Jewish Quest

This week for Bereshit, our director Rabbi Adam Zagoria-Moffet fills in as host as we begin a new year, welcoming Rabbi Jeremy Gordon to discuss some of the ways in which Bereshit defies our expectations and requires new explanations. From the creation of the work to the creation of Adam and Eve - nothing is quite as it seems, 'in the beginning.'

Rabbi Jeremy has a first-class honours degree in Law from Cambridge University and subsequently went to work in television for the BBC and a number of independent production companies. His love of Judaism was really ignited at the Limmud Conference in December 1995. This marked the start of a decade of study in England, at the Hebrew University and the Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem and the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York. He graduated from JTS with Rabbinic Ordination, a Masters in Midrash (Rabbinic Exegesis) and a number of academic awards. Rabbi Gordon is Rabbi of the New London Synagogue in St John's Wood, London

Dr Rachel Havrelock uncovers the difference between the Priestly vision and the Deuteronomistic vision for the map of the land of Canaan. 

Dr. Rachel Havrelock is Associate Professor of Jewish Studies and English at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Rachel’s book, River Jordan: The Mythology of a Dividing Line combines biblical studies, literary and political theory, and the politics of interpretation. Rachel’s current book project, The Joshua Generation: Politics and the Promised Land, focuses on the structure and meaning of the book of Joshua and its interpretation. Her co-authored book, Women on the Biblical Road, was the beginning of her work on gender and the Bible.

Rabbi Eliyahu Jian discusses the inner meaning behind Pinchas' act of zealotry.

Rabbi Eliyahu Jian is a global thought leader, transformational life and business coach, spiritual coach, relationship coach, author and motivational speaker. He has been transforming thousands of lives around the globe for decades, including some of the world’s most famous and influential people, such as Madonna, Demi Moore, Blake Mallen, Eva Cavalli, Elie Tahari, Marla Maples, and Guy Ritchie.

Professor Everett Fox uncovers the unusual features of the Balaam narrative. 

Professor Everett Fox is the Allen M. Glick professor of Judaic and Biblical Studies at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. He received his M.A. and Ph.D. from the Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies at Brandeis University. Fox is the translator of The Five Books of Moses (Schocken Books, 1995), and The Early Prophets (Schocken Books, 2014).

Dr Ely Levine discusses the significance of the Red Heifer and the symbolic meaning behind the serpent of bronze. 

Dr. Ely Levine holds a PhD in biblical studies and archaeology from Harvard University. He has taught at Villanova University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Luther College. He has participated in archaeological excavations in Italy and Israel, and is a member of the staff of the Tell es-Safi/Gath Excavation Project. Currently, Dr. Levine is Scholar-in-Residence and Ritual Coordinator at Har Zion Temple in Penn Valley, Pennsylvania.

Professor Naomi Graetz discusses the connection between Samuel and Korach and the parsha’s pertinence for today. 

Naomi Graetz taught English at Ben Gurion University of the Negev for 35 years. She is the author of Unlocking the Garden: A Feminist Jewish Look at the Bible, Midrash and God; The Rabbi’s Wife Plays at Murder ; S/He Created Them: Feminist Retellings of Biblical Stories (Professional Press, 1993; second edition Gorgias Press, 2003), Silence is Deadly: Judaism Confronts Wifebeating and Forty Years of Being a Feminist Jew. Since Covid began, she has been teaching Bible and Modern Midrash from a feminist perspective on zoom. She began her weekly blog for TOI in June 2022. Her book on Wifebeating has been translated into Hebrew and is forthcoming with Carmel Press in 2025

Professor Jacob Wright discusses the origins of the spy story.

Professor Jacob Wright is Professor of Hebrew Bible at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology and the Director of Graduate Studies in Emory’s Tam Institute of Jewish Studies. His doctorate is from Georg-August-Universität, Göttingen. He is the author of Rebuilding Identity: The Nehemiah Memoir and its Earliest Readers (which won a Templeton prize) and David, King of Israel, and Caleb in Biblical Memory.

Rabbi Adam Zagoria-Moffat discusses radical models of leadership. 

Audio of Session held on Tuesday 21st May 2024 with Simon Eder. 

Rabbi Nelly Altenburger shares how we might read some deeply troubling lines of the parsha. 

Rabbi Nelly Altenburger became the new spiritual leader of Congregation Adath Israel in Middletown in the summer of 2020. Rabbi Altenburger was born and raised in Brazil and received her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Hebrew Language and Literature from the University of Sao Paulo. She received a Master of Arts in Rabbinic Studies in 2004 from the Zeigler School of Rabbinic studies and was ordained in 2006. Previous to joining Adath Israel, she was the Rabbi and Religious School Director at Congregation B’nai Israel in Danbury, CT for fourteen years. 

Professor John Collins discusses the meaning of ''Love your neighbour as yourself!''
and how the Golden Rule emerged. 
 
Professor John Collins is Holmes Professor of Old Testament Criticism and Interpretation at Yale University. He received his Ph. D. from Harvard (1972) and holds honorary degrees from the University College Dublin and the University of Zurich. Collins' most recent books are The Invention of Judaism. Torah and Jewish Identity from Deuteronomy to Paul (University of California, 2017), and What Are Biblical Values? (Yale, 2019). He serves as general editor of the Anchor Yale Bible and Anchor Yale Bible Reference Library and has received the Burkitt medal for biblical scholarship from the British Academy.
 

Professor Elsie Stern shares how Acharei Mot acts as the bridge between the two sections of Vayikra. 

Elsie Stern is Professor of Bible at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. She received her BA from Yale University and her M.A. and PhD from the University of Chicago. Stern is the author of From Rebuke to Consolation: Exegesis and Theology in the Liturgical Anthology of the Ninth of Av Season. She is also General editor of a new torah commentary for the Central Conference of American Rabbis. 

In a special podcast for Pesach, Professor Berel Dov Lerner discusses the central theme of covenant on Seder night and reflects on Israel’s enslavement and redemption in Egypt as a meditation upon temporality and human agency. 

Berel Dov Lerner was born in Washington D.C. and is a member of Kibbutz Sheluhot in Israel’s Beit Shean Valley. He received a BA in social and behavioral sciences from Johns Hopkins University, an MA in philosophy from the University of Chicago, and a PhD in philosophy from Tel Aviv University. He also studied Judaism at Yeshivat HaKibbutz HaDati.  Berel is currently an associate professor of philosophy at the Western Galilee College in Akko and also teaches at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya. He is the author of many articles in philosophy and Jewish studies and of the book Rules, Magic, and Instrumental Reason (Routledge 2002). His latest book is Human-Divine Interactions in Hebrew Scriptures Covenants and Cross-Purposes (Routledge 2024). 

Geoffrey Stern asks how Metsorah is connected to evil speech and he discusses the importance of tsar'at in the Torah. 

Geoffrey Stern is founder of the podcast, Madlik, a disruptive Torah podcast, which is published on a weekly basis in an effort to insure that the spirit of Judaism continues to grow and flourish. He is a serial entrepreneur in the audio chip and self playing media playback product space. 

Rabbi Dr Wendy Zierler discusses the anthropological importance of skin and the unlikely connection between skin affliction and the messiah. 

Rabbi Wendy Ilene Zierler, Ph.D., is Sigmund Falk Professor of Modern Jewish Literature and Feminist Studies at HUC-JIR in New York. Prior to joining HUC-JIR she was a Research Fellow in the English Department of the University of Hong Kong. She received her Ph.D. and her M.A. from Princeton University; her B.A. from Stern College of Yeshiva University; and an M.F.A. in Fiction Writing from Sarah Lawrence College. 

In June 2021, she received rabbinic ordination from Yeshiva Maharat. She is the author of Movies and Midrash: Popular Film and Jewish Religious Conversation (SUNY Press, Finalist for the National Jewish Book Award in Modern Jewish Thought and Experience, 2017) and of And Rachel Stole the Idols: The Emergence of Hebrew Women’s Writing (Wayne State UP, 2004), as well as many articles in the fields of Jewish literature, and Jewish Gender Studies. 

Miryam Margo-Wolfson asks what was the strange fire of Nadav and Avihu and just what are the lessons of their deaths for us today. 

Miryam Margo-Wolfson is an intern at Temple Adath-Or and a fifth year Rabbinic and Cantorial student at Aleph Ordination Program. 

Rabbi Adam Zagoria-Moffet discusses the sacrifices as psychological impulses and argues that we should reclaim the notion of fire as the primary symbol of the Divine. 

Dr Yitzhaq Feder uncovers the fascinating and unexpected relevance of the sacrificial laws. 

Dr. Yitzhaq Feder is a lecturer at the University of Haifa. He is the author of Blood Expiation in Hittite and Biblical Ritual: Origins, Context and Meaning (Society of Biblical Literature, 2011). His most recent book, Purity and Pollution in the Hebrew Bible: From Embodied Experience to Moral Metaphor (Cambridge University Press, 2021), examines the psychological foundations of impurity in ancient Israel.

Rabbi Jeremy Gordon discusses his new commentary on the Book of Esther and the book's supreme relevance for our troubled times. 

Rabbi Shimon Felix discusses the importance of sacred space in Judaism. 

Rabbi Shimon Felix is the Executive Director Emeritus of the program. He was born in New York, and has lived in Jerusalem since 1973. Rabbi Felix has been associated with The Bronfman Fellowship since 1991. He received his rabbinic ordination from Yeshivat Hamivtar, where he served as educational director. Rabbi Felix has worked in a wide variety of educational programs including Michelelet Bruria, the Israeli school system and Yakar. He headed The Jewish Agency’s Bureau for Cultural Services to Communities and also served as assistant to Dr. Jonathan Sachs, the Chief Rabbi of Great Britain. He is the Director of Re: IL Regarding Israel.
 

Rabbi Dr James Jacobsen-Maisels shares the connection between the heart and the Mishkan. 

