporary Israeli Jewish life: how does the Haredi world actually think about its relationship to secular and religious Jews who aren’t Haredi?

The conversation opens with a viral protest video in which a yeshiva student questions a secular woman's Jewish identity, then uses it as a window into two thousand years of halakhic categories. Rav Pfeffer's provocative argument: the classic rabbinic frameworks — mumar l’hachis, mumar l'teavon, tinok shenishba — are largely just words. What's really happening beneath the surface is a return to the national, biblical model of Jewish identity that predates two thousand years of diaspora community life. R’ David pushes back: the vocabulary people absorb in yeshiva shapes how they actually see the world, and without new ideological language, the default categories always win. Together they map the internal Haredi struggle between isolationism and engagement, assess what thinkers R’ Kook, R’ Hirsch, and R’ Soloveitchik can and can't contribute, and ask whether October 7th has cracked open a space for Haredim to see themselves as part of a larger national story.

About the Guest
Rabbi Yehoshua Pfeffer is a dayan, author, and founder of the Iyun Institute, dedicated to developing a Haredi identity that engages deeply with Israeli society. He lives in Ramot, Jerusalem, where he is Rav of the “Ohr Chadash” community, with his wife Tamar and their eight children.

Questions? Feedback? Have a topic you'd like to hear discussed? Let us know: [email protected]

00:00 Welcome & The Protest Video That Started It All

03:22 Two Thousand Years of Insider/Outsider: Chazal, the Rambam, and Tinok Shenishba

16:04 The Deeper Story: It's Not Tinok Shenishba — It's a Return to Tanakh

19:02 Does Language Actually Matter? A Pushback

21:44 The Lived Haredi World: Every Jew Is Still a Brother

27:56 Them and Us — But It's Sociology, Not Theology

32:23 What Vocabulary Can Haredim Borrow? R' Kook, R' Hirsch, and R' Soloveitchik

41:01 Building the Library: The Iyun Institute's Original Project

49:10 Army Service, October 7th, and the Case for a New Language

53:33 Closing Thoughts & Where to Find the Iyun Institute

In the inaugural episode of The Curious Jew Podcast, host Rabbi David Silverstein sits down with Rav Avishai Lax of Machon Har Bracha to explore the grand enterprise of Rav Eliezer Melamed’s Peninei Halakha and its revolutionary impact on contemporary Jewish law.  

The conversation pulls back the curtain on the Machon's intensive collaborative workflow, revealing how a specialized team of scholars refines dozens of drafts to create an accessible code that intentionally weaves together foundational principles, conceptual Jewish thought, and modern reality. Together, they dive into the core pillars of Rav Melamed’s civilizational vision for Torat Eretz Yisrael. This includes rethinking the physics of modern kashrut, establishing a robust national policy for conversion (giyur), framing marital intimacy through a holistic and joyful lens, and analyzing a society-building framework that shifts the focus from individual questions to the national needs of the entire State of Israel. Finally, Rav Lax reveals the "hidden precision" of the series—exploring how complex layers of underlying halakhic authority are meticulously woven directly into the text's deceptively simple prose.  

About the Guest 

Rav Avishai Lax studied at Yeshivat Beit El and served as a community rabbi and educator in Toronto before returning to Israel. He currently lives in Har Bracha, where he works directly alongside his father-in-law, Rav Melamed, at Machon Har Bracha.

Questions? Feedback? Have a topic you'd like to hear discussed? Let us know: [email protected]

Is 'fundamentalist Islam' a misnomer? What Muslim voices authentically represent traditional Islam? In this episode Rav David Silverstein is joined by Rav Yaakov Nagen to discuss these issues as well the larger question of Jewish/Muslim interfaith dialogue.

Rabbi Dr. Yakov Nagen is the head of Ohr Torah Stone’s Blickle Institute for Interfaith Dialogue and Beit Midrash for Judaism and Humanity, as well as the Executive Director of the Ohr Torah Interfaith Center. For 25 years, Rabbi Nagen served as a senior educator at Yeshivat Otniel. A prominent advocate of religion as a means for promoting peace, he has been a leading figure in interfaith dialogue, particularly between Judaism and Islam, for two decades. His new book, Ushmo Echad/God Shall Be One, is out in Hebrew now and English soon.

