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. Avital Hochstein on Parashat Tetzaveh: “Who Stays Your Hand?”: On Interdependence
Being in a relationship is both an opportunity and a challenge. Relationships with others have the potential to be life-expanding, but to achieve this they…
- Ta Shma
Searching for the Heart of Tanakh: R. Shai Held and R. David Kasher
Traditional Jewish exegesis and modern academic scholarship often speak in different languages—one theological and reverential, the other historical and…
- Ta Shma
R. Avital Hochstein on Parashat Terumah: The Blueprint of Intimacy
Parashat Terumah opens with a divine request. God asks the Children of Israel for a contribution to achieve a specific goal: “And let them make Me a sanctuary…
- Ta Shma
R. Shai Held: Loving the Stranger-Sojourner (Ger)
In addition to loving God and loving our neighbor, the Torah also commands us to love the stranger-sojourner (ger). This lecture delves into this surprising…
- Ta Shma
R. Avital Hochstein on Parashat Mishpatim: Who Rests on Shabbat?
Parashat Mishpatim shines a spotlight on human beings and their responsibility for the rest of others on Shabbat.
- Ta Shma
R. Ethan Tucker: Reading the Torah Like a Love Letter
Do you love midrash? Hate it? In this class, Rabbi Ethan Tucker delves into this unique rabbinic genre to try and understand its essence: Reading the Torah…
- Ta Shma
R. Avital Hochstein on Parashat Yitro: An Intimate Meeting
The Torah describes a moving encounter between Yitro and Moshe, in which Moshe shares his journey and experiences. A close reading of the details reveals that…
- Ta Shma
R. Elazar Symon on Tu Bishvat: Celebrating a Birthday for a Tree
Tu Bishvat is often called the “birthday of the trees.” There is also a reactionary trend to reject this framework of “birthday” and go back to its original…
- Ta Shma
R. Avital Hochstein on Parashat Beshallah: Where Does Amalek Come From?
The Torah describes: “Amalek came and fought with Israel at Refidim” (Exodus 17:8). Where does Amalek come from? What is the context out of which this war…
- Ta Shma
R. Shai Held: Why Don’t We Make Blessings for Interpersonal Mitzvot?
On its face, it is a real anomaly in Jewish practice: we recite blessings before putting on tefillin or lighting Shabbat candles, but we don't recite any…
- Ta Shma
R. Avital Hochstein on Parashat Bo: Slaves or Warriors: Who Were We When We Left Egypt?
Woven into the account of the Exodus are two distinct and seemingly contradictory images of the Children of Israel. On one hand, they are a nation of oppressed…
- Ta Shma
R. Avital Hochstein on Parashat Va'Era: What is Slavery?
Pharaoh succeeded. He brought the Children of Israel into a state of slavery. The opening of Parashat Va’Era focuses on one particular consequence of this: the…
- Ta Shma
R. Avi Strausberg: The Promise and Impossibility of Unity
What does it mean to strive toward unity and togetherness in a moment in which we are so divided? What is gained—and what is lost—by holding fast to notions of…
- Ta Shma
R. Avital Hochstein on Parashat Shemot: The Choice of Knowledge
The deterioration of relations between Egypt and the Children of Israel proceeds rapidly. What values, emotions, and perspectives make such a breakdown…
- Ta Shma
R. Avi Killip: And God Waited
For generations our relationship with God has been mediated through texts written almost entirely by men. In these sessions, Rabbi Avi Killip explores a…
- Ta Shma
R. Avital Hochstein on Parashat Vayehi: Truth and Peace
We find ourselves at the closing moments of the Book of Genesis—moments of transition as a family becomes a nation. We stand on the threshold between Yosef’s…
- Ta Shma
R. Elazar Symon on the 10th of Tevet: “A Day of Hearing”: The Other Tevet Fast
We know about the fasts that mark the destruction of the Temple from a prophecy of Zekhariah. While the Jewish exiles were in Babylon, the prophet was asked…
- Ta Shma
R. Avital Hochstein on Parashat Vayigash: Three Paths to Closeness
The word “vayigash” (“he approached”) opens one of the most dramatic scenes in the Torah: a climactic moment in the tense encounter between Yehudah, the…
- Ta Shma
R. Avi Killip: Birthing Worlds
For generations our relationship with God has been mediated through texts written almost entirely by men. In these sessions, Rabbi Avi Killip explores a…