Rabbi James Jacobsen-Maisels leads and directs the vision of Or HaLev.
Ordained by Rav Daniel Landes, with a doctorate in Jewish Studies from the University of Chicago, he has been studying and teaching meditation and Jewish spirituality for over twenty five years.

He was the founding Rosh Yeshiva of Romemu Yeshiva and has taught and innovated programs in Jewish thought, mysticism, spiritual practices and meditation at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, Haifa University, Yeshivat Hadar and in a variety of settings around the world.

Dr Jeremy Tabick uncovers a fascinating inner-biblical midrash. 

Dr Jeremy Tabick is the content manager and faculty at Hadar, where he teaches, curates, and edits Hadar’s content – both online and in print – and project Zug courses. Jeremy recently completed a PhD in Talmud at JTS. He graduated from the University of Manchester (in the UK) with a Masters in Physics, and is an alumnus of Yeshivat Hadar and the Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem. He is a member of the steering team of Kehilat Hadar.

Rabbi Dov Linzer asks what is signified by the lighting of the Menorah?

Rabbi Dov Linzer is one of the leading voices of Modern Orthodoxy in the world today. He is the President and Rabbinic Head of the Modern Orthodox Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School in Riverdale, New York. He is a teacher, lecturer, podcaster, and author.

Rabbi Linzer has been a scholar-in-residence in synagogues across the USA and has published in numerous Talmudic journals and Jewish newspapers.  In 2011, Newsweek, ranked him among the 50 most prominent rabbis in the United States, stating that "Linzer's students now hold some of the most prominent positions in shuls and Hillels all over the country" and that his school's "alumni will undoubtedly alter the fabric of Modern Orthodoxy. 

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Executive Director of Rabbi Sara Paasche-Orlow discusses the act of giving. 

Rabbi Sara Paasche-Orlow is Executive Director of Northeastern Hillel, previously the director of spiritual care at Hebrew Senior Life and co-author with Rabbi Joel Baron of Deathbed Wisdom of the Hasidic Masters, The Book of Departure and Caring for People at the End of Life.

Professor Jacob Wright explores the evolution of Shabbat. 

Professor Jacob L. Wright is Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology and the Director of Graduate Studies in Emory’s Tam Institute of Jewish Studies. His doctorate is from Georg-August-Universität, Göttingen. He is the author of Rebuilding Identity: The Nehemiah Memoir and its Earliest Readers (which won a Templeton prize) and David, King of Israel, Caleb in Biblical Memory and Why The Bible Began 

Rabbi Worch shares some of the Mei HaShiloach's insights on the giving of the Torah. 

Rabbi Worch comes from a European Hassidic family. He translated Esh Kodesh, the Piacezna Rebbe’s Torah commentary from the Warsaw Getto (1939-42), published as Sacred Fire, and published his own Kabbalist Haggadah, a handbook of the Passover Seder as well as a translation of the writings of the Mei HaShiloach's commentary on Torah. 

Rabbi Danny Nevins discusses both the cultic and covenantal response to freedom.

Rabbi Danny Nevins is dedicated to exploring the sacred realm of Torah and its intersection with contemporary ethics, culture, and technology. Ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary. Rabbi Nevins was named Head of School of Golda Och Academy in 2021, dedicating himself to support the faculty and students in the creation of an outstanding and warm Jewish learning environment. Previously, he worked at The Jewish Theological Seminary as the Pearl Resnick Dean of the Division of Religious Leadership. He writes responsa on topics of contemporary halakhah, essays, prayers, and Torah commentaries, many of which can be viewed on his website – rabbinevins.com.

Rabbi Nelly Altenburger shares different explanations as to the meaning and purpose of the plagues. 

Rabbi Nelly Altenburger became the new spiritual leader of Congregation Adath Israel in Middletown in the summer of 2020. Rabbi Altenburger was born and raised in Brazil and received her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Hebrew Language and Literature from the University of Sao Paulo. She received a Master of Arts in Rabbinic Studies in 2004 from the Zeigler School of Rabbinic studies and was ordained in 2006. Previous to joining Adath Israel, she was the Rabbi and Religious School Director at Congregation B’nai Israel in Danbury, CT for fourteen years. 
 

Professor Rabbi Shaul Magid explores the ethical problems of God hardening Pharaoh's heart. 

Professor Rabbi Shaul Magid is the Distinguished Fellow in Jewish Studies at Dartmouth College, and the former Jay and Jeannie Schottenstein Professor of Jewish Studies at Indiana University/Bloomington. He is also the rabbi of the Fire Island Synagogue in Seaview, NY. His M.A. is from Hebrew University, his Ph.D. from Brandeis, and his ordination from rabbis in Israel. He is the author of American Post-Judaism: Identity and Renewal in a Postethnic Society (Indiana University Press, 2013), Hasidism Incarnate: Hasidism, Christianity, and the Construction of Modern Judaism (Stanford University Press, 2014), Piety and Rebellion: Essays in Hasidism (Academic Studies press, 2019) and The Bible, the Talmud, and the New Testament: Elijah Zvi Soloveitchik's Commentary to the New Testament (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2019).

Professor James Diamond discusses the philosophical and kabbalistic meaning of God's names and the most enigmatic three words of the entire Torah. 

Professor James A. Diamond is the Joseph and Wolf Lebovic Chair of Jewish Studies at the University of Waterloo and former director of the university’s Friedberg Genizah Project. He holds a Ph.D. in Religious Studies and Medieval Jewish Thought from the University of Toronto. He has recently been appointed as a fellow at the University of Hamburg,  Maimonides Center for Advanced Studies. He is the author of Maimonides and the Hermeneutics of Concealment, Converts, Heretics and Lepers: Maimonides and the Outsider and, Maimonides and the Shaping of the Jewish Canon and most recently with Menachem Kellner -  Reinventing Maimonides in Contemporary Jewish Thought, Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, (co-authored with Menachem Kellner). 

Rabbi Dina Rosenberg discusses lying and deception in the Joseph story. 

Rabbi Rosenberg is the Senior Rabbi at CSI. She was ordained at The Jewish Theological Seminary in 2011 and previously served Conservative congregations in Mississippi, Brooklyn-New York, Maryland, and New Jersey. She has served as the secretary of the Interfaith Clergy Association in Freehold, New Jersey and currently serves on the Racial Justice Committee for the Rabbinical Assembly.

Rabbi Nelly Altenburger reflects on the meaning of Joseph's tears. 

Rabbi Nelly Altenburger became the new spiritual leader of Congregation Adath Israel in Middletown in the summer of 2020. Rabbi Altenburger was born and raised in Brazil and received her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Hebrew Language and Literature from the University of Sao Paulo. She received a Master of Arts in Rabbinic Studies in 2004 from the Zeigler School of Rabbinic studies and was ordained in 2006. Previous to joining Adath Israel, she was the Rabbi and Religious School Director at Congregation B’nai Israel in Danbury, CT for fourteen years. 

Rabbi Amanda Weiss discusses the importance of dreams in the Joseph story. 

Rabbi Amanda Weiss is assistant Rabbi at Temple Isaiah, Maryland. 

Professor Alan Levenson asks why the brothers really hate Joseph. 

Alan T. Levenson holds the Schusterman/Josey Chair in Judaic History and is the Director of the Schusterman Center for Judaic and Israel Studies at the University of Oklahoma. Levenson has written extensively on the modern Jewish experience for both scholarly and popular audiences. His book, Between Philosemitism and Antisemitism: Defenses of Jews and Judaism in Germany, 1871-1932 was nominated for a National Jewish Book Award Prize (paperback edition 2013), and his textbook, Modern Jewish Thinkers, is widely used in classes on Jewish thought. He is also author of Joseph: Portraits Through the Ages (2016) and most recently Maurice Samuel: Life and Letters of a Secular Jewish Contrarian (2022). 

Rabbi Adam Zagoria-Moffet discusses Jacob's extra-human qualities and asks whether he is really worthy of bequeathing his name to the children of Israel. 

Rabbi Rebecca Rosenthal shares the importance of Jacob's epiphany. 

Rabbi Rebecca Rosenthal joined Central Synagogue in the summer of 2015 as the Director of Youth & Family Education. Prior to Central, Rabbi Rosenthal was the Director of Children and Family Education at IKAR, a nationally recognized, innovative spiritual community in Los Angeles. While at IKAR, she reimagined and redesigned the religious school, supervised IKAR’s Early Childhood Center from its creation to present, and created the IKAR teen program. She also taught in IKAR’s adult education program and participated in pulpit and pastoral duties. Before IKAR, Rabbi Rosenthal was the Director of Education at Congregation B’nai Zion in El Paso, Texas, and the Youth & Family Shabbat and Holidays Coordinator at B’nai Jeshurun in New York City. She has been involved in numerous national conversations about the future of congregational education, including the Conservative Moment’s Task Force on Congregational Education and the ReFrame Initiative, to examine and implement experiential education in a religious school setting.   

Adam Zagoria-Moffet is Director of the Louis Jacobs Foundation and the rabbi of St. Albans Masorti Synagogue. He was ordained from the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York where he also received an MA in Jewish Thought, studying the political philosophy of Rabbi Yehudah Ashlag (Ba’al haSulam). He grew up in Phoenix, Arizona, and has lived in Minnesota, New York, and Israel before moving to the UK. He co-edited the first Hebrew/English egalitarian Sepharadi siddur and runs the independent publisher Izzun Books. He often teaches about Sepharadi halakhah and culture as well as mysticism, mythology and ethics.  

Rabbi Dr Daniel Zucker asks just who was Betuel?

Rabbi Daniel M. Zucker, D.D. is the rabbi of Temple Hatikvah (Flanders, NJ) and President and CEO of Americans for Democracy in the Middle-East. He holds an M.A. in Hebrew Letters, a Doctor of Divinity (Honoris Causa) from JTS, and rabbinic ordination from HUC-JIR. A sampling of Zucker’s many articles on the Middle-East can be found on his blog.

