This is a bit of a break from the regular Modern Torah feed, but I want to share a new, limited-series podcast with you that I've just released. It's called 72 Miles til Kentucky, and it's a storytelling podcast all about Jewish life in my home

Moses Benjamin Ezekiel

Dec 21st, 2023 9m 31s

This week, I was reading about the final stages of the plan to remove the Confederate Veterans Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery. The memorial, if you’ve never seen it, is atrocious. It’s the tallest structure in the cemetery, for starter

Elvis & Wisdom

Dec 15th, 2023 8m 29s

Sometimes, when I'm feeling bored in shul I flip to the back of the book, and read Pirkei Avot. There's a particular passage, in the fifth chapter, that I often find myself turning to, especially in weeks that I'm feeling old. Like this week. B

An Israelite in Egyptian Clothing

Dec 8th, 2023 7m

I went to graduate school at Brandeis University, and if I hadn't, I would've gone to law school at the Louis D. Brandeis School of Law, in Louisville, KY, where the first Jewish justice to sit on the Supreme Court was born, and raised. But wha

The Two Obadiahs

Nov 30th, 2023 8m 20s

Obadiah, Ovadiah. Obadi-ah. However you pronounce it, you might not remember it, but Obadiah is the name of the shortest book in the Hebrew Bible, and the Haftorah portion the rabbis chose to pair with this week's Torah portion, Vayishlach.Musi

Two Nations Under Cucumbers

Nov 14th, 2023 10m 24s

This week, I'm all about cucumbers. This humble vegetable, which the Talmud calls a delicacy of kings, became an internet craze a few years ago when Macka B released his "Cucumber Rap." Check it out in my source sheet for this episode.The Talmu

Bonus

Repost: Choosing Choiceless Choices

Nov 13th, 2023 8m 53s

I updated my phone this week, which made it a great time to repost this episode, from two years ago. What does it mean to actually have choice? Are the choices we see the actual choices that we have? Are we supposed to pick a path through the w

The Life of Sarah...The Death of Pearl

Nov 10th, 2023 14m 16s

There's a poem I've been reading recently, a long form epic poem originally written in Yiddish, about a Jewish blacksmith who settles down in rural Kentucky, in the mid-19th century. It's part of a project called 72 Miles, which I'm about to re

Prayers & Kids

Nov 2nd, 2023 12m 33s

This might be a bold statement, but there are probably few things in the world that cause people to pray more than children. We pray for their health, their safety, their growth, that they’ll find their place in this chaotic world. Even if you

Isaac and Ishmael: A West Wing Special

Oct 26th, 2023 10m 54s

It took me a while, these past few weeks, overseas, In Israel, and here at home. It took a while to figure out what was going on and why I felt so strongly, feelings that seem to move, strangely, in too many directions at once.It wasn’t until P

Great in Goodness

Oct 20th, 2023 9m 38s

I thought long and hard about whether or not I wanted to weigh in on the current crisis in Israel. In the end, I couldn't not, and I found myself turning as I often do to the words of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel.Shabbat Shalom.--Music Provided

Emerging Backwards – Achrei Mot 5782

Apr 15th, 2022 8m 37s

It's a critical question that the rabbis debate, partially in response to last week's Torah portion, and partially in response this week's parsha. "Is emerging backwards still emerging?" "Well no," says Rabbi Shmuel, "and here's why.""I agree t

I Don't Know? – Metzora 5782

Apr 7th, 2022 6m 29s

We're still on leprosy this week in the Torah portion. There's beauty in things that peel, as we see in nature. I ordered some trees this week that shed their bark in beautiful curls of golden and orange, because I want to bring that beauty int

Excelsior! – Tzav 5782

Mar 18th, 2022 9m 4s

In this week's Torah portion, Aaron is invested as high priest, as are his sons, in a lavish ceremony before the entire Israelite community. It's a high moment for Aaron, a week before his world will fall apart. I don't know why the rabbis segm

Asking & Listening – Vayikra 5782

Mar 11th, 2022 3m 31s

It's been a long wait, but shows are starting to pop up in my media stream again. One of my favorites returned after a long hiatus (what else is new?) for it's 5th and final season. Watching the first few episodes, I couldn't escape its relatio

Moving Forward, Slowly – Vayetzi 5782

Nov 12th, 2021 9m 38s

We're halfway through November, which means the end of 2021 is coming up quickly. With a few weeks left in the year, I took a moment this week to reflect on some goals I'd set at the start of the year, how much progress I've made towards them,

Choosing Choiceless Choices

Nov 5th, 2021 8m 53s

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—I took the one less traveled by,And that has made all the difference.This week, I put Robert Frost's famous poem—"The Road Not Taken"— in conversation with our weekly Torah portion, Toldot. The parsha covers

Looking Up & Laughing

Oct 22nd, 2021 5m 43s

I finally set my television up after moving in, which meant last Sunday morning was the perfect time to break in the new space with a fine home cinema experience. Naturally I picked Ferris Bueller's Day Off, because I love it, and because it's

Trusting & Thriving Four Generations On

Oct 15th, 2021 5m 48s

Getting to this episode has been a journey. I took a break in May 2021, after producing 59 episodes, with plans to return in September 2021, at the start of the Jewish New Year. Then my wife and I bought a house, and life got busy with housewor

Roots of Rebellion

Jun 11th, 2021 6m 49s

This may come as a surprise, or not, especially if you know me, but I identify with Korach the much demonized revolutionary who gathers followers and challenges Moses's leadership in this week's Torah portion. Most of Jewish history makes Korac

The Middle Ground

May 21st, 2021 11m 9s

This episode was recorded in May 2021, and somehow never published. So I'm delivering it now, in November 2021, because the world can never have enough Torah.I’m not a rabbi, so every week, I look at our Torah portion and try to put it in conve

Some Words About Israel

May 14th, 2021 9m 4s

This week, as the Torah returns to the theme of counting, in Parshat Bamidbar, the world seems to have more to count than ever—infection rates to be sure, but also global vaccine programs. And if you’re focused on Israel you might be tracking r

Giving & Returning

May 7th, 2021 9m 41s

Some weeks it’s hard to wrap my head around the world, and how it seems to perfectly line up with the week’s Torah portion. This week was one of those weeks. I’ve been reading Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer, in the same week the Tor

For Some Things There Are No Wrong Seasons

Apr 30th, 2021 9m 23s

I had a plan this week, to weave the complicated and problematic language we find in the Torah into a metaphor about the ebbs and flows of the Jewish people's eternal fight for social justice. But then I put off writing this for a few days, and

The Man Behind the Curtain

Apr 23rd, 2021 9m

This week has been a full week, and to be honest, I'm shocked that this episode is actually being released. I wrote, recorded, and produced it in a single day, and I'm not even sure if it makes sense, so if you're reading this and you give it a