- Ta Shma
R. Avital Hochstein on Parashat Mikeitz: How Do You Climb Out of a Pit?
Parashat Mikeitz teaches that dreams hold immense power: the power to bring downfall or renewal, life or death, destruction or creation, war or peace. This…
- Ta Shma
R. Elazar Symon on Hanukkah: The Miracle of Home Carried into the Street
One of the differences between the Hanukkah candles and the other significant candles in our religious practice, the Shabbat candles, is their location. While…
- Ta Shma
R. Avital Hochstein on Parashat VaYeishev: Yosef's Father, a Symbol of the Future
One of the most dramatic turning points in Yosef’s life is his fall from a respected and powerful position in Potiphar’s house in Egypt to the status of a…
- Ta Shma
R. Avi Killip: The Kiss of Death
For generations our relationship with God has been mediated through texts written almost entirely by men. In these sessions, Rabbi Avi Killip explores a…
- Ta Shma
R. Avital Hochstein on Parashat VaYishlah: From Ya'akov to Yisrael—and Back
“Ya’akov was very afraid and distressed.” He takes many different precautions in order to avoid a violent reunion with his brother, with potentially severe…
- Ta Shma
R. David Kasher: Klal Yisrael and Beyond: Balancing Communal Obligations with Civic Responsibilities
Are our primary responsibilities always to our own community? Or do Jews in the diaspora also have a religious obligation to contribute to the general social…
- Ta Shma
R. Avital Hochstein on Parashat VaYeitzei: A Covenant of Separation
Throughout Parashat VaYeitzei, almost from their very first encounter, Lavan and Ya’akov are locked in conflict. But there is a rare moment of encounter—though…
- Ta Shma
Independence and Interdependence: When do we need to stay together, and when must we strike out on our own?
Participating in and belonging to a Jewish community is rightly considered to be central to living a full and meaningful Jewish life. However, sometimes being…
- Ta Shma
R. Avital Hochstein on Parashat Toldot: Rivalry or Relationship?
Our parashah offers an opportunity to encounter a typical human phenomenon—plurality —and contemplate its implications. Specifically it brings us to ask: how…
- Ta Shma
R. Ayal Robkin: The Apprentice Mind Part 3
Rabbi Shlomo Wolbe, also known as the Alei Shur, offers a powerful and inspiring — but often demanding — vision for what it takes to become a better human…
- Ta Shma
R. Avital Hochstein on Parashat Hayyei Sarah: Rivkah’s Blessing
Rivkah receives a blessing from her family members before she sets out on her journey to marry Yitzhak: “O sister! May you grow into thousands of myriads; may…
- Ta Shma
R. Ayal Robkin: The Apprentice Mind Part 2
Rabbi Shlomo Wolbe, also known as the Alei Shur, offers a powerful and inspiring — but often demanding — vision for what it takes to become a better human…
- Ta Shma
R. Avital Hochstein on Parashat Vayera: The Righteous With the Wicked
In this week’s parashah, Avraham argues with God over the divine decision to destroy Sodom completely. Avraham and God agree that Sodom is wicked and that…
- Ta Shma
R. Aviva Richman: Why Talmud is the Bedrock of My Faith
The Talmud has often been subject to misrepresentation—viewed as esoteric or overly complex—yet it holds profound power as a centerpiece of Jewish tradition…
- Ta Shma
R. Avital Hochstein on Parashat Lekh Lekha: Walking, Tradition, and Renewal
Abraham is “our father” in many senses. He is seen as the father of the Jewish people, the spiritual father of Judaism and of monotheistic faiths more broadly…
- Ta Shma
R. Ayal Robkin: The Apprentice Mind Part 1
Rabbi Shlomo Wolbe, also known as the Alei Shur, offers a powerful and inspiring — but often demanding — vision for what it takes to become a better human…
- Ta Shma
R. Avital Hochstein on Parashat Noah: "In His Generation"
Parashat Noah invites us to reflect on the relationship between society and the individual. The introduction of its main character raises a central question…
