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@samharrisorg Is Religion the Cure or the Disease? https://youtu.be/jtKBbsP1OZY?si=UUG5mz7_Yl6OnHkc @christianbaxter_yt Judaism, Christianity, and the Crisis of Trust https://youtu.be/Hfua2Mb62z0?si=RRSV8Sacvjx0vbMZ https://subscribe.martyrmade.com/p/thoughts-on-jews-and-the-bible-audio @TLDRnewsGLOBAL Why China is Falling Out with its Trading Partners https://youtu.be/cu9Pfc4UzQA?si=OXbr-czEs8YkL0UQ @TirolianD A Biography of Abraham Kuyper https://youtu.be/N81B0MIrEVo?si=Ajiuvj0N1N6VvBwr @gaudiumetspes22dr.larrycha26 Larry Chapp, Michael Hanby and Kale Zelden discuss Artificial Intelligence https://youtu.be/sWUHGT00A6I?si=LjNyf9wg36Aq29CD
In this emotional Mussar Masterclass (Day 108), Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe begins with a heartfelt plea for prayers for his newborn preemie grandson (Tinoch ben Mi'ira bat Zahava) in the NICU in Jerusalem, dedicating the session to their speedy recovery. The class concludes the Gate of Remembrance in Orchos Tzaddikim with the final three remembrances:Always investigate and ask questions deeply—never rely solely on childhood understanding of Torah; as intellect matures, revisit and enrich knowledge (illustrated by stories of Rav Moshe Feinstein's meticulousness and sensitivity).Remove excessive love of this world and intensify love for Olam Haba—physical pleasures and spiritual growth cannot coexist; this world is solely a tool to invest in the next (via mitzvot, teshuvah, and using possessions for holiness), as fire and water cannot share a vessel.Remember accountability before Hashem—we will be judged not against others, but on whether we maximized our unique potential ("Why weren't you you?").Accept afflictions with joy—they are merciful "slap on the wrist" instead of the death penalty we deserve; teshuvah and small sufferings are gifts of divine kindness.Rabbi Wolbe weaves in awe-inspiring modern miracles (e.g., the May 4, 2025, missile landing harmlessly near Tel Aviv airport) as open reminders that Hashem alone controls everything—not technology, military, or human effort—urging constant gratitude and recognition of divine protection.Recorded at TORCH Centre in the Levin Family Studios (B) to a live audience on May 5, 2025, in Houston, Texas.Released as Podcast on December 23, 2025_____________This series on Orchos Tzadikim/Ways of the Righteous is produced in partnership with Hachzek.Join the revolution of daily Mussar study at hachzek.com.We are using the Treasure of Life edition of the Orchos Tzadikkim (Published by Feldheim)_____________Listen, Subscribe & Share: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/jewish-inspiration-podcast-rabbi-aryeh-wolbe/id1476610783Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4r0KfjMzmCNQbiNaZBCSU7) to stay inspired! Share your questions at aw@torchweb.org or visit torchweb.org for more Torah content. _____________About the Host:Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe, Director of TORCH in Houston, brings decades of Torah scholarship to guide listeners in applying Jewish wisdom to daily life. To directly send your questions, comments, and feedback, please email: awolbe@torchweb.org_____________Support Our Mission:Our Mission is Connecting Jews & Judaism. Help us spread Judaism globally by sponsoring an episode at torchweb.org.Your support makes a HUGE difference!_____________Listen MoreOther podcasts by Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe: NEW!! Prayer Podcast: https://prayerpodcast.transistor.fm/episodesJewish Inspiration Podcast: https://inspiration.transistor.fm/episodesParsha Review Podcast: https://parsha.transistor.fm/episodesLiving Jewishly Podcast: https://jewishly.transistor.fm/episodesThinking Talmudist Podcast: https://talmud.transistor.fm/episodesUnboxing Judaism Podcast: https://unboxing.transistor.fm/episodesRabbi Aryeh Wolbe Podcast Collection: https://collection.transistor.fm/episodesFor a full listing of podcasts available by TORCH at http://podcast.torchweb.org_____________Keywords:#JewishInspiration, #Mussar, #MasterClass, #Remembrance, #OlamHaba, #Accountability, #DivineMiracles, #Teshuvah ★ Support this podcast ★
Lex Rofeberg is joined again by Lexi Kohanski, and Liana Wertman (our friends at The Torah Studio) for the 4th and final conversation in our 2025 edition of ApocryFest: Hanukkah Unbound and Un-Canonized. In this episode, they consider how we can channel our newfound Apocryphal ideas into the world today. They consider the importance of texts that are both canonical and non-canonical, along with endorsing the value of entering texts (such as apocrypha) that bring us into a state of beginner's mind.You can sign up for ApocryFest 2025 by heading to www.JudaismUnbound.com/apocryfest. Do so, and we'll send you all sorts of cool Apocryphal stuff, during Hanukkah, to help enrich your experience of this holiday! And you can register for The Hanukkah Apocrypha Extravaganza on December 21st, via this link!For all of our episodes from past years' ApocryFests, click here.Head to JudaismUnbound.com/classes to check out our up upcoming 3-week mini-courses in the UnYeshiva! This time around we are offering The Torah of Kink, Hasidism and Neo-Hasidism, Queering Kedusha (Holiness), and Brit Milah Unbound: Exploring Circumcision!
This Shabbat, as Chanukah and Parshat Miketz converge, our hearts are heavy and our calling is clear. From the moment the Maccabees discovered a single cruse of oil in the desecrated Temple, Jewish history hinged not on what was found, but on what was done. They could have preserved the oil as a relic. Instead, they used it and ignited a light that has burned for 2,200 years.In the shadow of the tragic attack at the Chabad Chanukah celebration in Bondi Beach, Rabbi Yisroel Bernath delivers a sermon that explores a timeless Jewish truth: Judaism does not survive through museums or memory alone, but through lived action. Like Joseph in Miketz, who steps forward from darkness with faith and purpose, we are asked to respond to pain not by retreating, but by lighting, loving, and living more Jewishly than ever before.Key TakeawaysThe miracle of Chanukah was not the oil, it was the choice to use it.Judaism survives not by being preserved, but by being practiced.Darkness is real, but it never gets the final word.Every mitzvah, no matter how small, carries generational power.In moments of pain and fear, our response is not silence, but light.Honoring tragedy in Jewish history means responding with deeper Jewish life.Like Joseph in Miketz, we don't need to know the ending, we just need to show up with what we have.Help the families of Sydney Attack: https://www.charidy.com/supportsydney #BondiBeach #chabad #Judaism #hanukkah #LightOverDarkness #Chanukah #ParshatMiketz #LiveJewish #RespondWithLight #JewishResilience #AmYisraelChai #Rabbi #Sermon Support the showGot your own question for Rabbi Bernath? He can be reached at rabbi@jewishndg.com or http://www.theloverabbi.comSingle? You can make a profile on www.JMontreal.com and Rabbi Bernath will help you find that special someone.Donate and support Rabbi Bernath's work http://www.jewishndg.com/donateFollow Rabbi Bernath's YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/user/ybernathAccess Rabbi Bernath's Articles on Relationships https://medium.com/@loverabbi
Rabbi-Cantor Hillary Chorny's Shabbat Teaching at Temple Beth Am, Los Angeles, December 20, 2025. (Youtube/Zoom)
Send us a textThis Shabbat, as Chanukah and Parshat Miketz converge, our hearts are heavy and our calling is clear. From the moment the Maccabees discovered a single cruse of oil in the desecrated Temple, Jewish history hinged not on what was found, but on what was done. They could have preserved the oil as a relic. Instead, they used it and ignited a light that has burned for 2,200 years.In the shadow of the tragic attack at the Chabad Chanukah celebration in Bondi Beach, Rabbi Yisroel Bernath delivers a sermon that explores a timeless Jewish truth: Judaism does not survive through museums or memory alone, but through lived action. Like Joseph in Miketz, who steps forward from darkness with faith and purpose, we are asked to respond to pain not by retreating, but by lighting, loving, and living more Jewishly than ever before.Key TakeawaysThe miracle of Chanukah was not the oil, it was the choice to use it.Judaism survives not by being preserved, but by being practiced.Darkness is real, but it never gets the final word.Every mitzvah, no matter how small, carries generational power.In moments of pain and fear, our response is not silence, but light.Honoring tragedy in Jewish history means responding with deeper Jewish life.Like Joseph in Miketz, we don't need to know the ending, we just need to show up with what we have.Help the families of Sydney Attack: https://www.charidy.com/supportsydney #BondiBeach #chabad #Judaism #hanukkah #LightOverDarkness #Chanukah #ParshatMiketz #LiveJewish #RespondWithLight #JewishResilience #AmYisraelChai #Rabbi #Sermon Support the showGot your own question for Rabbi Bernath? He can be reached at rabbi@jewishndg.com or http://www.theloverabbi.comSingle? You can make a profile on www.JMontreal.com and Rabbi Bernath will help you find that special someone.Donate and support Rabbi Bernath's work http://www.jewishndg.com/donateFollow Rabbi Bernath's YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/user/ybernathAccess Rabbi Bernath's Articles on Relationships https://medium.com/@loverabbi
On Friday's Mark Levin Show, President Trump announces that the U.S. America has launched “Operation Hawkeye Strike” in Syria after ISIS ambushed and killed two of our soldiers and an interpreter. Trump promised overwhelming retaliation—and he's delivering—sending jets, helicopters, and artillery to wipe out ISIS fighters and their infrastructure. This is real leadership: when you kill Americans, you pay the price. Also, Ukraine drones blew up a Russian oil tanker. For all the talk of Ukraine losing this war, they are putting up a fight. Ukraine is on the offense! Later, America was founded by Christians—all delegates at the Constitutional Convention and Second Continental Congress were Christian—and Christianity is a tolerant, and humane faith enabling religious minorities to live freely. The Declaration of Independence's references to God stem from Judeo-Christian values, with Christianity heavily influenced by Judaism, as recognized by the founders; modern efforts, like those by Tucker Carlson, to separate the two are a new attack on both Jews and Christians, repudiated as blasphemy by pastors. Americanism is fundamentally incompatible with Islamism. There's an alliance between leftists and Islamists driven by a shared goal of destroying the West, America, its Constitution, and republican system. Afterward, America owes its greatness to the Republican Party, which ended slavery and passed civil rights acts that Democrats wrongly claim credit for, rooted in foundational principles called constitutional conservatism. Without it, the nation would be an awful, dark, lawless place. The party fights to secure borders, promote assimilation, teach true history (good, bad, and ugly), and elect conservatives who embrace national ideals, leading to better quality of life in free states compared to dying blue ones. However, internal threats like Tucker Carlson, Nick Fuentes, and Steve Bannon seek to destroy the Republican Party—not just its establishment—and its Judeo-Christian foundations, abandoning the legacy of Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Coolidge, Eisenhower, Reagan, and Trump, without specifying a replacement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Today we will review the supposed "whistleblower" on Candace, the rage of Shapiro in his desperate speech and the collapse of his narrative, as well as analyzing Tucker's speech at the same event. Send Superchats at any time here: https://streamlabs.com/jaydyer/tip Join this channel to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnt7Iy8GlmdPwy_Tzyx93bA/join Order New Book Available here: https://jaysanalysis.com/product/esoteric-hollywood-3-sex-cults-apocalypse-in-films/ Get started with Bitcoin here: https://www.swanbitcoin.com/jaydyer/ The New Philosophy Course is here: https://marketplace.autonomyagora.com/philosophy101 Set up recurring Choq subscription with the discount code JAY60LIFE for 60% off now https://choq.com Subscribe to my site here: https://jaysanalysis.com/membership-account/membership-levels/ Follow me on R0kfin here: https://rokfin.com/jaydyer Music by Dr Evo the Producer, Jay Dyer and Amid the Ruins 1453 https://www.youtube.com/@amidtheruinsOVERHAUL Join this channel to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnt7Iy8GlmdPwy_Tzyx93bA/join #entertainment #podcast #comedyBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/jay-sanalysis--1423846/support.
