Tikvah Live

In the final episode of this podcast, Dr. Polisar revisits one of the two central questions that were posed in the opening episode: How did the Jewish people succeed in creating a country that, against all odds, developed an internal character marked by all of the following? A) Kibbutz Galuyot, the ingathering of the exiles on an unimaginable scale; B) a vital role as a national state acting to advance the interests of the Jewish people; C) a robust and stable democracy; D) an economic powerhouse that is widely seen as the “Start-Up Nation.” Covering the period from 1979 to the present, this episode examines the key decisions and watershed moments that led Israel to be miraculously successful in each of these areas. Supplemental Materials:  "Israel's Russian Wave, Thirty Years Later" by Matti Friedman. 

Since the Egyptian-Israeli peace agreement of 1979, there have been two geostrategic earthquakes with long-term significance for the Middle East: the Iranian Revolution of 1979 and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Against the background of these developments, Israel has sought to attain security and peace through consistent efforts in four areas: acting decisively to prevent those countries committed to its destruction from developing weapons of mass destruction; seeking an accommodation with the Palestinian national movement on the basis of partitioning the area included in Mandatory Palestine; pursuing peace agreements with the four states on its borders; and working to bring about normalization and peaceful relations with all the countries in the Middle East. In this episode, Dr. Polisar analyzes the strategic reality in which Israel has functioned during the last four decades and its successes and failures in each of these four areas.

When Anwar Sadat succeeded Gamal Abdel Nasser as president of Egypt in 1970, few observers expected him to take bold initiatives. Yet in 1973 he launched the Yom Kippur War and in its initial days, together with Syria, dealt Israel substantial losses before the IDF recovered and won an extraordinary victory. Israel's initial failures in that war undercut the long-dominant Labor Party and helped Likud's Menachem Begin get elected prime minister in 1977, marking the first transition of power in the Jewish State. Months after Begin came to power, he hosted Sadat in Jerusalem for a dramatic visit that resulted a year later in the Camp David Accords, Israel's first peace agreement with an Arab state. This episode covers these dramatic events and considers their implications for Israel in the subsequent four decades.

The Six-Day War brought about enormous changes not only for Israel, but for the Middle East as a whole. The bulk of this episode is devoted to examining the most important transformations that occurred in the years immediately following the war—within Israel, in the Jewish State's relations with its Arab neighbors, and in its growing ties with the United States. Dr. Polisar also discusses a little-known conflict, the War of Attrition from 1969-1970, whose strategic impact was enormous. Finally, he considers how Israel's decisive role in a clash between Syria and Jordan in September 1970 gave birth to the U.S.-Israel alliance.

In parallel with its efforts to deal with a host of domestic challenges, Israel was compelled from 1948 through 1967 to act decisively to defend itself against its Arab neighbors and lay the basis for longer-term security. This episode opens with the strategic changes that drove the Arab countries, led by Egypt's Gamal Abdel Nasser, to escalate their conflict with the Jewish state between 1948 and 1956. Dr. Polisar then examines the Sinai War of October 1956, in which Israel joined with France and Britain in defeating Egypt, and its surprising diplomatic consequences. The final section focuses on the causes and course of Israel's spectacular victory in the Six-Day War of June 1967, in which it captured the Golan Heights from Syria, the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza Strip from Egypt, and Judea, Samaria, and Jerusalem from Jordan. Supplemental Materials:  "Ike vs. Obama in the Middle East" by Michael Doran. 

Even after its against-all-odds victory in the War of Independence, the State of Israel's future was far from assured. It faced the challenge of absorbing massive waves of largely impoverished immigrants, establishing itself as the national state of the Jewish people, dealing with the difficulties caused by Palestinian Arab refugees who fled Israel during the War of Independence, and creating the institutions and traditions needed for effective democratic governance. Dr. Polisar in this episode describes how Israel—led by David Ben-Gurion—overcame these challenges in its initial half-decade and laid the foundations for a thriving society and state.

