The Study

Kelly Bulkeley, PhD, is the director of the Sleep and Dream Database and the author of many brilliant books including Dreaming in the World’s Religions: A Comparative History. Kelly helps us understand the scientific basis of dreams, how they fit into religious studies, and what we can make of our own.

Aimee Bender, author of six book of fiction and a teacher of creative writing at USC, joins us to discuss Joseph's journey, the emotional language of adolescence, the differences between editing fiction and communicating interpreted dreams, Joseph's coat and magical realism, and how readers of Torah might recontextualize the text's varied modes of connecting to God.

Vanessa Chester, actor and activist, joins Rabbi Adam and Raviv to unpack what it means to wrestle with yourself and the world around you. How much friction is needed to create progress? 

Naomi Ackerman, founder and executive director of the Advot Project creates curriculums that use drama techniques to deal with social, gender, and educational issues as well as exploring identity and promoting tolerance and dialogue. Naomi helps us unpack the importance of making space for the sacred, and how she and the Advot Project uses theater to do just that.

Our brothers Nadav Ullman and Zachary Greenwald join the show for a frank discussion about sibling rivalries and the danger of only focusing on our differences. We continue the thread of generational trauma and explore ways to break harmful patterns. 

Rabbi Sarah Bassin from Temple Emanuel of Beverly Hills worked for many years as the Executive Director of New Ground: A Muslim-Jewish Partnership for Change where she worked to build alliances between the two communities. Her work in that field continues, and she joins The Study to share and unpack some lessons learned from this week's Torah portion including trading notes with Rabbi Adam about how this parsha hits a little different now that both of them are parents. 

Dr. Matt Reznicek, Associate Chair of the English Department and Associate Professor of Medical Humanities at Creighton University discusses how the binding of Isaac elucidates differences between liberal and orthodox textual interpretations in Judaism and Christianity, and helps us trace some of the Torah’s narrative lineage all the way back to greek mythology, pointing us to some problematic power dynamics at play in both Torah and ancient myths.

Writer and director Daniel Kwan (Swiss Army Man)  joins The Study to discuss leaps of faith in both Abraham's story and our own lives, compare Judaism’s methodologies of study with those from his fundamentalist Christian upbringing, and unpack the importance of exposition in storytelling.  

Ortal Ullman from the Union of Concerned Scientists joins Rabbi Adam and Raviv to unpack the original text of the Noah and the Ark story, trying to make sense of Noah’s silence and coming to terms with the work ahead needed to protect our planet and its inhabitants. 

Actress, neuroscientist, and New York Times best selling author Mayim Bialik joins Raviv and Rabbi Adam for the very first chapter of the Torah, Breishit, to interpret and unpack the beginning of creation. What do we make of a narrative that starts with two opposing, incompatible stories, and what does it mean for our upcoming journey?