Sources

Click here to access podcasts recorded by Jon Kelsen.

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.

Rabbanit Shimoni has learned at Migdal Oz, Matan, and the Susi Bradfield Women’s Institute for Halakhic Leadership at Midreshet Lindenbaum. She holds a BFA from Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design and a BEd in Torah Shebe’al Peh and Jewish Thought from Herzog College. She is currently studying towards an MA in Jewish Thought Education at Herzog College. Rabbanit Shimoni taught gemara and halakha at Pelech High School and served as a ramit for shana bet at Migdal Oz. She directs Meshivat Nefesh, the online responsa program of the rabbaniyot of Beit Hillel. She is also a plastic artist and member of “A Studio of Her Own.

Dr. Rachel Slutsky, Ph.D., is the Monsignor (Mahn-SEEN-yor ) John Oesterreicher (oste-richer) Visiting Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies and Jewish-Christian Relations in Antiquity at Seton Hall University. She completed her doctorate in ancient Judaism at Harvard University in May 2022. She is currently working on her first monograph, tentatively titled The Gentile Enigma: Divine Law and Identity in Early Judaism, based on her dissertation.

Click here to access podcasts recorded by Jon Kelsen.

Rabbi Jonathan Ziring is a Ram and the Educational Coordinator at Yeshivat Migdal HaTorah. Rabbi Ziring received semichah from the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary at Yeshiva University. He also received an MA in Jewish Philosophy from Bernard Revel Graduate School and a BA from the Honors Program at the Yeshiva College of Yeshiva University.

Rabbi Ziring studied at Yeshivat Har Etzion and continued his learning there as a member of the Kollel Gavoah. He was also a fellow at the Tikvah Fund and Center for Modern Torah Leadership’s Summer Beit Midrash. Rabbi Ziring has previously served as Sgan Rosh Kollel of the Yeshiva University Torah miTzion Beit Midrash Zichron Dov and as the Rabbinic Assistant of BAYT in Toronto. He has taught in many contexts in the US, Canada and Israel, focusing particularly on the Halakhic Process.

Ms. Rachael Gelfman Schultz is a teacher and writer. She has taught in a variety of formal and informal Jewish educational frameworks in Israel and in the US, including high school, Hebrew school, adult education, and one-on-one tutoring. She specializes in teaching students in the process of conversion. Rachael writes, edits, and translates for Jewish non-profit organizations and publishers, as well as writing Jewish educational curricula. Rachael has a BA from Harvard University in Religion and an MA from Hebrew University in Jewish Thought. She also studied in the Bruriah Scholars program at Midreshet Lindenbaum and the Advanced Kollel at Pardes Institute. Originally from Sharon, MA, Rachael now lives with her family in Mitzpe Netofa in the Galilee.

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.

Shani Taragin is pursuing a PhD in Tanakh while serving as coordinator of the Intensive Tanakh Track for post-high school students at Midreshet Lindenbaum.  She has a BA and MA in Tanakh and Talmud from Bar-Ilan University.  She also teaches at MaTaN, Migdal Oz, Sha’alvim for Women, Lander’s College, and the Womens’ Beit Midrash in Efrat and Ramat Shilo. She is a graduate of Nishmat’s Keren Ariel Program for certification as a halachic advisor in issues of family purity law and serves on the first women’s hotline to deal with issues of Jewish Law.

Click here to access podcasts recorded by Shani Taragin.

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.