Our chapter introduces the artisans of the Mishkan - Betzalel and Oholiav - and this gives us the opportunity to explore Judaism's attitude to art.
Rabbi Amy Bernstein's weekly Torah study class via Zoom - Bereshit/Genesis 41:15 - December 19, 2025.
Rabbi Matt Shapiro's Shabbat Sermon at Temple Beth Am, Los Angeles, December 20, 2025. (Youtube) Special Guest: Rabbi Matt Shapiro.
John Granger Attempts to Convince Nick (and You!) That The Hallmarked Man will be Considered the Best of the Series.We review our take-away impressions from our initial reading of The Hallmarked Man. Although we enjoyed it, especially John's incredible prediction of Robin's ectopic pregnancy, neither of us came away thinking this was the finest book in the series. For Nick, this was a surprise, as enthusiastic J. K. Rowling fan that he is other than Career of Evil every book he has read has been his favourite. Using an innovative analysis of the character pairs surrounding both Cormoran and Robin, John argues that we can't really appreciate the artistry of book number eight until we consider its place in the series. Join John and Nick as they review the mysteries that remain to be resolved and how The Hallmarked Man sets readers up for shocking reveals in Strike 9 and 10!Why Troubled Blood is the Best Strike Novel:* The Pillar Post Collection of Troubled Blood Posts at HogwartsProfessor by John Granger, Elizabeth Baird-Hardy, Louise Freeman, Beatrice Groves, and Nick JefferyTroubled Blood and Faerie Queene: The Kanreki ConversationBut What If We Judge Strike Novels by a Different Standard than Shed Artifice? What About Setting Up the ‘Biggest Twist' in Detective Fiction History?* If Rowling is to be judged by the ‘shock' of the reveals in Strike 10, then The Hallmarked Man, the most disappointing book in the series even to many Serious Strikers, will almost certainly be remembered as the book that set up the finale with the greatest technical misdirection while playing fair.* The ending must be a shock, one that readers do not see coming, BUT* The author must provide the necessary clues and pointers repeatedly and emphatically lest the reader feel cheated at the point of revelation.* If the Big Mysteries of the series are to be solved with the necessary shock per both Russian Formalist and Perennialist understanding, then the answers to be revealed in the final two Strike novels, Books Two and Three of the finale trilogy, should be embedded in The Hallmarked Man.* Rowling on Playing Fair with Readers:The writer says that she wanted to extend the shelf of detective fiction without breaking it. “Part of the appeal and fascination of the genre is that it has clear rules. I'm intrigued by those rules and I like playing with them. Your detective should always lay out the information fairly for the reader, but he will always be ahead of the game. In terms of creating a character, I think Cormoran Strike conforms to certain universal rules but he is very much of this time.* On the Virtue of ‘Penetration' in Austen, Dickens, and Rowling* Rowling on the Big Twist' in Austen's Emma:“I have never set up a surprise ending in a Harry Potter book without knowing I can never, and will never, do it anywhere near as well as Austen did in Emma.”What are the Key Mysteries of the Strike series?Nancarrow FamilyWhy did Leda and Ted leave home in Cornwall as they did?Why did Ted and Joan not “save” Strike and Lucy?Was Leda murdered or did she commit suicide?If she was murdered, who dunit?If she commited suicide, why did she do it?What happened to Switch Whittaker?Cormoran StrikeIs Jonny Rokeby his biological father?What SIB case was he investigating when he was blown up?Was he the father of Charlotte's lost baby? If not, then who was?Why has he been so unstable in his relations with women post Charlotte Campbell?Charlotte CampbellWhy did her mother hate her so much?What was her relationship with her three step-fathers? Especially Dino LongcasterWho was the father of her lost child?Was the child intentionally aborted or was it a miscarriage?What was written in her “suicide note”?Was Charlotte murdered or did she commit suicide?If she was murdered, who done it?If she committed suicide, why did she do it?What happened to the billionaire lover?What clues do we get in Hallmarked Man that would answer these questions?- Strike 8 - Greatest Hits of Strikes 1-7: compilation, concentration of perumbration in series as whole* Decima/Lion - incest* Rupert's biological father not his father of record (Dino)* Sacha Legard a liar with secrets* Ryan Murphy working a plan off-stage - Charlotte's long gameStrike about ‘Pairings' in Lethal WhiteStrike continued to pore over the list of names as though he might suddenly see something emerging out of his dense, spiky handwriting, the way unfocused eyes may spot the 3D image hidden in a series of brightly colored dots. All that occurred to him, however, was the fact that there was an unusual number of pairs connected to Chiswell's death: couples—Geraint and Della, Jimmy and Flick; pairs of full siblings—Izzy and Fizzy, Jimmy and Billy; the duo of blackmailing collaborators—Jimmy and Geraint; and the subsets of each blackmailer and his deputy—Flick and Aamir. There was even the quasi-parental pairing of Della and Aamir. This left two people who formed a pair in being isolated within the otherwise close-knit family: the widowed Kinvara and Raphael, the unsatisfactory, outsider son.Strike tapped his pen unconsciously against the notebook, thinking. Pairs. The whole business had begun with a pair of crimes: Chiswell's blackmail and Billy's allegation of infanticide. He had been trying to find the connection between them from the start, unable to believe that they could be entirely separate cases, even if on the face of it their only link was in the blood tie between the Knight brothers.Part Two, Chapter 52Key Relationship Pairings in Cormoran Strike:Who Killed Leda Strike?To Rowling-Galbraith's credit, credible arguments in dedicated posts have been made that every person in the list below was the one who murdered Leda Strike. Who do you think did it?* Jonny Rokeby and the Harringay Crime Syndicate (Heroin Dark Lord 2.0),* Ted Nancarrow (Uncle Ted Did It),* Dave Polworth,* Leda Strike (!),* Lucy Fantoni (Lucy and Joan Did It and here),* Sir Randolph Whittaker,* Nick Herbert,* Peter Gillespie, and* Charlotte Campbell-RossScripted Ten Questions:1. So, Nick, back when we first read Hallmarked Man we said that there were four things we knew for sure would be said about Strike 8 in the future. Do you remember what they were?2. And, John, you've been thinking about the ‘Set-Up' idea and how future Rowling Readers will think of Hallmarked Man, even that they will think of it as the best Strike novel. I thought that was Troubled Blood by consensus. What's made you change your mind?3. So, Nick, yes, Troubled Blood I suspect will be ranked as the best of series, even best book written by Rowling ever, but, if looked at as the book that served the most critical place in setting up the finale, I think Hallmarked Man has to be considered better in that crucial way than Strike 5, better than any Strike novel. Can you think of another Strike mystery that reviews specific plot points and raises new aspects of characters and relationships the way Strike 8 does?4. Are you giving Hallmarked Man a specific function with respect to the last three books than any of the others? If so, John, what is that exactly and what evidence do we have that in Rowling's comments about reader-writer obligations and writer ambitions?5. Nick, I think Hallmarked Man sets us up to answer the Key mysteries that remain, that the first seven books left for the final three to answer. I'm going to organize those unresolved questions into three groups and challenge you to think of the ones I'm missing, especially if I'm missing a category.6. If I understand the intention of your listing these remaining questions, John, your saying that the restatement of specific plot points and characters from the first seven Strike novels in Hallmarked Man points to the possible, even probable answers to those questions. What specifically are the hallmarks in this respect of Hallmarked Man?7. If you take those four points, Nick, and revisit the mysteries lists in three categories, do you see how Rowling hits a fairness point with respect to clueing readers into what will no doubt be shocking answers to them if they're not looking for the set-ups?8. That's fun, Nick, but there's another way at reaching the same conclusions, namely, charting the key relationships of Strike and Ellacott to the key family, friends, and foes in their lives and how they run in pairs or parallel couplets (cue PPoint slides).9. Can we review incest and violence against or trafficking of young women in the Strike series? Are those the underpinning of the majority of the mysteries that remain in the books?10. Many Serious Strikers and Gonzo Galbraithians hated Striuke 8 because Hallmarked Man failed to meet expectations. In conclusion, do you think, Nick, that this argument that the most recent Strike-Ellacott adventure is the best because of how it sets us up for the wild finish to come will be persuasive -- or just annoying?On Imagination as Transpersonal Faculty and Non-Liturgical Sacred ArtThe Neo-Iconoclasm of Film (and Other Screened Adaptations): Justin requested within his question for an expansion of my allusion to story adaptations into screened media as a “neo-iconoclasm.” I can do that here briefly in two parts. First, by urging you to read my review of the first Hunger Games movie adaptation, ‘Gamesmakers Hijack Story: Capitol Wins Again,' in which I discussed at post's end how ‘Watching Movies is a a Near Sure Means to Being Hijacked by Movie Makers.' In that, I explain via an excerpt from Jerry Mander's Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television, the soul corrosive effects of screened images.Second, here is a brief introduction to the substance of the book I am working on.Rowling is a woman of profound contradictions. On the one hand, like all of us she is the walking incarnation of her Freudian family romance per Paglia, the ideas and blindspots of the age in which we live, with the peculiar individual prejudices and preferences and politics of her upbringing, education, and life experiences, especially the experiences we can call crises and consequent core beliefs, aversions, and desires. Rowling acknowledges all this, and, due to her CBT exercises and one assumes further talking therapy, she is more conscious of the elephant she is riding and pretending to steer than most of her readers.She points to this both in asides she make in her tweets and public comments but also in her descriptive metaphor of how she writes. The ‘Lake' of that metaphor, the alocal place within her from her story ideas and inspiration spring, is her “muse,” the word for superconscious rather than subconscious ideas that she used in her 2007 de la Cruz interview. She consciously recognizes that, despite her deliberate reflection on her PTSD, daddy drama, and idiosyncratic likes and dislikes, she still has unresolved issues that her non-conscious mind presents to her as story conflict for imaginative resolution.Her Lake is her persona well, the depths of her individual identity and a mask she wears.The Shed, in contrast, is the metaphorical place where Rowling takes the “stuff” given her by the creature in her Lake, the blobs of molten glass inspiration, to work it into proper story. The tools in this Shed are unusual, to say the least, and are the great markers of what makes Rowling unique among contemporary writers and a departure from, close to a contradiction of the artist you would expect to be born of her life experiences, formative crises, and education.Out of a cauldron potion made from listening to the Smiths, Siouxie and the Banshees, and The Clash, reading and loving Val McDermid, Roddy Doyle, and Jessica Mitford, and surviving a lower middle class upbringing with an emotionally barren homelife and Comprehensive education on the England-Wales border, you'd expect a Voldemort figure at Goblet of Fire's climax to rise rather than a writer who weaves archetypally rich myths of the soul's journey to perfection in the spirit with alchemical coloring and sequences, ornate chiastic structures, and a bevy of symbols visible only to the eye of the Heart.To understand Rowling, as she all but says in her Lake and Shed metaphor, one has to know her life story and experiences to “get” from where her inspiration bubbles up and, as important, you need a strong grasp of the traditionalist worldview and place of literature in it to appreciate the power of the tools she uses, especially how she uses them in combination.The biggest part of that is understanding the Perennialist definition of “Sacred Art.” I touched on this in a post about Rowling's beloved Christmas story, ‘Dante, Sacred