Text-based classes on assorted Judaic topics, with a special emphasis on Jewish history.
New episodes every week.
Made Possible by Unzer-Chadash Shul, Brooklyn NY.
Latest Episodes
The Dilemma of Handing Over One to Save Many
Can a Jewish community surrender one of its own to save the many? This class explores three cases from the 1600s and 1700s, where this wrenching question was brought b...
The Rabbi Who Couldn’t Quit Gambling
Today, we’ll examine the debate in Venice in 1630 over a communal ban against gambling. Local leaders moved to outlaw games of chance, but Rabbi Yehuda Aryeh Modena pu...
Up High or Down Low? The Battle Over the Proper Trop for the Aseres Hadibros
In 1725, Rabbi Zalman Hena published Shaarei Tefilah and sparked controversy by calling for a complete stop to the use of taam ha’elyon—the unique system of trop tradi...
The Great Semicha Controversy, Part II
Today, we’re picking up where we left off in the story of chidush hasemicha. We’ll look at what unfolded after Rabbi Levi ibn Chabib pushed back against Rabbi Yaakov B...
The Great Semicha Controversy, 1538
After the Spanish Expulsion, a group of leading rabbis in Tzfas, led by Rabbi Yaakov Beirav, set out to revive semichah—the original form of judicial ordination that l...
