Torah Cafe

Shabtai Tzvi proclaimed himself as Moshiach in the early 1600's splitting world Jewry between his earnest supporters and opponents. As his popularity grew among Jews, Christians and Muslims he at one point appeared unstoppable until he converted to Islam and the Jewish community rejected him.

Listen to the unbelievable story of this charismatic impostor who convinced so many and made such a great impact on our history.

At the center of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem stood a golden box called the Ark of the Covenant. Inside the Ark sat the tablets the Moses had brought down from Mt. Sinai and the original Torah scroll written by Moses.

The Ark was central to Jewish worship throughout the time we had it and was at times taken out of the Temple for unique events. It disappeared before the destruction of the Temple in 421 BCE and has been a mystery since.

A fascinating discussion about the Ark of the Covenant and its history.

Anger is a challenging and problematic emotion that many feel at challenging times. Anger can be harmful to the person feeling the emotion and to others around them leading them to do and say things they later regret.

Conquering anger is a challenge for everyone but particularly for people who struggle with constant anger outbursts. Judaism sees conquering anger as one of the most important goals in character building.

Discover the powerful Jewish teachings on conquering anger.

The Hebrew scriptures includes 24 books that Jews consider holy. What are those 24 books? How are they organized?

For thousands of years Jews have prayed at the graves of our deceased loved ones and Tzaddikim (saintly individuals). But why do we pray at graves when we always pray directly to G-d without any intermediaries?

What is the special significance to pray at graves and why has it been so important to most Jewish communities throughout history?

A discussion about the Jewish tradition to visit and pray at graves.

Do you need a label to be Jewish?

Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist; where did all these labels come from? How did Judaism become so fragmented?  Were we better off for over 3,000 years before these groups were created?

Join us to learn the fascinating story of how Judaism fragmented over the past 150 years and the battles waged that split Jewish communities into warring camps. Together, we will look at the impact of that fragmentation on Jewish life and what we can do to reverse the divisions still apparent today.

Deborah who lived more than 3,000 years ago was one of our 7 prophetesses mentioned in scripture. She was one of the few female Jewish leaders in ancient times.

The fascinating tale of Deborah and the beautiful poem that she composed.

The Great assembly or Knesset Hagedolah was a group of Jewish scholars and leaders led by Ezra that made a number of important contributions to Judaism and Jewish practice at the beginning of the Second Temple period. Among the achievements are canonizing the Tanach (holy scripture), composing prayers and blessing and creating the synagogue.

Learn about the Men of the Great Assembly and their impact on Judaism

Sexuality drives some of the most powerful feelings and experiences that humans have. Sexuality is both a primitive human instinct as well as the glue that joins two loving souls. Often sexual experiences can be powerfully positive while just as often they can be destructive and terribly harmful. Our society today grapples with the inherit contradictions in sexual relationships and experience.

A frank and open discussion about the Jewish view of sexuality and how Judaism allows us to harness the positive power while avoiding the dangers of sexuality.

We count a new Jewish year number every year starting a new year on Rosh Hashanah How did we get to that number? Jewish tradition tells us that our Jewish year number is the number of years from Creation but have we really been counting since creation? Moses, the Torah and our people began more than 2,000 years after the counting began.

A discussion about the Jewish year counting and how we got to our current Jewish year number (class from 2018).