Art, and The Christmas Pig.'Rowling has been publicly modest about the aims of her work, allowing that it would be nice to think that readers will be more empathetic after reading her imaginative fiction. Dante was anything but modest or secretive in sharing his self-understanding in the letter he wrote to Cangrande about The Divine Comedy: “The purpose of the whole work is to remove those living in this life from the state of wretchedness and to lead them to the state of blessedness.” His aim, point blank, was to create a work of sacred art, a category of writing and experience that largely exists outside our understanding as profane postmoderns, but, given Rowling's esoteric artistry and clear debts to Dante, deserves serious consideration as what she is writing as well.Sacred art, in brief, is representational work — painting, statuary, liturgical vessels and instruments, and the folk art of theocentric cultures in which even cutlery and furniture are means to reflection and transcendence of the world — that employ revealed forms and symbols to bring the noetic faculty or heart into contact with the supra-sensible realities each depicts. It is not synonymous with religious art; most of the art today that has a religious subject is naturalist and sentimental rather than noetic and iconographic, which is to say, contemporary artists imitate the creation of God as perceived by human senses rather than the operation of God in creation or, worse, create abstractions of their own internally or infernally generated ideas.Story as sacred art, in black to white contrast, is edifying literature and drama in which the soul's journey to spiritual perfection is portrayed for the reader or the audience's participation within for transformation from wretchedness to blessedness, as Dante said. As with the plastic arts, these stories employ traditional symbols of the revealed traditions in conformity with their understanding of cosmology, soteriology, and spiritual anthropology. The myths and folklore of the world's various traditions, ancient Greek drama, the epic poetry of Greece, Rome, and Medieval Europe, the parables of Christ, the plays of Shakespeare's later period, and the English high fantasy tradition from Coleridge to the Inklings speak this same symbolic language and relay the psychomachia experience of the human victory over death.Dante is a sacred artist of this type. As difficult as it may be to understand Rowling as a writer akin to Dante, Shakespeare, Homer, Virgil, Aeschylus, Spenser, Lewis, and Tolkien, her deployment of traditional symbolism and the success she enjoys almost uniquely in engaging and edifying readers of all ages, beliefs, and circumstances suggests this is the best way of understanding her work. Christmas Pig is the most obviously sacred art piece that Rowling has created to date. It is the marriage of Dantean depths and the Estecean lightness of Lewis Carroll's Alice books, about which more later.[For an introduction to reading poems, plays, and stories as sacred art, that is, allegorical depictions of the soul's journey to spiritual perfection that are rich in traditional symbolism, Ray Livingston's The Traditional Theory of Literature is the only book length text in print. Kenneth Oldmeadow's ‘Symbolism and Sacred Art' in his Traditionalism: Religion in the light of the Perennial Philosophy(102-113), ‘Traditional Art' in The Essential Seyyed Hossein Nasr(203-214), and ‘The Christian and Oriental, or True Philosophy of Art' in The Essential Ananda K. Coomaraswamy(123-152) explain in depth the distinctions between sacred and religious, natural, and humanist art. Martin Lings' The Sacred Art of Shakespeare: To Take Upon Us the Mystery of Things and Jennifer Doane Upton's two books on The Divine Comedy, Dark Way to Paradise and The Ordeal of Mercy are the best examples I know of reading specific works of literature as sacred art rather than as ‘stories with symbolic meaning' read through a profane and analytic lens.]‘Profane Art' from this view is “art for art's sake,” an expression of individual genius and subjective meaning that is more or less powerful. The Perennialist concern with art is less about gauging an artist's success in expressing his or her perception or its audience's response than with its conformity to traditional rules and its utility, both in the sense of practical everyday use and in being a means by which to be more human. Insofar as a work of art is good with respect to this conformity and edifying utility, it is “sacred art;” so much as it fails, it is “profane.” The best of modern art, even that with religious subject matter or superficially beautiful and in that respect edifying, is from this view necessarily profane.Sacred art differs from modern and postmodern conceptions of art most specifically, though, in what it is representing. Sacred art is not representing the natural world as the senses perceive it or abstractions of what the individual and subjective mind “sees,” but is an imitation of the Divine art of creation. The artist “therefore imitates nature not in its external forms but in its manner of operation as asserted so categorically by St. Thomas Aquinas [who] insists that the artist must not imitate nature but must be accomplished in ‘imitating nature in her manner of operation'” (Nasr 2007, 206, cf. “Art is the imitation of Nature in her manner of operation: Art is the principle of manufacture” (Summa Theologia Q. 117, a. I). Schuon described naturalist art which imitates God's creation in nature by faithful depiction of it, consequently, as “clearly luciferian.” “Man must imitate the creative act, not the thing created,” Aquinas' “manner of operation” rather than God's operation manifested in created things in order to produce ‘creations'which are not would-be duplications of those of God, but rather a reflection of them according to a real analogy, revealing the transcendental aspect of things; and this revelation is the only sufficient reason of art, apart from any practical uses such and such objects may serve. There is here a metaphysical inversion of relation [the inverse analogy connecting the principial and manifested orders in consequence of which the highest realities are manifested in their remotest reflections[1]]: for God, His creature is a reflection or an ‘exteriorized' aspect of Himself; for the artist, on the contrary, the work is a reflection of an inner reality of which he himself is only an outward aspect; God creates His own image, while man, so to speak, fashions his own essence, at least symbolically. On the principial plane, the inner manifests the outer, but on the manifested plane, the outer fashions the inner (Schuon 1953, 81, 96).The traditional artist, then, in imitation of God's “exteriorizing” His interior Logos in the manifested space-time plane, that is, nature, instead of depicting imitations of nature in his craft, submits to creating within the revealed forms of his craft, which forms qua intellections correspond to his inner essence or logos.[2] The work produced in imitation of God's “manner of operation” then resembles the symbolic or iconographic quality of everything existent in being a transparency whose allegorical and anagogical content within its traditional forms is relatively easy to access and a consequent support and edifying shock-reminder to man on his spiritual journey. The spiritual function of art is that “it exteriorizes truths and beauties in view of our interiorization… or simply, so that the human soul might, through given phenomena, make contact with the heavenly archetypes, and thereby with its own archetype” (Schuon 1995a, 45-46).Rowling in her novels, crafted with tools all taken from the chest of a traditional Sacred Artist, is writing non-liturgical Sacred Art. Films and all the story experiences derived of adaptations of imaginative literature to screened images, are by necessity Profane Art, which is to say per the meaning of “profane,” outside the temple or not edifying spiritually. Film making is the depiction of how human beings encounter the time-space world through the senses, not an imitation of how God creates and a depiction of the spiritual aspect of the world, a liminal point of entry to its spiritual dimension. Whence my describing it as a “neo-iconoclasm.”The original iconoclasts or “icon bashers” were believers who treasured sacred art but did not believe it could use images of what is divine without necessarily being blasphemous; after the incarnation of God as Man, this was no longer true, but traditional Christian iconography is anything but naturalistic. It could not be without becoming subjective and profane rather than being a means to spiritual growth and encounters. Western religious art from the Renaissance and Reformation forward, however, embraces profane imitation of the sense perceived world, which is to say naturalistic and as such the antithesis of sacred art. Film making, on religious and non-religious subjects, is the apogee of this profane art which is a denial of any and all of the parameters of Sacred art per Aquinas, traditional civilizations, and the Perennialists.It is a neo-iconoclasm and a much more pervasive and successful destruction of the traditional world-view, so much so that to even point out the profanity inherent to film making is to insure dismissal as some kind of “fundamentalist,” “Puritan,” or “religious fanatic.”Screened images, then, are a type of iconoclasm, albeit the inverse and much more subtle kind than the relatively traditional and theocentric denial of sacred images (the iconoclasm still prevalent in certain Reform Church cults, Judaism, and Islam). This neo-iconoclasm of moving pictures depicts everything in realistic, life-like images, everything, that is, except the sacred which cannot be depicted as we see and experience things. This exclusion of the sacred turns upside down the anti-naturalistic depictions of sacred persons and events in iconography and sacred art. The effect of this flood of natural pictures akin to what we see with our eyes is to compel the flooded mind to accept time and space created nature as the ‘most real,' even ‘the only real.' The sacred, by never being depicted in conformity with accepted supernatural forms, is effectively denied.Few of us spend much time in live drama theaters today. Everyone watches screened images on cineplex screens, home computers, and smart phones. And we are all, consequently, iconoclasts and de facto agnostics, I'm afraid, to greater and lesser degrees because of this immersion and repetitive learning from the predominant art of our secular culture and its implicit atheism.Contrast that with the imaginative experience of a novel that is not pornographic or primarily a vehicle of perversion and violence. We are obliged to generate images of the story in the transpersonal faculty within each of us called the imagination, one I think that is very much akin to conscience or the biblical ‘heart.' This is in essence an edifying exercise, unlike viewing photographic images on screens. That the novel appears at the dawn of the Modern Age and the beginning of the end of Western corporate spirituality, I think is no accident but a providential advent. Moving pictures, the de facto regime artistry of the materialist civilization in which we live, are the counter-blow to the novel's spiritual oxygen.That's the best I can manage tonight to offer something to Justin in response to more about the “neo-iconoclasm” of film This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit hogwartsprofessor.substack.com/subscribe
Today we are thrilled to feature an episode from Judaism Unbound's family of podcasts on our flagship podcast's feed. The podcast is The Oral Talmud, hosted by our founder Dan Libenson and Benay Lappe – founder of SVARA: a Traditionally Radical Yeshiva.Join Benay Lappe and Dan Libenson in their chevrutah, their partnered study and exploration of the Talmud through the “traditionally radical” lens pioneered by Benay Lappe. Together, we explore key stories and practices from the Talmud as a how-to manual for re-imagining Judaism after the previous version “crashes.” Whether you are a beginner or a longtime learner of Talmud, this podcast offers a framework to understand the Talmud more deeply from the perspective of contemporary academic study and creative re-interpretation.----------------------Episode 0: Learning Together“I am responsible for my chevruta's learning, and my chevruta is responsible for my learning. I am invested in you.” - Benay LappeJoin study partners (chevrutas) Benay Lappe & Dan Libenson as they reflect on five years of The Oral Talmud, and celebrate its transition from a video-series to a podcast! What do lasting study partners recognize in each other? How do they decide how and what to learn together? Find out what makes a learning journey exciting, possible, and loving! For full episode shownotes, click here.
