The Schrift - Ancient Teachings for Modern Times

The word "slave" cannot be found in the Torah. After all, the Torah was written in Hebrew, not English. But more still, the Hebrew version of the word for slave actually can mean a lot of other things, too: worker, servant, subject, intimate. Were the Hebrews who built the pyramids really slaves or just "laborers"? Why is an English dictionary so much bigger than a Hebrew one? Did Moses speak the same Hebrew as Gal Gadot? To answer these questions and more, I spoke with a scholar of Classics and Biblical Hebrew who is himself a native speaker of Modern Hebrew, Professor Azzan Yadin-Israel.

When Richard Wagner wrote his operas it was--wait for it--actually cool to be German. Indeed, one need only listen to this music for ten seconds to figure this out. Being Jewish back then on the other was, well, not so coveted. How times have changed. For today, horn players like Bar Zemach are welcomed to blast the shofar in the best orchestras of Germany.

"Ironic" is a word we throw around in casual conversation. And yet, when we peer back the curtain, we soon see that irony has explosive cultural and philosophical meaning. And what happens when we get ironic about irony itself? That was a devastating question which even Alanis Morrissette seems not to have foreseen. Schlegel, on the other hand... Nowadays, ironic speech is so commonplace that it irks more than it phases. By contrast, in the entire Torah we get just one ironic remark. Professor Erica Weitzman disentangles irony for us and shares her fascinating theory of comic irony.

In these all-too-modern of times, we not only have fast food and instant coffee, but we also get to enjoy bite-sized philosophy. Why read Hegel or Kant or Descartes when we can, you know, get their entire philosophy summed up in a YouTube video? If this sounds snobby, it shouldn't, for no one is more guilty of this "hack" than I. Fortunately, Yady Oren, who has actually read Hegel, is here to explain Hegel's actual philosophy of history. We also hear his opinion on whether the tenth plague was a genocide and whether the Israelites had the moral right to loudly celebrate when the Egyptians drowned in the Red Sea.

What, if anything, gets lost when we translate the Torah from Biblical Hebrew into English? Despite popular belief based on the English translation of the Torah, the Pharaoh did not exactly "harden his heart." Rather, he strengthened his heart, made his heart heavy, and even, perhaps, turned his heart into a liver. Rabbi Dovid Roberts is the rabbi and spiritual leader of the Kahal Adass Jisroel Synagogue, located in the heart of Berlin. In this interview, Rabbi Roberts explains why he reads secular books, shares an enthralling theory of Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch on Pharaoh's heart, and divulges the secret to great leadership.

In his 1940 work Moses and Monotheism, Freud made the provocative claim that Moses might have been an Egyptian! Even today, and even in secular circles, few would dare to voice this theory at the Passover Seder. Yet, Chaim Noll, German-Israeli writer and DDR dissident, explains why Moshe has far more controversy surrounding him than his lineage. In fact, it was Moshe's fondness for THE DESERT which was truly scandalous, at least by ancient standards.

We all have professors and teachers who taught a course which changed our lives. Rarely, however, do we get to sit down with them years later and reminisce on the class. And even more rarely do we get to do so in podcast form. Yet, this is exactly what I do with the professor who introduced me to Kafka's novel The Trial, which has been my favorite novel ever since.

We tend to view writers like J.K. Rowling and Shakespeare as magicians, baffled and floored by their ability to create exotic and captivating new worlds on the page. Yet, the dirty secret of writers is that fiction relies on time-tested storytelling techniques which anyone can learn. When Joseph reunites with his brothers, we see these ancient (and modern) storytelling tactics on full showcase. Richard Orodenker, writer and professor at Temple University, breaks down the literary stratagems of Vayigash.

We often dream about truly "random" things. Indeed, our dream life tends to look like a painting by Salvador Dali. Joseph believed that our dreams come from God. But what is God, actually? Is it possible that God, luck, and randomness are all intertwined? In my interview with Nate Klett, he explains how neuroscience remains utterly "in the dark" as to where (random) thoughts come from. Whether they have a "cause" or not remains a question of belief, not science.

How heartwarming a symbol is the “circle of life” really? Paul Stephan, Nietzsche expert and lecturer at the University of Leipzig, explains how Nietzsche's theory of Eternal Return does not exactly mean that we should “live life to the fullest.” When I first heard this theory as a teenager, I made things far too easy on myself. And as I discussed way back in Episode 9, Season 1 of The Schrift, we need a more heroic answer for why Jacob and Joseph celebrated Passover four hundred years before the Exodus.

On episode eight, season one of The Schrift, I asked whether we might find a healthier way to handle insults than through either passive-aggressive sniping or unabashedly aggressive slashing. Nietzsche, who could spot passive-aggressive behavior from a kilometer away, has some advice for us on this matter. Keegan Kjeldsen, host of "The Nietzsche Podcast," helps us figure out what Nietzsche really would have said about Levi and Simon's decision to avenge their sister Dinah through brute force.

