Ta Shma

Hadar Institute

Bringing you recent lectures, classes, and programs from the Hadar Institute, Ta Shma is where you get to listen in on the beit midrash. Come and listen on the go, at home, or wherever you are. Hosted by Rabbi Avi Killip of the Hadar Institute.

Subscribe Listen in podnod RSS feed Show website

780 episodes
Updated Yesterday

Episodes780

Newest first

Dec 14, 2023 · 33 min
What Are We Allowed to Feel? A Spiritual Perspective from on the Ground in Israel #6
R. Avi Killip and R. Avital Hochstein introduce Dr. Tsivia Frank Wygoda, a new member of Hadar's team in Israel who supports independent minyanim in Be'er Sheva and southern Israel. They reflect on how war pushes us to think in terms of black and white binaries, and yet, the reality - politically, morally, and emotionally - is such more more complex. Are there limits on what we are allowed to feel and how we can express these feelings?
Dec 13, 2023 · 13 min
R. David Kasher on Parashat Mikeitz: Yosef the Interpreter
In Parashat Mikeitz, a time of great crisis brings people together from across the world, desperate for help. Their savior will be a young Hebrew prisoner with the rare ability to speak “לכל עם ועם כלשונו - to every nation in its own language.” Although the narrative of the Torah is written in Hebrew, its characters are not always speaking Hebrew themselves. What does this tell us about Joseph's ability to interpret dreams and its greater significance?
Dec 11, 2023 · 7 min
R. Avi Strausberg on Hanukkah: A Strong Light
We are all plagued by fears and anxieties, both rational and irrational, founded and unfounded. Often, when we are afraid, we keep our fears to ourselves, letting our inner voices run wild as we play our worst fear on loops. What if I am sick? What if I am not good enough? What if we can’t make it work? Maybe we don’t want to share our fears because fear can be mixed with other complicated emotions like guilt and shame, anger and doubt. Perhaps the story of Hanukkah is teaching us that, even and especially in moments of fear, there is strength in being in the experience of that fear together, and sharing that vulnerability with one another.
Dec 7, 2023 · 26 min
Holding on to the Value of Human Dignity: A Spiritual Perspective from on the Ground in Israel #5
R. Avi and R. Avital talk about the tumultuous week of the ceasefire and returned captives. What are the values that animate the conversation about who should be the priority to bring home? How can we even put relative values on people? And how can we live out our values and imagine a better world in tough times?
Dec 6, 2023 · 11 min
R. David Kasher on Parashat Vayeishev: Midrashic Landscapes
Certain unique landscapes in the Torah carry a strong association with a particular kind of experience. A garden reminds us of innocence (Genesis 2:25). A mountain is a place of revelation (Genesis 22:14, Exodus 19:20). At a well, one might find love (Genesis 24:11-13, 29:9-11, Exodus 2:15-21). A far more common landscape in the Torah is the field. The field is not usually where the main action takes place. We take it for granted as a background setting, where work happens, or through which travelers pass. So when we come upon Yosef wandering through a field in Parashat VaYeishev, we may not make much of it. According to a midrashically-styled reading by the Keli Yakar, however, a deeper understanding of the field is precisely what might have saved Yosef from all the disaster that will follow.
Dec 4, 2023 · 21 min
R. Avital Hochstein and R. Elazar Symon: A Spiritual Perspective from on the Ground in Israel #4
R. Avital Hochstein and R. Elazar Symon take the opportunity - belatedly - of Thanksgiving to talk about what they're thankful for and the difficult but necessary role of thankfulness in tefillah
Nov 29, 2023 · 13 min
R. David Kasher on Parashat Vayishlah: Red Alerts
The Torah often employs a “bookending” technique, using similar words or phrases in both the first and last verses of the parashah, in order to create a thematic frame for the action in the middle. Parashat Vayishlah’s bookends are especially pronounced, in that its first and last verses each end with the same word: “אדום - Edom.” What is the significance of this bookend and what can it teach us about the relationship between Ya'akov and Esav?
Nov 27, 2023 · 57 min
R. Shai Held: Revisiting Post-Holocaust Theology, Part 3
What, if anything, can we say in the wake of the Shoah? In this series, we'll explore the main currents of post-Holocaust Jewish theology through thinkers like Richard Rubenstein, Eliezer Berkovits, Yitz Greenberg, Emil Fackenheim, and Melissa Raphael; and we'll investigate how philosophers of religion grapple with the problem of evil. But rather than just analyze their thought, we'll also ask what Jewish theology in the present moment can and should say - and can't and shouldn't say - about grappling with God in the wake of the Shoah. This lecture was recorded as part of Hadar's 2023 Fall Lecture Series.
Nov 23, 2023 · 8 min
R. Avi Strausberg on Thanksgiving: Can We Be Worthy?
It can be hard to say thank you. I know, for myself, sometimes after abandoning the kitchen at night to a sinkful of dishes and a couch covered in clothes waiting to be folded, I wake up in the morning to a clean sink and folded clothes, and I find myself so grateful to my wife’s midnight work. Obviously, I should say thank you and I owe her more than just a thank you. Yet it’s hard for me. There can be something awkward about gratitude. There is something uncomfortable about admitting that you are indebted to someone else. Because, in truth, I feel not only gratitude, but guilt that she did this work while I slept.