Shortly after the General Assembly voted on November 29, 1947, to establish Jewish and Arab states in Palestine, Chaim Weizmann declared that states are not given to peoples on a silver platter—and that the Jews would have to fight to establish theirs. Indeed, the Yishuv, backed by the Zionist movement, fought a War of Independence beginning the day after the UN decision, when the Arabs of Palestine responded with anger and violence. The war did not end until early 1949. In this episode, Dr. Polisar breaks down the two phases of the conflict—the “civil war” pitting the Arabs of Palestine against the Yishuv from November 1947 to May 1948; and the war against the five Arab countries that invaded Palestine in May 1948 with the aim of preventing the birth of the Jewish state. In addition to examining the causes and consequences of Israel's victory, Dr. Polisar also covers the Isrel's Declaration of Independence, read aloud by David Ben-Gurion on May 14, 1948 just hours before the British Mandate formally ended. Supplemental Materials:  A series of essays by Martin Kramer on Israel's Declaration of Independence.  "Podcast: Neil Rogachevsky and Dov Zigler on the Political Philosophy of Israel's Declaration of Independence." The full text of Israel's Declaration of Independence in English. 

World War Two, fought from 1939 to 1945, brought about a changed geopolitical reality in the world as a whole and in Palestine, which radically changed the interests of the British, the Zionist movement and the Yishuv, and the Arabs of Palestine. As a result of these factors, coupled with decisions made by the leadership of each of these three actors, the British decided to hand over the Palestine Mandate to the newly formed United Nations. Despite the forces working within the UN to prevent the establishment of a Jewish state, three sets of decision-makers—Stalin in the Soviet Union, the members of the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine, and President Harry Truman of the United States—came out in favor of partitioning Palestine and creating a Jewish state in just over half its territory, and they paved the way for the UN Partition Resolution of November 1947. In this episode, Dr. Polisar analyzes the changes brought about by World War Two and the decisions made by the key actors within Palestine and outside of it that, collectively, made it possible for the UN to carry out a policy that revived the prospects for establishing a Jewish state only eight years after the British had seemed to dash those hopes permanently. Supplemental Materials:  "Who Saved Israel in 1947?" by Martin Kramer. 

In response to growing Jewish immigration, land purchases, and economic expansion, the Arabs of Palestine engaged in mounting violence in 1920-21, 1929, and 1936-1939. In each case, Great Britain responded by retreating from its promise to facilitate a Jewish national home. In the first two cases, Zionist counter-pressure, led by Chaim Weizmann, succeeded in getting Britain to return to its commitments, but in 1939 Britain, seeking to appease the Arabs on the eve of World War Two, issued a White Paper effectively reneging on the Balfour Declaration. The Yishuv, the Jewish community of Palestine, buttressed by waves of immigration driven by escalating anti-Semitism in Europe, used these two decades of British rule to establish the foundations of a Jewish state. This episode describes the escalating Arab violence, the evolution of British appeasement, and the efforts of the Jews to reverse the British retreat and to build economic, social, and political institutions that could serve as the nucleus for their state. Supplemental Materials:  "The Mufti of Jerusalem's Legacy" by Sean Durns.  "From Africa to China, How Israel Helps Quench the Developing World's Thirst" by Seth Siegel. 

Following Herzl's untimely death in 1904, efforts to settle the Land of Israel were accelerated, led by young idealists who played key roles in laying the foundations for a state that could serve as a light unto the nations. In parallel, Herzl's disciples and opponents alike, led by Chaim Weizmann, continued his path of diplomacy, culminating in the Balfour Declaration of 1917, in which Great Britain pledged that after conquering Palestine it would endeavor to facilitate in it the creation of a Jewish national home. This episode analyzes how these parallel tracks led in a decade and a half to the creation of a Jewish community in Israel that could serve as the nucleus for a future state. Supplemental Materials:  "The Self-Actualizing Zionism of A.D. Gordon" by Hillel Halkin.  "The Forgotten Truth about the Balfour Declaration" by Martin Kramer. 