Jon D. Levenson is the Albert A. List Professor of Jewish Studies at Harvard University, having previously taught at the University of Chicago and at Wellesley College. He has a strong interest in the philosophical and theological issues involved in biblical studies, especially the relationship of premodern modes of interpretation to modern historical criticism. Much of his work centers on the relationship of Judaism and Christianity, both in antiquity and in modernity, and he has long been active in Jewish-Christian dialogue.His book Resurrection and the Restoration of Israel: The Ultimate Victory of the God of Life (Yale University Press, 2006) won a National Jewish Book Award His latest book is The Love of God: Divine Gift, Human Gratitude, and Mutual Faithfulness in Judaism (Princeton University Press, 2016).

Dr Malka Simkovich asks whether Avraham is the great circumcisor or in fact the great un-circumcisor of Jewish history. 

Dr. Malka Z. Simkovich is the Crown-Ryan Chair of Jewish Studies and the director of the Catholic-Jewish Studies program at CTU. She is the author of The Making of Jewish Universalism: From Exile to Alexandria (2016), and Discovering Second Temple Literature: The Scriptures and Stories That Shaped Early Judaism (2018), which received the 2019 AJL Judaica Reference Honor Award. Simkovich’s articles have been published in journals such as the Harvard Theological Review and the Journal for the Study of Judaism, as well as on online forums such as The Lehrhaus, TheTorah.com, and the Times of Israel. She is involved in numerous local and international interreligious dialogue projects which help to increase understanding and friendship between Christians and Jews.

Professor Edward Greenstein outlines the Tower of Babel story as indicating the limitation of one language to convey the sense of another. 

Professor Edward Greenstein is Professor Emeritus of Bible at Bar-Ilan University. He received the Emet Prize in Humanities-Biblical Studies for 2020, and his book, Job: A New Translation, won the acclaim of the American Library Association, the Association for Jewish Studies, and many others. He has been writing a commentary on Lamentations for the Jewish Publication Society. 

Professor Menachem Kellner asks why the Torah begins with the account of creation and discusses the nature and purpose of Torah according to Rashi and Maimonides. 

Menachem Kellner is a scholar of medieval Jewish philosophy  with a particular focus on the philosophy of Maimonides. He is a retired Professor of Jewish Thought at the University of Haifa and is the founding chair of the Department of Philosophy and Jewish Thought at Shalem College in Jerusalem. He has taught courses in philosophy and religious studies, medieval and modern Jewish philosophy at numerous US universities and the University of Haifa. He is best known for his book Must A Jew Believe Anything?, which was a Koret Jewish Book Award finalist.

Avraham Leader discusses some of the important themes for this auspicious time of year as seen from the perspective of the Zohar and the Lurianic writings. 

Avraham Leader is an internationally acclaimed teacher of various schools of Kabbalah, a founder of Jerusalem's Leader Minyan, and chairman of the Wuste Tzega Center for Culturally Adapted Psychotherapy . He has published primary Kabbalistic texts, and founded the Matzref Academy for the Study of Rabbi Avraham Abulafia's Teachings. His students include teachers, researchers, rabbis and beginners.

Avraham discusses Rosh Hashana and the Tishrei Holidays from a Kabbalistic perspective in a series of 4 presentations. To purchase the series, please contact Adin on whatsapp at +972 54-778-1838 or email him at tzufshiv@gmail.com. The cost is $50, payable by PayPal to aleader@netvision.net.il

Dr. David Lambert is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) where he teaches Hebrew Bible. He received his Ph.D., M.A., and A.B. from Harvard University’s Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations. He is the author of How Repentance Became Biblical: Judaism, Christianity, and the Interpretation of Scripture.

Dr Joy Ladin discusses how we should dress without drawing the abhorrence of God. 

Joy Ladin is an American poet and the former David and Ruth Gottesman Chair in English at  Stern College for Women at Yeshiva University. She was the first openly transgender professor at an Orthodox Jewish institution. She is the author of twelve books, including the National Jewish Book Award winning revised second edition of The Book of Anna (EOAGH, 2021). 

Rabbi Elihayu Jian discusses the connection between Shoftim and the month of Elul, drawing on important kabbalistic teaching from Rabbi Isaac Luria, the Sfat Emet and the Zohar.

Rabbi Eliyahu Jian is a global thought leader, transformational life and business coach, spiritual coach, relationship coach, author and motivational speaker. He has been transforming thousands of lives around the globe for decades, including some of the world’s most famous and influential people, such as Madonna, Demi Moore, Blake Mallen, Eva Cavalli, Elie Tahari, Marla Maples, and Guy Ritchie.

Rabbi David Frankel asks whether Moses or God is the commanding voice in the second paragraph of the Shema. 

David Frankel is Associate Professor of Bible at the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies. He has been on the faculty since 1992. He earned his PhD from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem under the direction of Prof. Moshe Weinfeld. His publications include “The Murmuring Stories of the Priestly School,” and “The Land of Canaan and the Destiny of Israel.”  From 1991 to 1996, Frankel was rabbi of Congregation Shevet Achim in Gilo, Jerusalem.

Rabbi Cassi Kail asks whether zealotry can ever be condoned

Rabbi Cassi Kail is Rabbi of Temple Beth El in San Pedro, California. She was ordained in 2011 from the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, where she also received a Master’s in Jewish Literature. For the past seven years, she worked as a congregational rabbi for Temple Emanu-El of Utica, NY and then Temple Or Elohim in Jericho, NY. Rabbi Kail is a proud member of the Interfaith Clergy Council of Syosset and Woodbury. Previously, she served on the steering committees of InterFaith Matters, Reform Jewish Voice and the Empire State Anti-Poverty Initiative of the Mohawk Valley. While in Seminary, she co-founded a young egalitarian minyan called The Wandering Jews of Astoria, serving unaffiliated Jews in their 20s and 30s.

Dr Ethan Schwartz discusses the character of Balaam. 

Dr. Ethan Schwartz holds a Ph.D. in Hebrew Bible from Harvard University. He received his B.A. in philosophy and Jewish studies from the University of Chicago and his M.A. in Hebrew Bible from the Jewish Theological Seminary.

Rabbi Nelly Altenburger became the new spiritual leader of Congregation Adath Israel in Middletown in the summer of 2020. Rabbi Altenburger was born and raised in Brazil and received her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Hebrew Language and Literature from the University of Sao Paulo. She received a Master of Arts in Rabbinic Studies in 2004 from the Zeigler School of Rabbinic studies and was ordained in 2006. Previous to joining Adath Israel, she was the Rabbi and Religious School Director at Congregation B’nai Israel in Danbury, CT for fourteen years. 

Rabbi Francis Nataf is a Jerusalem based thinker, writer, and educator. He is the author of the Redeeming Relevance in the Torah series and of many articles on religious thought, biblical studies, and current events and is Associate Editor of the Jewish Bible Quarterly. He is known for his independent thought and creativity that simultaneously puts him to the right and to the left of everyone he knows. 

Rabbi Alex Goldberg is a barrister, chaplain, and human rights activist. He is currently the Dean of the College of Chaplains and Coordinating Chaplain at the University of Surrey. He is the only rabbi within this role in Europe. He is currently working on a number of international and UK-based community relations and community development projects and is the Jewish chaplain to the University of Surrey. Alex regularly co-hosts a BBC radio show, a contributor to BBC Radio 2's Pause For Thought and was a member of the BBC's Religion and Ethics Conference.

He chairs the English Football Association's Faith Network and founded the human rights group René Cassin.

He was founding chair of Faiths Forum for London and the Mayor of London's Faith Conference. He has been a lead a delegation to the UN Human Rights Council for over a decade where he successfully changed international law in relation to group access to justice. In 2012, he was an Olympic and Paralympic Chaplain.

Rabbi Gershuny explores the meaning and power of the Priestly Blessing. 

Rabbi Sarah Bracha Gershuny is a writer, ritualist, musician, healer and teacher. Originally from the UK, she currently lives in Boulder, Colorado, where from 2014-2020 she was the rabbi of Nevei Kodesh, a Jewish Renewal congregation. Rabbi Gershuny has received two ordinations: one as a Rabbi from Boston’s transdenominational Hebrew College Rabbinical School; the other as a Kohenet from the Kohenet Hebrew Priestess Institute, a contemporary wisdom school devoted to female expressions of Jewish leadership. She is on a mission to transform human consciousness through direct spiritual transmission and fierce joy. She writes and teaches regularly for MyJewishLearning.com.

Rabbi Alex Kress discusses what it means to be a desert people and some of the central themes of the Book of Bamidbar.

Rabbi Alex Kress serves Beth Shir Shalom in Santa Monica. He is passionate about innovating Jewish practice and making Judaism fun and meaningful. Born and raised in Philadelphia,  in 2012, he graduated from Temple University with a Bachelor of Arts in Jewish Studies and immediately flew to Israel to begin his studies at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. Rabbi Alex loves good coffee, shabbos ball, and reading an actual, physical newspaper.

Jeremy Tabick discusses the relevance of the Shmita and the Yovel for the world today. 

Jeremy Tabick is the Content Manager and faculty at Hadar, where he teaches, curates, and edits Hadar’s content—both online and in print—and Project Zug courses. Jeremy is also pursuing a PhD in Talmud at JTS. He graduated from the University of Manchester (in the UK) with a Masters in Physics, and is an alumnus of Yeshivat Hadar and the Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem. He is a member of the Steering Team of Kehilat Hadar.

Dr Abigail Uhrman discusses holiness as being found between the polarities of separation and engagement. 

Abigail Uhrman is an assistant professor of Jewish education in the William Davidson Graduate School of Jewish Education at the Jewish Theological Seminary. She works extensively with The Davidson School’s Research Center and teaches courses in pedagogic skills, curriculum, and staff development and supervision.
Dr. Uhrman completed her PhD in 2013 at New York University, where her dissertation, Alike and Different: Parenting a Child with Special Needs in the Jewish Community, focused on parents’ experiences in Jewish day schools and educational decision-making for their children with disabilities. She graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from the University of California, Los Angeles with a major in history and minor in education studies in 2001.  

