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All Episodes

Judaism for the Thinking Person — 101 episodes

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Title
1

The Biblical Meaning of "Holiness" - That Isn't Yours!

2

DO NOT Forget on Passover! In Praise of Biur Chametz

3

Israel and Iran: Malachi, Xerses, and Liza Minnelli

4

Why Jurgen Habermas Died Between Exodus and Leviticus

5

The Visual Language of Norms in Judaism -- And We are the Poorer for Losing It

6

Forced Labor was Used to Build the First Temple?

7

10 Commandments or 10 Speakings? Speech as the Center of Our Worship

8

Seeing ICE Through Scripture (from local rally)

9

Jacob's Blessings and Aging Out of People Pleasing

10

Agriculture, Economic Collapse, and the Joseph Story

11

The AI Gods Taking Away our Souls and Our Community

12

Parashat Toldot: Is Imposter Syndrome a Fault or a Gift from God?

13

What Can the Rabbinic Debate about Noah Teach Us About Equity?

14

Maimonides' Laws of War & Talking About Gaza

15

Getting "Miracles" Right in Judaism and in Our Lives (Yom Kippur Sermon 2025)

16

Parashat Behaalotkhah: Grievance and Getting the Leaders We Deserve

17

Pinchas and Superman as our Mirror

18

Abraham Joshua Heschel Second Class: Ethics vs Holiness

19

Abraham Joshua Heschel First Class: Gratitude, Awe, and Actually Connecting to God

20

Passover as the Secret High Holidays: Making Your Rosh Hashanah Resolutions Real Halfway Through the Journey

21

The Mishkan, Indigenous Wisdom, and the Right to Repair

22

A People of the Book and a Generation That Has Never Read One

23

The Tower of Babel and the Problem of Identity-Based "Truths"

24

Misunderstanding Consent, Property and Patriarchy in Jewish Wedding Ceremonies

25

Moving Beyond the Progressive Lens to True Religion (Yom Kippur 2024)

26

We're All Looking for Empathy after October 7th, Including Me! (Rosh Hashanah Sermon 2024)

27

Writing G-d and the Danger of Idolatry

28

Did a Biblical Outlaw Understand the Arab-Israel Conflict Better than Today's Students?

29

The Biblical Battle of the AI Priesthood Lineage

30

Amalekites, Gaza and the End of Megillat Esther on Purim

31

The 19th Century Reform Rabbi Who Changed Physics

32

The Israelites Left Egypt Armed: Gender & Chauvinism Preceding October 7

33

Who Gets to Be a Spokesperson for Israel? The Soft of Heart and Slow of Speech

34

Tikkun Olam and Redeeming the Hostages

35

Halakhah and Aggadah: The Ten Stories We Tell PART TWO

36

Halakhah and Aggadah: The Ten Stories We Tell PART ONE

37

Is There a Fear of God In This Place? Our Different Experiences of the Israel Gaza Conflict

38

The Commandment of Shevut: How Do We Handle its Inherent Subjectivity?

39

The Kol Nidrei Ritual: Stepping into Your Future Self

40

Hineni Resolutions: I’m Ready but Are They?

41

The Genders Within God, and Within Ourselves!

42

The Three Covenants: God Cares About God’s Brand. Do You?

43

Is the Book of Numbers about Remote Work?

44

Be Someone Else: Victor Turner and the Subversiveness of Ritual Performance

45

”Make Yourself a Wilderness” To Receive Torah

46

Jubilee and the Passing on of Generational Wealth

47

Two Forms of Action: Embodying the Kabbalistic Forces of Netzach and Hod

48

Torah In a Minute: What’s the Big Deal About the Lunar Calendar?

49

The Golden Calf and the Present Government in Israel

50

Jewish Law, Head Covering, and Knowing Before Whom You Stand

51

God the Stutterer, God the Reluctant

52

The Unalloyed Joy of Grandparenting

53

Oppenheimer: The 20th Century ”Joseph”

54

Achieving our Dreams while Living with Anxiety

55

Eco-Burial and Jewish Law

56

Listening Like It’s Shivah

57

The Spiral of Progress/History

58

Learning from 12 Step: The ”El Anon” Theology of the Exile Prophets

59

Those in 12 Step Recovery are Our Teachers (Rosh Hashanah Sermon 2022)

60

Chatter and Our Relationship with God through Our Relationship with Our Inner Voice

61

Moses the Mother in Transition (Ilana Kurshan’s Teaching)

62

Eikev and the Torah of Ambivalence

63

Ableism, Torah, and ”Greatness Comes from Being Lifted Up By Your Brothers”

64

Judaism and Abortion: The Process of the Decision IS Religion

65

Believing in Miracles (or not) in 5 Minutes

66

Is the Wailing Wall an Orthodox Synagogue? The Kotel Agreement, Yuval Noah Harari and Anat Hoffman

67

Self-Improvement, Judgment, and Seeing God’s Back

68

Clothing God? Sewing as an Act of Lovingkindness

69

Does God Have a Plan for Us?

70

Lecture: Halakhic Sources, the Fetus, and the Morality of Abortion

71

Patriarchy, Gaze, Voice and Intersectionality? Exodus and bell hooks

72

Joseph‘s Brothers and Robert Bly‘s The Sibling Society

73

Joseph, Hanukkah, and the Assimilation Narrative

74

The Incommunicability of Experience and the Rape of Dinah

75

Dara Horn‘s ”People Love Dead Jews” and the Erasure of Jewish Difference

76

Changing our Relationship with Time from Productivity to Presence

77

The Potentially Limitless Commandment of Honoring Parents As They Age

78

Combatting the Curses Against Israel with History, not more Scapegoating

79

Instagram, Depression and the Serpent Voice: ”And They Knew They Were Naked”

80

The Halakhah of Zoom Minyan: Adding Windows to the House of Israel

81

The Victim Triangle: Moving from Blame to Self-Creation, from Drama to Authenticity

82

It‘s Time to End the Fertility Bias: Our Shame in Shutting Out Those Without Children

83

Saving One Life is Saving the World: Jewish Law and the Death Penalty

84

The Depth of Loving Torah and Being Loved Through It: Being Taught is to Be Loved

85

Leading our Children to Transcendence

86

Reopening the Synagogue When People Are Coming up the Down Staircase

87

God the Mother

88

Ross Douthat, Biblical Impurity, and Antipathy toward the Temple

89

Jewish Law on Cremation and Burial, and What We're Facing as the Numbers Rise

90

The Tabernacle -- and our Lives-- as a Purposeful Composition

91

Keruvim, Cherubim, Griffins, Sphinxes, and the angel Rafael

92

The Building of the Tabernacle through the Lens of the Black Church

93

Making Sense of the Most Disturbing Statement in the Bible

94

"God, Let me receive good counsel!" The 5 minute practice that will change your life

95

Jonah versus Moshe: When Do We Hold the King Accountable and When Do We Move On?

96

Zikaron and the Filibuster: The Memory of Slavery and Dreaming God's Dream for America

97

Geneivat Daat: The Theft of Subjectivity by Media and its Pull Upon Us in the name of Justice

98

The Dreams of Genesis and Our Dreams: Our Alignment with the God World

99

Reuniting Religion and Psychology: Jacob's Dreams and the Therapeutic Uses of Psilocybin

100

"It's Their Money!"- The Ketubah, Traditional Jewish Marriage, and the Defrauding of Rachel and Leah

101

Two Types of Fear: Avoiding "Ideolatry" in our Political Divide