Though crucial elements of a nationalist revival were in place before Theodor Herzl decided in 1895 to devote his life to creating a Jewish state, there is little doubt that without this singular figure such a state would not have been established. In this episode, Dr. Polisar focuses on how Herzl founded the Zionist movement; he served simultaneously as the man of ideas who developed the vision and plans for a Jewish state, as the institution-builder who created an international movement capable of acting effectively during and after his lifetime, and as the chief diplomat who paved the way for the decision of the world's leading powers, a decade and a half after his death, to establish a Jewish home in Palestine. Supplemental Materials: "The Mystery of Theodor Herzl" by Rick Richman.  "Theodor Herzl: The Birth of Political Zionism"—an online course taught by Daniel Polisar. 

Not long after the Napoleon-inspired Sanhedrin had declared the end of Jewish nationalism, small but growing numbers of Jews around the world embarked on three separate efforts that laid the foundation for creating a modern state in the ancient homeland: reviving Hebrew as a language for addressing contemporary issues and for daily living; developing the case for the idea of re-establishing a Jewish state in the land of Israel; and bringing about the settling of the land by Jewish pioneers. This episode describes these activities and the figures who led them from the early 19th century until the middle of its final decade. Supplemental Materials: "How America's Idealism Drained Its Jews of Their Resilience" by Daniel Gordis.  "How a Founding Socialist Inspired Karl Marx, and Then Went on to Herald the State of Israel" by Asael Abelman. 

In 1807, Napoleon Bonaparte brought about the convening of a Sanhedrin—the supreme decision-making body of the Jewish people—which declared that the Jews possessed a shared religion but were no longer a nation with political aspirations. Coming after nearly two millennia of Exile, this proclamation seemed to signal the end of the age-old dream of re-establishing a Jewish state. Yet a century and a half later Israel was established as the national state of the Jewish people and today it is a robust democracy, an economic success story, a regional powerhouse, and a leading actor on the world stage. In the first episode, Dr. Polisar lays out the main puzzle this podcast will address: How did the Jews overcome seemingly impossible odds to establish a state whose accomplishments are routinely described as miraculous by even the most secular of people? Supplemental Materials:  "What 'Bonaparte Visiting the Plague-Stricken in Jaffa' Teaches About Our Own Plague-Stricken Time" by Martin Kramer.

Before Adam Smith wrote The Wealth of Nations and made his name as an economist, he wrote The Theory of Moral Sentiments, a work of moral philosophy. For Smith, these two subjects informed each other in crucial ways. Economics was not always a siloed discipline, as we often see it today. In this week's episode, Ari discusses moral philosophy and economics with James Otteson, in particular the interdisciplinary nature of these subjects. Is capitalism a moral system? How much should we take morality into consideration when making economic decisions? James R. Otteson, the John T. Ryan Jr. Professor of Business Ethics in the Mendoza College of Business at the University of Notre Dame. Learn more about the course: https://www.dropbox.com/s/cv1j9ww7iog4xzu/Ethics%20and%20Economics%20%28Otteson%29%20-%20Reader.pdf?dl=0

1967 was a decisive—perhaps the decisive—year in Israel’s history. The results of the Six Day War reunited the state of Israel with the land of Israel, returned Jerusalem to Jewish sovereignty for the first time in two millennia, dealt a decisive defeat to the rejectionist pan-Arab world, spawned the U.S.-Israel alliance, ultimately paved the path for peace with two of Israel’s neighbors, and gripped the world. But was it decisive? What exactly did it decide? 1967 issues form the core difference—not the role of the state, nor the economy—between right and left in Israel. After more than a half-century, Israelis, Americans, and many others continue to see Israel through the lens of 1967. In this episode, Ari discusses these questions with Gabriel Scheinmann. They trace the origins of current issues to their proper roots so as to better understand the challenges and choices facing Israel's leaders and people. Perhaps 1967 wasn't nearly as decisive as we all believe. Dr. Gabriel Scheinmann is the director of the Alexander Hamilton Society, an independent, non-partisan, not-for-profit membership organization dedicated to promoting constructive debate on contemporary issues in foreign, economic, and national security policy. Learn more about the course here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/r7mhfypv71pt9yj/The%20Legacy%20of%201967.pdf?dl=0