Rabbi Steven Greenberg received his B.A. in philosophy from Yeshiva University and his rabbinical ordination from Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary. He served as a Senior Teaching Fellow at CLAL (National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership), a think tank, leadership training institute, and resource center in New York City for over twenty years from 1986 to 2010. Steve is the first openly gay Orthodox Rabbi and a founder of the Jerusalem Open House, the Holy City’s LGBTQ+ community center.  After coming out publicly in 1999 Rabbi Greenberg appeared in the film, Trembling Before G-d, a documentary about gay and lesbian Orthodox Jews. Following the film’s release in October 2001, Steve joined the filmmaker, Sandi Simcha DuBowski, in an outreach project carrying the film across the globe in over 500 post-screening dialogues as a tool for spiritual renewal, social change, and communal engagement.


Steve is presently the Founding Director of Eshel, a North American support, education, and advocacy organization for LGBTQ+ Orthodox Jews and their families.

Rabbi Professor Rachel Adelman considers the anthropological function of skin and Leviticus' concern with boundaries. 

Rabbi Professor Rachel Adelman is Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible at Boston’s Hebrew College. She holds a Ph.D. in Hebrew Literature from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and is the author of The Return of the Repressed: Pirqe de-Rabbi Eliezer and the Pseudepigrapha (Brill 2009) and The Female Ruse: Women's Deception and Divine Sanction in the Hebrew Bible (Sheffield Phoenix, 2015). Adelman is now working on a new book, Daughters in Danger from the Hebrew Bible to Modern Midrash (forthcoming, Sheffield Phoenix Press).

Professor Edward Greenstein discusses the incident of Nadav and Avihu and asks whether it says more about a mysterious transgression or a mysterious Deity. 

Professor Edward Greenstein is Professor Emeritus of Bible at Bar-Ilan University. He received the EMET Prize (“Israel’s Nobel”) in Humanities-Biblical Studies for 2020, and his book, Job: A New Translation (Yale University Press, 2019), won the acclaim of the American Library Association, the Association for Jewish Studies, and many others. He has been writing a commentary on Lamentations for the Jewish Publication Society.

Rabbi Tzemah Yoreh explores the original history of the Exodus narrative; one without God as master of the story. 

Rabbi Dr. Tzemah Yoreh, leader of The City Congregation, is one of the intellectual leaders of Jewish humanism. He has been a student of the Bible since his earliest days, winning the Diaspora Division of the International Bible Contest in childhood. He attended the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he obtained his Ph.D. in biblical criticism in record time. He earned a second Ph.D. in Ancient Wisdom Literature at the University of Toronto for the joy of studying ancient. 

Robert A. Harris is professor of Bible and Ancient Semitic Languages at The Jewish Theological Seminary, teaching courses in biblical literature and commentary, particularly medieval Jewish biblical exegesis.

Dr. Harris is an expert in the history of medieval biblical exegesis. His most recent book is Rabbi Eliezer of Beaugency: Commentaries on Amos, Jonah (with Selections from Isaiah and Ezekiel).  TEAMS Commentary Series. Kalamazoo, MI:  Medieval Institute Publications, 2017. In 2004 he published a book in the Brown Judaic Studies series, Discerning Parallelism: A Study in Northern French Medieval Jewish Biblical Exegesis. In addition, he has published many articles and reviews in both American and Israeli journals. His dissertation (1997) was titled The Literary Hermeneutic of Rabbi Eliezer of Beaugency.  He is currently at work on a book, tentatively titled The Reinvention of Reading in the 12th Century Renaissance. 

Rabbi Sam Blustin explores the inner meaning of sacrifices today. 

While in Rabbinical School, Rabbi Sam Blustin created Shira B’dira, a traditional egalitarian prayer community where melody is used to uplift the prayer experience. The monthly minyan gathers 25-50 20 and 30 year olds for prayer and potluck dinner, and has reached over 500 young professionals in the four years since it began.

Sam has also spent time as the Rosh Shira (head songleader) at Chizuk Amuno in Baltimore, Beth El Synagogue Center in New Rochelle, NY, and Carmel Academy. He served as the rabbinic intern for Rabbi David Schuck at Beth El in New Rochelle, and the Youth Director at Ansche Chesed.

Rabbi Adam Zagoria-Moffat shares the innovations in the book of Vayikra and how we might read it for our times. 

Adam Zagoria-Moffet is the rabbi of St. Albans Masorti Synagogue. He was ordained from the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York where he also received an MA in Jewish Thought, studying the political philosophy of Rabbi Yehudah Ashlag (Ba’al haSulam). He grew up in Phoenix, Arizona, and has lived in Minnesota, New York, and Israel before moving to the UK. He co-edited the first Hebrew/English egalitarian Sepharadi siddur and runs the independent publisher Izzun Books. He often teaches about Sepharadi halakhah and culture as well as mysticism, mythology and ethics.

Dr Naomi Koltun-Fromm discusses the differences between the Mishkan and the Temple. 

Dr. Naomi Koltun-Fromm is Associate Professor of Religion in Haverford College. She holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in Jewish Studies from Stanford. She is the author of Hermeneutics of Holiness: Ancient Jewish and Christian Notions of Sexuality and Religious Community.

Dr Deena Grant explores the connection between the ark and the golden calf. 

Dr. Grant values studying and teaching the Hebrew Bible from a historical-critical perspective and also as it is interpreted and lived out by faith communities. She is currently working on the concept of hate in the Hebrew Bible and has published a Divine Anger in the Hebrew Bible, which explores varying expressions of God’s anger across major biblical collections.

Rabbi Roni Tabick asks why the Torah was given in the midst of a storm.

Rabbi Roni Tabick is rabbi of New Stoke Newington Shul. He was ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York. With a Masters in Ancient Judaism, Rabbi Tabick specialises in Talmud, mysticism and Jewish Mythology, especially the Leviathan and other sea monsters

Professor Joel Hecker shares the mystical meanings of manna. 

Prof. Joel Hecker is Professor of Jewish Mysticism at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. He received his Ph.D. in Judaic Studies from New York University in 1996, and his rabbinic ordination and a M.A. in Jewish Philosophy from Yeshiva University in 1990. He is the author of Volumes 11 and (with Nathan Wolski) Volume 12 of The Zohar: Pritzker Edition and is the author of Mystical Bodies, Mystical Meals: Eating and Embodiment in Medieval Kabbalah (Wayne State University Press, 2002). 

Rabbi Jan Uhrbach is founding director of the Block / Kolker Center for Spiritual Arts. She brings a passion for prayer to the JTS community. Through her work as director of the Block / Kolker Center for Spiritual Arts, she has developed and overseen programs and discussions, as well as prayer services on Shabbat and festivals, for the JTS community and the general public.

In addition to her role at JTS, Rabbi Uhrbach serves as the founding rabbi of the Conservative Synagogue of the Hamptons in Bridgehampton, Long Island, enabling her to mentor many of JTS’s rabbinical and cantorial students in a congregational setting. She has played a key role in the acclaimed Lev Shalem prayer book series as associate editor of Siddur Lev Shalem, the Shabbat and festival siddur published by the Rabbinical Assembly in 2016. She also served on the editorial committee for Machzor Lev Shalem.

Professor Gary Rendsburg shares the importance of understanding the plagues in their Egyptian context.

Professor Gary Rendsburg serves as the Blanche and Irving Laurie Professor of Jewish History in the Department of Jewish Studies at Rutgers University. His Ph.D. and M.A. are from N.Y.U. Rendsburg is the author of seven books and about 190 articles and has been a regular contributor to Between The Lines. His most recent book is How the Bible Is Written.

Professor Carl Ehrlich asks whether the Exodus is more history or legend. 

Carl S. Ehrlich (Ph.D. Harvard ’91) is University Professor of Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel in the Departments of History and Humanities, and former Director of ths Israel and Golda Koschitzky Centre for Jewish Studies at York University in Toronto. 

Among  his areas of interest are synchronic, diachronic, and contextual approaches to the biblical text and Israelite civilization. His recent publications include the (co-)edited collections From an Antique Land: An Introduction to Ancient Near Eastern Literature (2009) and Premodern Jewish Studies: A Handbook (2023). Current projects include a cultural history of Moses and a commentary on the book of Chronicles.

Rabbi Daniel Nevins explores the legacies of Jacob and Joseph and shares an important overarching lesson from the book of Genesis. 

Rabbi Danny Nevins is dedicated to exploring the sacred realm of Torah and its intersection with contemporary ethics, culture, and technology. Ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary. Rabbi Nevins was named Head of School of Golda Och Academy in 2021, dedicating himself to support the faculty and students in the creation of an outstanding and warm Jewish learning environment. Previously, he worked at The Jewish Theological Seminary as the Pearl Resnick Dean of the Division of Religious Leadership. He writes responsa on topics of contemporary halakhah, essays, prayers, and Torah commentaries, many of which can be viewed on his website - rabbinevins.com. 

Simon Eder explores the way in which again and again Joseph connects the dots.

Professor Naomi Graetz discusses Asnath, the mysterious wife of Joseph.

Naomi Graetz taught English at Ben Gurion University of the Negev for 35 years. She is the author of Unlocking the Garden: A Feminist Jewish Look at the Bible, Midrash and God (Piscataway NJ: Gorgias Press, 2005), The Rabbi’s Wife Plays at Murder (Beersheva: Shiluv Press, 2004), S/He Created Them: Feminist Retellings of Biblical Stories (Professional Press, 1993; second edition Gorgias Press, 2003), and Silence is Deadly: Judaism Confronts Wifebeating (Jason Aronson, 1998).

Abraham Joshua Heschel was perhaps the most influential figure in Jewish thought over the last century. Born in 1907, he grew up in Warsaw amongst Polish Hasidim and indeed was descended Rabbinic luminaries on both sides. He was though perhaps always happiest at the nexus between the sacred and the secular. Heschel studied philosophy and Biblical criticism in Berlin before becoming a pivotal figure in America, where he galvanized the Jewish and non-Jewish world alike on issues of social justice. His Judaism was at once profoundly rooted in tradition and simultaneously subversive of the status quo. His theological commitments  always undergirded his courageous, outspoken efforts on behalf of the Civil Rights Movement, his protests against the war in Vietnam, and his work to improve Jewish and Christian relations following the Shoah. His output was of course prolific with works such as The Sabbath, The Prophets and God in Search of Man.

