Shows
Pardes from JerusalemVayeishev 5786: Grief and Bad DecisionsHow does unresolved grief shape the choices we make—and the people we become?
In this episode, Zvi Hirschfield and Aviva Lauer explore Parshat Vayeishev through the lens of grief and the ways unresolved pain shapes Yaakov’s choices. They examine how the Torah’s seemingly hopeful opening—vayeishev, “he settled”—quickly gives way to family tension, favoritism, and disaster. Reading Yaakov as a father still mourning Rachel, struggling after Dina’s trauma, and missing the women who once guided him, they show how grief clouds judgment and fractures a fragile family system.
2025-12-0736 minPardes from JerusalemBereshit 5786: Creation and ConnectionWhat does the creation story teach us about our partnership with God?
In this episode, Zvi Hirschfield and Aviva Lauer explore Parshat Bereshit and what the creation story reveals about humanity’s relationship with God. They discuss how rain, prayer, and work symbolize dependence, gratitude, and partnership—and how the Torah calls us to balance effort with humility. Drawing on Midrash and Talmud, they contrast Rabbi Eliezer’s demand for precision with Rabbi Akiva’s compassion, uncovering a vision of creation grounded in divine presence, responsibility, and grace.
2025-10-1535 minPardes from JerusalemPinchas 5785: Seeing Them AnewWhat if Moshe couldn’t see that the people had already grown up?
In this episode, Parshat Pinchas takes center stage as Zvi Hirschfield and Aviva Lauer delve into the powerful juxtaposition of two pivotal moments in Bamidbar 27: the bold legal claim of the daughters of Tzlofchad and the appointment of Yehoshua as Moshe’s successor. They explore rabbinic expansions from Avot de-Rabbi Natan, the challenge of seeing people as they are today—not as they were—and the evolving nature of Torah leadership and inheritance. Their discussion raises timely questions about authority, growth, and meeting learners where th...
2025-07-1334 minPardes from JerusalemVaEra 5785: The Power of MahloketThis week’s podcast is sponsored in memory of Dr. Jack Jaffe, Yaakov Zev ben Elchanon. Doctor, community leader, and fervent Zionist. Sponsored by his children, Ari and Marlyn, Reva and Sheldon, Leah and Simon, and Ezra and Marla, as well as his 10 grandchildren and 12 great grandchildren.
Can difficult conversations foster growth?
In this episode, Zvi Hirschfield and Aviva Lauer examine Parshat Vaera through the lens of conflict, focusing on the ongoing mahloket (dispute) between God and Pharaoh. They explore Moshe's role as an emissary, the dynamics of hardening hearts, and how God’s appr...
2025-01-1936 min
The Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies Podcast NetworkVaEra 5785: The Power of MahloketThis week’s podcast is sponsored in memory of Dr. Jack Jaffe, Yaakov Zev ben Elchanon. Doctor, community leader, and fervent Zionist. Sponsored by his children, Ari and Marlyn, Reva and Sheldon, Leah and Simon, and Ezra and Marla, as well as his 10 grandchildren and 12 great grandchildren.
Can difficult conversations foster growth?
In this episode, Zvi Hirschfield and Aviva Lauer examine Parshat Vaera through the lens of conflict, focusing on the ongoing mahloket (dispute) between God and Pharaoh. They explore Moshe's role as an emissary, the dynamics of hardening hearts, and how God’s approach to Pharaoh models lessons for enga...
2025-01-1936 minThe Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies Podcast NetworkNitzavim – Vayelich 5784: Empowering LeadershipHow do words of encouragement shape Joshua’s leadership and the future of the Jewish people?
In this episode, Zvi Hirschfield and Aviva Lauer explore Parshat Vayelech, focusing on the leadership transition from Moshe to Yehoshua. Join them and dive into the significance of the repeated phrase "chazak ve’amatz" (be strong and brave) and how Moshe and God empower Yehoshua to step into his new role. Listen as they discuss the importance of cultivating a culture of encouragement (firgun) within communities and how it impacts both leadership and personal growth.
Featuring:
Aviva Lauer – Pardes Chief Education Officer
Zvi Hirschfield – Pardes F...
2024-09-2200 minPardes from JerusalemNitzavim – Vayelich 5784: Empowering LeadershipHow do words of encouragement shape Joshua’s leadership and the future of the Jewish people?
In this episode, Zvi Hirschfield and Aviva Lauer explore Parshat Vayelech, focusing on the leadership transition from Moshe to Yehoshua. Join them and dive into the significance of the repeated phrase "chazak ve’amatz" (be strong and brave) and how Moshe and God empower Yehoshua to step into his new role. Listen as they discuss the importance of cultivating a culture of encouragement (firgun) within communities and how it impacts both leadership and personal growth.