How might religious Jews best influence the broader world by propagating the set of ideas that constitutes Judaism as well as setting an example through their commitment to a religious life? Which elements of traditional Judaism can be appreciated from a secular or Christian point of view? Which resist translation? What happens when Jewish and non-Jewish ideas or practices collide irreconcilably? In this episode, Ari addresses these questions with Sarah Rindner. They examine works by authors like S.Y. Agnon, Mendele Mochel Sforim, Cynthia Ozick. What does it mean to write about the Jewish world in Western society? Sarah Rindner is a writer and educator. She is a regular contributor to the Jewish Review of Books and Mosaic Magazine. Learn more about the course: https://www.dropbox.com/s/27kcu6j3qe1x7sj/Orthodoxy%20and%20Society.pdf?dl=0

Winston Churchill is known for saving the West from Hitler, yet his earlier years as a politician were more complicated. He was  relatively unpopular during WWI, then became a lone voice against Hitler in the 1930s. During this period of political exile, Churchill devoted the bulk of his energy towards writing Marlborough: His Life and Times, a biography of his illustrious ancestor, John Churchill Marlborough.  In this episode, Ari discusses with Aaron MacLean how Churchill's writings informed his later political decisions. Marlborough easily could have been the work of an irrelevant ex-cabinet official was, in fact, a final act of contemplative preparation before Churchill’s own heroic phase. How did this investigation of the dilemmas of statesmanship inform Churchill’s own deeds and speeches during WWII? How did the world of the 17th and 18th centuries, driven by questions of dynastic succession and the European balance of power, speak to (or contrast with) the total war of ideologies and nations in which Churchill would wage his struggle? Aaron MacLean serves as legislative director and foreign policy advisor to Senator Tom Cotton. 

What does it mean to be a Zionist? Given the wide range of figures in the movement throughout history, it's difficult to agree on a single definition. Jews dreamt of Zion for thousands of years, and in the 19th century they began to move from utopianism to realism, from dreams to politics. Some leaders were pragmatic in their thinking, such as Eliezer Ben Yehuda, while others were far more idealist, such as Theodor Herzl. How did these different visions come together to form a state? In this episode, Ari discusses this range of perspectives with Rachel Fish. What was Zionism, and what should it be in our own times? Dr. Rachel Fish is founding Executive Director of the Foundation to Combat Anti-Semitism. Fish was most recently Senior Advisor and Resident Scholar of Jewish/Israel Philanthropy at the Paul E. Singer Foundation in New York City.

How has Jewish tradition view sexuality, love, and the family? These topics are particularly relevant today and secular society's views on it are constantly evolving. How has the modern Jewish community's interactions with surrounding cultures and religions affected our perspectives on sexuality and love? In this episode, Ari speaks with Miriam Krupka on how the Tanakh views these subjects as well as modern thinkers, ranging from Eliezer Berkovits to Joseph Soloveitchik to Leon Kass, and secular figures such as C.S. Lewis. Miriam Krupka serves as the Dean of Faculty at the Ramaz Upper School in Manhattan, where she teaches Tanakh and Jewish philosophy. Learn more about this course: https://www.dropbox.com/s/e7eabclz3o5gvcf/Love%20and%20Intimacy%20in%20Jewish%20Thought%20-%20Reader.pdf?dl=0 Check out our offerings at tikvahfund.org/hs

