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A discussion on a topic from the week's Parsha covering many important parts of Judaism that are not regularly addressed.... more
FAQs about Torah Cafe:How many episodes does Torah Cafe have?The podcast currently has 410 episodes available.
April 21, 2024Who Wrote the Haggadah?The Haggadah, the book that we use for our Passover Seder is one of the oldest and probably the most widely used Jewish book. It has been printed thousands of times with thousands of commentaries.A fascinating discussion about the Haggadah, it's history and how we got the Haggadah that we use today....more39minPlay
April 14, 2024Selling Our ChametzThe Torah prohibits a Jew from owning Chametz on Passover. A common workaround to that prohibition is for Jews to sell their Chametz to a non-Jew before Passover and then purchase it back from them after Passover. A fascinating discussion about selling our Chametz over Passover!Sell your Chametz today (by Sunday, April 21 at noon) at jccmb.com/sellchametz...more39minPlay
April 08, 2024Sefer Yetzirah - The Book of FormationOne of the earliest works of Kabbalah is the Sefer Yetzirah - The Book of Formation, a very short book that describes the mystical building blocks of creation. The Talmud describes how the book was used by scholars to create a person. A fascinating discussion about Sefer Yetzirah, its history, its impact and its teachings....more39minPlay
April 05, 2024What is the meaning of a Solar Eclipse?Solar Eclipses are a natural phenomena that fascinated people back in ancient times. With over 3,000 years of history, our people have lived through hundreds of solar eclipses. What do our Jewish traditions teach about a Solar Eclipse?...more1h 7minPlay
March 31, 2024The Ancient Jewish CalendarToday, we have a set Jewish calendar that has been in use for the past 1700 years. However, for the first 1600 years or so of Judaism, we used a variable calendar that was updated monthly based on sightings of the new moon and calculations made by the Sanhedrin, the Supreme Council of Judaism. A fascinating class about Kiddush Hachodesh, the system used for the ancient Jewish calendar. ...more56minPlay
March 24, 2024The Jewish Response to AntisemitismWe have recently seen a huge increase in expressions of the world's greatest hatred antisemitism. Why do people hate Jews? Why has it persisted over so much time, through so many places and cultures? What can we as Jews do about it?A fascinating discussion about the Purim festival and the lessons we can learn from the Purim story to help us respond to antisemitism today....more49minPlay
March 17, 2024Why does our world have so many problems?When we look around us, we see so many things going wrong in our own lives, people around us and the world on a whole. There seems to be endless violence, wars, corruption, disease, crime, natural disasters. G-d's world appears to be unjust and full of problems.Why did G-d create a world with so many problems? Why didn't he create a more perfect world where everyone got along and did the right thing, where nature was less destructive?A fascinating Purim related discussion about why G-d made our world imperfect and what we can do about it....more49minPlay
March 10, 2024What are Chareidim?Chareidim is a term often used for a segment of the Jewish community that live in their own communities and forgo some western cultural norms. They are often misunderstood, derided and called offensive names such Ultra-Orthodox.Who are the Chareidim? What are their communities like? How do they live? And why they are widely misunderstood?...more1h 8minPlay
March 04, 2024The Battle for ShabbatShabbat, is one of the central parts of Judaism. From Judaism's earliest days, Jews stopped work on Friday before sundown and didn't resume working until after dark on Saturday. Observing Shabbat was not always easy for Jews. Often Jews found themselves in places that expected them to work on Shabbat. A fascinating discussion about how Jews struggled to observe Shabbat in many times and places throughout our long history particularly here in the United States....more57minPlay
February 25, 2024Mixing Milk & MeatOne of the basic Kosher laws is a prohibition of not mixing milk and meat. As a result, Kosher kitchen must have separate ovens, pots, pans and dishes for milk and meat.A fascinating discussion about the kosher rules of not mixing milk and meat and how they impact our kosher kitchens....more49minPlay
FAQs about Torah Cafe:How many episodes does Torah Cafe have?The podcast currently has 410 episodes available.