Featuring:
Aviva Lauer – Pardes Chief...
2024-09-2231 minPardes from JerusalemKorach 5784: Leadership and RebellionHow do we navigate leadership challenges and personal ambition in times of crisis?
In this week’s episode, Rabbi Zvi Hirschfield and Aviva Lauer delve into Parsha Korach, exploring leadership and rebellion within the context of the Jewish people's journey through the desert. They discuss the motivations behind Korach's uprising, the dynamics of leadership as portrayed in the Torah, and the harsh consequences faced by the rebels. Together they examine modern applications of these lessons, focusing on individuality, collective responsibility, and the importance of choosing wise counsel.
Credits:
Aviva Lauer – Pardes Faculty
Rabbi Zvi Hirs...
2024-06-2937 minPardes from JerusalemVayehi 5784: An Inherited Meritocracy?When thinking of traditional inheritance, we often think of the firstborn as being the main heir, and in many ways the Torah confirms this, yet throughout the book of Bereishit we see the script being flipped, with the younger sibling receiving the greater blessing. The final example of this appears at Ya'akov's deathbed, where he blesses his descendants and uses his dominant hand to bless Ephraim, the younger of his two grandchildren.
In this week's episode, Rabbi Zvi Hirschfield is joined by Aviva Lauer for an examination of this strange reversal. Together, they examine the Torah's perspective on...
2023-12-2628 minPardes from JerusalemBereishit 5784: Let’s Talk About RainDedicated to the healing of those who were injured, to the memory of those who lost their lives, and with hopes and prayers for the rescue of all those who are being held hostage.
Including an opening message from Pardes President Rabbi Leon Morris.
In this week's episode of Pardes from Jerusalem, we begin the cycle anew with a return visit from Director of the Pardes Center for Jewish Educators, Aviva Lauer. Starting with the end of Deuteronomy and moving their way to Bereishit, Aviva and Zvi discuss the importance of rain in the Torah as...
2023-10-1024 min
The Jewish Education Experience Podcast92: Meaning-Mining with Your Students with Aviva LauerAviva Lauer is the Director of the Pardes Center for Jewish Educators. She majored in Jewish Studies at Yeshiva University’s Stern College for Women, and earned a Master’s degree in Midrash at the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies. Aviva is a Jewish educator with 25 years of experience in curriculum development, classroom teaching, school administration and educational consulting. Upon making Aliyah in 1996, Aviva developed formal and informal educational materials for Melitz and at the Leo Baeck Education Center, where she also gained experience in teaching pluralistic Judaism. She then served as the head of the department of Jewish Stud...
2023-07-3033 minPardes from JerusalemDevarim 5783: Listening Between the LinesHow are we able to live in the past, future and present all at the same time?
Aviva Lauer, Director of the Pardes Center for Jewish Educators, joined Zvi to discuss Devarim and Moshe's opening speech for the final book of the Tanakh. Aviva shares how, if read carefully, we could learn from Moshe's speech exactly how we could simultaneously manage to live in the past, present, and future, and how this ability is so essential for us in this day and age.
Read this week's parsha here.
Credits: Aviva Lauer and Rabbi Zvi H...
2023-07-1728 min
Adapting: The Future of Jewish EducationMeaning Makers: Supporting Our Educators, Season 3, Episode 31In a time of shortage of Jewish educators, today’s episode of Adapting focuses specifically on why one would even consider becoming a Jewish educator today, asking such challenging questions as: how has the role of educator become more difficult than it once was? And how can we, as a culture, better champion the profession?This week's guest is Aviva Lauer, Director of the Pardes Center for Jewish Educators in Jerusalem. Aviva speaks with David Bryfman about equipping educators with the Jewish knowledge, pedagogical skills, and supportive onboarding needed to succeed – and avoid burnout.Aviva shares her pit...
2023-06-0236 minPardes from JerusalemVayikra 5783: What Do We Do With a Book Full of Animal Sacrifice?So much of Sefer Vayikra (the Book of Leviticus) is steeped in concepts that are foreign to us today - the temple cult, the offering of sacrifices - that it's de rigueur to assume we won't understand or care very much about this set of Torah portions. But Elisha Ancselovits, in a havruta of guiding questions from Aviva Lauer, gives us a whole new take on why the Korban Shlamim - the peace offering - is actually a practice that we can and do still fulfill today in slightly different cultural ways.
Credits: Aviva Lauer and Rabbi Dr. E...
2023-03-1626 min
Pardes from JerusalemHanukah 5783: Deborah and Judith: How Our Heroines Harmonize Across a MillenniumDuring a holiday where there is both darkness and light, where we retreat indoors and shine brightly from the windowsill, go on a journey with Pardes North America to find meaning in the discord within our tradition.
