Shows / Ta Shma
Ta Shma
Bringing you recent lectures, classes, and programs from the Hadar Institute, Ta Shma is where you get to listen in on the beit midrash. Come and listen on the go, at home, or wherever you are. Hosted by Rabbi Avi Killip of the Hadar Institute.
Episodes
- Ta Shma
R. Avi Strausberg on Parashat Noah: After the Worst Happens
Where there is order, there is the potential for disorder. Where forces are held back, there is the potential for them to break free.Last week, in Parashat…
- Ta Shma
R. Jason Rogoff: Cooperation and Competition: Israel and Babylonia as Centers of Torah
This class explores the competing claims to religious authority in the Talmudic era between the Land of Israel and Babylonia. Through close reading of selected…
- Ta Shma
R. Avi Strausberg on Parashat Bereishit: A Song of Rising Up
In the beginning, God lifted the world out of chaos.The Torah paints a dramatic scene. A wasteland. A darkness covering the surface of the tehom, the great…
- Ta Shma
R. Avi Killip: The Long and Winding Road to Redemption
We long for a better world. Judaism teaches us to yearn and pray and work to bring the messiah, reach redemption, and earn our place in the world to come. But…
- Ta Shma
A Festival About Nothing: Dr. Tsivia Frank Wygoda on Shemini Atzeret-Simhat Torah
In Israel, Shemini Atzeret-Simhat Torah feels like the busiest day of the year. So many prayers; so many different atmospheres. Year after year, juggling back…
- Ta Shma
R. Avital Hochstein on VeZot HaBerakhah: Journey Summary
R. Simlai taught: Torah—its beginning is kindness and its end is kindness.Its beginning is kindness—as it is written, “God made leather garments for Adam and…
- Ta Shma
R. Dena Weiss: Language As a Lens: Silence (Part 5)
Explore the role that language plays in our personal, religious, and spiritual lives, by challenging assumptions about core areas of speech like prayer (is it…
- Ta Shma
R. Avital Hochstein on Parashat Ha'azinu: A Topography of Distance
“I will hide My face from them” (Deuteronomy 32:20)—so declares the Holy Blessed One in Parashat Ha’azinu. This is one of the most painful and jarring…
- Ta Shma
R. Dena Weiss: Language As a Lens: Prayer (Part 4)
Explore the role that language plays in our personal, religious, and spiritual lives, by challenging assumptions about core areas of speech like prayer (is it…
- Ta Shma
R. Avital Hochstein on Parashat Nitzavim-VaYeilekh: On Mutual Responsibility
At this time of year, as the High Holidays approach, we are used to thinking about our own personal responsibility. In the Yom Kippur Vidui, we worry not only…
- Ta Shma
R. Dena Weiss: Language As a Lens: When Is It OK to Lie? (Part 3)
Explore the role that language plays in our personal, religious, and spiritual lives, by challenging assumptions about core areas of speech like prayer (is it…
- Ta Shma
R. Avital Hochstein on Parashat Ki Tavo: Clearing the Holy from the Home
Our parashah describes a ceremony known as vidui ma’aser. The word vidui here from the root י.ד.ה. probably means something like “declaration of thanks” (like…
- Ta Shma
R. Dena Weiss: Language As a Lens Part 2
Explore the role that language plays in our personal, religious, and spiritual lives, by challenging assumptions about core areas of speech like prayer (is it…
- Ta Shma
R. Avital Hochstein on Parashat Ki Teitzei: Three Contemporary Readings of the Rebellious Son
One of the most emotionally charged and provocative legal passages is found in our parashah: the case of the rebellious son.
- Ta Shma
R. Dena Weiss: Language As a Lens Part 1
Explore the role that language plays in our personal, religious, and spiritual lives, by challenging assumptions about core areas of speech like prayer (is it…
- Ta Shma
R. Avital Hochstein on Parashat Shoftim: The Torah of Military Service
The preoccupation with the question of who goes to war is not new. It is a question that meets us, Israeli society, in our day-to-day lives. There is an acute…
- Ta Shma
R. Elazar Symon on Rosh Hodesh Elul: A Different Kind of Comfort
The month of Elul marks the beginning of a process that leads us toward the Yamim Noraim, the days of awe. Yet in another sense, even at the beginning of Elul…
- Ta Shma
R. Avital Hochstein on Parashat Re'eih: The Dangers of Incitement
In Parashat Re’eih, the Torah warns against a uniquely insidious threat: the mesit or inciter. In Hebrew, this act of enticing or manipulating another person…