In this Parsha Review episode on Parshas Vayeishev, Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe explores the story of Yosef as a paradigm of divine guidance amid human challenges. Yosef, described as an "Ish Matzliach" (successful man) whose every endeavor prospered because "Hashem was with him," rose from slave to overseer in Potiphar's house—yet when entrusted with everything except "the bread he ate," the Torah abruptly notes Yosef's handsome appearance. Rashi explains Yosef began beautifying himself out of pride in his sudden success, forgetting his father Yaakov's mourning; Hashem responded with the ultimate test—Potiphar's wife's seduction—to realign his priorities.Rabbi Wolbe emphasizes that all events, even painful ones from people, are Hashem's precise "midah k'neged midah" (measure for measure) messages for growth, not random cruelty. Wicked messengers like Nebuchadnezzar (called "My servant") or historical evils fulfill decrees but are punished for volunteering malice. Prayer, teshuva, and mitzvot allow us to change decrees before they fully manifest, as Yosef did by resisting temptation and earning the title "Yosef HaTzaddik."True greatness invites profound challenges—the deeper the pit (literally for Yosef), the higher the ascent. Spiritual growth isn't steady but full of ups and downs; success follows the greatest struggles, mirroring a living heartbeat rather than a flatline. As long as we're "above the grass," we can embrace challenges, repent, and rise._____________This episode of the Parsha Review Podcast is dedicated in honor of Lenny & Teresa FriedmanDownload & Print the Parsha Review Notes:https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ncaRyoH5iJmGGoMZs9y82Hz2ofViVouv?usp=sharingRecorded at TORCH Meyerland in the Levin Family Studios (B) to a live audience on December 16, 2025, in Houston, Texas.Released as Podcast on December 19, 2025_____________Subscribe: Apple Podcasts (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/parsha-review-podcast-rabbi-aryeh-wolbe/id1651930083)Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/22lv1kXJob5ZNLaAl6CHTQ) to stay inspired! Share your questions at awolbe@torchweb.org or visit torchweb.org for more Torah content. _____________About the Host:Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe, Director of TORCH in Houston, brings decades of Torah scholarship to guide listeners in applying Jewish wisdom to daily life. To directly send your questions, comments, and feedback: awolbe@torchweb.org_____________Support Our Mission:Help us share Jewish wisdom globally by sponsoring an episode at torchweb.org. Your support makes a difference!_____________Subscribe and Listen to other podcasts by Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe: NEW!! Prayer Podcast: https://prayerpodcast.transistor.fm/episodesJewish Inspiration Podcast: https://inspiration.transistor.fm/episodesParsha Review Podcast: https://parsha.transistor.fm/episodesLiving Jewishly Podcast: https://jewishly.transistor.fm/episodesThinking Talmudist Podcast: https://talmud.transistor.fm/episodesUnboxing Judaism Podcast: https://unboxing.transistor.fm/episodesRabbi Aryeh Wolbe Podcast Collection: https://collection.transistor.fm/episodesFor a full listing of podcasts available by TORCH at http://podcast.torchweb.org_____________Keywords:#Torah, #Parsha, #Genesis, #Joseph, #Challenges, #prayer, #repentance, #divineguidance, #growth ★ Support this podcast ★
In this Parshas Miketz review—always read on Shabbos Chanukah—Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe uncovers the profound link between Pharaoh's disturbing dreams and the miracle of Chanukah. Pharaoh dreams of seven gaunt cows devouring seven robust ones, and seven thin, scorched ears swallowing seven healthy stalks—images that shatter his worldview where the strong always overpower the weak, the many dominate the few, and the beautiful prevail. This reversal terrifies him, as it defies the "laws of nature" he knows.The rabbi explains that Pharaoh's nightmare encapsulates Jewish history: the Jewish people, perpetually the few, the weak, and the persecuted, miraculously overcome mighty empires—from Greece in the Chanukah story to countless assaults over 2,000 years (with scarcely a decade without pogroms, expulsions, or blood libels). Chanukah celebrates precisely this reversal: the weak Maccabees defeating the vast Greek army, the pure overcoming the impure, and a single cruse of oil burning for eight days.Just as Pharaoh's dream disturbed the natural order, Jewish survival and triumph defy logic—proving Hashem's direct intervention. Our mission is not physical conquest but spiritual illumination: proudly displaying the menorah, living Torah values openly, and thanking Hashem ceaselessly for both light and darkness, success and challenge. Shabbos candles even take precedence over Chanukah lights for the sake of shalom bayis (peace in the home), underscoring that harmony is the foundation for all miracles._____________This episode of the Parsha Review Podcast is dedicated in honor of Lenny & Teresa FriedmanDownload & Print the Parsha Review Notes:https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ncaRyoH5iJmGGoMZs9y82Hz2ofViVouv?usp=sharingRecorded at TORCH Meyerland in the Levin Family Studios (B) to a live audience on December 19, 2025, in Houston, Texas.Released as Podcast on December 19, 2025_____________Subscribe: Apple Podcasts (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/parsha-review-podcast-rabbi-aryeh-wolbe/id1651930083)Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/22lv1kXJob5ZNLaAl6CHTQ) to stay inspired! Share your questions at awolbe@torchweb.org or visit torchweb.org for more Torah content. _____________About the Host:Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe, Director of TORCH in Houston, brings decades of Torah scholarship to guide listeners in applying Jewish wisdom to daily life. To directly send your questions, comments, and feedback: awolbe@torchweb.org_____________Support Our Mission:Help us share Jewish wisdom globally by sponsoring an episode at torchweb.org. Your support makes a difference!_____________Subscribe and Listen to other podcasts by Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe: NEW!! Prayer Podcast: https://prayerpodcast.transistor.fm/episodesJewish Inspiration Podcast: https://inspiration.transistor.fm/episodesParsha Review Podcast: https://parsha.transistor.fm/episodesLiving Jewishly Podcast: https://jewishly.transistor.fm/episodesThinking Talmudist Podcast: https://talmud.transistor.fm/episodesUnboxing Judaism Podcast: https://unboxing.transistor.fm/episodesRabbi Aryeh Wolbe Podcast Collection: https://collection.transistor.fm/episodesFor a full listing of podcasts available by TORCH at http://podcast.torchweb.org_____________Keywords:#Torah, #Parsha, #Genesis, #Joseph, #Chanukah #Miketz #Pharaoh, #Dreams, #Miracles, #Weak, #Strong, #Hanukkah, #JewishHistory, #Divine, #Light, #Darkness, #ShalomBayis ★ Support this podcast ★
In this Parshas Miketz review—always read on Shabbos Chanukah—Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe uncovers the profound link between Pharaoh's disturbing dreams and the miracle of Chanukah. Pharaoh dreams of seven gaunt cows devouring seven robust ones, and seven thin, scorched ears swallowing seven healthy stalks—images that shatter his worldview where the strong always overpower the weak, the many dominate the few, and the beautiful prevail. This reversal terrifies him, as it defies the "laws of nature" he knows.The rabbi explains that Pharaoh's nightmare encapsulates Jewish history: the Jewish people, perpetually the few, the weak, and the persecuted, miraculously overcome mighty empires—from Greece in the Chanukah story to countless assaults over 2,000 years (with scarcely a decade without pogroms, expulsions, or blood libels). Chanukah celebrates precisely this reversal: the weak Maccabees defeating the vast Greek army, the pure overcoming the impure, and a single cruse of oil burning for eight days.Just as Pharaoh's dream disturbed the natural order, Jewish survival and triumph defy logic—proving Hashem's direct intervention. Our mission is not physical conquest but spiritual illumination: proudly displaying the menorah, living Torah values openly, and thanking Hashem ceaselessly for both light and darkness, success and challenge. Shabbos candles even take precedence over Chanukah lights for the sake of shalom bayis (peace in the home), underscoring that harmony is the foundation for all miracles._____________This episode of the Parsha Review Podcast is dedicated in honor of Lenny & Teresa FriedmanDownload & Print the Parsha Review Notes:https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ncaRyoH5iJmGGoMZs9y82Hz2ofViVouv?usp=sharingRecorded at TORCH Meyerland in the Levin Family Studios (B) to a live audience on December 19, 2025, in Houston, Texas.Released as Podcast on December 19, 2025_____________Subscribe: Apple Podcasts (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/parsha-review-podcast-rabbi-aryeh-wolbe/id1651930083)Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/22lv1kXJob5ZNLaAl6CHTQ) to stay inspired! Share your questions at awolbe@torchweb.org or visit torchweb.org for more Torah content. _____________About the Host:Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe, Director of TORCH in Houston, brings decades of Torah scholarship to guide listeners in applying Jewish wisdom to daily life. To directly send your questions, comments, and feedback: awolbe@torchweb.org_____________Support Our Mission:Help us share Jewish wisdom globally by sponsoring an episode at torchweb.org. Your support makes a difference!_____________Subscribe and Listen to other podcasts by Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe: NEW!! Prayer Podcast: https://prayerpodcast.transistor.fm/episodesJewish Inspiration Podcast: https://inspiration.transistor.fm/episodesParsha Review Podcast: https://parsha.transistor.fm/episodesLiving Jewishly Podcast: https://jewishly.transistor.fm/episodesThinking Talmudist Podcast: https://talmud.transistor.fm/episodesUnboxing Judaism Podcast: https://unboxing.transistor.fm/episodesRabbi Aryeh Wolbe Podcast Collection: https://collection.transistor.fm/episodesFor a full listing of podcasts available by TORCH at http://podcast.torchweb.org_____________Keywords:#Torah, #Parsha, #Genesis, #Joseph, #Chanukah #Miketz #Pharaoh, #Dreams, #Miracles, #Weak, #Strong, #Hanukkah, #JewishHistory, #Divine, #Light, #Darkness, #ShalomBayis ★ Support this podcast ★
In this Parsha Review episode on Parshas Vayeishev, Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe explores the story of Yosef as a paradigm of divine guidance amid human challenges. Yosef, described as an "Ish Matzliach" (successful man) whose every endeavor prospered because "Hashem was with him," rose from slave to overseer in Potiphar's house—yet when entrusted with everything except "the bread he ate," the Torah abruptly notes Yosef's handsome appearance. Rashi explains Yosef began beautifying himself out of pride in his sudden success, forgetting his father Yaakov's mourning; Hashem responded with the ultimate test—Potiphar's wife's seduction—to realign his priorities.Rabbi Wolbe emphasizes that all events, even painful ones from people, are Hashem's precise "midah k'neged midah" (measure for measure) messages for growth, not random cruelty. Wicked messengers like Nebuchadnezzar (called "My servant") or historical evils fulfill decrees but are punished for volunteering malice. Prayer, teshuva, and mitzvot allow us to change decrees before they fully manifest, as Yosef did by resisting temptation and earning the title "Yosef HaTzaddik."True greatness invites profound challenges—the deeper the pit (literally for Yosef), the higher the ascent. Spiritual growth isn't steady but full of ups and downs; success follows the greatest struggles, mirroring a living heartbeat rather than a flatline. As long as we're "above the grass," we can embrace challenges, repent, and rise._____________This episode of the Parsha Review Podcast is dedicated in honor of Lenny & Teresa FriedmanDownload & Print the Parsha Review Notes:https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ncaRyoH5iJmGGoMZs9y82Hz2ofViVouv?usp=sharingRecorded at TORCH Meyerland in the Levin Family Studios (B) to a live audience on December 16, 2025, in Houston, Texas.Released as Podcast on December 19, 2025_____________Subscribe: Apple Podcasts (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/parsha-review-podcast-rabbi-aryeh-wolbe/id1651930083)Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/22lv1kXJob5ZNLaAl6CHTQ) to stay inspired! Share your questions at awolbe@torchweb.org or visit torchweb.org for more Torah content. _____________About the Host:Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe, Director of TORCH in Houston, brings decades of Torah scholarship to guide listeners in applying Jewish wisdom to daily life. To directly send your questions, comments, and feedback: awolbe@torchweb.org_____________Support Our Mission:Help us share Jewish wisdom globally by sponsoring an episode at torchweb.org. Your support makes a difference!_____________Subscribe and Listen to other podcasts by Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe: NEW!! Prayer Podcast: https://prayerpodcast.transistor.fm/episodesJewish Inspiration Podcast: https://inspiration.transistor.fm/episodesParsha Review Podcast: https://parsha.transistor.fm/episodesLiving Jewishly Podcast: https://jewishly.transistor.fm/episodesThinking Talmudist Podcast: https://talmud.transistor.fm/episodesUnboxing Judaism Podcast: https://unboxing.transistor.fm/episodesRabbi Aryeh Wolbe Podcast Collection: https://collection.transistor.fm/episodesFor a full listing of podcasts available by TORCH at http://podcast.torchweb.org_____________Keywords:#Torah, #Parsha, #Genesis, #Joseph, #Challenges, #prayer, #repentance, #divineguidance, #growth ★ Support this podcast ★
In this episode, Adam Louis Klein explains why anti-Zionism is not simply criticism of Israel, but a modern ideological movement shaping campus activism, academia, and contemporary antisemitism.We explore how anti-Jewish hatred has evolved across history—from medieval anti-Judaism, to 19th-century racial antisemitism, to today's anti-Zionism as a full-scale social and moral ideology. Adam argues that many debates within the Jewish community are fundamentally misframed, and that treating anti-Zionism as “just criticism of Israel” obscures its real function: stigmatization, moral inversion, and social coercion.This episode examines:Why the question “Is anti-Zionism antisemitism?” misses the pointAnti-Zionism as an ideology with its own genealogy, language, and tacticsHow Holocaust inversion, apartheid rhetoric, and settler-colonial frameworks function as modern libelsWhy traditional Jewish advocacy strategies fail against anti-Zionist movementsThe role of academia, post-colonial theory, and activist scholarship in mainstreaming these narrativesWhy anti-Zionism cannot be debated like a good-faith political position—and how to respond insteadThe psychological and sociological pressures leading some Jews to internalize anti-Zionist claimsHow Palestinian suffering is often exploited rather than alleviated by anti-Zionist ideologyRather than defending Israel point-by-point, this conversation makes the case for turning the lens outward—analyzing anti-Zionism itself as a historical, ideological, and moral phenomenon.This episode is essential listening for anyone grappling with campus activism, media narratives, Jewish identity, or the future of Jewish advocacy in the West.Timestamps / Chapters00:00 – What anti-Zionism actually is07:30 – Why “Is anti-Zionism antisemitism?” is the wrong question14:00 – Anti-Zionism as ideology, not debate23:40 – Holocaust inversion & modern libels35:00 – Academia, settler-colonial theory, and ideological capture44:30 – Why traditional Jewish advocacy fails55:00 – Internal Jewish conflict & moral confusion#israel #palestine #rabbi #jewishidentity #jewishthought
In this episode of Out of Zion, ICEJ USA’s Dr. Susan Michael shows how understanding Judaism helps us connect the Bible to life today as she traces its development from Jesus’ time to the present. She reviews the four major New Testament-era sects—Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, and Zealots—explaining how the 70 AD temple destruction led to Rabbinic Judaism and how oral traditions shaped practice. She also examines the major modern streams and discusses the question of “Who is a Jew?” as a blend of peoplehood, culture, and religion Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.