Under a written Constitution, we are governed by the rule of law, not of men—but this is easier said than done. In this conversation, Ari discusses with Adam White the role of the Supreme Court and determining constitutionality. Americans rely on the Supreme Court to review laws passed by Congress and state legislatures; most Americans would agree with Chief Justice John Marshall’s famous statement, two centuries ago, that it “is emphatically the province and duty” of the Court “to say what the law is.” Yet there is danger in giving judges too much power over our democratic republic, and thus most Americans would also agree with Abraham Lincoln’s observation, in his first inaugural address, that if national policy on “vital questions affecting the whole people is to be irrevocably fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court,” then “the people will have ceased to be their own rulers, having to that extent practically resigned their Government into the hands of that eminent tribunal.” How do American statesmen, judges, and scholars define the "rule of law" in American democracy? Adam White is a research fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution and an assistant professor of law at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School, where he also directs the law school’s C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State. Learn more about the course here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/zp67k0be9ik7jx7/What%20is%20the%20Rule%20of%20Law%20-%20Reader.pdf?dl=0

Check out our offerings at tikvahfund.org/hs What does it mean to study the Jewish tradition? How do we connect to it, both personally and as a people? How do we reconcile an ancient religion with modernity? In this episode, Ari discusses these questions, and more, with Rabbi David Wolpe. They examine key texts and ideas in the Jewish tradition and how we can connect to them today. Rabbi David Wolpe is the Max Webb Senior Rabbi at Sinai Temple in Los Angeles, CA. Learn more about his course on Jewish ideas here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/eba6ilnuqf24dvi/Jewish%20Ideas%20-%20Reader.pdf?dl=0

Check out our high school offerings at www.tikvahfund.org/hs How has the US-Israel relationship evolved over time? Ari discusses this subject with Sharon Goldman, examining how these two counties evolved from a relationship of contested benevolent support to one of strong, strategic partnership. They'll also debate the effectiveness of pro-Israel advocacy and lobbying, and the limits of these efforts. Dr. Sharon Goldman is Vice President of Global Resources at Bar-Ilan University in Israel. Read more at https://www.dropbox.com/s/vtvkmunp0tnluqm/Policy%20and%20Politics%20in%20US-Israel%20Relations%20-%20Reader.pdf?dl=0

Check out our offerings at tikvahfund.org/hs In each era, Jews view Torah through different lenses based on the relevant cultural factors of the times. In our cultural moment, mental health and psychology have rose to prominence as societal priorities. In this episode of Tikvah Live, Ari speaks with Yakov Danishefsky about popular clinical therapeutic modalities in relation to Jewish sources. By surveying these two genres together, questions arise such as: How can Jewish sources lend further insight into methods of therapy, and how can contemporary therapeutic modalities reframe and give new meaning to various Jewish ideas, sources, and practices? Rabbi Yakov Danishefsky is a clinical therapist and teacher at Ida Crown Jewish Academy.

We are accustomed to thinking about the achievements of modern technology in terms of extremes: the utopian wonders that will come from our ever-increasing power over nature, and the fear that we will misuse this power in terrible ways. The fear, at any rate, finds its classic expression in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. In contrast, Rabbi Yudel Rozenberg’s 1909 novel The Golem and the Wondrous Deeds of the Maharal of Prague paints a nuanced, non-utopian picture of the circumstances under which the creation of an artificial human-like being does not have tragic consequences. In Ari's conversation with Charles T. Rubin, they discuss the circumstances under which human artifice is more, rather than less, likely to be deployed for the good. Charles T. Rubin teaches political philosophy at Duquesne University, Pittsburgh. Learn more about his course here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/rt4jg1z05i1k7mz/The%20Golem%20and%20the%20Limits%20of%20Artifice%20-%20Reader.pdf?dl=0

