All Episodes
Classes by Mordechai Dinerman — 146 episodes
The First Crusade: The 1096 Massacres and the Rituals They Created
Did Rambam Actually Set Foot on Har Habayis?
The Controversial History of Mechiras Chametz
A Scandal on Har Habayis: The Montefiore Story
Censoring the Rambam: Part II
Censoring the Rambam
Beis Yosef vs. Kesef Mishneh: Following the Paper Trail
Jews and Booze: Uncorking the Wine Debate During the Age of Prohibition
Wine: Blind Tastes, Price Controls, and the Most Regulated Wine Market You’ve Ever Seen
Isaiah 53 on Trial: The 1863 Vienna Case That Split Jewish Leadership
The Hostage Dilemma: Part IV (Israel, 1979–1987)
The Hostage Dilemma: Part III (Israel, 1970–1976)
The Hostage Dilemma: Part II
The Hostage Dilemma: Part I
Bidding Wars: Inside the History of Selling Shul Honors
We’ve Been Singing It All Wrong? Solving the V'chol Maaminim Mystery
The Saga of Shul Shmoozing: A Historical Look at Talking in Shul Across the Centuries
The Cantonist Crisis
The Four Halls That Never Were: A Critical Look at Yosifun’s Design of the Beis Hamikdash
The Draft Dilemma: The Chilling Reality of Jews Deciding Who Gets Drafted
The Dilemma of Handing Over One to Save Many
The Rabbi Who Couldn’t Quit Gambling
Up High or Down Low? The Battle Over the Proper Trop for the Aseres Hadibros
The Great Semicha Controversy, Part II
The Great Semicha Controversy, 1538
The Doctored Talmud: Prague, 1728
The Marranos’ Secret Pesach
The Machine Matzah Controversy
The Story of the Alter Rebbe’s Script
Rambam, the Almohads, and the Secret Jews
Rambam to the Rescue: His Legendary Letter to Yemen
The Regensburg Blood Libel
The Scandalous Marriage, 1348
Taxes and Tensions: The Story of Jewish Tax Disputes in Medieval Spain
Josephus
Lost Lights of Chanukah: Exploring the Books of Maccabees
The Titanic Question: The Halachic Dilemma of Men Lost at Sea
Benches, Bargains, and Bickering: Shul Seating in the Middle Ages
The Climate Clash: Rain, Rabbis, and Rulings for the Southern Hemisphere
The Warder Cresson Story
The Rebbe’s Rashi: Insights from Manuscripts and Incunabula Editions
Rooted in Tradition: The Calabria Esrog Story
Lost in the Geniza: An Anonymous Teshuvah on the Two-Day Yom Tov Debate
The Vanishing Verses: Curious Cases of Textual Tampering in Our Machzor
Art of the Blast: Shofar Blowing Customs in Medieval Manuscripts
Fowl Play: The Great Turkey-Chicken Debate of the 19th Century
Dreams of Revision: The Role of Dreams in Altering Halachic Rulings
The Rabbi Who Wouldn’t Wait: A Proposal to Reinstate the Korbanos
Unconditional Love: A Commemorative Study of a Talk by the Lubavitcher Rebbe
The Provocative Portrait: Unveiling the True Face of Moshe Rabbeinu
Yom Tov Burial: The Talmud, the Rishonim, and the Baal Shem Tov
The Masada Martyrs: Halachic Perspectives on History’s Hardest Choices
Grain Matters: Navigating the Chadash Predicament Across the Centuries
The Frankist Blood Libel
The Kittsee Haggadah
The Printers’ Clash: The Battle Over Rambam’s Mishneh Torah, Venice 1550
Seduction and Sacrifice: From the Purim Story to the Responsa Literature
Scrolls, Scribes, and Shortcuts: An Incomplete Megilah in the Cairo Geniza
Lost Scrolls, Lost Souls: A Spanish Jew’s Plea to Rediscover Tanach | Favorite Episodes
The Scandalous History of Aleinu
The Meaning of Dreaming: Talmudic Perspectives | Favorite Episodes
Rambam’s Menorah: Insights from Ancient Hebrew Manuscripts | Favorite Episodes
Between Ashkenaz and Sefard: Medieval Women, Biblical Dena, and the Public Square | Favorite Episodes
In the Dungeons of the Inquisition
The Heartless Chicken
The Puzzle of Peshat: Rashbam’s Controversial Commentary
The History of Kol Nidrei
The History and Evolution of the Chabad Machzor
Troubling Tales: The Rebbe’s Approach to Controversial Stories
The Politics of Divorce: King Henry’s Wives and the Italian Rabbis
Dancing with History: The 15th of Av and Its Legacy in Renaissance Jewry
Rambam’s Menorah: Insights from Ancient Hebrew Manuscripts
The Controversial Haskamah
Techeles: A Tangled Tale
The Missing Section in the Shulchan Aruch