Abraham and Lot can't stay together anymore. Their shepherds are fighting. The land can't support both of them. It's time to separate.But here's what makes this moment extraordinary: Abraham gives Lot first choice of where to settle. Left or right, you pick, and I'll take what's left. It's an act of incredible generosity from the elder to the younger, from uncle to nephew.Lot surveys the land and sees the Jordan valley. Lush. Well-watered. Wealthy beyond imagination. It looks like the Garden of Eden. It looks like Egypt. So he chooses it. And in doing so, he "pitches his tent toward Sodom."Rabbi Epstein reveals why this single decision becomes Lot's tragic turning point. The Torah tells us the people of Sodom were "wicked and sinful toward Hashem exceedingly," and Lot knew it. Everyone knew about Sodom the way people today know about Vegas. Yet he chose material prosperity over spiritual proximity to Abraham.The episode unpacks a fascinating debate: When G-d told Abraham to "go to the land I will show you," did He ever actually command him to stay there? The Hebrew is precise, and the answer changes everything about how we understand Abraham's descent to Egypt and his return.You'll discover why G-d doesn't speak to Abraham again until after Lot leaves. What it means that Lot "traveled from the east," which can also be read as "traveled away from G-d." And why Abraham's shepherds refused to let their flocks graze on other people's land even though Lot's shepherds claimed it would eventually belong to them anyway.Rabbi Epstein explores the deeper question underneath Lot's choice: How much are we willing to pay, in money, comfort, or opportunity, to stay close to righteousness? And when does leaving that proximity become the beginning of our own undoing?The episode also addresses whether Abraham made a mistake by letting Lot go, why the Canaanites were living in land that belonged to Shem's descendants, and the profound promise G-d makes to Abraham immediately after Lot departs: "All the land you see, I will give to you and your descendants forever."This is about the choices we make when righteousness and prosperity point in opposite directions, and what happens when we convince ourselves we can have both.
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(00:00:00) Go Kvetch Presents: No Kvetch 6 (A Question for Andy) (00:09:32) Drinks (00:23:46) Sidney's Segment (00:34:38) Sean's Segment (00:42:15) Uel's Segment It's time for another No Kvetch episode really just because Sean asked for one. In this episode Sidney Kvells about the amazing things his daughter says, Uel kvells about cozy murder contend and Sean kvells about Cryposcience. Epsiode Links:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pd1z8jNuiz8
Main Texts: Mark 10:13-16 & 10:17-24The Call to accept Christ as little children, from infancy to 12years old, was a radical call for ancient Jewish culture:Countercultural.In Jesus' day, children, while loved (especially sons) wereconsidered for the most part immature, unreasonable and objectsto be trained. They were to be schooled until the ages 13, to beconsidered a useful part of adult Jewish society.Elite rabbis like Jesus should not waste their busy lives andmission, addressing children, rather focus their needed attentionto the issues of the adult world. But Jesus broke this societal ruleand encouraged parents to bring their children to be officially“blessed” by Him. (verse 14)And He became incensed when His own disciples “rebuked”them: The children and their parents, and even possibly Jesus!But when Jesus heard their rebuke and saw their dismissiveattitudes, that was more loyal to their rigid Judaism, He becomeindignant/angry at them (verse 14).He then set up a new rule for His good news: “Let the littlechildren come to me and do not hinder them (and their parents)for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these”, not like theproud but those running to receive His gift.Like the children's humble demeanor, the adults are to realizehumbly their need and accept Jesus' grace, gift or they wouldnever enter the Kingdom of heaven (verse 15).This story provides a fitting contrast for the Rich adult who was areligious heavy weight (see Mark 10:17-24). He bragged to be aheavy-weight in Judaism as well trusting in his riches. (The love ofmoney can become the root of all evil. 1 Timothy 6:10)Jesus pointed this out in verse 21, and with a heart of love askedhim surrender his first love and to receive the gift of Jesuskingdom or have also treasure in heaven (Matthew 6:19-21).He refused the offer: “At this the man's face fell and he went awaysad because in spite of his religious law abiding, he selfishlyaccrued great wealth (my paraphrase of verse 22), he did notreceive the kingdom.Contrast this to the joy experienced by the children and theirparents in Mark 10:13-16. They were willing to approach Jesus,counter-culture, with the need and hunger to be blessed by Jesus,and accept His gift of the Kingdom.They had no claim of power and status, especially from theirreligious society, but the humble need to be “touched” or“blessed” by Jesus; and not earn but receive the Kingdom as agift. The disciples' failure to understand Jesus' kingdom as a giftof grace responding to humility, earned Jesus' ire and rebuke.And the children received, not earned, His hands upon them andblessing.They demonstrated the attitude needed to enter into Christ'sKingdom: The rich adult was out; the children and their parentswere in!AMEN
Miriam Moster has a PhD sociology, she is a Mellon Humanities Public Fellow and a Wexner Graduate Fellow. Her research explores Jewish communities, education, and the experiences of individuals navigating the boundaries of insular religious worlds. "Navigating the boundaries" means moving from one sector of Judaism and observance to another sector and lifestyle; and she has published widely on these topics. Her work is distinguished by an interdisciplinary approach, drawing on sociology, narrative, and cultural studies to better understand how people view and construct their own personal identity and how they fit into a community. In a wide-ranging conversation, we talk about adults who leave the observant community, the acceptance and value of research in the Haredi community, divorces and their impact on changes in religiosity and religious self-identification, Shabbat for singles, the greater acceptance and "mainstreaming" of therapy, and the dangers and cautions relating to therapy.
B"H Chanukah reminds us that mitzvot aren't just about doing, they're about how we do them. Lighting the candles isn't a technical act; it's an invitation to bring beauty, love, and intention into our spiritual lives. When we infuse our actions with heart and soul, the light shines far beyond the flame itself ✨ To watch Torah Thoughts in video format, click HERE Subscribe to the Torah Thoughts BLOG for exclusive written content! Please like, share and subscribe wherever you find this!
This evening we explore the clash on this Friday afternoon of the Chanukah Menorah and the Shabbat lights. While outwardly similar, the reasons for each are different, and so too the directions. But which takes priority, and why? We trace insights from Rashi, Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein, Jancee Dunn, Rabbi Yeshaya Halevi Horowitz (the Shaloh), the Slonimer Rebbe, and Rabbi Jonathan Sacks. Wishing you a peaceful, calm, and harmonious Friday afternoon preparing for Shabbat which is Chanukah (and Rosh Chodesh)! Michael Whitman is the senior rabbi of ADATH Congregation in Hampstead, Quebec, and an adjunct professor at McGill University Faculty of Law. ADATH is a modern orthodox synagogue community in suburban Montreal, providing Judaism for the next generation. We take great pleasure in welcoming everyone with a warm smile, while sharing inspiration through prayer, study, and friendship. Rabbi Whitman shares his thoughts and inspirations through online lectures and shiurim, which are available on: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5FLcsC6xz5TmkirT1qObkA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adathmichael/ Podcast - Mining the Riches of the Parsha: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/mining-the-riches-of-the-parsha/id1479615142?fbclid=IwAR1c6YygRR6pvAKFvEmMGCcs0Y6hpmK8tXzPinbum8drqw2zLIo7c9SR-jc Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3hWYhCG5GR8zygw4ZNsSmO Please contact Rabbi Whitman (rabbi@adath.ca) with any questions or feedback, or to receive a daily email, "Study with Rabbi Whitman Today," with current and past insights for that day, video, and audio, all in one short email sent directly to your inbox.
This morning I share an essay from Rabbi Zohar Atkins that startled me, and contains a fundamental insight into Chanukah - I can only fulfill my obligation with your participation, and vice versa. Michael Whitman is the senior rabbi of ADATH Congregation in Hampstead, Quebec, and an adjunct professor at McGill University Faculty of Law. ADATH is a modern orthodox synagogue community in suburban Montreal, providing Judaism for the next generation. We take great pleasure in welcoming everyone with a warm smile, while sharing inspiration through prayer, study, and friendship. Rabbi Whitman shares his thoughts and inspirations through online lectures and shiurim, which are available on: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5FLcsC6xz5TmkirT1qObkA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adathmichael/ Podcast - Mining the Riches of the Parsha: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/mining-the-riches-of-the-parsha/id1479615142?fbclid=IwAR1c6YygRR6pvAKFvEmMGCcs0Y6hpmK8tXzPinbum8drqw2zLIo7c9SR-jc Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3hWYhCG5GR8zygw4ZNsSmO Please contact Rabbi Whitman (rabbi@adath.ca) with any questions or feedback, or to receive a daily email, "Study with Rabbi Whitman Today," with current and past insights for that day, video, and audio, all in one short email sent directly to your inbox.
On the evening of December 14, 2025—the first night of Hanukkah—Rabbi Benjamin Elton was driving home from performing a wedding, looking forward to lighting candles with his family. Then his phone began to explode with messages. There were gunmen at Bondi Beach. His wife and children were in lockdown at a nearby event. Names of the dead were coming through—colleagues, community members. For several terrible minutes, he couldn't reach his wife. And he wondered whether he was going to come home to find that he had lost his family. By the time the shooting stopped, fifteen people were dead, among them two rabbis, an eighty-seven-year-old Holocaust survivor, and a ten-year-old girl. They had been gunned down at a public Hanukkah celebration on one of Australia's most iconic beaches, before a large crowd of Jews who had gathered to light the menorah in the open air—because that's what confident, integrated diaspora communities do. The massacre at Bondi Beach was the culmination of two years of escalating anti-Semitism that the community had been warning about since October 7. Synagogues firebombed with congregants inside. Cars set ablaze in Jewish neighborhoods. Swastikas painted on schools and daycares. Weekly pro-Palestinian marches past synagogues every week, with chants of "globalize the intifada." A van discovered full of explosives along with a list of the addresses of Jewish institutions. And through it all, a government that offered sympathy and money for security, but never quite confronted the deeper problem. Until, finally, the community's darkest warnings came true. Rabbi Benjamin Elton is the chief minister of the Great Synagogue in Sydney—Australia's oldest Jewish congregation, founded in the 1820s, whose pulpit has traditionally made its occupant a primary representative of Judaism to the wider society. He holds a PhD in Jewish history from the University of London, and before entering the rabbinate, he worked in Britain's Ministry of Justice. He is a scholar of Anglo-Jewish history, a fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and a Sacks scholar, and, just over a decade ago, spent a year in residence as a fellow at Tikvah. This week, Rabbi Elton has been burying his friends. He joined Jonathan Silver, the editor of Mosaic, to discuss the recent trials of his family and community, and the growing threat to Australian Jewish security.
