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. Tali Adler on Parashat Balak: Turning to See
The moment when Bilaam can’t see the angel is familiar to us—too familiar for comfort.We’ve seen this scene before: a hidden angel, an unusual occurrence, the…
- Ta Shma
R. Micha'el Rosenberg on the 17th of Tammuz: The Memory of Tragedy
There shouldn’t be much ambiguity about why 17 Tammuz is a fast day; the Mishnah relates five tragic events that took place on this date.
- Ta Shma
R. Tali Adler on Parashat Hukkat: Miriam of Words
It is Miriam who was always the speaker of the three siblings. Miriam, who, according to the Talmud, was also called Puah because of the sounds she made to…
- Ta Shma
R. Avi Strausberg on Pride Month 2025: Flags of Love
The Song of Songs (2:4) imagines a boundless love between two lovers in which one lover says of the other, “his flag of love was upon me.” That’s how I felt at…
- Ta Shma
R. Tali Adler on Parashat Korah: Pretended Perfection
The most insidious part of Korach’s claim is that it is a lie we desperately want to believe.
- Ta Shma
R. Dani Passow: Reading the Rabbis Part 2
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…
- Ta Shma
R. Tali Adler on Parashat Shelah: When the Story Changes
To be a Jew is to believe in impossible dreams.To be a Jew is to believe that slaves can become free. It is to believe that the senselessness of this world can…
- Ta Shma
R. Dani Passow: Reading the Rabbis Part 1
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…
- Ta Shma
R. Tali Adler on Parashat BeHa'alotkha: Unspoken Words
The tragedy of Moshe’s final conversation with his father-in-law are the words that he leaves unsaid.
- Ta Shma
R. Shai Held: Psalm for Shabbat
The psalms attached liturgically to each day of the week are often mumbled over quickly, without much attention to their meaning. In this series, we'll engage…
- Ta Shma
R. Tali Adler on Parashat Naso: Choosing to Live
There are moments in life where things have gone so wrong that we cannot see a way forward. That may be what has happened to the woman who chooses to drink the…
- Ta Shma
R. Tali Adler on Bemidbar: A Jew Without Sinai
To be a Jew is, when we are lucky, to feel the memory of Sinai in our bones. We strive to feel as if we have experienced both the slavery and liberation of…
- Ta Shma
R. Micha'el Rosenberg on Shavuot: What Did We Hear at Sinai?
What did we hear at Sinai? What does God want us to hear?
- Ta Shma
R. Tali Adler on Parashat BeHar-BeHukkotai: Breaking the Cycle
When it comes to the enslavement of Jews, God gives us two imperatives. First, strive to be like God. Failing that, resist the temptation to become like the…
- Ta Shma
R. Shai Held: Psalm for Friday
The psalms attached liturgically to each day of the week are often mumbled over quickly, without much attention to their meaning. In this series, we'll engage…
- Ta Shma
R. Micha'el Rosenberg on Lag Ba'Omer: The Paradox of Respect and Humility
What makes Lag Ba’Omer, the 33rd day of the Omer, special? Why has this day become an oasis of relief, and even celebration, amidst the generally mournful…
- Ta Shma
R. Tali Adler on Parashat Emor: A Tale of Two Structures
Parashat Emor features two types of ritual buildings: the first, the mishkan (tabernacle), later transformed into the beit ha-mikdash (Temple); and the second…
- Ta Shma
R. Micha'el Rosenberg on Pesah Sheini: The Afterglow of Nisan
When you stop to think about it, Pesah Sheini is a very strange holiday, with a motivation that would be incomprehensible for almost any other festival. As we…
- Ta Shma
R. Tali Adler on Aharei Mot-Kedoshim: Two Wounds
Yom Kippur, depending on who tells its story, is animated by one of two central wounds.