- Ta Shma
R. Tali Adler: What Are You Doing Here, Elijah?
This class explores the powerful stories of the prophet Elijah, asking what they reveal about prophecy, leadership, and religious zeal. As Elijah performs…
- Ta Shma
R. Avital Hochstein on Parashat Eikev: Memory and the Divine-Human Partnership
Two intertwined themes are explored in Parashat Eikev: memory and human agency. What is the connection between these ideas? And how do they work together in…
- Ta Shma
R. Shai Held: Hope After Hope Is Lost
How might we maintain hope during a time when it seems to many of us that all hope is gone? One biblical idea is that, although God is frequently disappointed…
- Ta Shma
R. Avital Hochstein on Parashat Va'Ethanan: Law After War
Our parashah describes a deeply charged moment—a moment where the Israelites are at risk of forgetting the Holy Blessed One. Surprisingly, this danger does not…
- Ta Shma
R. Elazar Symon on Tisha B'Av: Wood and Stone
At least in the plain sense of Lamentations 4, the destruction of Jerusalem is not presented as the execution of a carefully designed plan. It is a moment of…
- Ta Shma
R. Avital Hochstein on Parashat Devarim: Eikhah: What Does God Lament?
Parashat Devarim is always read on the Shabbat preceding Tisha B’Av, the week in which we read Megillat Eikhah (the Book of Lamentations). This creates a…
- Ta Shma
R. Dani Passow: Esh Kodesh: Finding God in the Midst of Suffering
In the darkest days of the Holocaust, Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapira, the Piaseczner Rebbe, offered weekly teachings to his community in the Warsaw Ghetto…
- Ta Shma
R. Avital Hochstein on Parashat Mattot-Masei: The Daughters of Tzlofhad and the Sons of Menashe
The Book of Numbers concludes by revisiting a narrative we first encountered last week: the story of Tzlofhad’s inheritance. This episode appears first in…
- Ta Shma
R. Tali Adler: Rabbinic Personalities: Getting to Know R. Yohanan Ben Zakkai
Who were the rabbis who shaped Judaism as we know it today? This class delves into Talmudic stories about Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai, comes to know him as a…
- Ta Shma
4th of July Special: R. Ethan Tucker: 250 Years of Judaism in America
Over 250 years in America, Judaism—a way of life that centers obligation—has had to negotiate a culture defined by autonomy and freedom. How has that tension…
- Ta Shma
R. Avital Hochstein on Parashat Pinhas: Between Optional and Obligatory Wars
Over the past three years, a myriad of terms for the reality of war have emerged in Israeli discourse: a commanded war (milhemet mitzvah), an existential war…
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R. Elazar Symon on the 17th of Tammuz: What Must Be Broken
The tragedies we remember on 17th Tammuz are really of different kinds.
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R. Avital Hochstein on Parashat Balak: “A People Like a Lion”
Bilam’s prophecies are rich, dense, and enigmatic. One in particular was emphasised recently in 2025 when the war with Iran took its name from Bilam’s words…
- Ta Shma
R. Elie Kaunfer: Stepping into Prayer
Before the Amidah, we take three steps forward. What is the origin of this custom, and what is the symbolism of these steps? This class explores a number of…
- Ta Shma
R. Avital Hochstein on Parashat Korah: Living in Dispute
This parashah focuses on the leadership and religious dispute that erupts between Korah and his assembly and Moshe and Aharon. Seemingly, the parashah rules in…
- Ta Shma
R. Dena Weiss: Unintended Consequences
Not everyone has the best intentions. This class explores the category of the "eid zomem" - the false witness who tries, but fails, to condemn an innocent…
- Ta Shma
R. Avital Hochstein on Parashat Shelah: How to Stand in Minority
Parashat Shelah confronts us with a poignant question that touches our personal lives from time to time: How do we hold fast to a minority opinion? How can we…
- Ta Shma
R. Aviva Richman: A Torah of Sexual Ethics: Part 3
What do we do when our leaders—or our most sacred texts—repeatedly disappoint us? We live in a world that continues to struggle with how to live out a sexual…
- Ta Shma
R. Avital Hochstein on Parashat BeHa'alotkha: Mitzvot as a Communal Project
Parashat BeHa’alotkha returns us to the story of Pesah—this time, in the second year after the Exodus from Egypt—and underscores the ways in which observing…
- Ta Shma
R. Aviva Richman: A Torah of Sexual Ethics: Part 2
What do we do when our leaders—or our most sacred texts—repeatedly disappoint us? We live in a world that continues to struggle with how to live out a sexual…
- Ta Shma
R. Avital Hochstein on Parashat Naso: Divine Communication
Our parashah describes one aspect of the unique relationship between the Holy Blessed One, and Moshe. The final verse of the parashah describes how the Holy…
- Ta Shma
R. Elazar Symon on Shavuot: Many Hearts, One Torah
According to Rashi, the defining feature of the people of Israel at the moment of receiving the Torah is complete unity.
