Shows
Rabbi Joe’s Torat Tel AvivTHINK: The Faith Of The Tunnels - Reflections On The Religious Experiences Of Returned HostagesPurim is often described as the festival of finding faith within the darkness. This was our claim in last week's THINK. Yet we do not need to look to ancient Persia 2,500 years ago to discover an instance of Jews recommitting to their faith and their people in the most trying of circumstances - in fact we have experienced it within our very recent lifetimes in the testimonies of many hostages who returned alive from Gaza and describe intense and powerful religious experiences in 'the darkness within the darkness'.
This shiur examines the hostages descriptions in their own...
2026-02-2448 min
Rabbi Joe’s Torat Tel AvivTHINK: Megillat Esther - The Upside Down MegillahIt's Adar so let's learn Megillat Esther!
At tonight's THINK we share an approach based on an essay by Rav Yoel bin Nun noting how so many critical elements of the megillah are the opposite of what we would expect to find in a book of Tanakh - and that this may explain the megillah's most important contribution to our understanding of the history and the possibility of finding God and meaningful Jewish existence in the darkest of times
Source sheet here
2026-02-171h 03
Rabbi Joe’s Torat Tel AvivKibbud Av v'Em #4 - What (Not) To Do With An Annoying ParentThe Rambam and the Raivid differ as to whether a child, in extreme circumstances confronted with unreasonable demands by their parents, may run away. Their dispute appears to reflect different readings of the story of Rav Assi leaving his mother and her outrageous demands to go and live in Israel. We read this difficult story closely and suggest interpretations of relevance to everyone in their relations with their parents
Source sheet here - it is recommended to read the story in the gemara at least once alongside listening to the audio.
THINK is sponsored by D...
2026-02-031h 05
Rabbi Joe’s Torat Tel AvivKibbud Av v'Eim #3 - Mother vs. FatherIn tonight's class we move from kibbud av v'em as a lofty ideal to a challenging reality exploring a short Talmudic story about how a child is to cope with conflicting demands from the parents and reflecting on the difference between halacha (law) and agadda (reality)
Source sheet here
2026-01-271h 00
Rabbi Joe’s Torat Tel AvivTHINK: Kibbud Av v'Em IIIn the second part of our series on the mitzva of honouring parents we consider a remarkable passage in the Talmud Yerushalmi that approaches the mitzva from multiple angles and raises the question of whether care for one's parents should be viewed as 'repaying the debt' for everything that they have done for the child
Source sheet here
2026-01-2055 min
Rabbi Joe’s Torat Tel AvivTHINK: Kibbud Av v'Em #1We begin a four part series on Kibbud Av v'Em , the mitzva of honouring one's parents.
Where to start? One of the most beautiful yet challenging and complex parts of our lives and an area of Torah which we often don't critically examine past a young age. The material is fascinating and nuanced - accessible Gemara with a blend of halacha / aggada / midrash and Tanakh.
Tonight's class begins with a discussion of the nature of kibbud av v'em as a mitzvah, what distinguishes it from other areas of halacha and what are the particular challenges of...
2026-01-1358 min
Rabbi Joe’s Torat Tel AvivTHINK Shemot: Mosheh - The First 80 YearsThe first two-thirds of Mosheh's life all take place within the four chapters of Shemot. What were the experiences that affected the young Mosheh, and why does Hashem choose him as his agent of liberation? What does Mosheh do for all those many years in Midyan? And if it is justice that drives Mosheh why is he so hesitant to return to Egypt when offered?
Source sheet here
THINK is sponsored by Dr. Alan Wecker and family, in loving memory of his dear uncle and aunt, Yechiel and Chaya Kleinman, ז״ל.
2026-01-061h 07
Rabbi Joe’s Torat Tel AvivShort Drash for Vayehi: Max Nordau Responds To Rachel's TearsA little chassidish immigrant boy in late 19th century Paris related the story of Rachel's death and afterlife with such passion that he changed Max Nordau's life forever
A drash for Vayehi told on Sderot Nordau in Tel Aviv
2026-01-0205 min
Rabbi Joe’s Torat Tel AvivTHINK Vayehi - Ba’alei Selicha? Yosef, Yehuda & The Possibility Of ForgivenessTHIS EPISODE IS OUR ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF THE PODCAST - THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO HAS LISTENED, SHARED AND COMMENTED!
In this week's THINK we examine the long and heroic journeys of both Yosef and Yehuda as they arrive at an acceptance of the wrongs that have been done to them - Yosef towards brothers and Yehuda towards his father.