Rabbi Shimon Felix discusses some of the key themes that we encounter in the Joseph story and shares their relevance for today. 


Rabbi Shimon Felix is the Executive Director Emeritus of the program. He was born in New York, and has lived in Jerusalem since 1973. Rabbi Felix has been associated with The Bronfman Fellowship since 1991. He received his rabbinic ordination from Yeshivat Hamivtar, where he served as educational director. Rabbi Felix has worked in a wide variety of educational programs including Michelelet Bruria, the Israeli school system and Yakar. He headed The Jewish Agency’s Bureau for Cultural Services to Communities and also served as assistant to Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks. He is the Director of Re: IL Regarding Israel.

Professor Naomi Graetz discusses the rape of Dinah in light of both favourable and negative views of welcoming outsiders into the tradition. 

Naomi Graetz taught English at Ben Gurion University of the Negev for 35 years. She is the author of Unlocking the Garden: A Feminist Jewish Look at the Bible, Midrash and God (Piscataway NJ: Gorgias Press, 2005), The Rabbi’s Wife Plays at Murder (Beersheva: Shiluv Press, 2004), S/He Created Them: Feminist Retellings of Biblical Stories (Professional Press, 1993; second edition Gorgias Press, 2003), and Silence is Deadly: Judaism Confronts Wifebeating (Jason Aronson, 1998). Her current areas of interest are: teaching Jewish Sources about trafficking and workshops teaching women to study and engage in writing Midrash. She writes a weekly blog at https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/author/naomi-graetz/. 

Rabbi Samuel Klein discusses the parallels between Jacob's first encounter with Rachel and Marina Abromivic's performance at MOMA in 2010 entitled: ''The Artist is Present''.

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Rabbi Samuel Klein is Director of Jewish Engagement for the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle. Samuel was Chief Jewish Officer of the Jewish Community Center San Francisco and Executive Director of the Bronfman Jewish Education Centre, Montreal. He holds Masters degrees in Theology from Cambridge University and History of Art from University College London and trained as a teaching artist at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

Anthony Julius deconstructs the character of Abraham and hints at the unique challenge that he poses to our own Jewish identity today. 

Anthony Julius holds the chair in Law and Arts at UCL and is also the Deputy Chair of Mishcon de Reya. His publications include T. S. Eliot, Anti-Semitism and Literary Form and Trials of the Diaspora A History of Anti-Semitism in England. 

Reuven Firestone explores Avraham's reconciliation with Ishmael in the Jewish and Muslim traditions. 

Prof. Rabbi Reuven Firestone is the Regenstein Professor in Medieval Judaism and Islam at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, where he earned his M.A. and his rabbinic ordination, while his Ph.D. in Arabic and Islamic studies is from New York University. Firestone is the author of Journeys in Holy Lands: The Evolution of the Abraham Ishmael Legends in Islamic Exegesis (SUNY, 1990), Jihad. The Origin of Holy War in Islam (Oxford, 1999), Children of Abraham: An Introduction to Judaism for Muslims (Ktav, 2001), Trialogue: Jews, Christians, Muslims in Dialogue: A Practical Handbook (Twenty-Third Publications, 2007), Who are the Real Chosen People? The Meaning of Chosenness in Judaism, Christianity and Islam (Skylight Paths, 2008), An Introduction to Islam for Jews (JPS, 2008), Learned Ignorance: An Investigation into Humility in Interreligious Dialogue between Christians, Muslims and Jews (Oxford , 2011), Holy War in Judaism: The Fall and Rise of a Controversial Idea (Oxford, 2012).

Dr Rabbi Tzemah Yoreh asks whether Isaac is really Abraham's son and argues that he was in fact sacrificed. 

Rabbi Dr. Tzemah Yoreh, leader of The City Congregation, is one the intellectual leaders of Jewish humanism. He has been a student of the Bible since his earliest days, winning the Diaspora Division of the International Bible Contest in childhood. He attended the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he obtained his Ph.D. in biblical criticism in record time. He earned a second Ph.D. in Ancient Wisdom Literature at the University of Toronto for the joy of studying ancient text.

Professor Christoph Levin argues that the character of Abraham prefigures key elements of the Exodus narrative. 

Professor Christoph Levin is Professor (Emeritus) of Old Testament at the University of Munich. He received his Ph.D. and Dr.habil. from Goettingen university, as well as a honorary degree from Helsinki university. Two of his books have been translated into English, Re-reading the Scriptures: Essays on the Literary History of the Old Testament (2015), The Old Testament: A Brief Introduction (2005). 

Professor Ronald Hendel explores the multiple meanings of the Tower of Babel story and its relevance for today. 

Professor Ronald Hendel is the Norma and Sam Dabby Professor of Hebrew Bible and Jewish Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. He holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University in Biblical History and Northwest Semitic Philology and is author of many articles and books, including recently The Book of Genesis: A Biography (Lives of Great Religious Books, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2013). He is the general editor of The Hebrew Bible: A Critical Edition, a text-critical project sponsored by the Society of Biblical Literature.

Prof Rav Rachel Adelman compares the blessings of Moses with those of Jacob in Genesis.

Prof. Rav Rachel Adelman is Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible at Boston’s Hebrew College. She holds a Ph.D. in Hebrew Literature from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and is the author of The Return of the Repressed: Pirqe de-Rabbi Eliezer and the Pseudepigrapha (Brill 2009) and The Female Ruse: Women’s Deception and Divine Sanction in the Hebrew Bible (Sheffield Phoenix, 2015). Prof Adelman is now working on a new book, Daughters in Danger from the Hebrew Bible to Modern Midrash (forthcoming, Sheffield Phoenix Press)

Rabbi Zohar Atkins acts as the Defence Attorney for Cain and explains why the Cain and Abel story is far more complicated than we might first initially think. 

Zohar Atkins is is the Founder of Etz Hasadeh, a Center for Existential Torah. He is a Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America.
He holds a DPhil in Theology from Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar, and semikha from the Jewish Theological Seminary, where he was a Wexner Graduate Fellow. He received both an MA and BA from Brown University. In 2016, The Jewish Week named him one of the “36 under 36 Changemakers in Jewish Life.”

Dr Gili Kugler asks whether the Exodus generation entered the land or died in the wilderness. 

Dr. Gili Kugler is a Senior Lecturer of Biblical Studies in the University of Haifa. Until recently she was a lecturer in Biblical Studies and Classical Hebrew at the University of Sydney. She holds a Ph.D. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and teaches and writes about topics such as chosenness in biblical theology, religion and politics in prophecy, and biblical narratives and mythology in light of modern psychology. She is the author of several articles as well as the book When God Wanted to Destroy the Chosen People: Biblical Traditions and Theology on the Move (De Gruyter, 2019).

Dr. Rabbi Michael Marmur is Associate Professor of Jewish Theology at Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion in Jerusalem. He holds a Ph.D. and M.A. from Hebrew University and a B.A. from Oxford. He is the author of Abraham Joshua Heschel and the Sources of Wonder, and his most recent publication is American Jewish Thought Since 1934: Writings on Identity, Engagement and Belief, co-edited with David Ellenson (Brandeis 2020).

Zvi Koenigsberg shares just what and where the Gilgal is. 

Zvi Koenigsberg is the author of The Lost Temple of Israel. He spent almost a decade studying archaeology and the Bible under the informal mentorship of the late president of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Professor Benjamin Mazar, who excavated the Western Wall. Koenigsberg worked with Professor Adam Zertal of Haifa University at the Mount Ebal excavations, which are the subject of this book.

Chazan Jaclyn Chernett explores the meaning of Selichot and shares some of the wonderful melodies for the High Holy Days ahead!

Chazan Jaclyn Chernett is a founder member of Kol Nefesh Masorti, as well as a founder of Masorti Judaism in the UK, and the first woman in the UK to be ordained as a Chazan. A love of Jewish teaching and its expression through the music of the liturgy has been Jacky’s passion over many years, and led her on an inspiring Jewish journey of learning and teaching. She received her semichah as a chazan in 2006. In 2007, Jacky set up the European Academy for Jewish Liturgy), which provides competent lay individuals and groups with dedicated professional coaching and mentoring in leadership of Jewish prayer. 

Kristine Henriksen Garroway was appointed Visiting Assistant Professor of Bible at the HUC-JIR's Skirball Campus in Los Angeles in 2011. She received her doctorate in Hebrew Bible and Cognate Studies at the HUC-JIR/Cincinnati in 2009. She has spent time studying and researching in Israel and has participated in excavations at Ashkelon, Tel Dor, and Tel Dan.Garroway’s scholarship focuses on children using archaeology and texts of ancient Israel and Mesopotamia. She has published in various scholarly journals, and is a regular contributor to thetorah.com. Garroway’s books include: Children in the Ancient Near Eastern Household (Eisenbrauns 2014) and Growing Up in Ancient Israel: Children in Material Culture and Biblical Texts (Society of Biblical Literature 2018), and The Cult of the Child: the Death and Burial of Children in Ancient Israel (Oxford, forthcoming). She is the recipient of the Biblical Archaeological Society’s 2019 Publication Award for Best Book Relating to Hebrew Bible.

Professor Mark Leuchter’s field of research is ancient Judaism. His work includes the study of mythology in ancient Israel and Second Temple Judaism, the phenomenon of prophecy in the ancient near east, the formation of the Hebrew Bible, and the history of the Israelite priesthood. He earned his PhD from the University of Toronto in 2003 and currently serves as director of Jewish Studies. He has previously served as coordinator of Biblical Studies at University of Sydney (Australia) and Visiting Professor of Hebrew Bible at University of Pennsylvania.