- Ta Shma
R. Aviva Richman: A Torah of Sexual Ethics: Part 1
What do we do when our leaders—or our most sacred texts—repeatedly disappoint us? We live in a world that continues to struggle with how to live out a sexual…
- Ta Shma
R. Avital Hochstein on Parashat Bemidbar: Fire, Water, Wilderness: Living With the Torah
“God spoke to Moshe in the wilderness of Sinai, in the Tent of Meeting, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after their departure from the…
- Ta Shma
Faith and Doubt in Our Final Hours: A Conversation Between Dr. Lydia Dugdale and R. Shai Held
For many of us, confronting death raises urgent questions of faith, doubt, and the meaning and purpose of our lives. Yet we live in a culture that avoids…
- Ta Shma
R. Avital Hochstein on Parashat BeHar-BeHukkotai: A Reality Without Fear
The Book of Leviticus, and Parashat BeHukkotai that brings it to a close, makes a clear and recurring claim: reality is not an act of fate, but the outcome of…
- Ta Shma
R. Elazar Symon on the Omer: Counting Old and New
According to a midrashic tradition, the counting of the Omer (that may have seemed to be nothing but a calendrical counting of the days from Pesah to Shavuot)…
- Ta Shma
R. Avital Hochstein on Parashat Emor: Where Do Sinners Come From?
In Parashat Emor, we encounter the story of the blasphemer. This blasphemer undermines, degrades, and treats with levity the very foundation of the religious…
- Ta Shma
Faith WithHeld: A Conversation Between Sarah Wildman and R. Shai Held
When the unthinkable happens, what remains of faith? Journalist Sarah Wildman, who lost her young daughter, joins Rabbi Shai Held in a searching conversation…
- Ta Shma
R. Avital Hochstein on Parashat Aharei Mot-Kedoshim: “Will You Hear My Voice, My Distant One?”
Drawing close is no simple matter. At times, it can be difficult—even dangerous. And yet, to come near is also wondrous: it can nurture, enrich, and expand…
- Ta Shma
R. Elazar Symon on Yom HaZikaron/Yom Ha'Atzma’ut: Unless God Builds the House
Dedicated in loving memory of my nephew, Yishai Elyakim Urbach, who fell in Gaza one year ago, a few weeks after setting out to build his own home.Tehillim…
- Ta Shma
R. Avital Hochstein on Parashat Tazria-Metzora: Giving Birth to Hope
Chapter 12 of the Book of Vayikra deals with the sacrifice of the woman who has given birth.
- Ta Shma
R. Elazar Symon on Yom HaShoah: After the Silence: Rebuilding from the Holy of Holies
When we think of the Holocaust, we can only be silent.We are incapacitated emotionally, morally, theologically. At times it seems that the countless museums…
- Ta Shma
R. Avital Hochstein on Parashat Shemini: Can Death Be Explained?
The opening scene of Parashat Shemini is both brief and dramatic. It depicts the final day of the dedication of the mishkan (tabernacle)—the very day on which…
- Ta Shma
How to Read a Talmudic Story: Book Talk
The stories transmitted in the Talmud and midrash present contemporary readers with a rich and delightful entry point into the Rabbinic worldview and mindset…
- Ta Shma
R. Avital Hochstein on Parashat Tzav: On Offerings, Wholeness, and Peace
Midrash Vayikra Rabbah offers an extensive homily on the shelamim (peace or well-being offering) based on the linguistic affinity between the Hebrew words…
- Ta Shma
R. Shai Held: Why Doesn't God Redeem Us Again?: Living With and Without Exodus
The exodus is nothing less than the "orienting event" of Jewish life. But Exodus memory also has another, much more painful side: amidst suffering and…
- Ta Shma
R. Avital Hochstein on Vayikra: From Chance to Calling
The Book of Leviticus, Vayikra, begins: “God called (ויקרא) to Moshe and spoke to him from the Tent of Meeting, saying” (Leviticus 1:1). Why does God begin…
- Ta Shma
R. David Kasher: Reading Tanakh as Tanakh Reads Itself
What is the value and beauty of Tanakh? And how are biblical texts aware of, and in conversation with one another? In this class, Rabbi David Kasher…
- Ta Shma
Parashat Vayakhel-Pekudei: Being in the Shadow of God
The Torah portions of VaYakhel and Pekudei describe the practical implementation of the construction plans for the tabernacle (mishkan), originally detailed in…
- Ta Shma
R. Avital Hochstein on Parashat Ki Tissa: When Moshe Leaves
The absence of a leader creates a vacuum, and this vacuum invites a question: What kind of leadership are we seeking? At the beginning of Parashat Ki Tissa…
- Ta Shma
R. Elazar Symon on Purim: Does God Sleep?
From a theological perspective, the most striking feature of the Book of Esther is God’s absence. God’s name does not appear anywhere in the megillah, which—at…