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 VaYeitzei: Rachel's Sacrifice
The stories we tell about sacrifice tell us about who and what we believe is valuable and noble. In telling us about the thing that is sacrificed, these…
- Ta Shma
R. Micha'el Rosenberg: Righteous Anger Part 1
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 Toldot: Rivkah, The Ambivalent Matriarch
We all know the story we are supposed to tell about our matriarchs and their journeys to motherhood.The story structure is simple, even if the journey is not…
- Ta Shma
R. Micha'el Rosenberg: Is Thanksgiving a Jewish Holiday?
What does it mean to celebrate Thanksgiving as a Jew? In some sense, the question is a cipher for a larger one: What does it mean to take our identities as…
- Ta Shma
R. Tali Adler on Parashat Hayyei Sarah: Unfulfilled Promises
At the end of this week’s parashah, Avraham—who has been promised time and time again ownership over all the land of Canaan—owns nothing but a grave.When we…
- Ta Shma
R. Shai Held: Psalm for Monday
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 Vayera: The God of Hagar
There is a script for mothers of sick children. There are imperatives: do everything. Seek a second opinion, and a third, and a fourth. Learn to sleep sitting…
- Ta Shma
R. Shai Held: Psalm for Sunday
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 Lekh Lekha: The Heir Who Might Have Been
It’s possible that if things had been different, if things had gone as planned, that Yishmael, Avraham’s half-Egyptian son of a slave, might have been our…
- Ta Shma
R. Ethan Tucker: From Parchment to Practice
Last week Hadar celebrated the arrival of a newly commissioned and completed Sefer Torah, which was generously donated by the Schiller family in memory of…
- Ta Shma
R. Tali Adler on Parashat Noah: Surviving the Flood
We ask the wrong questions about the story of the Flood.We ask how God could do such a thing. We ask how a God who is good could destroy a world. We ask how a…
- Ta Shma
Why Rain Comes From Above: A Conversation with Dr. Devora Steinmetz and Rabbanit Leah Sarna
Dr. Devora Steinmetz joins Rabbanit Leah Sarna in conversation around the release of Dr. Steinmetz’s book Why Rain Comes From Above: Explorations in Religious…
- Ta Shma
R. Tali Adler on Parashat Bereishit: Home, Exile, and How to Wander Together
Human beings don’t have to be told that we are living outside of paradise. It’s not just the fact that the world is not perfect: it’s that deep inside many of…
- Ta Shma
R. Micha'el Rosenberg on Simhat Torah: Joy and Trembling
We tend to think of Shemini Atzeret and Simhat Torah, which conclude the somber and at times terrifying High Holiday season, as a time of tremendous joy. This…
- Ta Shma
R. David Kasher on Parashat VeZot HaBerakhah: A Shared Inheritance
The first verse in the Torah I ever learned by heart comes from its final parashah. When my brother and I would go visit our father in New York for the summer…
- Ta Shma
R. Shai Held: The God of the Hebrew Bible is a God of Love
It is one of the last acceptable prejudices in American culture: the God of the "Old Testament" is a God of vengeance, focused on strict justice rather than…
- Ta Shma
R. Avi Strausberg: Midrashim of Destruction
In its time, the destruction of the Temple, habayit (the house), brought with it tremendous violence, loss and suffering. In this session, we'll turn to new…
- Ta Shma
R. David Kasher on Parashat Ha'azinu: The Poetry of Torah, Part 2
Last week, we discussed the significance of the poem that God tells Moshe to write down in Parashat VaYelekh, "Now, write for yourselves this poem and teach it…
- Ta Shma
R. David Kasher on Parashat Nitzavim-Vayelekh: The Poetry of Torah, Part 1
In Parashat Nitzavim Moshe’s grand oratory comes to a close, and in Parashat VaYelekh he turns to the process of writing the Torah down. The parashah records…
- Ta Shma
R. Shai Held: Teshuvah and Transformation Part 2
To prepare ourselves for the approaching Days of Awe, we'll engage in two sets of reflections. In this second part, we'll consider some of the very different…
- Ta Shma
R. David Kasher on Parashat Ki Tavo: Wellsprings of Torah
In Parashat Ki Tavo, Moshe and the elders of Israel command the people, on the day they arrive into Land, to set up twelve large stones, and “to write on them…
- Ta Shma
R. Shai Held: Teshuvah and Transformation Part 1
To prepare ourselves for the approaching Days of Awe, we'll engage in two sets of reflections. In this first part, we'll explore some key passages on teshuvah…
- Ta Shma
R. David Kasher on Parashat Ki Teitzei: A Life in Pieces
The rules of inheritance are just another law in Deuteronomy’s massive catalog of laws, but something in the way it’s written sounds like a fragment from some…
- Ta Shma
R. Aviva Richman: The Power and Limits of Radical Hesed
What does it mean to think of hesed as the bedrock of Jewish practice? Rav Aviva explores this question through an essay by Rav Yitzhak Hutner, the author of…
