The Study

Kara Hoover, Professor of Biological Anthropology in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and Deborah Green, the Greenberg Associate Professor of Hebrew Language and Literature in the Department of Religious Studies at The University of Oregon and author of The Aroma of Righteousness: Scent and Seduction in Rabbinic Life and Literature, join Fannie and Raviv to discuss the significance of incense in this parsha and the broader importance of smell in religious and human history.

Rachel B. Gross, author and professor at San Francisco State University, joins Fannie and Raviv on the heels of the release of her new book Beyond the Synagogue: Jewish Nostalgia as Religious Practice to discuss nostalgia and its function in Judaism. 

Use the code GROSS30-FM for 30% off  Rachel's book and free shipping NYUPress.org

Kaia Stern, PhD, Cofounder and Director of the Prison Studies Project at Harvard University joins Professor Fannie Bialek and Raviv to discuss human dignity and free will, some of the differences between restorative and transformative justice, and the ethics of eye contact. 

Professor Stern is the author of Voices from American Prisons: Faith, Education, and Healing, and received her master’s degree from Harvard Divinity School and her PhD from Emory University. She is ordained as an interfaith minister and has been teaching in and about U.S. prisons for 25 years.

Joshua Dubler, professor of religion at the University of Rochester and director of the Rochester Education Justice Initiative, joins Professor Fannie Bialek and Raviv to discuss guilt, the unique status of the Ten Commandments within Jewish law, and how this relates to prison abolition. We also discuss the significance of the names given to Moses and Zipporah's sons.

Neshama Carlebach joins Raviv and Rabbi Adam to discuss her journey in stepping away from orthodox Judaism, finding her own voice in her spiritual practice, and the importance of making torah study personal. 

Alda Balthrop-Lewis, research fellow at the Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry at Australian Catholic University, PhD in religion from Princeton, and author of the newly released book Thoreau’s Religion: Walden Woods, Social Justice, and the Politics of Asceticism joins Professor Fannie Bialek and Raviv to discuss what Thoreau did with his time in the woods, and how it relates to the ancient Jewish practice of Passover, the exodus story, and yes, even eating matzah.

Pam Grossman, author of Waking the Witch: Reflections on Women, Magic, and Power , host of The Witch Wave podcast, and named by Vulture "The Terry Gross of Witches" joins Raviv and Professor Fannie Bialek to unpack the beginning of the Passover story, the ancient practice of deciphering “good magic” from “bad magic”, and the power of ritual.

Dr. Melina Abdullah, co-founder of Black Lives Matter Los Angeles and former chair of the department of Pan-African Studies at California State University, joins the show to discuss themes of liberation,  her work with BLM,  how the current judicial system has failed us, and the role of education in the equation of imbalanced justice.

Douglas Petrie, writer and producer of some of our favorite shows including Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Pushing Daisies, American Horror Story and Marvel’s Daredevil joins the show to discuss what it meant to him to have a bar mitzvah at 50 years old,  reading between the lines in torah, and why exploring our past is a necessary aspect of building our future.

Aly Michalka, singer, songwriter, actor and activist joins the show to discuss how art and expression can be an access point for the harder discussions in life, as well as the difficulty and comfort of “keeping the faith”. Rabbi Adam will help us understand the meaning and implications of the Jewish concept of Tshuvah, and, continuing in the vein of prior episodes, together we’ll explore what it means to “return” and how that relates both to our current political moment and the endless process of self-work.