From this vantage point we then consider the intriguing concept of the ba'al selicha - not one who asks for forgiveness, but the person who does the actual forgiving and is able to find the...
2025-12-301h 08
Rabbi Joe’s Torat Tel AvivTHINK Vayeshev: How To Sell A BrotherYosef had a dream and told his brothers... and then they sought to kill him?! That escalated quickly!
How does a brother, even one that one deeply dislikes, become someone that you are willing to kill or sell? In this week's THINK we focus on a number of small details in the story of the sale of Yosef that give terrifying insight into the ways in which siblings can cease to see one another as human even as they continue to call them their brother. As relevant today as ever
Source sheet here
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2025-12-081h 14
Rabbi Joe’s Torat Tel AvivAmos, Yosef & A Pair Of Shoes (cross-posted from The Matan Podcast)This week Rabbi Joe had the pleasure of being a guest once again on the Matan podcast joining Yosefa Fogel Wruble for a conversation about the haftara of Parshat Vayeshev taken from the prophet Amos.
You can listen to the consistently excellent Matan parsha podcast at https://www.matan.org.il/en/matan-podcast/
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In this conversation with R. Joe Wolfson, we explore Amos’ rebuke of the opulent and socially corrupt N. Kingdom of Israel from this week’s Haftorah. A.J. Heschel, political theorist Michael Walzer, and Louis Brandeis all help connect Amos’ criticism...
2025-12-0743 min
Matan: One on One Parsha PodcastEpisode 246 - Parshat Vayeshev: Societal Ills Through Amos' EyesIn this conversation with R. Joe Wolfson, we explore Amos' rebuke of the opulent and socially corrupt N. Kingdom of Israel from this week's Haftorah. A.Y. Heschel, political theorist Michael Walzer, and Louis Brandeis all help connect Amos' criticisms with the ways a society can erase people's humanity and how we might mend this.
For more info on R. Joe's community visit the JLIC Tel Aviv website: https://tlv.oujlic.org/
This week's episode is dedicated in memory of Daniel Shalom ben Refael Yaakov, by his children, on his third yahrzeit.
This year The Matan Podcast is exploring the...
2025-12-0743 min
Rabbi Joe’s Torat Tel AvivTHINK Vayishlach: The Brothers' Reunion, or, Letting Go Of Eisav's HeelYaakov returns to Israel after more than two decades away from home and is reunited with his brother Eisav. Their reunion might at first glance appear anti-climactic - hugs and gifts instead of war - but just below the surface, major movements in personality development and the story of the family are taking place as Yaakov accepts himself for who he is and is able to let go of the heel that he had been holding onto for so long.
Source sheet here
THINK is sponsored by Dr. Alan Wecker and family, in loving memory o...
2025-12-011h 10
Rabbi Joe’s Torat Tel AvivTHINK Vayetze: In Lavan's HouseYaakov flees his brother's wrath and heads north to find a wife. And ends up staying with his uncle Lavan for twenty years.
Who is the Yaakov that Lavan meets? Why does Yaakov agree to work for free? How does the way that he left his father, mother and brother impact his relationship with his new family? And despite Lavan's manipulation, what does Yaakov learn and gain during these two decades?
Source sheet here
THINK is sponsored by Dr. Alan Wecker and family, in loving memory of his dear uncle and aunt, Yechiel and...
2025-11-251h 06
Rabbi Joe’s Torat Tel AvivTHINK Toldot: A Tragedy Of CommunicationYaakov's taking of the beracha that was intended for Esav is one of the most challenging stories of the Torah.
We will look at the relationship dynamics of Rivka and Yitzchak, their difficulties of communication, and suggest that in fact Rivka had completely misunderstood Yitzchak's intention. The tragic irony of the story is that Yitzchak had always intended to give the bracha to Yaakov and that Rivka needlessly split the family apart to achieve an end that her husband would have readily agreed to. Inspired by, but differing from, Rav Yehuda Gilad's work in his beautiful work...
2025-11-191h 00
Rabbi Joe’s Torat Tel AvivTHINK Haye Sara: Relationships Ruptured & RepairedThis is a shiur about parents' love for children, and children's love for parents - and about how relationships seemingly broken can be fixed over time.
At the beginning of Haye Sara, Avraham must think that even though he is 137 he has almost nothing to show for it. He has lost his life's partner Sara, one son is estranged and banished, the other is 40 and single and not seemingly able to settle down.