- Ta Shma
R. Avi Strausberg on Rosh Chodesh Elul: What Does Torah Offer Us This Year?
Back in Elul of 2023, when I began this year of writing Divrei Torah for the holidays, we didn’t know what devastation lay ahead. In retrospect, each of the…
- Ta Shma
R. David Kasher on Parashat Eikev: The Hand of God
Of all the anthropomorphic images used to describe God in the Torah, one of the most richly developed is “the hand of God.” The image appears for the first…
- Ta Shma
R. Elie Kaunfer: Praying Against Our Enemies in the Aleinu
In this session, we will look at one of the most controversial - and censored - prayers in our tradition: Aleinu. How are we meant to understand the lines in…
- Ta Shma
R. David Kasher on Parashat Va'Etchanan: Seeking Acceptance
The opening of Parashat Va’Ethanan can serve both as a warning to us all, not to seek more power or privilege than is our due—but also as a reminder to honor…
- Ta Shma
R. Avi Strausberg on Tisha B'Av: “Let it Not Totter and Fall”
Beresheit Rabbah (3:7) teaches that God created and destroyed many worlds before finally allowing this world, our world, to stand. This midrash is teaching us…
- Ta Shma
R. David Kasher on Parashat Devarim: Moshe the Deuteronomist
As we head into the Book of Deuteronomy, we will quickly notice that something has changed. The style of narration is different than we have seen in the Torah…
- Ta Shma
R. Micha'el Rosenberg: On the Day the Messiah Was Born
The Talmud Yerushalmi tells a distressing and perplexing tale about a cowherd who goes off in search of the newborn baby messiah on the day the Temple was…
- Ta Shma
R. David Kasher on Parashat Mattot-Mas'ei: Frothing With Rage
Moshe has an anger problem. He is usually able to keep it under control. By nature, he is a quiet man, a brooder. He carries out his duties faithfully—as both…
- Ta Shma
R. Avital Hochstein: Do Moshe's Hands Make War?
Since October 7, the word "Amalek" has often been invoked in regard to the Israel-Hames War. Is that an appropriate analogy? By looking at ancient responses to…
- Ta Shma
R. David Kasher on Parashat Pinhas: How to Read a Census
For my mother’s 75th birthday, we surprised her by taking her to visit her mother’s childhood home. I knew my grandmother had grown up in Los Angeles, but I…
- Ta Shma
R. Avi Strausberg on the 17th of Tammuz: In the Depths of Sorrow
Tomorrow, we arrive at the second of the four annual fasts commemorating the destruction of the Temple. According to the Mishnah (Ta’anit 4:6), 17 Tammuz marks…
- Ta Shma
R. David Kasher on Parashat Balak: The View From Above
Balak, King of Moab, has been made uneasy by Israel’s recent string of victories over enemy nations, and has begun to worry that he will be the next to fall…
- Ta Shma
R. Ethan Tucker: The Multivocality of Halakhah
Halakhic works are often a dizzying compendium of multiple perspectives on a given issue, often making it difficult to determine how to behave in a given…
- Ta Shma
R. David Kasher on Parashat Hukkat: Language Falling on Language
There is probably no more playful instance of wordplay in all the Torah than the nehash nehoshet, the copper snake described in Parashat Hukkat. With its…
- Ta Shma
R. Dena Weiss: Serving God From Yuck to Yum
Rav Dena explores a Hassidic teaching from the Me'or Einayim which discusses a dimension of physicality that we rarely pay attention to: given that taste is…
- Ta Shma
R. David Kasher on Parashat Korah: Hevel’s Revenge
From the very beginning of Parashat Korah, the Torah places unusually strong emphasis on his lineage. He is introduced not just with the standard patronym, but…
- Ta Shma
R. David Kasher: Midrashic Moves
The genre of midrash has a reputation for taking creative license. In midrash, we come across the wildest stories our Rabbis ever told, and it sometimes feels…
- Ta Shma
R. David Kasher on Parashat Shelah: Uncovering the Spies
The big story in Parashat Shelah is the story of the spies. The people are nearing the Land of Canaan, and Moshe sends ahead men, one from each tribe, to cross…
- Ta Shma
R. Dena Weiss: The Torah is in the Details
Traditionally, the fabric of Jewish observance is composed of 613 mitzvot and many many more granular instructions. To some of us, these small details are a…
- Ta Shma
R. David Kasher on Parashat BeHa’alotkha: Prophecy—A Family Business
Moshe’s unique status as the greatest prophet of Israel is challenged twice in this week’s parashah—but in neither case does Moshe himself seem to care.
