How do we know when it’s time to leave the familiar behind? In this episode, Zvi Hirschfield and Yiscah Smith explore Avraham’s response to the call of Lech Lecha and what it means to leave the familiar behind. Was Avraham…
Tanakh, Torah, Bereishit (Genesis), Personalities, Biblical personalities, Self & spirituality
In November 2022, OpenAI – a non-profit organization – released a free preview of ChatGPT. This triggered widespread interest in generative AI and leading to the ongoing AI boom. By March 2023, OpenAI released a new model – GPT-4 –…
Self & spirituality, Hasidut
The notion of a women serving as pontifex maximus, the bishop of Rome, sovereign of papal states, and the visible head of the Catholic Church – seems incongruous. Yet a legend first recorded in the thirteenth century identifies just such…
Self & spirituality, Hasidut
The Passover Seder night is all about the faculty of speech. We talk, explain, pose questions and offer answers, discuss, and recount the story of our people. Indeed, the Hebrew word for Passover, Pesah, is a portmanteau for peh sah…
Self & spirituality, Hasidut, Jewish prayer
The Battle of the Vale of Siddim – or as it is known in Jewish tradition: The War of the Four Kings against the Five (Genesis 14:1-17) – was a result of longstanding tensions in the Jordan River plain during…
Self & spirituality, Hasidut
The following article was published on April 13, 2020. Many people obsess over counting the Omer. “Did you count yet?” “What was last night?” “Don’t forget to count!” In fact, this obsession has roots in Jewish, and specifically hasidic, tradition.…
Self & spirituality, Hasidut, Jewish calendar, The Omer
Dov Ehrman was born around 1860 and grew up in the hasidic cultural milieu of Hungary and Galicia. He lived in Perbenyik, Hungary (today Pribeník, Slovakia), and visited the hasidic masters of Belz, Sighet, Munkatch, and others. At the…
Self & spirituality, Hasidut
The goal of the mystic is to reach a state of devekut. The experience can be described as the state of an intimate spiritual closeness to God, up to the point of being lost in communion with the Almighty. The…
Self & spirituality, Hasidut
Class Title – The Mourners’ Kaddish: Hasidic Remonstrations Class taught by Levi Cooper Class description: The quintessential Jewish prayer of resilience is the Mourners’ Kaddish – a publicly recited responsive passage that declares God’s greatness, while at the same time…
Self & spirituality, Hasidut, Critical issues, Modernity
Class Title – Walking With Your Inner Spirit: Cultivating an Understanding Heart Class taught by Yiscah Smith Class description: For many, the term “understanding heart” conveys an impossible reality, a contradiction and even nonsense. How can a heart understand? Isn’t…
Self & spirituality, Hasidut, Personal transformation
A short reference in a popular book can trigger a surprising reaction. This is what happened when Rabbi Zvi Elimelekh Shapira of Dynów (1783-1841) briefly recounted a discussion about a seemingly insignificant topic. The discussion centered around the appropriate blessing…
Jewish history, Early Hasidic Era, Self & spirituality, Hasidut
Rabbi Akiva Eger (1761-1837) was a great talmudic mind, famous for his succinct annotations to classic texts. His notes on the Babylonian Talmud were first published during his lifetime as an addendum to the tomes of Talmud printed in Prague…
Self & spirituality, Hasidut
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