By the end of the parsha however the many relationships within the family have been restored or repaired in deeply surprising ways...
2025-11-111h 07
Rabbi Joe’s Torat Tel AvivTHINK Lech Lecha: How Does Avram Become Avraham? Four ScenesGod's choice of Avram is given at the start of the parsha. But the journey to becoming Avraham - the knight of faith - is slow, arduous, challenging, at times mundane, and in so many ways relatable to any one of us on our own journeys of becoming. This shiur focuses on four points in the parsha where Avraham struggles to understand how he is to become the person that God has told him he is destined to become (if you haven't got time to listen to all of it don't miss the gorgeous Sfat Emet at the end)
2025-10-281h 02
Rabbi Joe’s Torat Tel AvivTHINK Noah: Noah & Avraham Confront The Day AfterAfter witnessing violence, pain and suffering, how does one pick oneself up and carry on? That is the question that we confront today - and it is one that Noah and Avraham themselves confronted after the flood and the destruction of Sedom
The different paths they took - one tragic the other heroic - highlight the difference between their two personalities and provide us with us insights into our own response today.
Source sheet here
The shiur is to be a refuah sheleima for Gershon Hayim ben Tova Tsofia and is generously sponsored...
2025-10-201h 06
Israel from the Inside with Daniel GordisCould it really happen? A nation holding its breath, almost afraid to hope.As we’ll explore in greater detail tomorrow (October 7 is Yom Tov Sukkot, so we can’t post then), the confluence of October 7 this week and Simchat Torah next week, along with what may be happening on the hostage front, has many people very hopeful, but terrified of being disappointed, once again. Perhaps because we do not yet know what is going to happen, and whether, as Netanyahu has promised, the hostages will be home during Sukkot, this is the moment to reflect on these past two terrible years: how it started, what we’ve learne...
2025-10-0501 min
Rabbi Joe’s Torat Tel AvivTHINK: The Parallels Of Noach & Yonah - Two Takes On Their Centrality To The Yamim NoraimNoach and Yonah are two of the central figures of rosh hashana and yom kippur - and their stories seem to have an awful lot in common with one another: boats surrounded dangerous waters, corrupt populations, decrees of destruction and much more.
What is the meaning behind these many parallels? We present two very different takes of two great contemporary Tanakh teachers - Judy Klitsner and Yonatan Grossman - and their relevance for the Yamim Nora'im.
Source sheet here
2025-09-171h 03
Rabbi Joe’s Torat Tel AvivTHINK: Nehemia, or, How Did Teshuva Become A Theme Of Rosh HashanaThe words Rosh Hashana do not appear anywhere in the Torah. The verses that do describe the first day of the seventh month are enigmatic to say the least. So how did Rosh Hashana come to be what we know it as today?
In today's class we follow the clues and spend time on an exceptional but not particularly well known episode in the book of Nehemia - which describes arguably the most important event ever to on Rosh Hashana (other than creation itself!)
The final ten minutes features a beautiful piece of Rav Hutner's P...
2025-09-091h 01
Rabbi Joe’s Torat Tel AvivTHINK: Ki Tetze, Shooing Away The Mother Bird & The (In)justice Of This WorldThis episode of THINK focuses on a particular story that the Sages told in multiple versions of an individual who strove to fulfill the mitzva of shiluach haken (shooing away the mother bird) but rather than receiving the reward for a good and long life as the Torah promises, instead fell off the tree and died.
This mitzva and accompanying story became one of the great moments in which the Sages of the Talmud considered the relationship between what we receive in return for our deeds, and the nature of mitzvot more generally.
Based on...
2025-09-0957 min
Rabbi Joe’s Torat Tel AvivTHINK: Pinchas Of Peace & Power, Kana’ut & KehunaThe story of Pinchas and his zealotry is rich and multi-layered - and it is full of ideas deeply relevant to our own moment.
An act of violence to forcefully stop a desecration of God's name brings an end to the plague and clearly receives God's praise and gratitude. Yet below the surface there is more that meets the eye with much to say about the relationship of peace and power and the complimentary opposition of kana'ut (zealotry) and kehuna (priesthood)
Source sheet here
2025-07-1459 min
Rabbi Joe’s Torat Tel AvivTHINK Balak: Was Bilam Actually A Good Guy? (No, he wasn't but...)In our parsha Balak, the king of Mo'av, hires the services of the pagan prophet Bilam. What are Bilam's motives? Does he really want to curse Israel, is he in it for the money or is he actually an obedient servant of God?