- Ta Shma
R. Avital Hochstein on Parashat Bereishit: What If Adam Had Reacted Differently?
Two children are fighting in the playground. Called into the principal’s office, each insists: “It all started when he hit me back.”This familiar joke captures…
- Ta Shma
R. Tali Adler on VeZot HaBerakhah: On Endings and Beginnings
The draw of theatre in the age of movies is that each experience is unique. While the script's words and stage directions remain the same night after night…
- Ta Shma
R. Tali Adler on Parashat Ha'azinu: Living in Between
Homeless in life, Moshe is fated to remain without a home even in death.That, perhaps, is the most difficult part of God’s decree: not that Moshe must die, a…
- Ta Shma
R. Tali Adler on Parashat Vayeilekh: Recreating Sinai
The generation that will enter the Land of Israel never heard God’s voice at Sinai. They never experienced the earth shattering voice, the terror, the awe. In…
- Ta Shma
R. Tali Adler on Parashat Nitzavim: The Long Goodbye
When Moshe gathers the generation of the desert together to enter them into the covenant once again, he knows that it is his last chance to teach the people…
- Ta Shma
R. Tali Adler: When Teshuvah Is or Should Be Impossible
Are some things unforgivable? Is Teshuvah always an option? What would it mean if the road to repentance were blocked? In this class we will explore questions…
- Ta Shma
R. Tali Adler on Parashat Ki Tavo: No Final Chapter
We’ve made it.That seems to be the promise of bikkurim, the first fruits gift to God.
- Ta Shma
R. Dena Weiss: The Mechanics of Mercy: How Does Forgiveness Actually Work?
The liturgy of the High Holiday season is replete with promises about God's forgiveness but is less specific about how God forgives. In her lecture, R. Dena…
- Ta Shma
R. Tali Adler on Ki Teitzei: Living in the Double Exposure
I was eight years old in Basel, Switzerland the day I learned about the way places have layers. It was a chilly, autumn shabbos, and my father and I were on a…
- Ta Shma
R. Shai Held: Biblical Theology in a Time of Climate Emergency Part 3
What can the Bible teach us about navigating our way through a time of climate emergency? In this series, R. Shai Held explores three key biblical texts that…
- Ta Shma
R. Tali Adler on Parashat Shoftim: Even So
What do you do when you feel—or when you know—that because of your actions, you are entirely alone in the world?
- Ta Shma
R. Micha'el Rosenberg on Rosh Chodesh Elul: Teshuvah: Light or Salvation?
Thinking about our own transgressions and repentance is hard, and so it makes sense that we often latch on to metaphors to help us think about these ideas…
- Ta Shma
R. Tali Adler on Parashat Re'eih: Mourning as Children of God
There is something about our relationship with God that holds us back from unbridled grief.
- Ta Shma
R. Shai Held: Biblical Theology in a Time of Climate Emergency Part 2
What can the Bible teach us about navigating our way through a time of climate emergency? In this series, R. Shai Held explores three key biblical texts that…
- Ta Shma
R. Tali Adler on Parashat Eikev: Back to Eden
Of course the Jews thought that they would starve when they left Egypt.In Moshe’s retelling of the story of the mann (manna), that is deliberate. There is…
- Ta Shma
R. Shai Held: Biblical Theology in a Time of Climate Emergency Part 1
What can the Bible teach us about navigating our way through a time of climate emergency? In this series, R. Shai Held explores three key biblical texts that…
- Ta Shma
R. Tali Adler on Parashat Va'Ethanan: With All Your Heart
There is no such thing, for a Jew, as loving God without loving human beings as well.Our love for God is bound up with our love for others: for the parents who…
- Ta Shma
R. Shai Held on the Jewish Philanthropy Podcast: Judaism is About Love
In this episode of What Gives?, The Jewish Philanthropy Podcast, JFN CEO Andrés Spokoiny welcomes Rabbi Shai Held to discuss the claim that love is Judaism’s…
- Ta Shma
R. Tali Adler on Parashat Devarim: The Torah of Exile
The danger, when the two tribes decide to stay on the other side of the Jordan, is not just that we might become two peoples: it is that we may develop two…
- Ta Shma
R. Micha'el Rosenberg on Tisha B'Av: Between Exodus and Exile
One of the poetic laments we recite on Tisha b’Av is the poem that begins Eish tukad bekirbi (“A fire shall burn within me”). An acrostic, each stanza of the…
- Ta Shma
R. Tali Adler on Parashat Mattot-Mas'ei: On the Other Side of the Jordan
Moshe’s real concern, when Reuven and Gad ask to remain on their side of the Jordan, is the way that distance can split families apart.
- Ta Shma
Dr. Jeremy Tabick: Is Tisha B'Av Eternal?
Both Talmuds record that Rabbi, one of the last leading sages of the Tannaim, tried to abolish Tisha B'Av. Why would someone want to abolish this fast day?…
- Ta Shma
R. Tali Adler on Parashat Pinhas: A Father’s Daughter
Daughters of fathers are different from sons. Daughters, as they grow, do not take on their father’s image. A daughter’s voice will not deepen into her…
- Ta Shma
R. Dani Passow: Reading the Rabbis Part 3
The Talmud is notoriously complex, and its stories are no exception. In this class, we will learn strategies for how to understand these texts such as…