Night 7* - Deborah and Judith: How Our Heroines Harmonize Across a Millennium
Featuring Aviva Lauer
Who was Judith and what does she have to do with Hanukah? And if we listen closely, might we hear her harmonize along with Deborah the Prophetess, who sang her own song a thousand years earlier than Judith did?
2022-12-2307 minPardes from JerusalemVayishlah 5783: Confronting HateYaakov returns from Lavan's house to meet Esav, and he is petrified. Esav is coming with 400 men. Is he seething with hatred and violence, or has he possibly missed his brother and is instead coming to welcome him. The parsha is filled with ambiguity.
Aviva and Alex discuss the nuances of the biblical and rabbinic personalities of Yaakov and Esav as they apply these paradigms to the topic of antisemitism in our own day and age.
Credits: Rabbi Alex Israel and Aviva Lauer - Pardes Faculty
2022-12-0629 minPardes from JerusalemParashat Re’eh: The Place that God Will ChooseIn this week's Pardes Parsha Podcast, Aviva Lauer joins Rabbi Michael Hattin to discuss parashat Re'eh.
As the people of Israel prepare for their entry into the land of Israel, Moses teaches them that God will choose the place for them to worship, that there will be one location in all of Israel where they will bring their sacrifices. Today, we know that place to be Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, but did the people of Israel, or Moses himself, know this? Could it be that the exact location had not been chosen yet?
Credits: Aviva L...
2022-08-2418 minPardes from JerusalemParashat Emor 5782: The Jewish Year Cycle, Emor-StyleParashat Emor 5782: The Jewish Year Cycle, Emor-Style
Description: While the Torah lists our holidays several times throughout the five books, there is something special about the way it's done in this week's parasha. Find out what that is by listening to Zvi Hirschfield and Aviva Lauer discuss everything from Sukkot to Yom HaAtzmaut in this week's Pardes from Jerusalem.
Vayikra 23:33-43
Please let us know your comments and thoughts about the podcast, write to us at elmad@pardes.org.il. We appreciate you leaving us a review with 5-stars if you enjoy these podcasts.
2022-05-0127 minPardes from JerusalemParashat Bo 5782: Locusts That Last a LifetimeParashat Bo 5782: Locusts That Last a Lifetime
Description: In this week's Torah portion of Bo, God rains down upon Egypt the last three plagues. One of these three is the plague of locusts. Learn along with PCJE Director, Aviva Lauer, to explore how this plague might have lasted just a few days in Egypt, but possibly affected the Israelites down the line for an entire generation.
Download the Source Sheet
Shemot 10
Please let us know your comments and thoughts about the podcast, write to us at elmad@pardes.org.il. We appreciate you...
2022-01-0219 minPardes from JerusalemYom Kippur 5782 – Who is the Hero of the Jonah Story?Yom Kippur 5782 - Who is the Hero of the Jonah Story?
In this podcast, Aviva Lauer explores the Book of Jonah, read on the afternoon of Yom Kippur, in an effort to understand what message we are meant to take from it on this special day. Naming Jonah (under the influence of his midrashic mentor, Elijah the Prophet) the antihero of the story, as opposed to its hero, Lauer searches for the real hero of the story - one that fits the themes of the Day of Repentance.
This podcast is sponsored by Linda A. and Steven...
2021-09-1222 min
Pardes Live and Mini-SeriesAmen – Opening up the Amidah – Gratitude and Graciousness in Prayer Part 3The Pardes Center for Jewish Educators is proud to produce this podcast series to support and inspire tefilah education. Rabbi Zvi Hirschfield, Pardes faculty member, leads a panel of veteran educators in an invigorating discussion of how to make prayer relevant to young people. Using a menu of tefilah goals, created as part of the Pardes Tefilah Education Initiative, each educator explores each episode’s prayer through a lens of either Connecting to God, Developing a Sense of Jewish Community, or Cultivating Personal Growth.
For our database of tefilah resources and to learn more about tefilah goals go to te...
2020-03-3137 minPardes Live and Mini-SeriesAmen – Opening up the Amidah – Ancestors, Power and Holiness Part 1The Pardes Center for Jewish Educators is proud to produce this podcast series to support and inspire tefilah education. Rabbi Zvi Hirschfield, Pardes faculty member, leads a panel of veteran educators in an invigorating discussion of how to make prayer relevant to young people. Using a menu of tefilah goals, created as part of the Pardes Tefilah Education Initiative, each educator explores each episode’s prayer through a lens of either Connecting to God, Developing a Sense of Jewish Community, or Cultivating Personal Growth.
For our database of tefilah resources and to learn more about tefilah goals go to te...