Source sheet here
2025-07-0954 min
Rabbi Joe’s Torat Tel AvivTHINK Hukkat: The Midbar As RomanceIn honour of the sheva brachot of our dear community members, Sam Simons and Leah Seiff, we take inspiration from Yirmiyahu's description of the desert as the setting of God and Israel's early romance to explore themes of love and relationship in the parsha
Source sheet here
2025-07-021h 01
Rabbi Joe’s Torat Tel AvivTHINK: Beha'alotcha - Moshe's CrisisIn this week's class on Parshat Beha'alotcha we begin by looking at one of the turning points in the book of Bamidbar - the move from the dream and vision to the harsh reality of the journey to the Promised Land
We then turn to Moshe's apparent breakdown as he says that leading the people after their complaints is a burden too great to carry. The class is based on Bamidbar (Numbers) chapter 12.
Source sheet here
These shiurim have been generously sponsored by Yaacov & Monique Ginsburg ilui nishmat Yaacov ben Bessi
2025-06-111h 06
Rabbi Joe’s Torat Tel AvivTHINK: The Omer & R' Akiva's Students Pt IV - Bringing The Parts TogetherOur final instalment in the series examining the death of Rabbi Akiva's students during the omer for not honouring one another.
In this class we look at Rabbi Eliezer's life after the oven of Akhnai and suggest that within the brilliantly creative approaches of Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Yehoshua to Torah study are contained the seeds for potential conflict bein adam l'chaveiro
Source sheet here
Generously sponsored by Yaacov & Monique Ginsburg l'ilui nishmat Yaacov ben Bessi and in memory of our dear community member Avigayil bat Sarah on the occasion of her shloshim
2025-05-2758 min
Rabbi Joe’s Torat Tel AvivTHINK: The Omer & R'Akiva's Students Pt III. Triumph or Tragedy? The Two Sides Of The Oven Of AkhnaiIs the story of the oven of Akhnai the greatest triumph or a terrible tragedy? Last week we read the first half of the story and it's trumphal line of lo bashamayim hi - the Torah is not in heaven and its depiction of God laughing. This week we read the second half of the story which pushes in a very different direction.
The text of the Akhnai story is here (reading the story, especially the second half, is recommended to understand the class) and the other sources discussed in the story are here
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2025-05-2056 min
Rabbi Joe’s Torat Tel AvivTHINK: The Omer & R' Akiva's Students Pt II - Akhnai & The Clash Of Two Different Understandings Of TorahIn our first class we contrasted the approach to Torah study of Rabbi Eliezer with that of Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Yehoshua - asking whether Torah story is an exercise of creative insight or a focus on tradition and that which has been said by our teachers before us.
Today we see how these two different approaches collide in perhaps the most famous of all Talmudic stories, the oven of Akhnai - and the declaration of lo bashamayim he - that the Torah is not in heaven
Source sheet here
This class is...
2025-05-1355 min
Rabbi Joe’s Torat Tel AvivTHINK: The Omer & The Death Of R' Akiva's Students Pt I - Methodologies of LearningFor the next few weeks we will do a deep dive into the world of Rabbi Akiva and his students. Many are familiar with the teaching that it is the death of thousands of Rabbi Akiva’s students during this period that initially lent the omer an element of mourning (in addition to one of joy).
The reason for their death? Because they didn’t treat one another with the respect and care that they each deserved
We will try to recreate the world that they inhabited, and in so doing discover a uniquely important peri...
2025-05-081h 02
Rabbi Joe’s Torat Tel AvivTHINK: Yom HaShoah The Lives & Torah of Two Giants Of Vilna: Rav Haim Ozer and Rav GustmanIn this Yom HaShoah class we enter the world and learn the stories of two of the great rabbinic giants of Vilna - Rav Haim Ozer Grodzinski and Rav Yisrael Zev Gustman.
The first was the last great leader of Vilna Jewry and we read the piece describing his funeral 'The Day Vilna Died'.
The latter was the youngest Dayan of Vilna whose story is one of survival and the world that he built in Israel after the war and who articulated a powerful and unique take on God and the Shoah. The rest...
2025-04-231h 16
Rabbi Joe’s Torat Tel AvivA Guide To When Erev Pesach Falls On ShabbatThis year the eve of Pesach falls on Shabbat which presents us with some unique challenges. This shiur discusses how and when the search, annulment and destruction of chametz works in a year such as this, as well as the fast of the firstborn and how best to do the shabbat meals.
