The Study

Rabbi Matt Green joins Raviv for the month of May, but today he serves as both co-host and guest to unpack our 30th Torah reading of the year. He’ll help contextualize how different rituals from the Torah can actually help us frame the work that must be done if we’re all to not only keep our wits about us but also thrive as we begin to reestablish a sense of post-quarantine social normalcy.

Micah Riot joins Rabbi Batshir Torchio and Raviv to discuss tattooing, Torah, and finding your place in the world through artistic expression. 

Jhos Singer joins Rabbi Batshir and Raviv to talk about a line from the so-called “clobber passages” that have been at the heart of a lot of pain for a lot of people: “a man shall not lay with a man as he does with a women.” 

Our conversation aims to understand possible aspects of the historical context behind this law and those like it, as well as the damage it’s done, and how we as a people can and should overcome it.

Dr. Paul Root Wolpe, Director of the Center for Ethics at Emory University, joins Rabbi Batshir Torchio and Raviv to discuss how secular bioethics and Jewish law intersect and diverge, the role of bioethics in today's ongoing pandemic, and ways to read peculiar passages about cleanliness and purity in this week's Torah portion.

Rabbi Zac Kamenetz of Berkeley, CA and founder of Shefa joins Raviv and Rabbi Batshir Torchio of JCC San Francisco to help us understand how psychedelic experiences fit into Jewish practice, where he sees the work going in the future, how he plans to help that future come into being- and what it all has to do with this week’s torah portion, parsha Shmini. 

Ilana Glazer joins Fannie and Raviv to unpack parts of the Torah reading from Passover, and to discuss our shared responsibility for facing truth while owning one’s place in the world. Ilana also discusses her work with The Generator Collective and looks back at her time creating Broad City.

Daniel Picus, professor of Biblical Studies and the Ancient World in the Department of Global Humanities and Religions at Western Washington University joins Fannie and Raviv to discuss the historical context of sacrifices and how a people transitioned from a tight knit society that burned animals as offerings, to communities spread across the globe practicing their religion by way of the book.

Asa Keisar, initiator and founder of the Vegan Kosher Certification, talks to Fannie and Raviv about the textual basis in Torah for a vegan kosher movement, the necessity of setting boundaries to keep society in line, and his theory concerning animal sacrifice, kashrut, and the Israelites' journey from idolatry to monotheism.

Maharat Rori Picker Neiss,  Executive Director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of St Louis, joins Fannie and Raviv to talk gender and Torah, and the role of Torah study in relation to our communal responsibilities and our shared visions of progress.

Rabbi Amichai Lau Lavie, Founding Spiritual Leader of Lab/Shul in NYC, joins Fannie and Raviv to discuss whether cancel culture appears in the bible, what it means to “mask up” in a non-Covid sense, and our role in reimagining and applying Torah Study as modern-day free-thinking members of society.