2020-03-1730 minPardes Live and Mini-SeriesAmen – Can We Make the Shema Meaningful for Young People? Part 2The Pardes Center for Jewish Educators is proud to produce this podcast series to support and inspire tefilah education. Rabbi Zvi Hirschfield, Pardes faculty member, leads a panel of veteran educators in an invigorating discussion of how to make prayer relevant to young people. Using a menu of tefilah goals, created as part of the Pardes Tefilah Education Initiative, each educator explores each episode’s prayer through a lens of either Connecting to God, Developing a Sense of Jewish Community, or Cultivating Personal Growth.
For our database of tefilah resources and to learn more about tefilah goals go to te...
2020-03-0937 minPardes Live and Mini-SeriesAmen – Multiple Lenses for Tefilah Education – Can We Make the Shema Meaningful for Young People?The Pardes Center for Jewish Educators is proud to produce this podcast series to support and inspire tefilah education. Rabbi Zvi Hirschfield, Pardes faculty member, leads a panel of veteran educators in an invigorating discussion of how to make prayer relevant to young people. Using a menu of tefilah goals, created as part of the Pardes Tefilah Education Initiative, each educator explores each episode’s prayer through a lens of either Connecting to God, Developing a Sense of Jewish Community, or Cultivating Personal Growth.
For our database of tefilah resources and to learn more about tefilah goals go to te...
2020-03-0335 minPardes Live and Mini-SeriesAmen – Multiple Lenses for Tefilah Education – IntroductionThe Pardes Center for Jewish Educators is proud to produce this podcast series to support and inspire tefilah education. Rabbi Zvi Hirschfield, Pardes faculty member, leads a panel of veteran educators in an invigorating discussion of how to make prayer relevant to young people. Using a menu of tefilah goals, created as part of the Pardes Tefilah Education Initiative, each educator explores each episode’s prayer through a lens of either Connecting to God, Developing a Sense of Jewish Community, or Cultivating Personal Growth.
In this introduction episode, Zvi Hirschfield, is joined by Aviva Lauer Golbert, Director of...
2020-02-1913 min
Hanukah, Pesach and Purim Walk into a BarRosh Hashana – An Awesome DayWelcome to the Pardes Center for Jewish Educators podcast series: Hanukah, Pesach and Purim walk into a bar… Each episode Rabbi Zvi Hirschfield hosts guest educators who share one text that reveals the deeper meaning of that year cycle event.
In this Rosh Hashana - An Awesome Day podcast Rabbi Zvi Hirschfield is joined by PCJE’s Director, Aviva Lauer Golbert, and Dean of Pardes, Dr. David Bernstein. Together they uncover the deeper meaning of Rosh HaShana.
The texts referenced by the educators are on this Sefaria source sheet.
Welcome to the bar…
Pl...
2019-09-2330 min
Hanukah, Pesach and Purim Walk into a BarThe Pedagogy of Processing PesachWelcome to the Pardes Center for Jewish Educators podcast series: Hanukah, Pesach and Purim Walk into a Bar. Each episode Rabbi Zvi Hirschfield hosts guest educators who share one text that reveals the deeper meaning of that year cycle event. In this podcast “The Pedagogy of Processing Pesach” Zvi is joined by PCJE Director Aviva Lauer Golbert, and PCJE's Director of Digitial Content, Reuven Margett, who share texts, insights and the occasional joke, as they explore the deeper meaning of Pesach.
2019-04-0827 min
Hanukah, Pesach and Purim Walk into a BarRosh Chodesh – Renewal of Self and StudentsWelcome to the Pardes Center for Jewish Educators podcast series: Hanukah, Pesach and Purim Walk into a Bar… Each episode Rabbi Zvi Hirschfield hosts guest educators who share one text that reveals the deeper meaning of that year cycle event.
In this podcast “Rosh Chodesh - Renewal of Self and Students,” Rabbi Zvi Hirschfield is joined by PCJE Director, Aviva Lauer Golbert and PCJE Faculty Sefi Kraut who share texts, insights and the occasional joke, as they explore what Rosh Chodesh means for us as Jews and educators.
The texts referenced in this podcast are on this Sef...
2019-01-2833 min
This Pardes LifeThis Pardes Life Season 3: Episode 7 Special for Tu B’Shvat with Aviva LauerJoin Rabbi Zvi Hirschfield for a special episode of This Pardes Life for Tu B'Shvat with Aviva Lauer, a master educator and Director of the Pardes Center for Jewish Educators. In this podcast, they discuss cultivating a Jewish approach to environmentalism. Aviva traces the development of the significance of Tu B'Shvat from Mishnaic times to today, and shares how this process of creative development over time and changing circumstances can be a blueprint for how contemporary Jews can feel both rooted in tradition and discover new, personally relevant lessons in Jewish practice.
For further reading, see Aviva's article...
2018-01-2932 min