Source sheet and summary guide here
2025-04-0327 min
Rabbi Joe’s Torat Tel AvivTHINK: Rabbi Sacks, Isaiah Berlin, & Two Concepts of Freedom at Seder NightIn this shiur we examine how at famous distinction between two concepts of liberty made by Sir Isaiah Berlin, one of Rabbi Sacks' teachers, finds expression in some of the fundamental texts and ideas of seder night, as well as how Rabbi Sacks himself understood this distinction
Source sheet here
2025-04-0359 min
Rabbi Joe’s Torat Tel AvivTHINK: Looking back on COVID through the lens of Purim, Pahad Yitzchak, Hanan Ben Ari & Yishai RiboThere's a lot going on here. Using a mash up of two great Israeli songs and a powerful piece of Rav Yitzchak Hutner's Pahad Yitzchak to look back the start of the pandemic five years ago, what we learnt from it and what it can mean for us today in the midst of a very different crisis.
It might be advisable to listen to the songs (linked below) and then to skip to the discussion of Pahad Yitzchak which starts at the 20 minute mark
The text of Pahad Yitzchak here and of the two songs...
2025-03-131h 06
Rabbi Joe’s Torat Tel AvivThe Purpose Of Mishloach ManotToday we look at two beautiful teshuvot - from the Seridei Eish (19th C.) and the Hatam Sofer (18th C) - that can transorm our understadning ofthe mitzva of mishloach manot - giving gifts to our friends on Purim.
Source sheet here.
Given at Vine Venture's Sarona Unity Center, March 12th, 2025
2025-03-1224 min
Rabbi Joe’s Torat Tel AvivMatanot L'Evyonim: Between Tzedaka & Mishloach ManotIn advance of Purim we explore some of the fundamental texts and ideas behind the beautiful mitzvah of matanot l'evyonim (gifts to those in need). Spoiler: it's all about simcha!
Source sheet available here
2025-03-0427 min
Rabbi Joe’s Torat Tel AvivTHINK: Achashverosh As Hero Of The MegillaThe wonderful thing about teaching Megillat Esther is that everyone knows the story. The terrible thing about teaching Megillat Esther is that everyone knows the story.
In this week's THINK we try to question an assumption that almost all have - is Achashverosh a gross unthinking buffoon throughout, or is there some progress and development that he displays throughout the story.
Source sheet available here
2025-03-041h 05
Rabbi Joe’s Torat Tel AvivHostage Deals In Halacha & Jewish History V: Rav Goren & Iskat jibril (1985)
L'ilui nishmat Oded Lifshitz who is laid to rest on the afternoon on which the shiur was given.
In 1985 the Israel government under Shimon Peres released 1,150 security prisoners in return for three captive soldiers Yosef Grof, Nissim Salem, and Hezi Shai in the deal known as Isskat Jibril.
In this shiur we learn the contribution of Rav Shlomo Goren, former Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Of Israel and the first chief rabbi of Tzahal to the debate surrounding the deal.
Rav Goren's approach differed markedly from the approach of Rav Ovadia Yosef discussed in the previous cl...
2025-02-2530 min
Rabbi Joe’s Torat Tel AvivTHINK: Terumah & Adar: The Hope Hardwired Into Our TraditionGiven on February 24th 2025, in loving memory of Shiri, Ariel and Kfir Bibas and Oded Lifschitz.
The shiur focuses on Parshat Teruma and the month of Adar as prompts to one of Judaism's deepest themes, the consistent push to help us overcome the darkness and approach the future with hope - no matter how hard that is
Source sheet available at this link
2025-02-251h 05
Rabbi Joe’s Torat Tel AvivTHINK Yitro: When Moshe Went Up On High
The revelation at Sinai contains so many different and contrary themes. We explore one of these themes and in particular we do a deep dive on a celebrated gemara in Menachot 29b which describes a conversation between Moshe and God on Sinai - a piece which raises questions of how the Torah can evolve over the generations while maintaining its authenticity and why do the righteous suffer.
