The Many Faces of Sinai
Rabbi Jon Kelsen
Click here to access podcasts recorded by Jon Kelsen.
Mishnah in Depth: Kinnim
Joshua Kulp
Dr. Rabbi Joshua Kulp is a Senior Scholar at the Conservative Yeshiva. He is the co-author of The Schechter Haggadah and Reconstructing the Talmud Volume 1 and Volume 2. He received his Ph.D. in Talmud from Bar-Ilan University and his semicha from the Hadar Institute.
Mishnah in Depth: Middot
Rabbi Avie Walfish
Until his recent retirement, Avraham (Avie) Walfish taught Talmud and Jewish Thought at the Herzog College in Alon Shvut, and headed the M.Ed. program in teaching Talmud and Jewish Thought in Michlala College in Jerusalem. At Yeshiva University he completed his B.A. in philosophy, while studying Talmud with Rav Aharon Lichtenstein and Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveichik. After making aliyah, he received his rabbinic ordination from R. Zalman Nehemiah Goldberg and completed his M.A. and Ph.D. at Hebrew University, writing his dissertation on literary features of Mishnah. He has taught and lectured in many frameworks in Israel and abroad, including Pardes Institute, Bar Ilan University, and Drisha. His extensive publications in different areas of Jewish studies include the Iyun Mishnah website and a recently published commentary on Mishnah Berakhot, Mishnaic Tapestries. In 2005 he was awarded the Prize of the Israeli Minister of Education for creative work in Jewish culture.
Click here to access podcasts recorded by Avie Walfish.
Tech Revolutions and Rabbinic Responses: From Gutenberg to Edison
Rabbanit Sara Wolkenfeld
Rabbanit Sara Tillinger Wolkenfeld is the Chief Learning Officer at Sefaria, an online database and interface for Jewish texts. She is passionate about expanding Jewish textual knowledge for all. Sara is also a fellow at the David Hartman Center at the Hartman Institute of North America. Her previous experience includes serving as Director of Education at the Center for Jewish Life – Hillel at Princeton University as part of the OU’s Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus. She studied Talmud and Jewish Law at various institutions of Jewish learning in Israel and America including Midreshet Lindenbaum, Drisha, Nishmat, and Beit Morasha and speaks on various Jewish topics at synagogues, schools, and university communities. Sara and her family live in the Lakeview neighborhood in Chicago.
Click here to access podcasts recorded by Sara Wolkenfeld.
Talmud Torah and the Good Life: Between Work, Play, and the Pursuit of Meaning
Rabbi Alex Ozar
Mishnah in Depth: Tamid
Rabbi Avie Walfish
Until his recent retirement, Avraham (Avie) Walfish taught Talmud and Jewish Thought at the Herzog College in Alon Shvut, and headed the M.Ed. program in teaching Talmud and Jewish Thought in Michlala College in Jerusalem. At Yeshiva University he completed his B.A. in philosophy, while studying Talmud with Rav Aharon Lichtenstein and Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveichik. After making aliyah, he received his rabbinic ordination from R. Zalman Nehemiah Goldberg and completed his M.A. and Ph.D. at Hebrew University, writing his dissertation on literary features of Mishnah. He has taught and lectured in many frameworks in Israel and abroad, including Pardes Institute, Bar Ilan University, and Drisha. His extensive publications in different areas of Jewish studies include the Iyun Mishnah website and a recently published commentary on Mishnah Berakhot, Mishnaic Tapestries. In 2005 he was awarded the Prize of the Israeli Minister of Education for creative work in Jewish culture.
Click here to access podcasts recorded by Avie Walfish.
Turning it Over: Learning, Teaching, and Reading as Spiritual Practices
Rabbi Dr. Ariel Evan Mayse
Ariel Evan Mayse joined the faculty of Stanford University in 2017 as an assistant professor in the Department of Religious Studies and serves as the rabbi-in-residence at Atiq: Jewish Maker Institute (atiqmakers.org).
Previously he was the Director of Jewish Studies and Visiting Assistant Professor of Modern Jewish Thought at Hebrew College in Newton, Massachusetts. Mayse holds a Ph.D. in Jewish Studies from Harvard University and rabbinic ordination from Beit Midrash Har’el in Israel.
His most recent publications include Speaking Infinities: God and Language in the Teachings for Rabbi Dov Ber of Mezritsh (University of Pennsylvania, 2020); Hasidism: Writings on Devotion, Community and Life in the Modern World (Brandeis University Press, 2020), edited with Sam Berrin Shonkoff, and The Language of Truth in the Mother Tongue (Magnes Press, 2020, in Hebrew).
The Book of Genesis Through the Lens of Ancient Biblical Interpretation Part 2
Dr. Chanan Gafni
Chanan Gafni Studied at the Mir Yeshiva in Jerusalem, while earning his academic degrees from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (MA) and Harvard University (PhD). He currently teaches at Hebrew University and Midreshet Lindenbaum. His publications include The Mishnah’s Plain Sense (2011), and most recently: Conceptions of the Oral Law in Modern Jewish Scholarship (2019).
Holy of Holies: Readings in Shir Ha-shirim and its Reception
Miriam Gedwiser
Miriam Gedwiser is the Rosh Kollel of the Drisha Summer Kollel and teaches Talmud and Tanakh at the Ramaz Upper School. She has a B.A. in the History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Science and Medicine from the University of Chicago and a J.D. from N.Y.U. School of Law. Miriam studied at Midreshet Lindenbaum and in the Drisha Scholar’s circle. She previously practiced commercial litigation at a large law firm and clerked for the Hon. Debra Freeman, U.S.M.J., in Manhattan. Miriam serves as a guest lecturer at synagogues and programs around the Northeast, and has written on topics of Jewish and Torah interest for The Lehrhaus, The Forward, the Center for Modern Torah Leadership blog, and Project 929. Miriam lives Teaneck, New Jersey with her family.
Mishnah In-Depth: Me’ilah
Michael Bernstein
Mr. Michael Bernstein is Drisha’s lead Administrator. Michael’s studies prior to earning his MSW at Wurzweiler School of Social Work focused on peshat-based Biblical interpretation & translation as well as Biblical intertextuality.
In addition to contributing editorial work to publications by scholars including Dr. Malka Simkovich, Dr. James A. Redfield, & Rabbi Dr. Shlomo Zuckier, Michael has published his own scholarship in the area of Karaite law codes, including a digital critical edition of the late-1400s Adderet Eliyahu produced for the Karaite Press / Karaite Jews of America online learning center.
Michael lives in Riverdale, Bronx with his wife Dr. Jade Gormady and their two children.
Living the Seder: The Role of “Intention” in Observing the Seder Mitzvot
Dr. Shana Strauch Schick
Shana Strauch Schick is a lecturer in at Bar Ilan University in Israel. She holds a PhD from the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies. Her first book is Intention in Talmudic Jurisprudence: Between Thought and Deed (Brill, 2021).
Between Isaac and Ishmael: Judaism and Islam in Historical Perspective
Dr. David Shyovitz