God told Moses of His four-part plan for Israel's redemption from bondage, (which we symbolize by drinking four cups of wine at the Seder).  Moses relayed the message to the Israelites: "And Moses spoke thus to the Israelites, but they did not heed Moses out of shortness of breath and hard bondage." Join us for this bonus Pesach episode as we discuss how this verse describes not only a passing moment in early Israelite history, but our very predicament today. Emerge with a new understanding...

Join us this week for the season finale of The Book Of Memories, as we discuss the roadmap for world peace.  Stay tuned for updates in the coming weeks about exciting next steps for the podcast! 

The Torah mandates that we count Jews in half-units. It's a cliche to assert that as individual selves, we are incomplete and lacking, but this week we strip away the platitudes, and show how the appropriate absorption of the self into the whole of Israel, and the message of the Half-Shekel, are fundamental to Torah learning, the Holy Land, and the World to Come. 

We are commanded to remember the Sabbath day (implying a past Sabbath), and to safeguard the Sabbath day (implying a future Sabbath). What do these commands entail? And what about the present experience of the Sabbath? Pay close attention to this week's discussion of these questions and more, and perhaps you will pick up hints concerning secrets of the sin of the tree of knowledge, the forbidden relations, and the ultimate redemption. 

The act of building God's house reflects kindness, generosity, and wisdom, yet bloodshed is the main activity practiced within it. Why? And what does it have to do with the secrets of the creation? Tune in this week to find out. 

How can we construct a house for One who is beyond space? Why donate our treasures to One who owns the heavens and the earth? Join us this week to find out.

Many of the Torah's laws, and a large portion of traditional Torah study, concern the domain of what appears to be civil law. What explains the emphasis on what at first glance is a secular area of law, an area that appears to have parallels among the laws of other nations? Stated differently, what exactly is a divine civil law, and what is its purpose? This week we analyze this question, and in turn speculate about the relationship between Godly and human thought, the importance of escorting...

Warning: Listen to this bonus episode only if you are prepared for an unfiltered and occasionally speculative conversation about Daas Hashem. 

Is the Torah our guide to understanding God's ways, and ipso facto, the good life? Or is it something Other entirely? And if it may be the latter, why does it contain so much humanly graspable law? Join us this week as we grapple with these questions and more. 

Water and Air, Matter and Spirit. Humanity, infused with the air of life by God, barely survived its first encounter with the deluge of matter, and only by retreating to an ark. Moses, "the one who pulls out of the water", confronted the sea directly and subdued it. Join us this week to learn what this means and how we can follow in his ways. 

"He established them to endure forever, providing a law that shall not be transgressed."  Thus does Psalms 148 describes God's institution of laws of nature-in other words, His justice. Does this divine justice relate to our human imperative to pursue justice in the legal and ethical senses? And if God's justice is expressed in His unyielding natural law, how can His occasional miraculous interventions, which break that law, also be called just? Join us as we discuss these questions and more,...

What is the purpose of Israel's exile? Is it a consequence of national sin, or a necessary condition for outreach to gentiles? On the surface, these are our sages' two main, opposing approaches, but in truth, they are two steps of one process by which ruptures in Daas Hashem are exposed and then repaired. Join us this week as we explore what this means, touching on some secrets of the Torah along the way. 

God called it "My Nation". Majorities of Jews throughout multiple ages made it their home. It was the location of a temple, altars and sacrifices to Hashem.  Rav Yehudah Halevy made pilgrimage to its holy sites... Egypt. Join us this week to learn why the difference between it and the Holy Land is subtler than one might think. 

Seventy from the house of Jacob went to Egypt, the first and prototypical place of exile.  Seventy is also the number of original "languages", or nations, that inhabit the world outside of Israel. Join us this week to learn how the fate of these seventy nations is linked to the children of Israel's role in exile and the ultimate redemption, and how we can consciously participate in this process. 

Maimonides tells us in his Guide that not everyone who has a veridical dream is a prophet, perhaps having in mind Joseph the righteous. But if Joseph was indeed not a prophet, he nonetheless had a mastery of the dream realm, one that offended his brothers yet caused the highest members of Egyptian society to seek his counsel. Tune in this week to learn how this dreaming power relates to exile, why the other sons of Jacob rejected it, how it can be activated through proper eating, and more. 

To  wait or to initiate? That is the question this week, for both  womankind and for Israel. Join us to find out what it means and why it matters.

The Torah's laws and ethical directives ostensibly discourage both the valuing of physical beauty, and the occult. Yet both phenomena are prevalent in the Torah, particularly among our beautiful mother Rachel and her kingly descendants, such as Joseph, the dreamer of dreams, and King Saul, who consulted the necromancer of Ein Dor.  Join us this week for a discussion of how these phenomena relate to each other and whether and how there might be a valid place for them.

Esau greatly honored Isaac throughout his days, and yet his brother Jacob received their father Isaac's prime blessing. It is Israel alone that can actually fulfill the verse which commands "Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long on the land that the Lord your God gives to you", and yet the Talmud teaches that certain of Esau's descendants continue to outdo Israel in honoring their parents. Join us this week for a discussion of what this means and how it can be. 

We believe that the soul is eternal and that the dead will return to life. Why, then, do we fear dying and mourn the dead? And why does the Torah give weight to the phenomenon of death? There is indeed a tension here, and this week we speculate about why this is as it must be. 

The prophet Elijah, against the Heavenly Court's wishes, taught Rabbi Judah the Prince and his students the secret protocol for bringing about the final redemption. The rabbis almost succeeded, until they were thwarted at the last moment by Elijah himself.* Join us this week to find out what this secret protocol might be, why it is so hard to follow, and how it inevitably brings about the resurrection of the dead.  *https://www.sefaria.org/Bava_Metzia.85b.11?lang=bi

Our forefathers advised their wives to tell the inhabitants of lands they sojourned in that they were not their wives, but their sisters. Far from being instrumental mistruths,  these incidents are links in a great biblical and midrashic chain illuminating the Torah’s idea of love, and how subjective minds are meant to relate to the physical and the objective. Join us this week to find out more, and why and how we should try to make God’s world our sister.    Rav Shnayor's essay on this...

“My breath shall not abide in Adam forever, since he too is flesh; let the days allowed him be one hundred and twenty years." Noach and his family survived the great flood described in the beginning of Genesis. Join us this week to learn why nonetheless, the flood marked the end of humanity, and what is being done to bring it back. 

A world of perfect and absolute wisdom, coherence, and moral order would seem to be the only kind of world that a Perfect Being would create. Yet, one crucial element might be missing in such a world, one that is necessary for relating to this Perfect Being as our God.  Join us this week as we navigate this conundrum, and learn how it sheds light on the Account of the Origin. 

Is man’s free will ever (externally) impeded? No, it is absolute, says Maimonides, and yet man can lose the ability to change his sinful ways. Join us this week as we discuss this apparent paradox, addressing numerous points in the sixth chapter of the Laws of Teshuvah along the way.