- Ta Shma
R. Shai Held: Love, Compassion, and the Future of Jewish Life
What is Judaism ultimately about? What vision of the good life does it offer us, and why might that vision be especially crucial during these dark times? This…
- Ta Shma
R. David Kasher on Parashat Naso: Out of the Camp
Parashat Naso is thematically structured in the form of two “exterior” chapters and two “interior” chapters. A careful study of this design can provide insight…
- Ta Shma
R. Avi Strausberg on Shavuot: Forgetting the Torah
While I love learning Torah, I have a very poor memory for it. More often than not, when I re-encounter a piece of Torah that I have surely learned before…
- Ta Shma
R. David Kasher on Parashat Bemidbar: Naked as the Desert
The five books of the Torah—like the 54 parshiyyot—are by tradition each named after their first significant word or phrase. In the case of the fourth book…
- Ta Shma
R. Avi Strausberg on Pride Month 2024: Take This With You
I am blessed to have three kids, aged 9, 6, and 2—this means a lot of first days of daycare and school. These first days are always exciting for us and for…
- Ta Shma
R. David Kasher on Parashat BeHukkotai : The Purloined Letter
One of Rashi’s comments in this week’s parashah highlights the rabbinic tradition of interpreting a feature of Hebrew script known as “אותיות חסירות ויתרות”…
- Ta Shma
R. Avi Strausberg on Lag Ba'Omer: From Wave to Wave to Wave
When my dad died in my early 20s, I remember being wowed by the ways in which grief came in waves. One minute, I was crying and couldn’t imagine ever moving…
- Ta Shma
R. David Kasher on Parashat BeHar: The Fragrance of Freedom
One of the hallmark Rabbinic interpretive techniques is the identification of parallel wording in two different sections of the Torah. In legal interpretation…
- Ta Shma
R. Avi Strausberg on Pesah Sheini: Demanding a Seat at the Table
I am lucky to live a life with no food sensitivities. I can eat what I want and I’m happy to be an “easy guest,” quick to assure hosts that I have no special…
- Ta Shma
R. David Kasher on Parashat Emor: Recounting the Omer
Every year, by good calendrical fortune, we read in Parashat Emor the commandment of Sefirat ha-Omer, the “Counting of the Omer,” during the period in which we…
- Ta Shma
R. Avi Strausberg on Yom HaZikaron/Yom Ha'Atzma’ut: At a Distance
I have always found it difficult to find an observance of Yom HaZikaron and Yom Ha’Atzma’ut that feels meaningful and authentic as a Jew living in the…
- Ta Shma
R. David Kasher on Parashat Kedoshim: Codes in Conversation
The style and content of Parashat Kedoshim remind us immediately of an earlier reading: Parashat Mishpatim—back in the Book of Exodus, just after the…
- Ta Shma
R. Avi Strausberg on Yom HaShoah: Power and Powerlessness
For many of us, the past six months have been an education in powerlessness. From where I sit in America, I felt powerless hearing about the brutality and…
- Ta Shma
R. David Kasher on Parashat Aharei Mot: The Goat Man
With the mishkan operational and the priesthood now in place, Parashat Aharei Mot begins with a description of the service that will be the pinnacle of that…
- Ta Shma
R. David Kasher on Parashat Metzora: Like a Leper Messiah
We Jews, who have been perennial outcasts, ought to read the Torah’s account of the leper with particular care.“Leper,” we should note from the outset, is not…
- Ta Shma
Dr. Jeremy Tabick: Why Are There Four Cups at the Seder?
Ever wondered why we have to drink four cups of wine at our Seders? This class explores the history and the symbolism of this idea and how it transforms from…