Episode: 2547 Changing views on charging interest throughout history. Today, interest.
Accessing Hashem's Guidance
Samantha Vinokor-Meinrath is joined by another history professor, Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, who is the lead scholar of Hidden Voices, an initiative to address how overlooked minority groups are taught in New York City Public Schools, including Jewish history and stories. As educators, we are invited to ask: What does meaningful Jewish inclusion in education really look like? What core knowledge should non-Jewish students have about Jews? And how do we teach the full scope of Jewish involvement in American history, even when that history is controversial? This essential conversation aligns with the Center for Jewish-Inclusive Learning (CJIL), our initiative to support public and independent school educators with resources about the Jewish people and creating safe and inclusive spaces for Jewish students and faculty. To learn more about CJIL, visit cjilearning.org To learn more about Hidden Voices, visit https://www.schools.nyc.gov/learning/subjects/social-studies/hidden-voices Learn more about The Jewish Education Project at jewishedproject.orgThis episode was produced by Miranda Lapides and Rina Cohen Schwarz. The show's executive producers are David Bryfman, Karen Cummins, and Nessa Liben. This episode was engineered and edited by Nathan J. Vaughan of NJV Media. If you enjoyed the show, please leave us a 5-star rating and review, or even better, share it with a friend. Be sure to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and be the first to know when new episodes are released. To learn more about The Jewish Education Project visit jewishedproject.org where you can find links to our Jewish Educator Portal and learn more about our mission, history, and staff. We are a proud partner of UJA-Federation of New York.
Power reveals character. From Joseph's restraint at the height of global authority to the Chashmonaim's uneasy legacy, Rabbi Dunner explores how Judaism measures leadership once power is achieved. Why did Chazal let the Hasmonean victories fade, but still preserve Chanukah? And what does Parshat Miketz teach us about responsibility, restraint, and the moral test of power in Jewish history today?
Moshe and Laurie Lans are a military couple--he in the Army and she in the Navy--currently stationed in Germany. They're also observant Jews, who use every opportunity to bring Judaism to their surroundings.
This morning we explain why we are not supposed to count Jews, based on an insight from Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, who explains this is the central message of Chanukah. We demonstrate this with a great story from Daniel Gordis about 20 years ago, and another story from last Monday night. Michael Whitman is the senior rabbi of ADATH Congregation in Hampstead, Quebec, and an adjunct professor at McGill University Faculty of Law. ADATH is a modern orthodox synagogue community in suburban Montreal, providing Judaism for the next generation. We take great pleasure in welcoming everyone with a warm smile, while sharing inspiration through prayer, study, and friendship. Rabbi Whitman shares his thoughts and inspirations through online lectures and shiurim, which are available on: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5FLcsC6xz5TmkirT1qObkA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adathmichael/ Podcast - Mining the Riches of the Parsha: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/mining-the-riches-of-the-parsha/id1479615142?fbclid=IwAR1c6YygRR6pvAKFvEmMGCcs0Y6hpmK8tXzPinbum8drqw2zLIo7c9SR-jc Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3hWYhCG5GR8zygw4ZNsSmO Please contact Rabbi Whitman (rabbi@adath.ca) with any questions or feedback, or to receive a daily email, "Study with Rabbi Whitman Today," with current and past insights for that day, video, and audio, all in one short email sent directly to your inbox.
This week I have two stories for you. The first is about a carpenter who disappears, a wife who won't stop waiting, and a menorah that had been in the family for generations. The second is about Reb Zusha of Hanipol, and the night his Rebbe told him to step aside. If you're enjoying these Chassidic stories, please take a quick moment to buy me a coffee. https://ko-fi.com/barakhullman Thank you! I deeply appreciate your support! Also available at https://soundcloud.com/barak-hullman/the-true-light-of-chanukah To become a part of this project or sponsor an episode please go to https://hasidicstory.com/be-a-supporter. Hear all of the stories at https://hasidicstory.com. Go here to hear my other podcast https://jewishpeopleideas.com or https://soundcloud.com/jewishpeopleideas. Find my books, Figure It Out When You Get There: A Memoir of Stories About Living Life First and Watching How Everything Falls Into Place and A Shtikel Sholom: A Student, His Mentor and Their Unconventional Conversations on Amazon by going to https://bit.ly/barakhullman. My classes in Breslov Chassidus, Likutey Moharan, can be found here https://www.youtube.com/@barakhullman/videos I also have a YouTube channel of ceramics which can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/@thejerusalempotter
Prayer in the Ancient World is the resource on prayer in the ancient Near East and Mediterranean. With over 350 entries it showcases a robust selection of the range of different types of prayers attested from Mesopotamia, Egypt, Anatolia, the Levant, early Judaism and Christianity, Greece, Rome, Arabia, and Iran, enhanced by critical commentary.The Prayer in the Ancient World will also be available online.Preview of the 'Prayer in the Ancient World' Daniel K. Falk is Professor of Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies and Chaiken Family Chair in Jewish Studies at Penn State University. Caleb Zakarin is editor of the New Books Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network
Sharing verses from the Quran specifically from The Heifer. Giving application of these surahs to today. Also, comparing the perspective of Islam to that of Christianity and Judaism.Support Via Cashapp: @MarquettDavonSupport via Venmo: @MarquettDavonSupport: https://donate.stripe.com/4gM9ATgXFcRx5Tf4rw0x200Become a member: https://thesasn.com/membership-account/membership-levels/Support with Bitcoin: BTC Deposit address: 3NtpN3eGwcmAgq1AYJsp7aV7QzQDeE9uwdMy Book: https://www.amazon.com/Black-Box-Marquett-Burton/dp/0578745062https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-marquett-burtons-training-centerBook Consultation: https://cozycal.com/sasn#Marquettism #bilalphilips #deen #muhammad #hadith #relationships #sincity #LasVegas #PickupArtist #business #relationships #money #freshandfit #freshandfitclips #freshandfitpodcast #hiphop #rap #foundationalblackamerican #cobratate #russellbrand #tristantate #entertainment #longformcontent #geopolitics #topg #kattwilliams
Every Moment is a Gift
Prayer in the Ancient World is the resource on prayer in the ancient Near East and Mediterranean. With over 350 entries it showcases a robust selection of the range of different types of prayers attested from Mesopotamia, Egypt, Anatolia, the Levant, early Judaism and Christianity, Greece, Rome, Arabia, and Iran, enhanced by critical commentary.The Prayer in the Ancient World will also be available online.Preview of the 'Prayer in the Ancient World' Daniel K. Falk is Professor of Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies and Chaiken Family Chair in Jewish Studies at Penn State University. Caleb Zakarin is editor of the New Books Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/jewish-studies
Help us take Unpacked podcasts further by supporting our crowdfunding campaign: https://unpacked.bio/podgift2025 Book for the Jerusalem Marathon "Return, Reconnect, and Run for Resilience" tour: sababatravel.com Mijal and Noam dive into the fraught conversation around tzniut (modesty), blending Jewish sources with personal stories and lived experience. They unpack what Jewish law actually says, debunk common myths about dress codes, oppression, and liberation, and wrestle honestly with how modesty shows up in real communities. Ultimately, they expand tzniut beyond clothing—toward dignity, humility, self-awareness, and agency. We're proud to be collaborating with Sefaria and The Simchat Torah Challenge, on this episode along with all the other episodes of our “In the Beginning” mini-series. Learn more about these two incredible organizations here: https://simchattorahchallenge.org/ https://www.sefaria.org/texts Get in touch at WonderingJews@unpacked.media and call us, 1-833-WON-Jews. Follow @unpackedmedia on Instagram and check out Unpacked on youtube. ------------ This podcast was brought to you by Unpacked, an OpenDor Media brand. For other podcasts from Unpacked, check out: Jewish History Nerds Soulful Jewish Living Stars of David with Elon Gold Unpacking Israeli History
Prayer in the Ancient World is the resource on prayer in the ancient Near East and Mediterranean. With over 350 entries it showcases a robust selection of the range of different types of prayers attested from Mesopotamia, Egypt, Anatolia, the Levant, early Judaism and Christianity, Greece, Rome, Arabia, and Iran, enhanced by critical commentary.The Prayer in the Ancient World will also be available online.Preview of the 'Prayer in the Ancient World' Daniel K. Falk is Professor of Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies and Chaiken Family Chair in Jewish Studies at Penn State University. Caleb Zakarin is editor of the New Books Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/middle-eastern-studies
Lex Rofeberg is joined again by Lexi Kohanski, and Liana Wertman (our friends at The Torah Studio) for the 3nd conversation in our 2025 edition of ApocryFest: Hanukkah Unbound and Un-Canonized. In this episode, they explore a text called 4 Ezra. You can sign up for ApocryFest 2025 by heading to www.JudaismUnbound.com/apocryfest. Do so, and we'll send you all sorts of cool Apocryphal stuff, during Hanukkah, to help enrich your experience of this holiday! And you can register for The Hanukkah Apocrypha Extravaganza on December 21st, via this link!For all of our episodes from past years' ApocryFests, click here.Head to JudaismUnbound.com/classes to check out our up upcoming 3-week mini-courses in the UnYeshiva! This time around we are offering The Torah of Kink, Hasidism and Neo-Hasidism, Queering Kedusha (Holiness), and Brit Milah Unbound: Exploring Circumcision!
Mother Miriam Live - December 16th, 2025 Mother reads an article titled Twelve Jewels of Advent Wisdom Mother speaks to a Catholic convert from Judaism about how the two intersect when it comes to the holidays. Mother responds to emails about Mary, habitual sin, cremation, and more.
Abrahamic religion is being used to bring about a holy war in the name of, depending on who you ask, one God or another. The conflict between Christians and Muslims, inflamed by agents like Jake Lang, is only one part of a much larger plan that involves the psychotic and paranoid delusions of rabbinical Judaism hell-bent on destroying gentiles, even goy-Jews who dare step out of line. *The is the FREE archive, which includes advertisements. If you want an ad-free experience, you can subscribe below underneath the show description.WEBSITEFREE ARCHIVE (w. ads)SUBSCRIPTION ARCHIVE-X / TWITTERFACEBOOKINSTAGRAMYOUTUBERUMBLE-BUY ME A COFFEECashApp: $rdgable PAYPAL: rdgable1991@gmail.comRyan's Books: https://thesecretteachings.info - EMAIL: rdgable@yahoo.com / rdgable1991@gmail.comBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-secret-teachings--5328407/support.
In this special Chanukah edition we delve into antisemitism of today, the tragedy that befell our people in Australia and our ultimate hope and how seeing love in each other and increasing Bitachon in Hashem is connected to what we think about when we look at the Chanukah Lights this year. I introduce and gift a special little sefer to the women shiur as we delve into the Bitachon it offers us.