The word "romantic" is not always as romantic as one might think. In the Torah, there is an unquestionable "love triangle" between Jacob, Rachel, and Leah. Two years ago on The Schrift, I questioned whether Jacob's love for the infertile Rachel might be read as a cautionary tale. Yet my interviewee Meir Goldberg teaches that this love triangle is elegant--not problematic. Meir explains why the Torah wants us to get married and have children and why it is not Jacob but we who are "lovesick."

When we make a decision, we "think" we decided through our thoughts, but we can never really be sure why we behaved in a particular way. It is largely a mystery how Isaac "decided" to choose Jacob rather than Esau to inherit his legacy. Certainly, Isaac did not rely on thinking alone. Wolfgang Schröder of Achtsamkeitspraxis Berlin explains how mindfulness can enable us to "think" with our entire being.

As an actor, Tim knew how to get inside the heads of his characters and see the world through their eyes. Now an acupuncturist, he applies this same empathy and skill to treat his patients. In 1923, Martin Buber wrote ich und du. He encouraged readers to see people, nature, animals, and even God as "du"--that is, to see them as subjects rather than objects--to merge with them. Unfortunately, there is no equivalent for "du" in English, which could have been rather useful for praying to God.

Who was Abraham? As a child, I always imagined him as a poor nomad rather than as a wealthy magnate. Two years ago on the Schrift, I considered whether Lot was the quintessential "nice guy" in the derogatory sense of that term. To shed light on these matters, I interview my Torah-learning partner Jordan Ledvina, whom I value for his straight-shooting style and his readiness to incorporate Nietzsche in Torah debates.

It is a mystery what exactly God means when he tells Abraham to "Lech Lecha," He might be telling Abraham to go to his innermost self. But this only makes the question more complicated. Do we have a self? Or are we more akin to onions? In this interview, which is a sequel to "Episode 2" of The Schrift, Gita and I discuss how yoga can allow us to rediscover the multiple selves within us, even the "turtle self."

Kyra Hense is an art and dance therapist based in Berlin. Through the healing power of dance, she helps people rediscover the freedom and creativity they once felt as children. This interview, inspired by the Torah reading of Noach and "Episode 2" of the Schrift, teaches us how dance can bring Dionysus, God of Ecstasy, out of our innermost depths without succumbing to Noah's fate.

Robbie Kramer is the founder and CEO of Inner Confidence and host of the Leverage Podcast. He helps men overcome the shame they might feel at expressing themselves romantically to a woman. This interview hearkens back to "Episode 1" of the Schrift, in which I asked why Adam and Eve, immediately after biting from the forbidden fruit, felt shame at their naked bodies. In this episode, we discover how inhibiting shame can be--in romance, in the workplace, in looking in the mirror--and how difficult it can be to detect. And as always, Nietzsche occasionally appears as our jungle guide.

Stefan Willer is one of German literature's most cutting-edge professors, combining an expertise in German Romanticism with mind-bending theories on translation, knowledge of the future [Zukunftswissen], and etymology. In this interview, which picks up where "Episode 0" left off, Professor Willer and I explore what the German Romantics might have said about the untimely death of Moses, the circularity of the Torah, and the Torah's first letter.

Rome fell in 476 C.E. For nearly a thousand years, Italians walked past the Coliseum without really caring what stood before their eyes. The Italian Renaissance is what brought the ancient world into the present. Martin Buber called for a Jewish Renaissance in 1901. But for a true Renaissance to occur in Judaism, we must start reading the Torah again--and anew.

Gratitude is an art which we ought to cultivate. If we were pianists, our songs of thanksgiving would sound like "Chopsticks" when they could play like "Moonlight Sonata" instead. With complaining, however, we can rant with Chopin's finesse. King David and the Amidah prayer teach us how to be grateful with nuance. We need only invert our Faustian griping to turn our curses into prayers.

Countries are too easy. We distill an entire nation-state into a tiny rectangular box with a few colors which we call a “flag.” There are two Germanies and have always been two—Rhine Germany and Elbe Germany, West and East, latinized and Prussianized. When Hosea speaks of Lebanon, he refers to Mount Lebanon, not the Republic of Lebanon. As French vintners know, territory is not the same thing as terroir.

The price of a cold brew at Starbucks is about the same as a pound of sardines. How can this be? Karl Marx and Isaiah both lament this tragic-comedy and call on us to get our money's—or, even better, our labor's—worth.

Albert Einstein said that "compound interest is the most powerful force in the universe." Compounding is so powerful because it allows Malcolm Gladwell's concept of "tipping" to occur. Franz Kafka tipped on September 22, 1912, when he wrote his breakthrough story "The Judgment." Isaiah's prophecy that Israel would "tip," or in Hebrew, "lihafech," is playing out today right before our eyes.