- Ta Shma
R. Avi Strausberg: A God of Truth?
The Talmud teaches us that God is a God of truth who it would seem values honesty. Yet, what does that mean for all of our questions and doubts? Is there a…
- Ta Shma
R. Tali Adler on Parashat Tazria-Metzora: The Discovery of Birth
Each of us was brought into this world by someone who allowed their body to become home to a stranger. This is what mothers do before we meet our children…
- Ta Shma
R. Micha'el Rosenberg on HaZikaron/Yom Ha'Atzma’ut: The Religious Sensibility of Hatikvah
Although it eventually won out, it was not always obvious that “Hatikvah” would be the Israeli national anthem. There were other competitors, and various…
- Ta Shma
R. Tali Adler on Shemini: The Question in the Middle
Vayikra is a book that is concerned with the holy and the profane; the pure and the impure. Nearly every mitzvah in Vayikra contains these categories. The…
- Ta Shma
R. Micha'el Rosenberg on Yom HaShoah: Love in Light of Destruction
It shouldn’t be possible to say such a thing, but I have spent most of my life taking the Holocaust for granted. My father of blessed memory was a child…
- Ta Shma
R. Tali Adler on Parashat Tzav: Ashes to Ashes
The burnt ashes of the korbanot (sacrifices), piled on the altar, represent the intermingled prayers and dreams, experiences and regrets, of the Jewish people.
- Ta Shma
R. Micha'el Rosenberg on Pesah: The Yom Kippur Before Pesah
We are doing a lot of prep work this week. We are cleaning our homes, kashering pots and cutlery, making sure we’ve got everything on our Seder shopping lists.
- Ta Shma
R. Tali Adler on Vayikra: Blood and Breath
The unspoken drive towards human sacrifice lurks in the background of Sefer Vayikra.
- Ta Shma
R. Avi Strausberg: Children of Believers
The first Pesah was a leil shimurim, a night of watching, a night of fear and uncertainty. Amid darkness and screams, the fate of the Israelites hung in the…
- Ta Shma
R. Tali Adler on Pekudei: Silver and Gold
Human beings love to make idols of our dead. Desperate to keep our lost loved ones within reach, we create forms that we can cling to in their stead. We name…
- Ta Shma
R. Shai Held: Psalm for Thursday
The psalms attached liturgically to each day of the week are often mumbled over quickly, without much attention to their meaning. In this series, we'll engage…
- Ta Shma
R. Tali Adler on Vayakhel: Returning to Shabbat
It’s only in the moment when Moshe once again commands the Jewish people to keep Shabbat that we know they are truly forgiven.
- Ta Shma
R. David Kasher: In the Shadow of the Golem Part 3
Prague at the turn of the 17th century was the site of a critical period in the development of pre-modern Jewish thought. The great rabbis of that city…
- Ta Shma
R. Tali Adler on Parashat Ki Tissa: Who Does God Desire?
The Jews have every reason to believe Moshe will never come back.We’ve seen this play before, the last time with a father and son: a three day journey into the…
- Ta Shma
R. Micha'el Rosenberg on Purim: Costumes and the Eternal Self
Purim is a holiday of costumes, putting on masks, and presenting ourselves to the world in unusual ways. It makes sense, then, that this holiday most often…
- Ta Shma
R. Tali Adler on Tetzaveh: Between Absence and Emptiness
Tetzaveh is a parashah of absence.While Moshe has been a constant presence since the beginning of Shemot, in Tetzaveh, Moshe’s name is not mentioned a single…
- Ta Shma
R. David Kasher: In the Shadow of the Golem Part 2
Prague at the turn of the 17th century was the site of a critical period in the development of pre-modern Jewish thought. The great rabbis of that city…
- Ta Shma
R. Tali Adler on Parashat Terumah: Caring for God
If you are lucky, you will live to see your parents begin to need you in the way you once needed them.You will feel it most in the small things: lifting a cup…
- Ta Shma
R. David Kasher: In the Shadow of the Golem Part 1
Prague at the turn of the 17th century was the site of a critical period in the development of pre-modern Jewish thought. The great rabbis of that city…
- Ta Shma
R. Tali Adler on Parashat Mishpatim: The Day After
Mishpatim, after the narrative path we’ve experienced so far in Shemot, can feel dizzying. Until now, Shemot has seemed like a straightforward story: slavery…
- Ta Shma
R. Shai Held: Psalm for Wednesday
The psalms attached liturgically to each day of the week are often mumbled over quickly, without much attention to their meaning. In this series, we'll engage…
- Ta Shma
R. Tali Adler on Parashat Yitro: Remembering the Shepherd
It’s only when Yitro, who knew Moshe before he became a leader, comes to meet him that we learn how lost Moshe has become.