Support the Foundation of Jewish Camp: www.jewishcamp.org/callmebackSupport American Friends of the Israeli Navy SEALS: AFINS.us/warriorcare Subscribe to Inside Call me Back: inside.arkmedia.org/?utm_source=shownotes&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=insideGift a subscription of Inside Call me Back: inside.arkmedia.org/giftsListen to What's Your Number: lnk.to/GsOESPSubscribe to Amit Segal's newsletter ‘It's Noon in Israel':arkmedia.org/amitsegal/Watch Call me Back on YouTube: youtube.com/@CallMeBackPodcastCheck out Ark Media's other podcasts: For Heaven's Sake: https://lnk.to/rfGlrA‘What's Your Number?': https://lnk.to/rfGlrAFor sponsorship inquiries, please contact: callmeback@arkmedia.orgTo contact us, sign up for updates, and access transcripts, visit: arkmedia.org/Ark Media on Instagram: instagram.com/arkmediaorgDan on X: x.com/dansenorDan on Instagram: instagram.com/dansenorTo order Dan Senor & Saul Singer's book, The Genius of Israel: tinyurl.com/bdeyjsdnToday's Episode: On Sunday, two gunmen opened fire on a crowd of Jews gathered to celebrate the first night of Hanukkah at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia. As of now, there are 16 confirmed deaths, and roughly 40 wounded, with the victims ranging from ages 10 to 87. It's one of the deadliest attacks on Jews in the diaspora over the past few decades. The perpetrators are believed to be a father and son of Muslim, Pakestani origin. One was neutralized on scene and the other was shot and is in critical condition. To discuss the antisemitic horror that unfolded in Sydney, Dan was joined by two members of the local Jewish community – Jeremy Leibler, President of the Zionist Federation of Australia, and Nomi Kaltmann, Australian lawyer and journalist for various Jewish and Israeli outlets, as well as Ark Media contributor Nadav Eyal. CREDITS:ILAN BENATAR - Producer & EditorADAAM JAMES LEVIN-AREDDY - Executive ProducerBRITTANY COHEN - Production ManagerMARTIN HUERGO - Sound EditorMARIANGELES BURGOS AND PATTRICIO SPADAVECCIA - Additional EditingMAYA RACKOFF - Associate ProducerGABE SILVERSTEIN - Community ManagementYUVAL SEMO - Music Composer
AJC Director of Campus Affairs Moshe Lencer was on his first visit to Australia when the unimaginable happened. Hours after he enjoyed the sun at Sydney's Bondi Beach, it became the site of an antisemitic terrorist attack, leaving 15 people, including a child and a Holocaust survivor, dead. Moshe recounts attending a student leadership shabbaton, in partnership with Australia's Union for Jewish Students (AUJS), and the immediate aftermath on the ground—a mix of helplessness and resolve—and the powerful scene at Bondi Beach the following day, as Jews and non-Jews gathered to mourn and show solidarity. Reflecting on the rise of antisemitism in Australia, Moshe—speaking as an outsider to the community—underscores the guiding principle of Australian Jews at this moment: "If we stop celebrating Jewish identity, it means they won." Read Full Transcript: https://www.ajc.org/news/podcast/ajcs-asia-pacific-institute-on-how-australias-government-ignored-the-warning-signs-before Resources: -What To Know About the Antisemitic Terror Attack in Sydney -Take action: Urgent: Confirm U.S. Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism Listen – AJC Podcasts: -Architects of Peace -The Forgotten Exodus -People of the Pod Follow People of the Pod on your favorite podcast app, and learn more at AJC.org/PeopleofthePod You can reach us at: peopleofthepod@ajc.org If you've appreciated this episode, please be sure to tell your friends, and rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Transcript of the Interview: Manya Brachear Pashman: As the sun began to set in Australia on Sunday, more than 1000 gathered on Bondi Beach in Sydney to celebrate the first night of Hanukkah by the Sea, but at about 6p m, terrorists fired into the crowd, killing at least 15 and wounding dozens more. Students with the Australasian union of Jewish students had just wrapped up a Shaba tone before they headed to Bondi Beach and our own AJC, Director of Campus affairs, Moshe Lencer, whom we affectionately call Moosh, was there with him shortly before the attack, and he's with us now. Moosh, welcome to people of the pod. Moshe Lencer: Thank you for having me. Manya Brachear Pashman: Well, I wish it were under very different circumstances. How are you doing and how are the students doing that you are spending time with there? Moshe Lencer: It's a wonderful question, and the more I think about it, the less I have a clear answer. It's a combination of helplessness, and in the same time, desire towards hope and trying to figure how to move through this very dark time. The last 24 hours, a little bit more than that have been very interesting is this has been my first time ever in Australia. I landed here Friday morning. Right now, for context, it's Monday night, and until about 6pm on Sunday, it was a very pleasant, positive experience, filled with moments of Jewish pride and joy. The reason I'm in Australia, even in this moment, is time, is AJC has a partnership with the Austra Asian union of Jewish students known as AJUS. Which is the student organization that focuses on Leadership for Jewish students in Australia and New Zealand. And I was invited to take part in a shabaton that was held just outside of Sydney with student leaders from both Australia and New Zealand. The weekend was filled with laughter and joy and happiness, and we were making edible chanukias before the holiday, we were talking about ways to advocate for what students needs and for what they need. We even finished the day with kayaking, and there was a lot of happiness and a lot of desire, because, as I learned recently, and I should have understood before by being in the southern hemisphere. This is the beginning of summer. This is the first few weeks when people finish the school year and they're enjoying it. They're celebrating. And that's why the dates were chosen. So it's like beautiful and it's sunny, and we were expelled and everything. And as we were about to start celebrating a holiday that's all about our community and resilience, our resilience was tested again, and now as just over a day into it, we're still trying to see what we can do and how to move forward and support the community right now as it's hurting. Manya Brachear Pashman: You were actually at Bondi Beach shortly before the attack. Can you kind of describe the environment and why you were there in the first place? Moshe Lencer: Yeah, of course, as mentioned, we were doing the shabbaton, and the programming ended around 3pm and it's summer. It's the first few days of summer. If you Google, what can you do, or what should you do and see in Sydney, the first few things people will see will be the Opera House, which is, I think, the most iconic place in the city. And then the second thing is go. It says, Go to Bondi Beach. It's such a big piece of the community here and where people go. It's also super close to where most of the Jewish community lives. So we were saying, okay, the shabbaton is done. A lot of the people are now local. What can we do in between? Before people hop on trains and flights and everything? Let's go to Bondi Beach. We all met up at the frozen yogurt location that's very iconic there very that chain itself was very connected to Sydney, and the participants just went there as an unofficial thing. I got there a little bit after just exploring. I said, my first time in Australia, like, Okay, what do I do? I go to Bondai beach. I walked around there. I was seeing this. It's the first week of summer school. Just ended. The beach was packed. It was sunny, beautiful, everything. I don't think there was a person in Sydney that wasn't at the beach yesterday, and I left the beach at around 510, ish, heading towards dinner with the student leaders at the Opera House. Because if I'm already there, I need, I should see everything else. Manya Brachear Pashman: And so why having, having walked that beach, why was there a Hanukkah celebration there? Can you tell our listeners who may not be familiar with who organized it, and why was the first night celebration? Operation scheduled for that, but that Hanukkah by the sea? Moshe Lencer: Yeah, of course, Hanukkah by the Sea was one of several events that were held yesterday by the Jewish community. Here. It had over 2000 people, but and it wasn't the only one. There were many events that were designed to celebrate, to have joy. Hanukkah is a holiday of lights, the community here, the geography here is that for a lot of us, Hanukkah, as a holiday, happens in the cold, in the winter, and this is the beginning of summer. You know, it's summer we go to the beach. I was joking with them that their Christian friends do Christmas in July, just so they can have snow or cold associated with the holiday. And just to think about it, right? So going to the beach, going to the where that's part of their culture, the culture here. So there were other events not even far from it. It was the best way to celebrate it. And Chabad of Bondi is a community that's growing, and it's community. It's beautiful, and it's using different aspects of of the tapestry that is the Jewish community of Sydney. So it's more of like, why not do it here? Why not have it there? It's, you know, it's the most connected to what's going on. It's, would have been surprising if they weren't doing something here. Manya Brachear Pashman: Was there in a giant menorah on the sands of the shore? Or how did they have it set up there? Moshe Lencer: I will be honest that I missed the preparation. But from what I've seen, though, you know, it's Chabad. They bring giant menorahs wherever they go. I even today they brought a giant menorah to light right there, because this is the core of what Chabad is, is to bring the light, to bring the essence of Judaism, where everyone might go. I walked also today by another location that wasn't far, which had another Hanukkah event yesterday with rides and everything. And they still had the hanukkiah there. That also was a huge Hanukkah. It was, there wasn't hiding of what is going on. You know, the people saw the flyer for what was going on. It was very public. There wasn't a feeling that this holiday should be celebrated in closed doors and hidden from the public. Manya Brachear Pashman: So you had mentioned earlier offline that you went back to Bondai Beach with the students that you were there to observe the Shabbaton with. Can you tell me what the scene is the day after? Moshe Lencer: I arrived there today with, with the senior leadership of AJAS who, for context, these are college age students that have tremendous amount of responsibility and leadership and ability. They oversee Jewish students across the whole continent and New Zealand, just to explain. And these are people there in their early 20s, and today, it was very important for them to make sure that we stop by and pay their respects. We have flowers and we want to go and stop at the site. And we weren't the only people with this idea. And what, from everything in my understanding, was a combination of very structured and a very spontaneous situation. People showed up with flowers and stones to mark they were there, and candles and stuffed animals and ways to make sure that the location is not going to be seen as something that isn't important and isn't marked what the horrible scenes was there. We got there, and I would say, there were, let's say about 100-120 sets of flowers. And then we stood there for another hour and a half, and I think it quadrupled, if not more, in that hour and a half. And it was just lines and lines of people. And what was very also noticeable, these were not just Jewish people, not Jewish and just Jewish individuals. I saw people of faith from different religions. I saw people walking with groceries and putting on flowers and heading back. I said, Children, I don't think there's someone in this whole area, and could have been even outside of Sydney that didn't want to stop and pay their respects because of how horrible that's the situation last night was, and how much it hurt the community, the Jewish community, of course, as being a part of the victims, not just the Jewish community that goes to Bondi, but also the community of Sydney. Many dignitaries have visited the sites in the last 24 hours, and. Um, there were several moments of spontaneous singing. There were, it was Hebrew singing, and it was started by different groups in different moments. It was just ways to those standing there to kind of find some silence in it. It was an attempt. And I'm saying an attempt, because I don't think anything can really help but an attempt to try to start processing, and I'm not going to be worried, and I cannot speak to the community itself as because I'm an outsider, I am fortunate enough to be connected to the members here and to those that are really trying to do what they can to continue and to move forward, but it is an outsider seeing something like this actually, there's some beauty and community and very, very dark times, and to know that it's not just the Jewish community helping each other, but It's the whole community here that they're showing up, just shows there might be some, some hope. Manya Brachear Pashman: Was this out of the blue? I mean, in your conversations with people there on the ground, was this shocking? Or have they sensed a slow motion journey to this point? Moshe Lencer: Antisemitism in Australia has been on the rise for a while now. Since October 7, a lot of events have happened, if it's been synagogues that were set on fire, and if it was individuals that would threaten children right outside of their kindergarten, if it was swastikas being spray painted, as I mentioned, the shabbaton started Friday. I landed at 9am on Friday, and I needed to be at our meeting place that was a main synagogue in Sydney at 11am meaning that my time I went through customs, got all my stuff, I just Uber directly there with my luggage. When I got to the synagogue, I was greeted by a security guard who looked at me and he was very confused of why a person he doesn't know stands outside of his synagogue with luggage. The first thing he told me is like, you're not allowed to walk in with luggage into a synagogue in Australia, and I understood exactly why he was saying this. They don't know me. They don't know what's in my luggage. Don't what can come out of my luggage. All of this