Mechon Hadar Online Learning

Ever wanted to know the answer to some deep and challenging questions in halakhah (Jewish law)? Join R. Avi Killip interviewing R. Ethan Tucker with questions sent in by Yeshivat Hadar alumni and others on all sorts of details of Jewish law. This is a joint project between the Center for Jewish Law and Values and Jewish Public Media.

Dena Weiss, Aviva Richman. In celebration of 10 Years of Mechon Hadar, the extended Hadar community will be learning all of Pirkei Avot together at a pace of 3-5 mishnayot a week, concluding with a Siyyum Celebration on March 2, 2017. Each podcast includes the full text, a translation with explanations, and a short Dvar Torah inspired by that week's mishnayot.

Listen as Mechon Hadar faculty members Elie Kaunfer, Avi Killip, Aviva Richman, Jason Rubenstein, and Dena Weiss discuss their favorite texts about Teshuva. Recorded on September 13, 2016.

Ethan Tucker. When we encounter a law in the Torah that seems at odds with the intuitively right way to behave, how do we proceed? Under what sort of mindset are the tools of the oral tradition deployed in order to arrive at new, perhaps unprecedented conclusions? Using the laws of the rebellious son, ben sorer u-moreh, as a model, we argue that we have a basic choice between two models: moral revolution or complex application.

Dena Weiss. In celebration of 10 Years of Mechon Hadar, the extended Hadar community will be learning all of Pirkei Avot together at a pace of 3-5 mishnayot a week, concluding with a Siyyum Celebration on March 2, 2017. Each podcast includes the full text, a translation with explanations, and a short Dvar Torah inspired by that week's mishnayot.

Ever wanted to know the answer to some deep and challenging questions in halakhah (Jewish law)? Join R. Avi Killip interviewing R. Ethan Tucker with questions sent in by Yeshivat Hadar alumni and others on all sorts of details of Jewish law. This is a joint project between the Center for Jewish Law and Values and Jewish Public Media.

Ethan Tucker. In this series, we explore the limits of trust and religious expectation when we interact with others, particularly those with whom we have religious differences. When is a charitable reading of someone else’s decision just a form of condescension? When can I assume that others are looking out for my interests, and when am I trusting their reliability as a way of hiding from my own responsibilities? We look at a wide range of sources from the ancient, medieval and modern periods to get greater clarity on these big questions of how to live with integrity in community. Part 3 of 3. Recorded in August 2016.

Dena Weiss. In celebration of 10 Years of Mechon Hadar, the extended Hadar community will be learning all of Pirkei Avot together at a pace of 1-5 mishnayot a week, concluding with a Siyyum Celebration on March 2, 2017. Each podcast includes the full text, a translation with explanations, and a short Dvar Torah inspired by that week's mishnayot.

Ethan Tucker. Conversion: Leadership and Marriage. We perhaps best demonstrate our full acceptance of people into our lives when we allow them to serve in positions of power over us and to penetrate our most intimate circles. A person can be warmly welcomed into a family, a people, a country, a religion and still kept somewhat at bay if these privileges are denied him or her. Can a convert to Judaism serve in all the same leadership positions that are open to native-born Jews? Can a convert marry all Jews?

Ethan Tucker. In this series, we explore the limits of trust and religious expectation when we interact with others, particularly those with whom we have religious differences. When is a charitable reading of someone else’s decision just a form of condescension? When can I assume that others are looking out for my interests, and when am I trusting their reliability as a way of hiding from my own responsibilities? We look at a wide range of sources from the ancient, medieval and modern periods to get greater clarity on these big questions of how to live with integrity in community. Part 2 of 3. Recorded in July 2016.

Dena Weiss. In celebration of 10 Years of Mechon Hadar, the extended Hadar community will be learning all of Pirkei Avot together at a pace of 1-5 mishnayot a week, concluding with a Siyyum Celebration on March 2, 2017. Each podcast includes the full text, a translation with explanations, and a short Dvar Torah inspired by that week's mishnayot.

Ethan Tucker. Conversion: Prayer, History, and Memory. Jewish liturgy is particularly rich with historical references. In addition to the sorts of universal human needs and requests that pervade Jewish prayer, there are frequent appeals to events that occurred in the past and to the merits of ancestors. This element of prayer raises central questions about the interplay of ethnicity and religion in defining Jewishness. Can someone without any Jewish ancestry speak about the Jewish past in the same way as a native-born Jew? If so, how does allowing or requiring that affect our very understanding of the past itself and its role in shaping the present?

Ethan Tucker. In this series, we explore the limits of trust and religious expectation when we interact with others, particularly those with whom we have religious differences. When is a charitable reading of someone else’s decision just a form of condescension? When can I assume that others are looking out for my interests, and when am I trusting their reliability as a way of hiding from my own responsibilities? We look at a wide range of sources from the ancient, medieval and modern periods to get greater clarity on these big questions of how to live with integrity in community. Part 1 of 3. Recorded in July 2016.

Dena Weiss, Ethan Tucker. In celebration of 10 Years of Mechon Hadar, the extended Hadar community will be learning all of Pirkei Avot together at a pace of 3-5 mishnayot a week, concluding with a Siyyum Celebration on March 2, 2017. Each podcast includes the full text, a translation with explanations, and a short Dvar Torah inspired by that week's mishnayot.

Ethan Tucker. Conversion: Defining the Boundaries of Judaism. If we follow an ethnic frame of Judaism, the convert to Judaism can never be the equal of the born Jew. If the essence of being a Jew is being born into a clan, then a convert can at most be an in-law, a branch grafted on to the original tree. By contrast, a religious frame not only makes room for the convert but potentially sets her up as the ideal. Unencumbered by Jewish ethnic ties, the convert nonetheless sees the compelling truth of the religion and embraces it as a way of life.