- Ta Shma
R. Micha'el Rosenberg on Tu Bishvat: “The One Who Brings Forth”
Tu Bishvat has become a day on which many Jews express gratitude for the earth and its bounty. In this sense, it is closely connected to the practice of…
- Ta Shma
R. Tali Adler on Parashat Beshallah: Ghosts in the Haggadah
The Exodus from Egypt is, in one way of telling it, a ghost story.This is not the usual genre we assign to the tale. We describe it as a story of liberation…
- Ta Shma
R. Aviva Richman: Defining Da'at: A Jewish Perspective on Artificial Intelligence
In a time of abounding artificial intelligence, we will attempt to define what makes intelligence "non" artificial. Our jumping-off point will be the Hebrew…
- Ta Shma
R. Tali Adler on Parashat Bo: Telling God’s Story
Whose story do we tell on the Seder night?The answer, at first, seems obvious: the story we tell is our own, the story of our deliverance from slavery to…
- Ta Shma
R. Shai Held: Psalm for Tuesday
The psalms attached liturgically to each day of the week are often mumbled over quickly, without much attention to their meaning. In this series, we'll engage…
- Ta Shma
R. Tali Adler on Parashat Va'Era: Remembering Who We Are
After Pharaoh's first refusal, after the Jewish people's burden increases because of his words, Moshe can't imagine redemption.
- Ta Shma
R. Micha'el Rosenberg on MLK Day: A Mighty Stream
One of the most memorable and impactful lines of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream Speech” is his invocation of the prophet Amos (5:24)…
- Ta Shma
R. Miriam-Simma Walfish and R. Deborah Sacks Mintz: Nigun Hannah
The narrative of Hannah in Tanakh paints the picture of a yearning journey through prayer as dynamic expression - one of varied posture, volume, intensity, and…
- Ta Shma
R. Tali Adler on Parashat Vayehi: “Am I My Brother’s Keeper?”
It is easy to forget that the end of Bereishit is a surprise ending.So used to the fact that all twelve sons and their descendants are included in the Jewish…
- Ta Shma
R. Tali Adler on Parashat Vayigash: Learning to Re-Read Our Dreams
As he approaches the man that he thinks is the viceroy, entrapped in the massive lie that Yosef has arranged, Yehudah begins to tell the truth.It has been a…
- Ta Shma
R. Micha'el Rosenberg on 10 Tevet: The Road to Destruction
Asarah b’Tevet (10th Tevet) commemorates the beginning of the siege of Jerusalem in the lead-up to the destruction of the First Temple, a blockade that lasted…
- Ta Shma
R. Micha'el Rosenberg: The True Story of Hanukkah
Growing up as the only Jew in my class in Iowa, I got lots of practice telling the story of Hanukkah. The story of the oil that was only enough for one night…
- Ta Shma
R. Tali Adler on Parashat Mikeitz: Bringing Dinah Home
By the time Yosef reaches Egypt, he is one of a long list of lost children in the Abrahamic family. It’s a family that has always been made up of insiders and…
- Ta Shma
Rabbis Yitz Greenberg, Shai Held and Tali Adler: The Triumph of Life, and of Love
Over the past year, Rabbis Yitz Greenberg and Shai Held each published major works in Jewish thought, The Triumph of Life and Judaism Is About Love…
- Ta Shma
R. Tali Adler on Parashat Vayeishev: Despair Meets Hope
In order to understand why Yehudah does not want Tamar to marry Shelah, his youngest son, after his first two sons die, we need to understand who Yehudah has…
- Ta Shma
R. Micha'el Rosenberg: Righteous Anger Part 3
From the Talmud to the Rambam and into the modern period, Rabbinic tradition generally views anger negatively. Anger appears as a kind of weakness, a…
- Ta Shma
R. Tali Adler on Parashat VaYishlah: Choosing Not to Run
What was Ya’akov doing the night he was left alone on the other side of the river, the night he wrestled with an angel? According to the Rashbam, Ya’akov was…
- Ta Shma
R. Micha'el Rosenberg: Righteous Anger Part 2
From the Talmud to the Rambam and into the modern period, Rabbinic tradition generally views anger negatively. Anger appears as a kind of weakness, a…