Check out our high school offerings at www.tikvahfund.org/hs Tyranny as a potential danger of political life was recognized from the beginning of the Western tradition, in the Bible as well as the classical political philosophy of Plato, Xenophon, and Aristotle. What is the nature of a tyrannical regime and a tyrannical soul? What sorts of strategic responses are available to those confronted with a tyrant’s power? Ari and Ronna Burger address such questions through their discussion of the Book of Esther, which tells the story of a Jewish heroine in the court of an Oriental despot (Ahasuerus, identified with Xerxes in Herodotus). Dr. Burger teaches this text alongside Plato's Republic, which offers a political and psychological analysis of the tyrant, and Xenophon’s Hiero, which presents a carefully orchestrated dialogue between a poet-wise man and a tyrant who laments the misery of the life he is leading. Ronna Burger is Catherine & Henry J. Gaisman Chair in Philosophy and Sizeler Professor of Jewish Studies at Tulane University. Read more about her course: https://www.dropbox.com/s/18rd3qskfdm6zht/Tyranny%20and%20the%20Tyrannical%20Soul%20in%20the%20Bible%20and%20Greek%20Philosophy%20-%20Reader.pdf?dl=0

Check out our high school offerings at www.tikvahfund.org/hs Political ideas—no matter how great—require determination, vision, and the will of great leaders to influence global history. The founding fathers of the State of Israel held the big ideas of Jewish history together with the prudential judgment, executive energy, diplomatic savvy, and military strategy they needed to resurrect the Third Jewish Commonwealth in the land of Israel. From Ze’ev Jabotinsky to David Ben Gurion and Menachem Begin to modern Israeli leaders like Ariel Sharon, Shimon Peres, and Benjamin Netanyahu, the lives and strategic insights of great Jewish political leaders have much to teach us. In this episode, Ari speaks with Daniel Polisar on the life and career of Theodor Herzl. With little institutional support, with virtually no resources or political leverage, the sheer force of Herzl’s writing and will carried him to sit across the negotiating table from kings and emperors, arguing for the free sovereignty of the Jewish people. Daniel Polisar is co-founder and executive vice president of Shalem College, where he also serves on the faculty. Read more at https://www.dropbox.com/s/g29u0honis43rqb/Theodor%20Herzl%20and%20Leadership.pdf?dl=0

Check out our high school offerings at www.tikvahfund.org/hs In this episode, Ari speaks with novelist Dara Horn about the history of Hebrew literature. This genre developed in tandem with modern Israel, from the revival of the language to the 21st century. In her course, students examine a 100-year range of fiction and poetry, identifying historical circumstances that shaped these artists and their work. Ari and Dr. Horn discuss writers such as Hayyim Nahman Bialik, S.Y. Agnon, and Amos Oz. Dara Horn is the author of a number of award-winning novels. Read more at https://www.dropbox.com/s/nv9q5qrnqzd39cz/A%20Century%20of%20Modern%20Hebrew%20Literature%20-%20Reader.pdf?dl=0

Check out our high school offerings at www.tikvahfund.org/hs Today, increasing numbers of people live in free market economies. Yet despite its great success in diminishing poverty and growing wealth in countries such as the United States, many remain very unsure of the market economy’s social benefits. Others question its moral foundations. Defenses of the free market which extend beyond appeals to utility continue to be hard to find. In this episode, Ari Hoffman speaks with Sam Gregg, who discusses the moral and economic case for market economies. He and his students read key texts that articulate moral and economic defenses of free market economies, including Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, Michael Novak's The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism, and Wilhelm Röpke’s A Humane Economy.   As these texts are examined, some of the questions posed for discussion are: What is meant by self-interest? How does it differ from greed? What is the historical record of the market economy vis- à-vis wealth and poverty? Is there something distinctive about American capitalism? What are the justifications for state intervention into the market economy? Dr. Samuel Gregg is Director of Research at the Acton Institute. Read more about the course: https://www.dropbox.com/s/tmhiv7ysg2p24e2/Ethics%20and%20Economics%20%28Sam%20Gregg%29%20-%20Reader.pdf?dl=0