story to say is that there, there is this tension. And I said it to him, and I said it when I walked in it I really was appreciative that would everything the security guard, no matter what, no matter what I was saying that was like, You're gonna open your luggage, I'm gonna go through everything you have to make sure that you're no matter we're gonna tell me, I'm making sure that there's nothing here that can harm this community. So the people are taking their job seriously with that being said, Australia as a whole has been lucky to never have events like this, not just on the antisemitism. They have never had this large of a terrorist attack and its soil. So it's one of those they're preparing to for what they know, not what they thought would ever be gun laws on like the US are a lot more stricter there. It's very uncommon to even have weapons so easily. I'm not going to say that people saw it specifically coming. They felt like there is a slow simmer of events. Something's going to happen. No one thought this scale of horrible event can happen, because there was never a scale of this horrible event to a point where it's not a culture like the Jewish community in the US that checks its media and the updates every five minutes that three four hours after event yesterday in downtown Sydney, people were not even aware what was going on in other places, because what they didn't have to check the news. The Jewish community, of course, did. We were told to shelter in places. Everything happened. But if you were someone that is not connected Jewish community in Sydney, and you were in downtown Sydney, and which is in a different part by the Opera House, there's a huge chance you had no it was going on because you didn't need to, because you didn't think that you didn't think that you need to think that something's going to happen. And then moving forward to today, the whole feeling shifted. I got into an Uber that took me to the area, and his first reaction was, I really hope nobody's going to try to shoot you without even knowing I'm Jewish or not, he just like all he knows it was that there was a horrible attack last night in that geographical area. Manya Brachear Pashman: So it's kind of shocking that you landed at 9am and by 11am you were already introduced to the precautions. That they took and the severity with which they with which they took them, and then not even 48 hours later, the worst. What can we do here in the United States or anywhere in the world where people might be listening to this podcast? What can we do to bring comfort, to bring solace, to show support that really will make a difference. Moshe Lencer: Everything I've noticed, I'll say that out of what I've been noticing. And then AJUS has actually just launched about 45 minutes ago, a new initiative that they're asking the community, and when I say in community, I mean the Jewish community at large around the world, to share how they're spreading light right now and this holiday, send videos and pictures of lighting the menorah. It's already the second night of Hanukkah. Here it's right now, 10:34pm on Monday, while the day is only starting in the US. So they're, you know, they're far ahead at 16 hour difference. They want to see, they want to feel that the community and the Jewish pride and joy is still going through this. They're the community as it's hurting and it's trying to recover from this, is also trying to show that there is still a vibrant Jewish community, because at the core of this event is to have us hide and is to have us stop being who we are, and to have an if we stop celebrating Jewish identity means they won. They mean that they got exactly what they wanted by actively attacking us and killing us. They're also stopping us from continuing to be the community that we want to be. So that's one thing. The other thing we're that I am seeing again, I don't want to speak for the community itself. I'm just saying from my experiences with it is to make sure that if you have any interaction with decision makers, if it's in Australia, or diplomats that represent Australia around the world, or even in your own country, that can make any type of public comments. As I said, it was simmering for a while, this didn't show up out of nothing. They didn't expect this horrible thing because, like I said, there was no precedent. But it didn't mean they weren't saying something's going to happen. Australia understood something's going on. But I think right now, what we need to do is putting some pressure to make sure that they're taking a lot more seriously here in Australia, they're taking it a lot more seriously around the world that after two years, when we were saying, this is not just about what they are using, the word of Israel is the fault. We're not against the Jews. It is. It is against the Jews. The lighting of a Hanukkah and Sydney, well, there's a cease fire. Has nothing to do with Israel has all to do with Jewish identity and community, and that's what we need right now to make sure that, you know, we're speaking out. We're making sure that elected officials, those that can make difference, are making a difference. Manya Brachear Pashman: You talked about the past two years that there has been a rise of antisemitism since October Seventh. And just a few days after October 7, you also mentioned the Opera House. The Sydney Opera House was illuminated in blue and white, the colors of the Israeli flag to show solidarity after the terror attack, and yet, there were protesters outside yelling and some yelling antisemitism, and I'm curious if there has been any indication or expression of similar sentiments in the days after this terror attack. Moshe Lencer: From my conversation so far with the community and from everything I saw, at least today at Bondi, it seems like the larger community is right now hurting for the Sydney, its own geographical syndicate community, for the Jewish community within its community, said I saw people Fate of different faiths there, very visibly from others right now, and I don't want to, want to knock on wood, I haven't heard or seen anything with that being said. Sorry, let me track this. I do know this morning, as people were putting down flowers, there were some videos of people wearing kefirs, they were actively trying to explain the connection between the shooting in their beliefs, and were trying to intimidate and interrupt as people were trying to mourn and the site. But it was very anecdotal. I believe was one or two people at most, and that does not represent a much larger thing. Just in comparison, as you mentioned that on October 9 that the bridge area in Sydney saw a protest that had hundreds of people. So it's a very different thing. With that being said, we're only 24 hours into this. Our community knows that sometimes we get a short grace period and then it flips. So I'm hoping that by the time this airs what I am saying won't change. Manya Brachear Pashman: You and me both. Well, you reminded me of the 16 hour time difference. It reminded me that on New Year's Eve, I always tune in to watch the fireworks in Australia, because they're always the first to ring in the new year. And it, to me, is kind of a early first sign of hope for great things to come in the new year, and then I don't want to wait. In other words, I always tune into Australia for that sign of hope and of newness. So I hope that this is I hope that a page turns in Australia for the better, not for the worst. So moosh, thank you very much for joining Moshe Lencer: Thank you for having me.
"Exodus, Exile and Redemption" is a study of the profound significance of Judaism's history. Written essays are published bi-weekly here. Please subscribe!This series is made possible by the Jacob Lights Foundation. To support this and other ongoing foundation initiatives, please consider becoming a paid subscriber to the Substack newsletter or making a tax-deductible donation via Zelle to jacoblightsfoundation@gmail.com.
When was Christ born? I held a livestream to tackle some of the most enduring mysteries surrounding the Christmas story, diving deep into scholarly debates concerning the timing of Christ's birth, the nature of the Star of Bethlehem, and the identity and traditions surrounding the Wise Men. The discussion also included a giveaway of a free copy of Sand Tanner’s book, Lighthouse, authored by Ronald Huggins. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3d0hOvJoXQc Don't miss our other conversations about Christmas: https://gospeltangents.com/lds_theology/christmas/ Copyright © 2025 Gospel Tangents All Rights Reserved The Great Dating Debate: When Was Christ Born? The discussion began by addressing the fact that the calendar we use today, created by the 6th-century monk Dionysius Exiguus. He mistakenly placed Christ's birth several years too late. There is no Year Zero. Modern scholars generally agree that Herod the Great died in 4 BC, a crucial historical marker, meaning Jesus could not have been born as late as 1 BC because Herod would have been dead for three or four years by then. Dr. Jeffrey Chadwick proposes that December of 5 BC is the correct birth month. However, Dr. Thomas Wayment argues that biblical writers like Matthew and Luke were composing gospels, not history, and were unconcerned with precise details, suggesting that historical data only allows us to know the date within a year or two, and certainly not within a specific month. Adding to the complexity is the mention of a census in Luke 2, which is historically problematic, as the census conducted by Quirinius (Cyrenius) is typically placed around 6 AD, about 10 years after Herod's death, creating a significant timeline contradiction. Explaining the Star of Bethlehem The question of what caused the Star of Bethlehem led to an examination of several astronomical and scientific theories, particularly in the context of both the Bible (Matthew 2) and the Book of Mormon (3rd Nephi 1). Information comes from several sources, including the 2004 documentary called Mystery of the Three Kings by Questar Entertainment. Planetary Alignment: Astronomer Michael Molnar proposed that the star was actually an occultation where the moon passed in front of Jupiter, a theory based on Babylon’s astrological beliefs concerning the birth dates of divine kings. Solar Eclipse: Another possibility, suggested by Jerry Grover, is a solar eclipse which occurred in 6 BC, a date near the proposed birth time. In Mesopotamia, eclipses were frequently associated with the rising of a new king or the death of an old king, which would explain why Herod was troubled. The eclipse was rare, rising in Mesoamerica and setting as a partial eclipse in Persia, where the Wise Men were thought to originate. Coronal Mass Ejection (CME): Grover also offered the idea of a CME (a massive ejection of plasma from the sun hitting Earth’s magnetosphere). This event could cause the northern lights (auroras) to become supercharged and move far south, appearing as “weird domes and other shapes in Mesoamerica”. This theory is particularly interesting because it could scientifically explain the Book of Mormon account that the night became “as light as day all night long” in the American Hemisphere, while the phenomenon might not have been noticed in the Middle East. Furthermore, the sign may have been accompanied by a crackling or hissing sound, as ions drop and release their charge in the atmosphere. Supernovas and comets are generally dismissed as options because they are either too short-lived or were historically seen as signs of impending doom. The Wise Men: Identity, Gifts, and Legacy The Wise Men (Magi or Magoi) were likely astrologers, healers, and dream readers from the east, specifically the Parthian/Persian Empire (modern Iran/Iraq area.) Their arrival in Jerusalem would have been concerning to Herod, especially since they were Persians entering Roman-controlled territory. The word Magoi is the same word used for magician or sorcerer. They may have been followers of the Zoroastrian religion, which is monotheistic and shares beliefs with Judaism, such as a belief in resurrection and a coming savior. Zoroastrian astronomers may have recognized the confluence of Jupiter and Saturn in 7 BC as a sign of a new king in Israel. The three traditional gifts carried profound meaning: Gold represented kingship. Frankincense represented divinity or God. Myrrh was extremely valuable (worth seven times the weight of gold) and represented healing; its use in embalming also served as a foreshadowing of Jesus's eventual death. The Magi are celebrated in many traditions, particularly in Spanish-speaking countries, where January 6th is known as Three Kings Day24,25. On this day, which occurs 12 days after Christmas, presents are exchanged, left by the Three Kings rather than Santa Claus. Legends regarding the Magi’s relics and tombs are found across the globe, including claims in Sava, Iran (recorded by Marco Polo); Axum, Ethiopia; Milan, Italy, and the most famous location in the West, the Cologne Cathedral in Germany. Don't miss our other conversations about Christmas: https://gospeltangents.com/lds_theology/christmas/ Copyright © 2025 Gospel Tangents All Rights Reserved
Lex Rofeberg, Lexi Kohanski, and Liana Wertman (the latter two our friends at The Torah Studio) bring the 2nd conversation in a 4-episode mini-series entitled ApocryFest: Hanukkah Unbound and Un-Canonized. In this episode, they explore a text called Genesis Apocryphon. They explore the power of texts written in the 1st-person (unlike most of the Bible), ask whether it may be spiritually productive to engage with texts that are fragments (allowing us to fill in the blanks ourselves), and wonder aloud what changes when allow stories from our tradition to have multiple versions that can all simultaneously be "authentic."You can sign up for ApocryFest 2025 by heading to www.JudaismUnbound.com/apocryfest. Do so, and we'll send you all sorts of cool Apocryphal stuff, during Hanukkah, to help enrich your experience of this holiday! And you can register for The Hanukkah Apocrypha Extravaganza on December 21st, via this link!For all of our episodes from past years' ApocryFests, click here.Head to JudaismUnbound.com/classes to check out our up upcoming 3-week mini-courses in the UnYeshiva! This time around we are offering The Torah of Kink, Hasidism and Neo-Hasidism, Queering Kedusha (Holiness), and Brit Milah Unbound: Exploring Circumcision!
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