The English language is ashamed of the word shame. We find an array of other words to replace it: embarrassed, shy, guilty, bashful. Yet, under all of these wordmasks lurks the feeling of shame. German, by contrast, is far more welcoming of the word shame (Scham). The prophet Isaiah shows how shame begins in childhood and should be treated at any cost. Paradoxically, it is only when we acknowledge shame that we can overcome it.

It is often said that “three is the magic number.” Might it be two? The fairy tale of The Three Little Bears and the three chances to guess Rumpelstiltskin's name should not be altered. Two, however, can be as equally enchanting as three depending on the context. Benjamin Franklin once claimed that: “Well done is twice done.” The music of Mozart and the poetry of Isaiah demonstrate the magic of twice.

The Hebrew word "Shalom" means "peace," sure, but it also relates to paying and to completing. When we pay back our debts, we are experiencing "Shalom" just as much as when we sign a peace treaty. We typically think of debt only with regard to money, yet we can be in debt in an array of areas. We can learn from German culture the peacefulness which comes from living with a "time surplus." And Isaiah shows how learning about God brings the greatest "Shalom" of all.

Isaiah swore the exiled Jews that one day it would be kings and queens who would lick the dust of their feet. We do not literally lick the dust of another's foot anymore in the twenty-first century--or do we? Malcolm Gladwell teaches us how to get out of our own way--a life tip which some German Jews who remained loyal to the fatherland tragically never heeded.

Sixth sense or phobia? Our feelings try to warn us when we are close to our triggers, even if a wall or a decade or a thin layer of gabardine provides a workable barrier. If we take Isaiah's advice to see ourselves as grasshoppers--and to move accordingly--we will feel better about landing in Germany or having a roommate who doesn't wear underpants.

Until Columbus, nobody in Europe had heard of a tomato or a potato. We think of tomato sauce as quintessential Italian cuisine, but really is it (Native) American. The more savvy one gets with language, the more quickly one can go to a supermarket and size up which foods are in their “hometown” and which are either imported or New World transplants. It might be time for me to eat more borscht and sardines.

The word "luck" does not once appear in the Torah, and yet "blessed" is all over it. By contrast, today, we see the world as a luck-based rather than blessing-based place. Capitalism has conditioned us to view ourselves as fragile beings subject to the whims of others. To become blessed, we must think ourselves blessed.

Weinberg, Steinberg, Greenbaum, and Blumfeld. Do these names evoke a law firm or a Goethe poem? It depends whom you ask. Unlike Israelis, and most nationalities, Americans often do not know the meaning of their names. To understand the story of our names is to change music into information. Discover your name's meaning ... if you dare.

I knew what Mountain Dew was before I knew what actual dew was. Cute--or disturbing? Each morning the dew simmers on the grass for a few hours. Heidegger claimed to be connected with German peasant life, but did he hear the dew's whisperings? Micah wishes us to be among those who do not miss... the dew.

"German--what an ugly language." And yet, Mozart loved to write his operas in German. Was Mozart a stupid man? Had he no understanding of beauty? The reason why German gets bashed has little to do with the language's inherent sound. If we learn foreign languages, we might realize that our silver tongues are really stainless steel.

Marie Antoinette once said "let them eat cake." But what else did she say? As children of the French Revolution, we will never know. Edmund Burke wrote that in our servitude to the queen, we enjoyed more freedom than after we chopped her head off, because we replace one form of slavery with another. Judaism treats freedom very delicately; only Moshe could meditate properly, and that's probably a good thing.

In 1936, Walter Benjamin lamented that the art of storytelling had been lost. Today, with the rise of the iPhone and Instagram, people are telling less stories than ever before (and no, Instagram stories don't count). Instead, we cry for information, for meaning, for Tacheles! The Book of Joshua tries to hook us with an opening story involving spies, concubines, and kings. If the "point" of this story is up for interpretation, that exactly is the point.

A generation after King Cyrus had let the Jews back into Israel, the Temple still had not been rebuilt. Sometimes, tasks seem so gargantuan that we do not know where to start, causing us to never start at all. When Beethoven wrote the Fifth Symphony, all he needed was four notes to get going. And to practice yoga, the hardest move is the one onto your mat.

The Torah knew long before the FDA that pregnant mothers should not drink alcohol. Fortunately, the Torah relied on intuition, rather than scientific studies, to impart this medical advice. Kant said that he had to deny knowledge in order to make room for faith. This statement is increasingly applicable to the mysterious world of nutrition. We might not "know" that butter is healthier than margarine, but nevertheless, we still "know."

Adults often need parents just as much as children do. Therefore, adults must learn to be their own parents by cultivating the yin and yang of self-compassion. This switch is akin to the reversal from scripture to Life described by Walter Benjamin in his 1934 essay on Franz Kafka. In his prophecy, Hosea recognized that Israel must be her own mother in the temporary absence of a father.