Check out our high school offerings at www.tikvahfund.org/hs The establishment of the State of Israel is one of the most remarkable achievements of the modern era. Never before had a people dispersed throughout the world, deprived of sovereignty for millennia, returned to its ancient homeland to build a thriving country. Who were the leaders and thinkers that helped craft a modern Jewish nationalism for a people so long deprived of self-determination? What moved them? What were their political teachings and key disagreements? In this episode, Ari discusses with Daniel Gordis his four-part exploration of the writings, legacies, and debates of Zionism's early thinkers. Students study the teachings of Theodor Herzl, Micha Josef Berdichevsky, Ahad Ha'am, Isaac Jacob Reines, Abraham Isaac Kook, and other representatives of modern Jewish nationalist thought. In doing so, Dr. Gordis shows how the founding disagreements within Secular Zionism, Religious Zionism, and Ultra-Orthodoxy can shed light on the spirit of Jewish nationalism and the internal conflicts Israel still faces today. Dr. Daniel Gordis is Senior Vice President and the Koret Distinguished Fellow at Shalem College in Jerusalem. Read more about the course: https://www.dropbox.com/s/e6yan8k52290ygc/The%20Zionist%20Ideas%20-%20Reader.pdf?dl=0 

Check out our high school offerings at www.tikvahfund.org/hs  In this episode, Ari explores with Shuli Taubes the theological and social implications of the Jewish doctrine of election in the modern Western context. In her course, she explores the subject using a variety of lenses, including the propositions of divine free love (“Grace”), inherent superiority, Abraham’s initiative, and pluralism. Students study with her the writings of several modern Jewish theologians—including Joseph B. Soloveitchik, Michael Wyschogrod, Jon D. Levenson, and Jonathan Sacks—and the pre-modern sources that animate their thought as we consider the origins, development, and limits of Jewish “chosenness.”  Shuli Taubes serves as a faculty member at SAR High School in Riverdale, New York, where she teaches Tanakh, Jewish Identity, Comparative Religion and chairs the Jewish Philosophy department.  Read more about the course: https://www.dropbox.com/s/fdt8darnadbbboi/What%20is%20Chosenness%20-%20Reader.pdf?dl=0 

Check out our high school offerings at www.tikvahfund.org/hs Modernity is often thought of as characterized by a series of contradictions: freedom vs. order, religion vs. culture, morality vs. freedom, and tradition vs. progress. Many liberals and conservatives establish their political positions by placing emphasis on one category at the expense of another, and many Jewish and Christian scholars argue that a good life involves achieving the right balance or relationship between these categories. But are these concepts really contradictions? Or are they mutually dependent upon one another? And if they are mutually dependent, why do they seem to conflict so often? In this episode, Rabbi Mitch Rocklin examines the question of what it means to be religious and cultured in the West. He considers how Western Civilization created unique poetic and philosophical approaches to these concepts, as well as how their development created serious crises for religious and traditional individuals. How have great minds grappled with these crises, and how we might chart a new way forward by reexamining the origins of religion and culture and their relevance to our rapidly changing world? Rabbi Mitchell Rocklin is a Postdoctoral Fellow at Yeshiva University’s Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education. Read more about the course: https://www.dropbox.com/s/jaz0rpgvu8a8xxb/Virtue%20and%20Ethics%20in%20Jewish%20and%20Greek%20Thought%20-%20Reader.pdf?dl=0

Check out our high school offerings at www.tikvahfund.org/hs Zionism is one of the world’s most successful revolutionary movements. From an idea that was considered borderline insane, Zionism was able to lay the foundation for the existence of an actual country – Israel – that is one of the world’s most vibrant democracies, prosperous economies and successful societies. Yet, from its inception, Zionism faced not just diplomatic and physical obstacles to the implementation of its vision, but intellectual opposition to its very idea. Zionism has not existed for a single day without various forms of intellectual opposition to its goal, and once its goal was attained in the form of a state – to the state itself. The episode will explore Zionist and anti-Zionist thought in tandem, demonstrating how every type of Zionism was opposed by a certain brand of anti-Zionism, and how those various debates about Zionism persist to this day. Dr. Wilf traces Zionism from its political beginnings and the opposition posed by those who favored the path of Jewish emancipation and assimilation, to Labor Zionism against the utopian appeal of Communism and the efforts of Bundism, to the theologies that underlie Zionism and anti-Zionism in both Jewish and Christian forms, to the ongoing intellectual conflict between Zionism in Israel and anti-Zionism in the Arab world, ending with the contemporary question of whether anti-Zionism has become a new form of antisemitism. Dr. Einat Wilf was a member of the Israeli Parliament from 2010-2013 on behalf of the Labor and Independence parties. Read more about the course: https://www.dropbox.com/s/hpgw8n4bi33hnqh/Zionism%20and%20Anti-Zionism.pdf?dl=0

