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November 3, 2024

All Israel Are Guarantors for One Another: The History of a Metaphor

Beruriah is the only female scholar mentioned by name in the Talmud. She is simultaneously a part of the rabbinic world of Torah study and also an outsider to it. This podcast discusses the texts in which she appears and considesr the challenge of reconciling one’s own sensibilities with a broader tradition of learning.
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July 16, 2020

“The Pain of Raising Children” Using Care Ethics to Understand Jewish Leadership

In this session, we’ll explore how recent shifts in moral philosophy can help us understand why the rabbis require that a judge on a Sanhedrin be a parent. What do the rabbis think that the experience of parenting teaches a potential judge? How does this help us understand what it means to be a halakhic… Continue reading “The Pain of Raising Children” Using Care Ethics to Understand Jewish Leadership
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September 13, 2022

Finding the Forefathers and Mothers in Prayer and Piyyut

In this 3-part series we’ll explore how the experience of caring for others in need—including young children, the sick, and the elderly— shapes our religious lives. Using sources ranging from the Talmud to contemporary philosophy, we’ll consider how experiences of care enrich our understanding of halakhah and religious obligation, and how these experiences can help… Continue reading Finding the Forefathers and Mothers in Prayer and Piyyut
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May 21, 2009

Finding a Useable Past: A Historical Look at Reading Jewish Women into Traditional Texts

We will examine a number of medieval texts and discuss the challenges in searching for women’s stories and histories when reading traditional Jewish texts written by men for male audiences.
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November 29, 2012

Law, Narrative, and Piety: the Original Chasidic Stories

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October 27, 2013
Mishnah and Memory: An Educational Exploration
How should we think about Mishnah study if we take it seriously as ...
Dr. Devora Steinmetz

Dr. Devora Steinmetz

Devora Steinmetz serves on the faculty of the Hebrew College Rabbinical School and the Mandel Leadership Institute. She is the founder of Beit Rabban, a Jewish day school profiled in Daniel Pekarsky’s Vision at Work: The Theory and Practice of Beit Rabban. She is the author of scholarly articles on Talmud, Midrash, and Bible as well as of two books, From Father to Son: Kinship, Conflict, and Continuity in Genesis and Punishment and Freedom: The Rabbinic Construction of Criminal Law. She has served on the faculty of Drisha, the Jewish Theological Seminary, Yeshivat Hadar, and Havruta: a Beit Midrash at Hebrew University.

Click here to access podcasts recorded by Devora Steinmetz.

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December 2, 2021
Shemittah in the Mishnah: Challenges and Opportunities
Rabbi Avie Walfish

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.

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January 29, 2008
Reading Mishnah
An analysis of the structure and meaning of tractate Rosh Hashana. ...
Rabbi Avie Walfish

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.

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August 8, 2019
The Quest to Reestablish the Bible’s Sacred Space
Part 1: The Loss of Sacred Space- The first man and woman do not la...
Rabbi David Silber

Rabbi David Silber

David Silber is the founder and dean of Drisha Institute for Jewish Education in New York and Israel. Rabbi Silber received ordination from the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary. He is a recipient of the Covenant Award, for excellence in innovative Jewish education, and is the author of A Passover Haggadah: Go Forth and Learn (Jewish Publication Society 2011), For Such a Time as This: Biblical Reflections in the Book of Esther (Koren Publishers 2017), and Malkhut Adam: Iyunim Bsefer Shmuel (Maggid 2021). He is also a nationally acclaimed lecturer on the Bible. Rabbi Silber is married to Dr. Devora Steinmetz. They have eight children and live in New York City.

Click here to access other recorded classes by David Silber.

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October 16, 2022
“Between Heaven and Earth?” Case Studies of The Tension Between Halakhah and Morality
Beruriah is the only female scholar mentioned by name in the Talmud...
Nathaniel Helfgot

Nathaniel Helfgot

Nathaniel Helfgot is chair of the dept of Talmud and Rabbinics at the SAR High School in New York City. He serves as spiritual leader of Congregation Netivot Shalom in Teaneck, NJ . He is on the faculty of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School and the Wexner Heritage Program. An alumnus of the Jerusalem Fellows program, he received ordina­tion from the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary and has an MA in Education from the David J. Azrieli Graduate School.

Click here to access podcasts recorded by Nathaniel Helfgot.

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October 18, 2020
“Your Name Shall Be Great” The Abraham Narrative
Rabbi David Silber

Rabbi David Silber

David Silber is the founder and dean of Drisha Institute for Jewish Education in New York and Israel. Rabbi Silber received ordination from the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary. He is a recipient of the Covenant Award, for excellence in innovative Jewish education, and is the author of A Passover Haggadah: Go Forth and Learn (Jewish Publication Society 2011), For Such a Time as This: Biblical Reflections in the Book of Esther (Koren Publishers 2017), and Malkhut Adam: Iyunim Bsefer Shmuel (Maggid 2021). He is also a nationally acclaimed lecturer on the Bible. Rabbi Silber is married to Dr. Devora Steinmetz. They have eight children and live in New York City.

Click here to access other recorded classes by David Silber.

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March 24, 2022
A Set Table: Jewish Perspectives on Household Labor from the Talmud to Present
Sarah Zager

Sarah Zager

Sarah Zager received her PhD from Yale University in 2022, where her research focused on the influence of Judaism and Christianity on moral philosophy. Originally from Albuquerque, New Mexico, Sarah earned an MA in Religion from the University of Chicago Divinity School and a BA from Williams College. She was awarded the Leo Baeck Fellowship for the study of German Jewry, and was a David Hartman Center Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America. She has also learned at Yeshivat Hadar. She has written for The LehrhausJewSchoolThe Journal of Jewish Ethics, and Nashim.