Zvi Koenigsberg shares what light archaeology can cast when seeking to understand the whereabouts of ''The place that God will choose.''(Deut 12:5)

Zvi Koenigsberg is the author of The Lost Temple of Israel. He spent almost a decade studying archaeology and the Bible under the informal mentorship of the late president of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Professor Benjamin Mazar, who excavated the Western Wall. Koenigsberg worked with Professor Adam Zertal of Haifa University at the Mount Ebal excavations, which are the subject of this book.

Professor Gary Rendsburg discusses God's central promise of rain, grain and grass which lies at the heart of the second paragraph of the Shema. 

Professor Gary Rendsburg serves as the Blanche and Irving Laurie Professor of Jewish History in the Department of Jewish Studies at Rutgers University. His Ph.D. and M.A. are from N.Y.U. Rendsburg is the author of seven books and about 190 articles; his most recent book is How the Bible Is Written.

Rabbi Daniel Zucker asks in what way is God One? He also explores how interpretation of the opening line of the Shema has changed throughout the ages?

Rabbi Daniel M. Zucker, D.D. is the rabbi of Temple Hatikvah (Flanders, NJ) and President and CEO of Americans for Democracy in the Middle-East. He holds an M.A. in Hebrew Letters, a Doctor of Divinity (Honoris Causa) from JTS, and rabbinic ordination from HUC-JIR. A sampling of Zucker’s many articles on the Middle-East can be found on his blog.

Rabbi Shoshana Cohen uncovers some of the key trends towards secularisation that we encounter with the Deuteronomist authors and find throughout the Book of Devarim.

Rabbi Shoshana Cohen is SHI Senior Faculty and Director of Campus Engagement for the Hevruta Gap-Year Program. In this role she serves as a faculty member, teacher, and mentor for North American gap-year students studying in Israel, prepares them for Jewish life in college, and supports them after they return to their campuses in North America. She was also a member of Cohort II of the Created Equal Fellowship. Prior to coming to Hartman Shoshana was a senior faculty member at the Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem for over a decade where she taught Talmud, Midrash and Gender Studies. She has served as scholar-in-residence in communities across the US.

Shoshana was the educational director of ATZUM’s Takum, a social justice beit midrash housed at the CY. She has completed advanced studies at Hebrew University, Matan and the Hartman Institute and has rabbinic ordination from Rabbi Daniel Landes. She is a founding member of Reshut haRabim, the Jerusalem Forum for Jewish Renewal Organizations. Lecturing in Hebrew and in English she has been on the faculty of the Drisha Institute, the Hartman Girl’s High School, Yeshivat Talpiot, and Yeshivat Hadar. 

Rabbi Bradley Artson discusses the role of intention in creating new reality that both Mattot and Massei speak to in a number of important ways. 

Rabbi Bradley Artson is one of the leading voices in Conservative Judaism. Author, speaker, and the occupant of the Abner and Roslyn Goldstine Dean's Chair of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies at the American Jewish University in Los Angeles, California, where he is Vice-President. He is also Dean of the Zacharias Frankel College at the University of Potsdam in Germany, ordaining Conservative/Masorti rabbis for Europe.

Professor Shawna Dolansky takes an historical-geographical approach to the daughters of Zelophehad. 

Professor Dolansky is Associate Professor of Religion and Humanities at Carleton University, in Ottawa, Canada. She specialises in Biblical Studies, with a focus on the history and religions of Israel and the ancient Near East and the development of the Hebrew Bible.  Her research incorporates the tools of literary criticism, comparative religion, historical study, anthropology, archaeology, political science and classics in order to understand the worlds of the original authors and audiences of the biblical texts, and the subsequent development of Judaism and Christianity out of ancient Israelite religious beliefs and practices.

Professor Dolansky is the author of Now You See It, Now You Don’t: Biblical Perspectives on the Relationship Between Magic and Religion and co-author with Richard E. Friedman of The Bible Now.

Professor Rabbi Joshua Garroway discusses Balaam as the prototypical Gentile seducer. 

Professor Rabbi Joshua Garroway is the Sol and Arlene Bronstein Professor of Judaeo-Christian Studies at HUC-JIR in Los Angeles. He holds a Ph.D. from the Religious Studies Department at Yale and ordination from HUC-JIR in Cincinnati. He is the author of, The Beginning of the Gospel: Paul, Philippi, and the Origins of Christianity.

Professor Rabbi David Frankel shares his novel thesis that interwoven into the Merivah story are the missing opening verses of the non-Priestly spies story. 

Professor Rabbi David Frankel is Associate Professor of Bible at the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem, where he teaches M.A. and rabbinical students. He did his Ph.D. at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem under the direction of Prof. Moshe Weinfeld, and is the author or The Murmuring Stories of the Priestly School (VTSupp 89) and The Land of Canaan and the Destiny of Israel (Eisenbrauns).

Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove explores the lessons of leadership that may be drawn from Korach. 

Ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1999, Rabbi Cosgrove earned his PhD at the University of Chicago Divinity School. His dissertation on Rabbi Louis Jacobs, a leading Anglo-Jewish theologian of the 20th century, reflects his passion for the intersection of Jewish scholarship and faith. Rabbi Cosgrove is the author of twelve collections of selected sermons, In the Beginning (2009), An Everlasting Covenant (2010), Go Forth! (2011), Hineni (2012), A Place to Lodge (2013), Living Waters (2014), Stairway to Heaven (2015), Rise Up! (2016), A Coat of Many Colors (2017), Provisions for the Way (2018), Tree of Life (2019), and Bring Them Close (2020). He is the editor of Jewish Theology in Our Time: A New Generation Explores the Foundations and Future of Jewish Belief. His essays and op-eds appear frequently in a variety of Jewish publications, including The Jewish Week and the Forward.

Under Rabbi Cosgrove’s leadership, Park Avenue Synagogue seeks to inspire, educate, and support its membership toward living passion-filled Jewish lives. The rabbi aspires to make Park Avenue Synagogue a beit tefillah, a beit midrash, and a beit knesset – a house of prayer, learning, and gathering – and a kehillah kedoshah, a holy congregation, where national Jewish conversations are lived.

Dr Rachel Havrelock shares a critical reading of the scout story.

Dr. Rachel Havrelock is Associate Professor of Jewish Studies and English at the University of Illinois at Chicago.  Rachel’s book, River Jordan: The Mythology of a Dividing Line combines biblical studies, literary and political theory, and the politics of interpretation. Rachel’s current book project, The Joshua Generation: Politics and the Promised Land, focuses on the structure and meaning of the book of Joshua and its interpretation. Her co-authored book, Women on the Biblical Road, was the beginning of her work on gender and the Bible.

Rabbi Daniel Silverstein explores Beha'alotcha from the lens of Chassidic Masters. 

Rabbi Daniel Silverstein directs, and teaches through, an online learning platform called Applied Jewish Spirituality. He also teaches at the Romemu Yeshiva, the Conservative Yeshiva and My Jewish Learning.

Celebrating our 3,000th listenings, Simon Eder uncovers some of the many meanings behind the blessing perhaps more etched on the Jewish imagination - the Priestly Blessing!

Rav Professor Rachel Adelman discusses the blessings and the curses at the end of the Book of Leviticus. 

Prof. Rav Rachel Adelman is Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible at Boston’s Hebrew College. She holds a Ph.D. in Hebrew Literature from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and is the author of The Return of the Repressed: Pirqe de-Rabbi Eliezer and the Pseudepigrapha (Brill 2009) and The Female Ruse: Women’s Deception and Divine Sanction in the Hebrew Bible (Sheffield Phoenix, 2015). Prof Adelman is now working on a new book, Daughters in Danger from the Hebrew Bible to Modern Midrash (forthcoming, Sheffield Phoenix Press)

Professor Gary Rendsburg serves as the Blanche and Irving Laurie Professor of Jewish History in the Department of Jewish Studies at Rutgers University. His Ph.D. and M.A. are from N.Y.U. Rendsburg is the author of seven books and about 190 articles; his most recent book is How the Bible Is Written.

Professor Gary Rendsburg discusses Mary Douglas' proposal for the literary construction of Leviticus as a tabernacle. 

Jeremy Tabick addresses the ableism of the laws of kohanim and how that interacts with the divinity of the Torah.


Jeremy Tabick is the Content Manager and faculty at Hadar, where he teaches, curates, and edits Hadar's content—both online and in print—and Project Zug courses. Jeremy is also pursuing a PhD in Talmud at JTS. He graduated from the University of Manchester (in the UK) with a Masters in Physics, and is an alumnus of Yeshivat Hadar and the Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem. He is a member of the Steering Team of Kehilat Hadar.

Professor Israel Knohl discusses the innovation of the Holiness School and its introduction of ethical principles into the concept of Holiness. 

Prof. Israel Knohl is the Yehezkel Kaufmann Professor of Bible at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a senior research fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute. He holds a Ph.D. in Bible from Hebrew University. Knohl’s numerous publications include: The Sanctuary of Silence, which won the Z. Shkopp Prize for Biblical Studies and The Messiah before Jesus: The Suffering Servant of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Rabbi Dr Charles Middleburgh discusses the laws concerning the scapegoat and their possible application for our times. 

Dr Charles Middleburgh is founder rabbi of Congregation Shir HaTzaphon in Copenhagen and Dean and Director of Jewish Studies at the Leo Baeck College in London. Rabbi Middleburgh has lectured at Leo Baeck College since 1984 and has taught, over the years, Bible, Parshanut, Rabbinic Literature, Aramaic and Practical Rabbinics. He is now Reader in Bible and Liturgy.

Rabbi Middleburgh has a BA Hons in Ancient and Medieval Hebrew with Aramaic and Syriac and a PhD in Targumic Studies from UCL.

