The Zal

Rabbi Avrohom Rapoport a.k.a. @RabbiRaps joins this episode of The Zal to discuss influencing: what's it like having an online congregation 1800 times bigger than at Shul?

The tightrope of preserving both the meaningfulness of content and clickability, is not for the faint-hearted. What are the considerations when speaking to your family, your friends, your community and your... world? Person Vs. Persona. Spoiler: staying natural - and transparent - are big keys for the good Rabbi.

Oh also: He's got a problem with "The Zal." Can we still be friends?

Music by the ever-elevating Zusha Band.

We're faced with an annoyance of our own making: call it turbulence, call it discomfort. To what degree are we supposed to ignore it or suffer it stoically or fight it? 

What should Dovid say to his kids when the plane is bouncing around? What should you do when you hit those big bumps in the road, or realize you're just going to be driving on gravel for the next 200 miles?

In this episode, Metaphor Guru Adam — he once called a confluence of bad things a "perfect storm"!  Brilliant — takes us on a trip into the bumpy air of pessimistic complacency vs. small-goal realism.

Oh, and Adam grows a beard.

In this Internet Age the difference between a 4 and 5 star review may mean the success or failure of a business. (Or your Lyft wait times.) With so much at stake, Adam and Dovid examine several considerations for internet reviewers - and whether they should be reviewing at all.

There is no 'Amazon Chapter' in the Talmud, but the Sages didn't not see this kind of thing coming. Mixing ancient principles, personal analysis and a little common-sense, you'll have the tools to answer the biggest question in the book: What Would a Mensch Do?

Music by the 5-star stars Ryan Perry and Enya.

After theorizing in part 1 why a Jew might be inclined to allow Antisemitism to define their Judaism, Dovid and Adam now lay out arguments why this framing should be prevented. The reasons for a real, human and proactive involvement in Judaism - or at least Jewyness - run from the pragmatic, to the substantive, to the purposeful.

Dovid'll instruct you to lay Tefillin or light Shabbat candles. Ask Adam and he might advise to host a binge of Mel Brooks - not Gibson - films. There is a consensus about billboards that demand "Please Love Us." Listen in to find out.

Music on this episode is from the midwestern Yid - Benny Goodman.

Conversations surrounding Antisemitism, though painful, typically are clear as to the danger, sources and ultimate foolishness of Jew-hate. What to do about it is less straightforward.

In this first part of The Zal's Antisemitism Episode, Dovid and Adam point to - and try to make sense of - the noticeable irony that the likelier a Jew is to be a victim of Antisemitism - the less they tend to speak of the problem of Jew-hate.

This topic is understandably fraught, but please join us - and chime in - to this important conversation.

Lots of the music on this episode is from the King of Swing - Benny Goodman. Sprinkled in is the Inglourious Basterds theme song.

No, they’re not on this episode, but their South Park ordeal got us thinking: Do you stand to lose by letting loose? Is there any importance to unimportance?

This time, we put ourselves to a new test: a twenty minute episode. The clock’s ticking as we bounce between the sub-rational and the trans-rational with a bit of royals sprinkled in between.  

More on the madness of Purim

Diversity is no small issue, but what all can it mean? Is our goal to acknowledge the commonality in diversity or to accept diversity as an end in itself? 

Current tech and ways of being have helped us silo our understandings *and* our understandings of those understandings. (Zal enough for ya?)

In this episode, Adam and Dovid discuss how this siloing happened, what contributes to it, and what might increase the truest kind of diversities in our lives.

Music by Nosson Zand, Stephanie Chou, and a clip from one of the wisest films ever made. Come get involved.

New horror film The Offering (out Friday) paints an unusual setting for terror. Instead of the typical sleepy suburb, it's a tight-knit Jewish neighborhood. Instead of clueless homeowners, it's kind — and sometimes wise — ultra-orthodox Jews.

Writer and Producer Hank Hoffman, Producer Jonathan Yunger, and lead-actress Emily Wiseman enter the Zal to discuss the film's content, intentions, and implications.

Can the accurate depiction of Hasidim in film dispel anti-Jewish tropes, even in the world of horror? Beyond the Jewish context, how much of the genre is sheer entertainment and how much is meaningful metaphor?  What does it mean to handle profound (mystical! fantastical! terrifying!) philosophy for insiders while not triggering misunderstanding. (Yup — we talk about Unorthodox, too. We had to.)

The Offering opens in theaters and everywhere on demand starting Friday, January 13. 

Music:

Sami Hope's "Tidal Wave" [Spotify]

Yoel Baal Shem vanquishing demons.

(Rock the) Belz by Socalled.

We've told you a hundred times. We're The Zal, not the Za"L! You know, the place for discourse, not the deceased...

But if you insist, we'll talk about the dead. 

Join us as we discuss: What does Zichrono Livracha mean? How do Jews mourn? Can you mourn too much? Can a death be celebrated? And many more cheery topics!

The Rebbe on death and mourning.

Leonard Cohen's 'You Want It Darker.'

In all honestly, our completely real sponsors made us do it. Still, we think you'll love what's here at thezal.sellfy.store.

In this soft launch, find sweatshirts to mugs, beanies to onesies, all by legendary 19th, 20th, and 21st century companies: 

Happy Hannukah, happy Christian Hannukah (listen in to correct our pronunciation), and have a glorious Time Until Your Stuff Arrives.

Email us at [email protected] with any and all questions, ideas for new products of any kind (we'll make them for ya), and new sponsors you'd like to see come on board.