Speaking Torah

This week, Hebrew College rabbinical student Jessica Spencer is here to talk about how she helped found a yeshiva in her hometown of Edinburgh, Scotland. Modeled after projects like Pardes and Hadar, Azara brings together Jews from across the denominational spectrum to study sacred texts and stories. Tune in this week to discover how Azara is guiding Edinburgh’s Jewish community through their first encounters with Talmudic texts. Among other things, Jessica is showing us how they make meaning out of difficult or problematic texts in the modern day while guiding people in making connections between the texts and their own lives, and sharing Azara’s unique approach to cross-denominational teffilah. Get full show notes and more information here: http://hebrewcollege.edu/podcast-19

This week, we’re pleased to bring you a discussion with three Hebrew College rabbinical students, Becca Heisler, David Mahfouda, and Chaim Spaulding, who have started a food coop for the Hebrew College community. Using local sources, students work together in preparing the meals, taking turns, and sharing responsibilities. Spending all day filling up your brain can only sustain you for so long, but the Food Coop brings minds and bodies together, nourishing the stomach as well as the heart. Get full show notes and more information here: http://hebrewcollege.edu/podcast-18

On this episode of Speaking Torah, we’re introducing you to a tefillah with a difference. In this particular tefillah group, Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld leads the students not only in writing reflections on the prayers, but writing as an act of prayer. It is both the writing and the reading of poetry that allows for a deeply creative connection to The Divine. The poems are based on liturgy, combining ancient voices with their own, resulting in a truly timeless prayer. Get full show notes and more information here: http://hebrewcollege.edu/podcast-17

In this episode, we’re sharing a discussion between Hebrew College faculty member Rabbi Rachel Adelman and her Rabbinical Student Risa Dunbar, about the power of poetry as midrash: the stories that open our text to even more questioning, along with understanding. Both writers bring their individual voices and experiences into the conversation with the text, allowing the ancient words a new place in the modern era. Get full show notes and more information here: http://hebrewcollege.edu/podcast-16

Rabbi Jane Kanarek shares a story about humility.

Tune in this week as Rabbi Genevieve Greinetz weaves together the words of the Bavli, Ancient Greek Philosophers, contemporary literature, and her own thoughts on finding women’s voices in our ancient texts, and Rabbi Jane Kanarek discusses the importance of observing Talmud with an assumption of women’s presence, rather than an assuming their absence. Get full show notes and more information here: http://hebrewcollege.edu/podcast-15

Tune in for this episode to discover Hebrew College’s and our wider community’s work in creating community and hope across difference. Our panelists are discussing what hope means to them, the practices they have discovered help find common ground and acknowledge differences and their insights into building a world where all voices are heard. Get full show notes and more information here: http://hebrewcollege.edu/podcast-14

Tune in for a dynamic talk between Rabbi Dan Judson and Dr. Jonathan Sarna, giving us a deep insight into Hebrew College’s commitments to Jewish culture, Jewish leadership, and passing wisdom from generation to generation, even giving you a glimpse into the cultural curriculum at the college 100 years ago. Get full show notes and more information here: http://hebrewcollege.edu/podcast-13

Tune in for a unique insight into the experience of Jewish soldiers fighting in World War II. These letters contain heartwarming details of Hebrew College alum eating challahs on an unknown island in the Pacific, catching up with old friends in London, and reciting excerpts from the Haggadah in Fiji. Get full show notes and more information here: http://hebrewcollege.edu/podcast-12

Tune in to discover two unique takes on contemporary Eastern European and Klezmer music. Hankus Netsky is sharing his inspiration and wealth of experience on the revival of Klezmer music, and how it has been evolving over the past 45 years. And Cantor Rebecca Khitrik is discussing her influences and the musical melting pot that has brought Eastern European Yiddish music to where it is today. Get full show notes and more information here: http://hebrewcollege.edu/podcast-10

Rabbi Jordan Braunig's essay, read by Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld, brings us into an unsettling and deeply personal story of love and fragility, giving us an account of a time when it’s so difficult to express the complexity of emotion, that even the walls of metaphor cannot hold. Get full show notes and more information here: http://hebrewcollege.edu/podcast-9

Dr. Shively Smith reads us through and reflects on Rabbi Or Rose’s gratitude of Howard Thurman and the impact he had on the landscape of what is possible for interreligious harmony and cooperation -- as well as how we can all carry on this work in our own religious practices. Get full show notes and more information here: http://hebrewcollege.edu/podcast-8

Join us in this episode to discover the lessons from the ancient stories of Noah and the flood, and Abraham’s intervention in the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. And in the post-sermon discussion, both reader Bill McKibben and Rabbi Shoshana Friedman share their thoughts about our role and responsibility to take action and speak up to encourage the collective consciousness needed to save our planet. Get full show notes and more information here: http://hebrewcollege.edu/podcast-7

Listen in this episode as Anne Germanacos reads Mónica’s d’var Torah, written in 2019, highlighting this piece’s ever-increasing relevance in a world of post-truths and “alternative facts”. Mónica shares with us how leaning into that which doesn’t make narrative sense highlights the greater truths that can fly under our rational mind. Get full show notes and more information here: http://hebrewcollege.edu/podcast-6

Listen in on this journey through Lydia Kukoff’s sensory memories and discover the product of combining her Italian heritage with her chosen Jewish faith, melding her experiences, creating new traditions for her family, expanding the definition of Judaism while also connecting deeply with its traditions. Get full show notes and more information here: http://hebrewcollege.edu/podcast-5

Join us this week as Alicia Ostriker takes us through Sharon’s work and what it means to her. Sharon takes us on a journey of conflicting emotion, and shows us what’s possible when we extend our hearts and consider all sides - our friends and our enemies - of what Torah has to teach us about compassion and our role in repairing the world. Get full show notes and more information here: http://hebrewcollege.edu/podcast-3

Can a single person actually confront and repair really difficult relationships without having a support system? Yes. However, help makes for lighter work. And in this essay, Jordan reflects on Keats’s desire to escape the world up the ladder, versus Jacob’s desire to use the ladder to foster unity in the human world, and Jordan’s own desire for our communities and institutions to play a role in this work. Get full show notes and more information here: http://hebrewcollege.edu/podcast-2

This week, Joy Ladin guides us through Gray Myrseth's work, Two Ways to Tell a Story, taking us on a powerful journey built equally upon continuity and disruption, from Moses shattering the 10 Commandments, to their own journey to find a self that they could inhabit fully, without fear. Get full show notes and more information here: http://hebrewcollege.edu/podcast-1