His publications include: Siddur Lev Chadash (assoc Editor); Machzor Ruach Chadashah (Co-Editor); High and Holy Days: A Book of Jewish Wisdom (Co-Editor) 2010; A Jewish Book of Comfort Co-Editor 2014; Prayers of Awe, 2010 – 2016 (contributor); Bright and Beautiful: Poems inspired by the Natural World (2015)

His research interests are Liturgy, Animal Iconography in illuminated medieval Hebrew manuscripts, Islamist Fundamentalism and Afghanistan.

Andrew Levy shares his own passion for the Song of Songs and its uniqueness within the Bible.

Andrew Levy is a senior lecturer in Law at BPP. He is a founder member of New North London's ASIF community. . He has been interested in Jewish texts for many years and is author of Love in the Time of Tyranny, A new perspective on the Song of Songs. 

Rabbi Adam Zagoria-Moffat discusses how the Seder replicates the very paradigm of the Greek symposium and shares what makes it so relevant in every generation.  

Adam Zagoria-Moffet is the rabbi of St. Albans Masorti Synagogue. He was ordained from the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York where he also received an MA in Jewish Thought, studying the political philosophy of Rabbi Yehudah Ashlag (Ba’al haSulam). He grew up in Phoenix, Arizona, and has lived in Minnesota, New York, and Israel before moving to the UK. He co-edited the first Hebrew/English egalitarian Sepharadi siddur and runs the independent publisher Izzun Books. He often teaches about Sepharadi halakhah and culture as well as mysticism, mythology and ethics.

Professor Rav Rachel Adelman takes us on a journey through the Haggadah reflecting on some important themes for contemporary times. In conversation with Simon Eder.

Prof. Rav Rachel Adelman is Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible at Boston’s Hebrew College. She holds a Ph.D. in Hebrew Literature from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and is the author of The Return of the Repressed: Pirqe de-Rabbi Eliezer and the Pseudepigrapha (Brill 2009) and The Female Ruse: Women’s Deception and Divine Sanction in the Hebrew Bible (Sheffield Phoenix, 2015). Prof Adelman is now working on a new book, Daughters in Danger from the Hebrew Bible to Modern Midrash (forthcoming, Sheffield Phoenix Press).

Simon Eder explores some of the insights of Menachem Mendel Schneerson on the different names for the week's parsha and how they are reflective of the stages of repentance. 

Dr Jason Rogoff discusses the confusing descriptions of the biblical skin afflictions and their prescience in light of the recent global pandemic. 

Dr. Rogoff is the academic director of Israel Programs and assistant professor of Talmud and Rabbinics at JTS’s Jerusalem campus, located at the Schocken Institute. An integral part of JTS’s presence in Israel, he is responsible for the overall quality of the academic program for rabbinical and cantorial students, coordination and planning of programs with partner institutions, and Israel student recruitment. 

As a member of the Talmud faculty, Dr. Rogoff is responsible for teaching Talmud and Rabbinics to JTS students as well as students of the Schechter Rabbinical Seminary and Argentina’s Seminario Rabínico

In the summers, Dr. Rogoff also teaches and mentors JTS rabbinical students who are working and learning at Camp Ramah in the Berkshires as part of JTS’s Nishma program.

In addition to his post at JTS, Dr. Rogoff is a faculty member at the Rothberg International School of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

He is the co-author of Reconstructing the Talmud: An Introduction to the Academic Study of Rabbinic Literature (Hadar Press, 2014).

Rabbi Shai Held discusses the the death of Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu, who brought “strange fire” to the Lord and died for their pains. In discussion with Simon Eder, they chart possible parallels with this tragic and enigmatic episode. 

Rabbi Shai Held–theologian, scholar, and educator–is President and Dean at Hadar. He has taught both theology and Halakhah at the Jewish Theological Seminary and also served as Director of Education at Harvard Hillel. A 2011 recipient of the prestigious Covenant Award for excellence in Jewish education, Rabbi Held has been named multiple times to Newsweek’s list of the 50 most influential rabbis in America. He holds a doctorate in religion from Harvard; his main academic interests are in modern Jewish and Christian thought, in biblical theology, and in the history of Zionism. Rabbi Held's first book, Abraham Joshua Heschel: The Call of Transcendence, was published by Indiana University Press in 2013; The Heart of Torah, a collection of essays on the Torah in two volumes, was published by JPS in 2017.

Rabbi Yehuda Sarna in conversation with Simon Eder discusses the concept of holiness in the parsha and how it relates to the founding of Jewish community in the UAE. 

Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg discusses the concept of holiness, sacrifice and the power of memory and how they might be applied in a world with such tragic events today. 

Rabbi Wittenberg is the Senior Rabbi of Masorti Judaism UK. He is a leading writer and thinker on Judaism. He is Rabbi of the New North London Synagogue, with ovr 3,000 members. He is also a member of the Elijah Interfaith Institute Board of World Religious Leaders.

Rabbi Dr David Frankel did his doctorate at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His publications include The Murmuring Stories of the Priestly School, The Land of Canaan and the Destiny of Israel, and many scholarly articles. He teaches Hebrew Bible to Israeli M.A. and Rabbinical students at the Schechter Institute in Jerusalem.

Simon Eder is Editorial Director of Jewish Quest. He writes regularly for the site and has written for the Judaism column of the Jewish Chronicle. He is a founder of the Jewish Community in Dubai and due to feature in a documentary later this year about its founding. He studied Theology at The University of Cambridge.

Search for “Between The Lines” or “Jewish Quest” on your favourite podcast app.

Dr Alex Sinclair argues that that the more radical you are theologically, the more conservative you should be liturgically, in this exploration of Vayakhel.

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Dr Alex Sinclair is the Chief Content Officer for Educating for Impact. Alex grew up in London, England, and received an M.A., (Oxon) in Hebrew Studies from Balliol College, University of Oxford and a Ph.D. in Jewish Education from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Alex was a member of faculty at the Davidson School of Education of the Jewish Theological Seminary between 2002 and 2019, and remains a Consultant for JTS’s Legacy Heritage Instructional Leadership Institute, in which role he has coached instructional leaders in Jewish Day Schools throughout North America. He has taught or run programs for the Hartman Institute, the Schechter Institute, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Hebrew Union College, and the Jewish Agency. He has published many academic articles on Jewish education and his book, “Loving the Real Israel: An Educational Agenda for Liberal Zionism”, was published in 2013.

Dr Eitan Fishbane investigates the mystical undercurrents surrounding the story of Moses smashing the two tablets. In conversation with Simon Eder.

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Dr Eitan Fishbane is Associate Professor of Jewish Thought at The Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS), where he teaches students in all five graduate and undergraduate schools. Fishbane earned his Ph.D. and B.A., summa cum laude, from Brandeis University, and he served on the faculties of Carleton College and Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion before coming to JTS in 2006. 

Dr. Fishbane has devoted his research and writing primarily to the development of Kabbalah in medieval Spain. At present his scholarship is devoted to three main topics: The Zohar as mystical poetry; The Sabbath and sacred time in hasidic mysticism; and ideas of the self and identity in the Kabbalah.  

Among his published works are The Art of Mystical Narrative: A Poetics of the Zohar (Oxford University Press, 2018) and As Light Before Dawn: The Inner World of a Medieval Kabbalist (Stanford University Press, 2009). Dr Fishbane was a 2011 recipient of the Charles A. Ryskamp Fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies.

Why are garments so symbolically important in Jewish thought, asks Rabbi Herzl Hefter, as he explores Parashat Tetzaveh.  In conversation with Simon Eder.

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Rabbi Herzl Hefter is the founder and Rosh Beit Midrash Har’el in memory of Belda Kaufman Lindenbaum, in Jerusalem. It is a beit midrash for advanced rabbinic studies for men and women. He is a graduate of Yeshiva University where he learned under the tutelage of Rabbi Yosef Dov Soloveichik, and received smikha from Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein at Yeshivat Har Etzion where he studied for ten years. 

Rabbi Hefter taught Yoreh De’ah to the Kollel fellows at the Gruss Kollel of Yeshiva University and served as the head of the Bruria Scholars Program at Midreshet Lindenbaum. He also taught at Yeshivat Mekor Chaim in Moscow and served as Rosh Kollel of the first Torah MiZion Kollel in Cleveland, Ohio. He has written numerous articles related to modernity and Hasidic thought. His Torah essays and online shiurim can be accessed at www.har-el.org.

The juxtaposition of the description of the building of the Mishkan, the Tabernacle, with the story of the Golden Calf, in Parashat Terumah, raises intriguing questions, says Prof Rav Rachel Adelman.

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Prof. Rav Rachel Adelman is Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible at Boston’s Hebrew College. She holds a Ph.D. in Hebrew Literature from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and is the author of The Return of the Repressed: Pirqe de-Rabbi Eliezer and the Pseudepigrapha (Brill 2009) and The Female Ruse: Women’s Deception and Divine Sanction in the Hebrew Bible (Sheffield Phoenix, 2015). Prof Adelman is now working on a new book, Daughters in Danger from the Hebrew Bible to Modern Midrash (forthcoming, Sheffield Phoenix Press).

Rabbi Dr Meesh Hammer-Kossoy argues that the medium is the message in Parashat Mishpatim, the message being the centrality of law in building a just society.

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Rabbi Dr Meesh Hammer-Kossoy teaches Talmud, directs the Social Justice Track, and serves on the Senior Staff at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem, an open, co-ed and non-denominational Jewish learning community, where students encounter and grapple with classic texts and traditions of Judaism, while exploring their relevance to today's most pressing issues. 

Rabbi Hammer-Kossoy is engaged with a variety of social campaigns especially in the areas of women’s and human rights and cultural peacebuilding. She was among the first cohort of Orthodox female rabbis ordained in June 2015. She completed her studies at Beit Midrash Har’el and received ordination from Rabbi Herzl Hefter and Rabbi Daniel Sperber. She has a PhD in Talmud from New York University.

Professor Benjamin Sommer explores the ambiguities in the telling of the giving of the Ten Commandments, in parashat Yitro. In conversation with Simon Eder.

