The question of where to draw the line that bounds the Jewish people has never been a simple one, but historically intermarriage lay outside of it. Join Rav Aaron and Rav Mike for a discussion of whether the times they are a changin'.

When the storm broke in 1391, thousands were dead and even more converted. A new model of identity was born in the century before the expulsion, and it poses challenges that are present down to our day.

Am Yisrael puts a lot of effort into prayer, but is it working? R' Mike and R' Aaron discuss the broken state of Jewish prayer and offer some insights on fixing it.

When faced with the choice between the cross and the sword, the Ashkenazi communities of the middle ages chose martyrdom. Why was the decision of their Spanish contemporaries so different?

The Sages taught that 'anyone who is greater than their fellow has desire which is greater than he.' In this episode R' Aaron and R' Mike discuss the fraught relationship between education, power and sexual desire in the Torah world.

Zionism III Last Class by Sulam Yaakov

Zionism Part II by Sulam Yaakov

Zionism Part I by Sulam Yaakov

In the thirteenth centuries the stories of Ashkenaz and Spain begin to draw together. This is the great age of Christian expansion, which brings on book burning and religious disputation. It is also the age in which the kabbalah emerges as an answer to the challenge of evil.

Rav Aaron and Rav Mike meet in Jerusalem city hall to discuss whether 50 years after reunification Jerusalem is unified.