Mechon Hadar Online Learning

A major part of what it means to serve God is to protect the vulnerable and pursue justice. Shai Held, Co-Founder and Dean of Mechon Hadar, and Jill Jacobs, Executive Director of Tru'ah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, explore the place of social justice activism in Jewish theology, spirituality, and ethics; they discuss such pressing questions as race in America, mass incarceration, the global environmental crisis, and the future of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Shai Held. The Religious Worldviews of Rabbis Heschel and Soloveitchik. Heschel, the Rambam, and Revelation. Recorded in 2010.

Ethan Tucker. Many of the greatest challenges of contemporary Jewish life revolve around the desire to bring together Jews of disparate practices and beliefs. This has always been so: Jews have been arguing over key matters of Jewish practice and commitment even as they have still attempted to create community with one another. And yet, for all that this is an old problem, it is in many ways more acute than ever before. How do we navigate these issues in the modern world?

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.

Shai Held. The Religious Worldviews of Rabbis Heschel and Soloveitchik. What does "radical amazement" mean in the thought of R. Abraham Joshua Heschel? Recorded in 2010.

Ethan Tucker. In part 1, we saw the broad prohibition in many early sources of benefiting from Gentile melakhah on Shabbat. Now we see the cotinuation of the story into the medieval and modern periods.

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.

Shai Held. The Religious Worldviews of Rabbis Heschel and Soloveitchik. What does "radical amazement" mean in the thought of R. Abraham Joshua Heschel? Recorded in 2010.

Ethan Tucker. One of the overarching questions behind Shabbat is just how comprehensive its effect on the world is meant to be. We are accustomed to thinking of Shabbat as a specifically Jewish practice, one that is not expected of Gentiles, and perhaps even off-limits to them. This often leads us to see the Torah as concerned only with Shabbat as a Jewish spiritual practice, a set of expectations that is specific to Jewish culture. But a closer look at the Torah reveals that the focus is often broader: we are charged to dream of a Shabbat where the world is entirely at rest, where Jews not only refrain from melakhah but also attempt to rid their environment of such activity entirely.

Ethan Tucker. Shabbat has a tremendous power to unite, and to divide, Jews. When can we live in a pluralistic détente with others, and when must our principles enter into the interpersonal space? This is explored based on the case of a Jew cooking food on shabbat: can it be eaten? If so, when, and by whom?

Ethan Tucker. Halakhic decisors have used the category of those who are not allowed to give testimony in court to delineate communal boundaries: some actions put someone beyond the community such that they cannot be trusted not to make a mockery of our laws in a courtroom. Where and in what context does this idea originate?

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. Halakhic decisors have used the category of those who are not allowed to give testimony in court to delineate communal boundaries: some actions put someone beyond the community such that they cannot be trusted not to make a mockery of our laws in a courtroom. Where and in what context does this idea originate?

Tefillah Toolkit #2. Joey Weisenberg discusses the distinctions and connections between nusach and niggun. Where and how can one add moments of coming together as a community in song to the daily Amidah? Includes his own composition, Binah's Niggun.

Ethan Tucker. How do we construct our communities? How do we think about those who practice differently from us? This is investigated through the lens of who is allowed to testify. This week, we'll see the origin of these discussions in the Torah and early Rabbinic sources.