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Benjamin Sommer is a Professor of Bible at the Jewish Theological Seminary. He is also a Senior Fellow of the Kogod Research Center at the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America. Previously he taught at Northwestern University, where he was Director of the Crown Family Center for Jewish Studies. An overarching concern of Professor Sommer’s scholarship involves the close and manifold relationships between biblical thought and later Jewish theology.

His most recent book, Revelation and Authority: Sinai in Jewish Scripture and Tradition (Yale University Press, 2015), was awarded the Goldstein-Goren Prize in Jewish thought for 2014–2016 and was a finalist for a National Jewish Book Award and the Jordan Schnitzer Prize. Reviewing the book, the newspaper Ha’aretz described Professor Sommer as “a traditionalist and yet an iconoclast – he shatters idols and prejudices in order to nurture Jewish tradition and its applicability today”.

It’s time for Miriam’s role and reputation to be re-evaluated, says Professor Carol Meyers, as she explores the Song of the Sea in Parashat Beshalach. In conversation with Simon Eder.

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Professor Carol Meyers, the Mary Grace Wilson Professor Emerita of Religious Studies at Duke University, specialises in biblical studies, archaeology, and gender in the biblical world. A prolific scholar, she has written more than 450 articles, reports, reference-book entries, and reviews; and she has authored, co-authored, or edited twenty-two books. Her reference work, Women in Scripture, is a comprehensive look at all biblical women; and her book Rediscovering Eve is a detailed study of women in ancient Israel. 

Professor Meyers has co-directed several of Duke’s archaeological projects in Galilee. She recently served as President of the Society of Biblical Literature and is currently a trustee of the American Schools of Oriental Research and of the Dead Sea Scrolls Foundation.

Through the themes of Parashat Bo, Rabbi Samuel Klein explores the power and the centrality of questions and questioning in Jewish life. In conversation with Simon Eder.

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Rabbi Samuel Klein is Director of Jewish Engagement for the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle. Samuel was Chief Jewish Officer of the Jewish Community Center San Francisco and Executive Director of the Bronfman Jewish Education Centre, Montreal. He holds Masters degrees in Theology from Cambridge University and History of Art from University College London and trained as a teaching artist at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. 

Prior to his move stateside, Rabbi Klein was director of a contemporary art gallery in London and a specialist at Sotheby’s in Hebrew rare books and manuscripts. A lecturer and writer on religion and the arts, he has taught Jewish thought and philosophy in a variety of community settings including, synagogues, JCCs, and Federations nationally.

We understate the importance of the Egyptian-ness of Moses, says Rabbi Adam Zagoria-Moffat, as we begin the Exodus story. In conversation with Simon Eder.

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Adam Zagoria-Moffet is the rabbi of St. Albans Masorti Synagogue. He was ordained from the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York where he also received an MA in Jewish Thought, studying the political philosophy of Rabbi Yehudah Ashlag (Ba’al haSulam). He grew up in Phoenix, Arizona, and has lived in Minnesota, New York, and Israel before moving to the UK. He co-edited the first Hebrew/English egalitarian Sepharadi siddur and runs the independent publisher Izzun Books. He often teaches about Sepharadi halakhah and culture as well as mysticism, mythology and ethics.

Through the prism of the Burning Bush, Prof Rav Rachel Adelman asks, what is the nature of sacred space and how is it determined?

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Prof. Rav Rachel Adelman is Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible at Boston’s Hebrew College. She holds a Ph.D. in Hebrew Literature from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and is the author of The Return of the Repressed: Pirqe de-Rabbi Eliezer and the Pseudepigrapha (Brill 2009) and The Female Ruse: Women's Deception and Divine Sanction in the Hebrew Bible (Sheffield Phoenix, 2015). Prof Adelman is now working on a new book, Daughters in Danger from the Hebrew Bible to Modern Midrash (forthcoming, Sheffield Phoenix Press).

Rabbi Roni Tabick asks, why do werewolves appear so frequently in mediaeval Jewish texts, and what is their relevance to this week’s parasha?

Sources: https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/367788.1?lang=bi

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Rabbi Roni Tabick is rabbi of New Stoke Newington Shul. He was ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York. With a Masters in Ancient Judaism, Rabbi Tabick specialises in Talmud, mysticism and Jewish Mythology, especially the Leviathan and other sea monsters.

Professor Meira Polliack explores how the trauma of Joseph’s experiences informs his actions, as the Joseph story reaches its climax. In conversation with Simon Eder.

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Prof Meira Polliack is Professor of Bible at Tel Aviv University and chair of the Department of Biblical Studies (2016-17). She holds a Ph.D. and M.Phil from Cambridge University and a B.A. from the Hebrew University. From 2012-2018, she was one of the Principal Investigators of the Biblia Arabica: The Bible in Arabic among Jews, Christians and Muslims international research project.

 Prof Polliack’s research interests are Medieval Bible translation and exegesis; modern literary approaches to the Bible; Judaeo-Arabic literature; Arabic and Judaeo-Arabic sources in the Cairo Genizah; intellectual and cultural history of the Jews in the medieval Islamic world; historical development of biblical hermeneutics and notions of biblical narrative

Rabbi Joel Levy explores the role of awakenings in Jewish mythology, through the prism of this part of the Joseph story in parashat Miketz.

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Rabbi Joel Levy is Rosh Yeshiva of the Conservative Yeshiva in Israel & Rabbi of Kol Nefesh Synagogue in the UK.

 Rabbi Levy studied Natural Sciences at Cambridge University, was chair of programming at Limmud conference and is an ex-director of NOAM. He received rabbinical ordination from Rabbi David Hartman in 2000. He has been the part-time rabbi of Kol Nefesh Masorti Synagogue, Britain’s first fully egalitarian traditional shul, since 2001. 

Prof. Rabbi Pamela Barmash offers a highly original view of the Joseph story through a legal and literary lens. In conversation with Simon Eder.

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 Prof. Rabbi Pamela Barmash is Professor of Hebrew Bible and Biblical Hebrew at Washington University in St. Louis. She holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University, a B.A. from Yale University, and rabbinic ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary. 

 Prof. Barmash has published widely on biblical and ancient Near Eastern law and on history and memory. She teaches courses at Washington University on modern perspectives on the Bible, law and justice, mythology, the problem of evil, traditional Scriptural interpretation, and biblical and ancient Jewish history, culture, and religion.

 She is the author of The Laws of Hammurabi: At the Confluence of Royal and Scribal Traditions (Oxford 2020) and Homicide in the Biblical World (Cambridge 2005). She is the co-editor of the Exodus: Echoes and Reverberations in the Jewish Experience, and the editor of the Oxford Handbook of Biblical Law.  She serves as a dayyan on the Joint Beit Din of the Conservative/Masorti movement.

What was really going on with Jacob’s showdown/reconciliation with Esau? Prof. Rabbi Marty Lockshin offers an alternative view. In conversation with Simon Eder.

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Prof. Rabbi Marty Lockshin is Professor Emeritus at York University and lives in Jerusalem. He received his Ph.D. in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies from Brandeis University and his rabbinic ordination in Israel while studying in Yeshivat Merkaz HaRav Kook. 

Professor Lockshin’s primary area of scholarly expertise and writing is the history of Jewish biblical interpretation, particularly the interplay between tradition and innovation. Most of his research has been centred on those medieval biblical commentators who valued tradition intellectually, who lived traditional lives and who still innovated unabashedly in their understanding of the Bible. Among Professor Lockshin’s publications is his four-volume translation and annotation of Rashbam’s commentary on the Torah.

Professor Shawna Dolansky explores the story of Jacob’s return to Canaan and how it played a formative role in the identity of the people of Israel. In conversation with Simon Eder.

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Professor Shawna Dolansky is Associate Professor of Religion and Humanities at Carleton University, in Ottawa, Canada. She specialises in Biblical Studies, with a focus on the history and religions of Israel and the ancient Near East and the development of the Hebrew Bible.  Her research incorporates the tools of literary criticism, comparative religion, historical study, anthropology, archaeology, political science and classics in order to understand the worlds of the original authors and audiences of the biblical texts, and the subsequent development of Judaism and Christianity out of ancient Israelite religious beliefs and practices.

Professor Dolansky is the author of Now You See It, Now You Don’t: Biblical Perspectives on the Relationship Between Magic and Religion and co-author with Richard E. Friedman of The Bible Now.

Rabbi Dr David Frankel revisits the story of Jacob’s deception of Isaac, and wonders whether it’s all that it seems. In conversation with Simon Eder.

Rabbi Dr. David Frankel did his doctorate at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His publications include The Murmuring Stories of the Priestly School, The Land of Canaan and the Destiny of Israel, and many scholarly articles. He teaches Hebrew Bible to Israeli M.A. and Rabbinical students at the Schechter Institute in Jerusalem

In his exploration of parashat Chayei Sarah, Rabbi Dr David Frankel questions the story of the cave of Machpelah and considers its ramifications. In conversation with Simon Eder.

 
Rabbi Dr. David Frankel did his doctorate at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His publications include The Murmuring Stories of the Priestly School, The Land of Canaan and the Destiny of Israel, and many scholarly articles. He teaches Hebrew Bible to Israeli M.A. and Rabbinical students at the Schechter Institute in Jerusalem.

Rabbi Jeremy Gordon explores parashat Vayera, including negotiating with God at Sodom and Gomorrah, a unique critique of Abraham and a look at the role that angels play in the Torah. In conversation with Simon Eder.

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Rabbi Jeremy Gordon is Rabbi of New London Synagogue. He has a first class honours degree in Law from Cambridge and, following five years working for the BBC and other television companies decided to train for the Rabbinate. He studied at the Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem and the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, where he volunteered with the Red Cross at Ground Zero on ‘9/11.’  His latest book is An Angel Called Truth.

Professor Everett Fox examines parshat Lech Lecha for clues to the mythic role that Abraham plays in three religions.

Professor Everett Fox on how the Epic of Gilgamesh and the films of Cecil B. DeMille help us understand parashat Noach.

Professor Marc Brettler examines the textual clues to the different authors of the Torah’s first parasha, Bereshit.