Banned and Burned: The 1232 Controversy Surrounding Rambam’s Works
Remembering and Forgetting: The History of Chof Sivan | Replay
In the Wake of Shabtai Tzvi’s Betrayal
Women and the Study of Talmud
The Lion and the Snake: Tensions Over Artistic Expression in the Medieval Sanctuary
Rashba’s Rebuttal: Defending Judaism in Medieval Barcelona
Censoring Rambam’s Mishneh Torah in Czarist Russia
The Fate of the Marranos
First Edition: The Rebbe’s References to the 1485 Soncino Haggadah
Vanished Hero: Exploring the Absence of Moshe in the Haggadah
The King’s Prayer: A Controversial Statement by a 19th-Century Rabbi
Zecher vs. Zeicher: Unraveling the Parshas Zachor Mystery
History and Development of the Talmudic Page
Debating the Death Penalty
Dividing Tanach into Chapters: A Historical Overview
Secrets of a Chozer: An Interview with Rabbi Simon Jacobson
Loathing Our Clothing: The Despot’s Decree and Rabbinic Response
Burning of the Books: The Alter Rebbe, the Gra, and the Tzimtzum Tussle
The Nile on Trial: 16th-Century Rabbis and Aquatic Science
Evolution of the Tanya: Timely Lessons from the Eighteenth-Century Battle against Chasidism
When A London Rabbi Was Accused of Heresy
Between Ashkenaz and Sefard: Medieval Women, Biblical Dena, and the Public Square
The Meaning of Dreaming: Talmudic Perspectives
Liturgical Warfare Among 16th-Century Italian Jews
Is It Kosher To Elope? Marriage Without Parental Consent
Friday Night Kiddush Between 6 and 7
After A Decade of Barrenness: What Actually Happens
The Battle Over Machnisei Rachamim (Part 2)
The Battle Over Machnisei Rachamim (Part 1)
Buried Alive: The 18th-Century Halachic Debate
The Cracow Couple and Rama's Remarkable Responsum
The Rebbe Rashab, Zionism, and Expediting the End
The Barcelona Disputation: Was Moshiach Born on Tisha B’Av?
The Mekashya Mystery
Does Israel Amount to (the Beginnings of) Kibutz Goliyos?
The Day After: Reacting to Moshiach’s Not Coming in Chabad History
Predicting the Redemption: What About the Talmudic Prohibition?
The Dead Sea Scrolls (Part 3): The Philosophical Dispute
Paris 1240: Disputation and Devastation
The Dead Sea Scrolls (Part 2): An Alternative Jewish Calendar
Gun Control: Talmudic Perspectives
Who Wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls? A Talmudic Approach
The Scandal of the Missing Line: Allegations of Textual Corruption against Chabad
The Curious Case of the Desert Dead
Remembering and Forgetting: The History of Chof Sivan
The Rebbe’s Reshimas Hamenorah: An Overview
Spelling Hashem’s Name in Hebrew Manuscripts
Shavuos Art, and the Strange History of Akdamus
Shavuos Through the Lens of Historic Jewish Art
Explaining the Holocaust? Multiple Approaches by the Frierdiker Rebbe and Rebbe
Mishneh Torah: A Biography
The Cairo Genizah: Shedding Light on the Life and Works of the Rambam
A Jewish Guide to Horoscopes and Astrology (Part 3)
Overturning Roe v. Wade: Good for the Jews?
A Jewish Guide to Horoscopes and Astrology (Part 2)
A Jewish Guide to the Evil Eye
A Jewish Guide to Horoscopes and Astrology (Part 1)
A Jewish Guide to Demons and Spirits
Blatant Disregard of a Torah Law? On the Prohibition Against Settling in Egypt
Dominating Wives, Suffering, and Reincarnation: The Debate About Gilgul and It’s Connection to Pesach
The Blood Libel and Talmudic Censorship
The Old, the New, the Forgotten: Halachah and Minhag In Haggadah Art
Finders Keepers? Halachic Implications From Tzaraas In the Home
Evolution of the Haggadah: A Pictorial History, from the Cairo Genizah, to the Medieval Art Workshop, to the Modern Printing Press
Kosher Pig? Analyzing a Mysterious Midrash (Part 2)
The Letter and Spirit of the Law vis-a-vis Imitation Products
Kosher Pig? Analyzing a Mysterious Midrash (Part 1)
Purim Through the Lens of Historic Jewish Art
Purim Class - The Manos Halevi by Rabbi Shlomo Alkabetz: Overview and Highlights
Rabbinic Police Powers, Love and Hate, and Stern Censorship: Insights from Newly Discovered Passages of the Alter Rebbe’s Shulchan Aruch
The Halachic Status of Christianity: Insights from Newly Discovered Passages of the Alter Rebbe’s Shulchan Aruch