Torah Cafe

Torah study has been central to Jewish life throughout our long history. Yet historically, Torah was primarily studied by men, with women having limited opportunities to study Torah. Starting in the early 20th century, women have had increasingly more opportunities to study Torah and an increasing number of women have become Torah scholars.

A fascinating discussion about women's role in Torah study and why the opportunities provided for women to study Torah changed so much in the 20th century.

Rabbi Yehudah Lowe of Prague, better known as Maharal was one of the greatest rabbis, scholars, philosophers, Kabbalists and statesmen in Jewish history. He served as the rabbi of Prague in the 16th Century but his influence spread far and wide and is still felt today. 

Perhaps, the Maharal is best known for the controversial legend about his creation of a Golem, a humanoid made from clay that protected the Jews of Prague. 

A fascinating discussion about the life and ideas of one of Judaism's most important personalities and whether he actually made a Golem. 

The Torah instructs us that when judging the actions of others, we should always judge them favorably assuming the best motive and intent. This can be difficult at times especially when the intent is clearly negative or the actions particularly harmful. How can we realistically follow the command to always judge others favorably?

A fascinating class on the important Mitzvah of judging others favorably. 

Central to Judaism is the belief that there will come a time when the world with its challenges and problems as we know it will end and we will enter a new era without evil, struggling and challenges. There will be an individual who will lead us to this period called Moshiach - the anointed one.

A fascinating discussion about the Jewish belief in the coming of Moshiach and what we believe will happen at the end of times.

The Temple Mount in Jerusalem is the holiest site in Judaism. However, on the Temple Mount sit the Al Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, Muslim shrines, marking the sites importance to Islam. Since Israel captured East Jerusalem in 1967, Jews have been able to go to the Temple Mount under limited conditions.

Are Jews supposed to be going up to the Temple Mount? While it is the holiest spot in Judaism, is it too holy for us to be going there? Would Jewish law forbid us from exercising control over Judaism's holiest spot?

A fascinating look at the debate over where Jews may go to the Temple Mount today.  

A fascinating discussion about the history of the Siddur, the Jewish prayer book, how it developed over 2500 years and how it is structured today.

One of the most persistent and dangerous anti-Semitic accusations against Jews has been the blood libel. While it came in various forms, it included the claim that Jews participated in slaughtering non-Jews for ritual purposes. Despite the absurdity and offensiveness of the claim, blood libels, led to countless arrests, torture, sham-trials and massacres against Jews over our long history. 

A fascinating discussion about the history of blood libels and why despite the passage of time, these dangerous myths and similar anti-Semitic libels continue today.  

A fascinating discussion about Jewish wills and estate planning.

When Jews lived in the Land of Israel and our religious judicial system was in force, we had 6 cities of refuge for someone who killed a person unintentionally (manslaughter). The killer would flee to a city of refuge and be safe there from any relatives of the victim wanting to avenge the murder.

A fascinating discussion about the Cities of Refuge. 

Jewish mysticism (Kabbalah) teaches that prior to creating our own universe, G-d creates a previous universe called Tohu (Chaos). The universe of Tohu could not survive and therefore crashed. Our universe called Tikkun was then created on top of the broken shards of Tohu leaving us humans with the job of cleaning up the shards of Tohu in our universe.

A fascinating class explaining this esoteric concept of Tohu (the Universe of Chaos).