Questions? Feedback? Have a topic you'd like to hear discussed?
Email us at [email protected] and we look forward to "continuing the conversation."

Music from "Ashreinu" by Omek HaDavar
Recorded in the Old City of Jerusalem at Yeshivat Orayta (orayta.org) | Facebook | Instagram

Gemara learning dominates the Centrist Orthodox Yeshiva curriculum. Do Centrist Orthodox Yeshivot approach Gemara differently than their Chareidi counterparts? Are there varied perspectives within the world of Centrist Orthodoxy? In this podcast, Rav David Silverstein is joined by Rav Yitzchak Blau to discuss these questions through the lens of Rav Blau's own experiences in both Chareidi and Centrist Orthodox Yeshivot.

Rabbi Yitzchak Blau is Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Orayta, the author of Fresh Fruit and Vintage Wine: The Ethics and Wisdom of the Aggada, and Tradition's associate editor. He has taught at Yeshivat Hamivtar, Yeshivat Shvilei Hatorah, and the Yeshivah of Flatbush and currently also teaches at Midreshet Lindenbaum. Rabbi Blau has a BA in English Literature from YU, an MA in Medieval Jewish History from Revel, and smicha from RIETS. Rabbi Blau lives in Alon Shevut with his wife and four children.

Questions? Feedback? Have a topic you'd like to hear discussed?
Email us at [email protected] and we look forward to "continuing the conversation."

Music from "Ashreinu" by Omek HaDavar
Recorded in the Old City of Jerusalem at Yeshivat Orayta (orayta.org) | Facebook | Instagram

How should we understand the central role of the Talmud Bavli in Chareidi communities? What are the goals of the 'Ivies' of the Yeshiva World? How does intensive focus on the Gemara create a certain student and society? Rav Gavriel Singer pulls back the curtain in conversation with Rav Dovid Silverstein in the Season 3 Premiere of Tzarich Iyun.

Rav Gavriel Singer, Rebbe at Yeshiva Orayta, is originally from Philadelphia and currently lives in the Sanhedriya Murchevet neighborhood of Yerushalayim with his family. He studied in various yeshivot spanning from Netiv Aryeh, Mir Yerushalayim and Kollel Ateres Elimelech.  He also published a sefer on Masechet Makkot, Metzius Ish, and served as a Rebbe at Yeshivas Shaar HaChaim.

Questions? Feedback? Have a topic you'd like to hear discussed?
Email us at [email protected] and we look forward to "continuing the conversation."

Music from "Ashreinu" by Omek HaDavar
Recorded in the Old City of Jerusalem at Yeshivat Orayta (orayta.org) | Facebook | Instagram

Many observant Jews have a seder night custom to spill out some wine from their cups during the recitation of the ten plagues. What is the source of this custom? Does it reflect a Jewish instinct to mitigate happiness when one's enemies are killed? Or, is it part of a larger story about Jewish uniqueness and particularism? In this episode Rav David Silverstein is joined by Rav Yitzchak Blau to discuss the origin of this custom as well the larger question of rejoicing over the downfall of one's enemies.

Rabbi Yitzchak Blau is Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Orayta, the author of Fresh Fruit and Vintage Wine: The Ethics and Wisdom of the Aggada, and Tradition's associate editor. He has taught at Yeshivat Hamivtar, Yeshivat Shvilei Hatorah, and the Yeshivah of Flatbush and currently also teaches at Midreshet Lindenbaum. Rabbi Blau has a BA in English Literature from YU, an MA in Medieval Jewish History from Revel, and smicha from RIETS. Rabbi Blau lives in Alon Shevut with his wife and four children.

Questions? Feedback? Have a topic you'd like to hear discussed?
Email us at [email protected] and we look forward to "continuing the conversation."

Music from "Ashreinu" by Omek HaDavar
Recorded in the Old City of Jerusalem at Yeshivat Orayta (orayta.org) | Facebook | Instagram