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Reading Out Loud
Parshat Shemot - As we start a new Book of the Torah we entertain a New Year's resolution: To read more Torah to our children and grandchildren. We invite scholar and author Ilana Kurshan to share her new book: Children of the Book
Connected Through Aramaic
Parshat Vayetzei - Like the Rosetta Stone the Torah provides a Aramaic translation for Jacob's Gal-Ed treaty stone. Wit our guest Shadi Khalloul we explore the shared language, culture and impact of this unique language.
What does Sukkot Really Mean?
Sukkot - Ancient holidays were repurposed by the Israelite religion to commemorate the Exodus and Sukkot appears to be the most natural. The Torah itself connects the temporary booths of the Fall harvest with the temporary boots of the migrating Israelite tribes .. or not
You are what you eat, or are you?
Parshat Shemini - While Passover celebrates freedom, it does it with a restrictive diet. The Book of Leviticus introduces the Kosher diet and gives us an opportunity to explore how food can uplift, unite, inspire, delight but also disgust, divide and impoverish.
A New Meaning of Matzah
Parshat Vayikra - Leviticus opens its treatment of the sacrifices with the meal offering of unleavened cakes. The Rabbis ascribe the showcasing of this simple gift to the purity of intent of the poor and we use it to add a new perspective on the iconic start to our Seder.
The Freedom Seder: A Radical Midrash on the Haggadah
We explore Arthur Waskow's FREEDOM SEDER Haggadah, placing it into context and suggesting Rabbinic sources. We discover that it is far more nuanced and complex then radical progressives would have us believe and it is too rooted in Rabbinic texts for traditionalists to ignore.
What Israel Means
Parshat Vayishlach - From the first chapters of Genesis when Adam named the animals, naming in the Biblical narrative is a powerful tool which defines destiny. This process reaches a climax with the re-naming of Jacob and the birth of Israel. We explore the nuances of this name Israel, that until today defines and inspires the Jewish People and their land.
Pour Out Your Wrath... or not
An analysis of the "Pour out Your Wrath" incantation to understand the propriety of it's inclusion at the most climactic moment of the Seder, and some suggestions for alternatively authentic replacements.
Madlik Model Seder 2024
This year our Seder will be different from other years. For the first time in many of our lives it will be a Leil s\Shimurim,, a night of concern, uncertainty, fatigue and confusion. Let us follow the advice of the Rabbis to see ourselves as though we too are leaving our Egypt.
The Kibbutz Haggadah - a visit to The Shittim Institute
Preparing for our Passover Seder we continue our exploration of the Kibbutz Haggadah with a visit to the Shittim Institute on kibbutz Beit Hashita in Northern Israel. Machon Shittim has the largest collection of Kibbutz Hagadot and an archive of close to a million texts which constitute Yahadut Yisraeli; Israeli Judaism.
Protest Haggadah cont.
We continue our exploration of the many faces of the Torah as reflected in the Kibbutz Haggadot written at the rebirth of the Jewish People in the Promised Land of Israel.
Protest Haggadah
Parshat Vayikra - Vayikra is a call to action. In every generation we are admonished to imagine ourselves overthrowing the Pharaoh of our day. Today we’ll survey haggadot that take this challenge and re-imagine the Haggadah for their time. We challenge our Israeli brothers and sisters to join this tradition and write today's Hagaddah.
High Five
Parshat Beshalach - The Torah declares that the Israelites went up out of the land of Egypt "Hamushim" חֲמֻשִׁ֛ים , a word related to the number five. According to many commentaries this word implies that only some of the Israelites left Egypt and that they were armed and ready to fight. As divisions begin to surface within the ranks of the Israelites, we raise our hand to identify and call out the birth of Jewish sectarianism.
First Fruits - First Prayers
Parshat Ki Tavo - As we approach the high prayer season we trace the evolution of the oldest prayer preserved in the Torah. The First Fruits Declaration, a once iconic prayer made by a farmer on Shavuot; the Harvest Festival. We see how this prayer was censored, repurposed and reinterpreted up until today and wonder what license it provides to us.
Nachson
Parshat Barmidbar - We visit with a man called Nachshon ben Aminadav with only a insignificant walk-on role in the text of the Torah but an iconic presence in Jewish religious and secular culture and mythology
From Disgrace to Praise - Finding the Stranger in the Hagaddah
"You shall not oppress a stranger, ... having yourselves been strangers in the land of Egypt" and the motif of loving the stranger is not found in the Haggadah unless we follow the advise of the Mishnah and read the parsha until the end...
Where has all the Hametz Gone? ClubHouse
Source Sheet for Discussion on ClubHouse March 12, 2021 4:00pm ET
Pesach Sheni - A Passover Makeover
Passover at a time of Corona: What the biblical provision for celebrating a second Passover, a month after the actual Passover teaches us about celebrating Passover under extenuating circumstances.
Pour out Your Wrath on my Hametz
An analysis of the "Pour out Your Wrath" incantation to understand the propriety of it's inclusion at the most climactic moment of the Seder, and some suggestions for alternatively authentic replacements.