Nov 20, 2023 · 35 min
R. Avital Hochstein and R. Elazar Symon: A Spiritual Perspective from on the Ground in Israel #3
What happens in a beit midrash during a time of war, violence, and uncertainty? We checked in with R. Avital Hochstein and R. Elazar Symon, both members of Hadar's team in Jerusalem, to discuss what learning Torah means in this difficult time and what this war reveals about Israeli society.
Nov 15, 2023 · 10 min
R. David Kasher on Parashat Toldot: From Birthright to Blessing
By the time we arrive at Parashat Toldot and come upon two brothers vying for the mantle of family leadership, we can already predict with some confidence that it is the younger brother who will prevail. If we have been reading Genesis carefully so far, we know: in this book, when brothers are in competition, the firstborn never wins.
Nov 13, 2023 · 43 min
R. Shai Held: Revisiting Post-Holocaust Theology, Part 2
What, if anything, can we say in the wake of the Shoah? In this series, we'll explore the main currents of post-Holocaust Jewish theology through thinkers like Richard Rubenstein, Eliezer Berkovits, Yitz Greenberg, Emil Fackenheim, and Melissa Raphael; and we'll investigate how philosophers of religion grapple with the problem of evil. But rather than just analyze their thought, we'll also ask what Jewish theology in the present moment can and should say - and can't and shouldn't say - about grappling with God in the wake of the Shoah. This lecture was recorded as part of Hadar's 2023 Fall Lecture Series.
Nov 9, 2023 · 11 min
R. David Kasher on Parashat Hayyei Sarah: Camel Cameos
Animals often play a symbolic role in literature, sometimes as personified characters themselves, and sometimes through their frequent association with a human character. In Parashat Hayyei Sarah, wherever Rebecca goes, camels seem to follow her—and we begin to understand they have something to do with her. They will function as the vehicle for finding her and then bringing her back to the land of Canaan, and they will even serve as the key figures in determining whether she is the right partner for Isaac and the next matriarch in the covenant.
Nov 7, 2023 · 22 min
R. Avital Hochstein: A Spiritual Perspective from on the Ground in Israel #2
In the second part of this special series, we check in with Rabbi Avital Hochstein, President of Hadar in Israel, to hear about life in Israel, Tefillah, and Torah this week.
Nov 6, 2023 · 49 min
R. Shai Held: Revisiting Post-Holocaust Theology, Part 1
What, if anything, can we say in the wake of the Shoah? In this series, we'll explore the main currents of post-Holocaust Jewish theology through thinkers like Richard Rubenstein, Eliezer Berkovits, Yitz Greenberg, Emil Fackenheim, and Melissa Raphael; and we'll investigate how philosophers of religion grapple with the problem of evil. But rather than just analyze their thought, we'll also ask what Jewish theology in the present moment can and should say - and can't and shouldn't say - about grappling with God in the wake of the Shoah. This lecture was recorded as part of Hadar's 2023 Fall Lecture Series.
Nov 2, 2023 · 9 min
The Evils of Evaluation: The Tisch with Dena Weiss #20
In our society, everything - from commercials products to political ideas - is constantly being scrutinized. What is gained and what is lost in such a critical world? To answer this question, he Ma'or VaShemesh goes all the way back to the beginning - to the Garden of Eden. "Ki Anu Amecha" and "Nigun Hisva'adus" from RAZA Kapelya (2023) by Chana Raskin. Produced by Joey Weisenberg and Chana Raskin for Hadar’s Rising Song Records.
Nov 1, 2023 · 13 min
R. David Kasher on Parashat Vayera: Ambiguous Appearances
The Talmud (in Yevamot 49b) tells us that Moses’ prophetic powers were exceptional because he saw “באספקלריא המאירה - through a clear looking glass.” How, then, do we account for ambiguity in the Torah? When we encounter a passage whose meaning is obscure, do we presume some failure in our own understanding? Or is it possible that the Torah of Moses is sometimes deliberately ambiguous?
Oct 27, 2023 · 35 min
A Spiritual Perspective from on the Ground in Israel
Avital Hochstein is a rabbi, a Jerusalemite, a mother of two soldiers currently serving in the IDF, and President of Hadar in Israel. In this episode of Ta Shma, we hear directly from R. Avital and Hadar's beit midrash in Jerusalem. What parts of Torah can we reach for? How can we pray and what can we pray for? What does ritual and communal life look like in the shadow of this tragedy?
Oct 26, 2023 · 9 min
Moral Licensing: The Tisch with Dena Weiss #19
Moral licensing is our tendency to excuse our own bad behavior based on prior good behavior. While the Ma’or VaShemesh did not use the language of modern behavioral psychology, he did suggest a paradoxical way to avoid this kind of self-justification: doing teshuvah both before and after learning Torah and performing mitzvot. "Ki Anu Amecha," "Ah Shtarker Bistu," and "Nigun Hisva'adus" from RAZA Kapelya (2023) by Chana Raskin. Produced by Joey Weisenberg and Chana Raskin for Hadar’s Rising Song Records.
Oct 25, 2023 · 12 min
R. David Kasher on Parashat Lekh Lekha: Reading the Signs
Our practice of cycling through the Torah over and over again, year after year, creates a unique reading experience. After we have been through enough times, we begin to hear echoes not only from what has come before, but from what will come after. Here in this first chapter of Abraham’s story those echoes are particularly loud. We hear them not only in recurring images and themes, but also in familiar words and phrases that seem to be laid out here and there like little clues, prompting us to follow along.