Check out our high school offerings at www.tikvahfund.org/hs Sophocles' Oedipus Rex is certainly one of the greatest tragedies ever written. It's a murder mystery whose solution turns into a search for the identity of the searcher himself. His pride of reason solves every riddle, but cannot save him from the blinding terror of knowing who he is and what he has done along the way (murder and incest) to become a knower and ruler. King Lear is Shakespeare's top of the mountain experience of tragedy. An old king and father administers a love test to his three daughters, to determine who loves him most, and to divide up the kingdom on that basis. He is not able to hear truth and love in the same word—why is that so hard?—and he makes a terrible mistake. To see the truth of the heart and to abide by the promptings of nature require, in this play, more blinding of eyes and suffering beyond human endurance. Both Sophocles and Shakespeare put in question the cost of knowing the truth about the things that matter most: love, family, wisdom, and rule. Therefore, they also must put in question the causes of things: freedom, fate, chance, and the gods. Louis Petrich is a Tutor at St. John’s College in Annapolis, teaching the great books across the liberal arts curriculum. Read more about this course at: https://www.dropbox.com/s/yp26as7q4ajcg39/Terror%20and%20Truth%20in%20Oedipus%20Rex%20and%20King%20Lear.pdf?dl=0

Check out our high school offerings at www.tikvahfund.org/hs In our cultural moment, society’s disregard of qualitative reasoning in favor of quantitative analysis–what spiritual master Rene Guenon dubbed “The Reign of Quantity”–has left a gaping hole in issues relating to morality, spirituality, and meaning. In this episode, Dr. Snell discusses questions such as: What is reason in the 21st century? Do the worlds of philosophical reasoning and empirical analysis speak different languages? Can these languages be meaningfully brought into conversation with one another? Where do they exhibit similarities and how do they differ? RJ Snell directs the Center on Ethics and the University at the Witherspoon Institute in Princeton, NJ, and is senior fellow at the Agora Institute for Civic Virtue and the Common Good. Read more about The Nature of Reason course at: https://www.dropbox.com/s/468i4ig58yz79vm/The%20Nature%20of%20Reason%20in%20Western%20and%20Jewish%20Thought%20-%20Readers.pdf?dl=0 This course is generously sponsored by the John Templeton Foundation.

Check out our high school offerings at www.tikvahfund.org/hs In our cultural moment, society’s disregard of qualitative reasoning in favor of quantitative analysis–what spiritual master Rene Guenon dubbed “The Reign of Quantity”–has left a gaping hole in issues relating to morality, spirituality, and meaning. In this episode, Rabbi Gottlieb discusses questions such as: What is reason in the 21st century? Do the worlds of philosophical reasoning and empirical analysis speak different languages? Can these languages be meaningfully brought into conversation with one another? Where do they exhibit similarities and how do they differ? Rabbi Mark Gottlieb is Senior Director of the Tikvah Fund and Founding Dean of the Tikvah High School Programs at Yale University. He received his BA from Yeshiva College, rabbinical ordination from the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, and an MA in Philosophy from the University of Chicago, where his doctoral studies focused on the moral and political thought of Alasdair MacIntyre.  Read more about The Nature of Reason course at: https://www.dropbox.com/s/468i4ig58yz79vm/The%20Nature%20of%20Reason%20in%20Western%20and%20Jewish%20Thought%20-%20Readers.pdf?dl=0 This course is generously sponsored by the John Templeton Foundation.