Torah Cafe

Central to Jewish life and practice today is the 'Rabbi'. Did Judaism always have rabbis? Was Moses a rabbi? When did rabbis begin and how did the position evolve?  What is the role of a rabbi? Are there different types and status among rabbis?

Learn about what makes someone a rabbi, what the rabbi's role is and how the position evolved over the past 3,000 years.

King Saul was the first King of Israel who reigned almost 3,000 years ago. He began his short reign as a promising monarch who united Israel into a functioning kingdom but things quickly went sour.

Moses led the 12 tribes of Israel out of Egypt and to the promised land. But over 2,500 years ago, 10 of the tribes were exiled from Israel leaving only 2 tribes behind in Israel.

Karma is a popular Hindu belief that every action has a direct consequence, which will come to fruition and impact us in either this life or a future life.

Does Judaism believe in Karma? Do we believe that all actions have direct consequences on our lives? Do we believe that we can see things that happen to us through the lens of our previous actions?

A discussion of the Jewish perspective on the principle of Karma.

A central Jewish belief is that G-d communicated his instructions to us through the Torah. But does G-d really speak to people? What is talking to G-d like? How does someone know if G-d is talking to them? Does G-d speak to people today?

A discussion talk about the Jewish belief in G-d communicating with humans and how it works.

The festival of Shavuot marks the date when G-d 'gave' our ancestors the Torah at Mt. Sinai. What exactly does 'Giving the Torah' mean? What happened? What did we receive? How did it happen?

A discussion of the full story of the giving of the Torah, how it happened and what it means.

The first book of our Oral Torah is the Mishnah which stands at the center of all Jewish law and teachings and is one of the most important texts in Judaism.

A discussion about who wrote the Mishnah, how it was written, what it contains and how it is studied today.

There has been much debate recently about the impact of offensive speech particularly on social media. Should we allow people to write and say things that offend others? Should we block people from such offensive speech or even "cancel" them?

A fascinating discussion about the Jewish ethics of curtailing offensive speech.

Our society is being torn apart over what many perceive as inherent biases built into our culture and institutions. The complaints and demand for change are premised on the expectation of equality for all that has become a bedrock principle in our society.

But should all people really be equal? Is it true that all people were created equal?

A fascinating discussion about the Jewish perspective on equality and what the ideal society should look like according to our Jewish values.

Have you heard of the Trolley Dilemma? Imagine there was a trolley heading down the tracks and five people were stuck on the tracks with no time to stop the trolley or save them. However, you could press a button that will send the trolley down a different track where only one person will be killed. What do you do?

While this case is theoretical, there are many practical implications to the question of saving lifes. Many of these issues have come up during the pandemic. Should we shut down or stay open? What level of risks are acceptable? How do we balance immediate risk with long term risk?

Learn about the Torah value of preserving a life and how to balance conflicting life-threatening needs such as the Trolley dilemma and its implications today with the pandemic.