Jack cures his deadening consumerism by trading weekly punches at Fight Club. Dr. Faust escapes despair by discovering the painful joy of dating. In this sense, they tore down the Tower of Babel within themselves. No longer Jeremiahian tamarisk trees, they let themselves be saved by God without uttering a single prayer. In short, they let go thinking in a manner far more Taoist than Buddhist.

That which has been around, tends to stay around. This truth of life is what allows Apple to continue to satisfy investors even if the heyday of the iPhone is long past. In 1886, Nietzsche knew that it was wiser to "invest" in the Jews than in Germany because the Jews counted their age in millennia whereas Germany counted its in decades. Jeremiah proves a wise investor when he purchases land in Jerusalem even as the Babylonian Empire is about to sack the city.

Tel Aviv fashion is cool. It also keeps you cool. The star of the Torah is not Abraham, Moshe, or even God, but rather, the Law. We sometimes forget how nice it is to have Law. Walter Benjamin would agree that the Law of the Torah was (partially) designed to set us off from the primitive world. Although Tel Aviv is often considered the new Babylon, its no-sweat fashion is downright priestly.

The answer is not always "yes we can." Sometimes, it's "no, we can't." But we should rarely answer "no" automatically. Take at least one breath before saying "no" to an idea. When Theodor Herzl suggested the Jews of Europe could handle having their own country, many people answered "No" without a second thought.

Sponges hang out on the ocean floor. All they do is absorb, absorb, unthinkingly and unquestionably absorb the water flowing in and out of their porous bodies. We, as humans, are much more like sponges than we realize. That which we surround ourselves with slowly becomes who we are. In one of the ultimate historical backfires, the German-Jews assimilated so much that they became, well, German.

Sartre once wrote that "we are condemned to be free." No matter in what situation we find ourselves, we always have choices. Ironically, sometimes the more imprisoned we become, the more we notice our freedom. But this is a dark freedom, which makes Kafka's Josef K. abnegate it. The four lepers outside the city wall in the Book of Kings show how even in the worst of times there are always options. Riding coach on an airplane offers a parallel example.

You need Judaism more than Judaism needs you. It is here to help. But the Torah is not just an astute self-help book. It has what Shakespeare, Dante, Goethe, the Grimm fairy tales--for all their brilliance--lack: divinity. When you suffer from leprosy, as did King Naaman, you don't bathe in the rivers of Damascus, you bathe in the Jordan. And you don't read Homer, rather the Tehilim.

Do you feel different, misunderstood, alienated? You are not alone. As the "Holden Caulfield Paradox" shows, the people you'd least expect also feel this way. When Darwin showed that nature selects our genes, many German and English philosophers concluded that certain races are superior to others. In fact, Darwin's theory should have proved to us that we are all uncannily similar; all humans share 99.9% of the same DNA, and we even have 60% of the same DNA as strawberries. King David encourages us to "double-down" on our odd behavior and controversial opinions. Ironically, when we try to avoid being judged, we bring judgment upon ourselves, and when we brashly show the world who we are, nobody judges us.

It seems as though for some Jews today, there is often a strange refusal to take Judaism seriously. This trend can be witnessed in Adam Sandler's "Hanukkah Song" and the phrase "Jew York." Yet, the more we read original sources of Judaism (i.e. the Torah), the more we see this humorizing of Judaism for what it really is: a grasping in the dark for meaning when one is uninformed of one's heritage. We need to go back to the sources instead of allowing information to be mediated to us.

Sometimes, people behave in ways so foolish, so inexplicable, that we can only cry to the heavens in exasperation. Isaiah was particularly baffled that someone could pray to a "god" made of wood. Metta meditation teaches that we should realize that everyone is just trying to be happy, even if it's in a warped and twisted way. We might also consider telling ourselves that people are drunk. If the beer-addicted Martin Luther is any indication, then we might be justified in such an assumption.

If I could sum up NIetzsche's entire philosophy in one phrase, it would be: do the opposite. Don't try to appear strong, or moral, or compassionate, because it will just make you seem the opposite. Instead, BE strong and moral in your core and your actions will naturally overflow from this state. This is why all that was found in the Ark of the Covenant was "nothing but the two tablets of stone." The tablets needed no decoration to "prove" their greatness, and thereby appeared all the more impressive. For the same reason, Steve Jobs could dress like your underpaid piano teacher and let everyone know he was actually a plutocrat.

English has no word for “semi-famous.” You're either famous, or a nobody. Yet millions of people fill this gap. To be kind of famous can be just as gratifying as being legit famous. Martin Luther used the printing press to become one of the first European celebrities. But Hiram, the brass worker of Solomon's temple, felt like just as much a superstar..