Download the source sheet
2025-02-111h 10
Rabbi Joe’s Torat Tel AvivHostage Deals In Halacha & Jewish History Part IV: Rav Ovadia & Entebbe
Today we know the story of Entebbe as one of the great crowning moments of Israeli history. But before the daring Sayeret Matkal operation, Prime Minister Yitchak Rabin asked then sefardi chief rabbi, Rav Ovadia Yosef to share his opinion about the permissibility of acceding to the hostage takers demands of releasing 40 terrorists in exchange for returning the hostages. Rav Ovadia's response eventually became a 19,000 word monograph and likely the most significant halachic work ever written on hostage deals. Today we look at highlights from this piece and the relevance of his arguments for today
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2025-02-1131 min
Rabbi Joe’s Torat Tel AvivTHINK Beshalach: Hamushim - Four Fifths Didn't Want To Leave...
THINK Beshalach: Hamushim - Four Fifths Didn't Want To Leave...
Download the source sheet
2025-02-041h 00
Rabbi Joe’s Torat Tel AvivHostage Deals In Halacha & Jewish History Part III
Hostage Deals In Halacha & Jewish History Part III: What bracha should be said upon the release of hostages?
Download the source sheet.
Given at the Vine Ventures Sarona Unity Center, Feb 4th 2025
2025-02-0424 min
Rabbi Joe’s Torat Tel AvivHostage Deal In Halacha and Jewish History Part II - Letter Of The Law & Spirit Of The People
Last week we looked at the obligation to redeem captives but also the limitations that the mishnah puts on the prices that can be paid.
Today we look at the rise of piracy in the Black Sea and Mediterranean in the 16th century which saw Turkish Jewish communities frequently ransoming Jews from other communities, and two great rabbis of the period - the Maharshal and the Ridbaz - who both sought to explain and justify the practice of Jewish communities to pay exhorbitant costs to redeem Jewish captives, seemingly beyond the price which the mishnah had permitted.
Download the source she...
2025-01-2827 min
Rabbi Joe’s Torat Tel AvivTHINK Va'era : On Speech Impediments & Being Like God, Jan 2025
In this week's THINK we explore the meaning and significance of Moshe's claim that he cannot lead Israel free from slavery due to his challenges with speech
Download the source sheet
2025-01-2123 min
Rabbi Joe’s Torat Tel AvivHostage Deals In Halacha & Jewish History, Part I
The first instalment in a series on Hostage Deals In Halacha & Jewish History at the Vine Ventures Sarona Unity Center (on the third day of the deal to release hostages from Hamas Captivity).
Download the source sheet
2025-01-2130 min
Rabbi Joe’s Torat Tel AvivAnd Aharon rejoiced in his heart
A short lunch and learn given at Vine Venture's Unity Bet Midrash considering Moshe and Aharon's relationship as a model and Tikkun for sibling relationships in Tanakh
Download the source sheet
2025-01-1422 min
Rabbi Joe’s Torat Tel AvivTHINK - Parshat Shemot - When Hashem Sought To Kill Moshe
Shemot 4:24-26 are arguably some of the strangest verses in the whole of the Bible. So strange in fact that many people skip right over it. After Mosheh has finally agreed to return to Egypt to redeem Israel and has gotten on the way with his family, God tries to kill him! Things only get stranger when Tziporah saves him by circumcising their son. With the help of Rabbis Yoel bin Nun and Shmuel Klitsner, we argue that actually the story, understood properly, is extremely straightforward and gets to the heart of the drama surrounding Mosheh's personality a...
2025-01-1440 min
Rabbi Joe’s Torat Tel AvivThink Vayehi Jan 2025THINK Vayehi: Thoughts on סיבתיות הכפולה / Double Causation In Bereishit, In The Story Of Yosef And His Brothers, In Our Lives We are blown forward into history facing backwards
Download the source sheet.
2025-01-0742 min
What Came AfterThe Bars Are Full, The Beach Is Full, And The Beit Midrash Is FullJoe Wolfson is the co-director and rabbi of JLIC TLV - a community of young olim in Tel Aviv working in partnership with local synagogues and organisations. From 2015 to 2022, he served as the JLIC Rabbi at NYU in downtown Manhattan. He is passionate about building welcoming Jewish communities in urban environments that are deeply connected to their surroundings. In 2020, he was recognized as one of The Jewish Week’s 36 under 36 for his Covid relief work.
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Host and Creator: Manya Marcus
Managing Producer: Maya Zanger-Nadis
Editor and Producer: Ben Wallick
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2024-12-0141 min
Israel from the Inside with Daniel GordisThe High Holidays during war? "That is what our tradition is built for"—a conversation with Tel Aviv's Rabbi Joe WolfsonIn the minds of many, Jerusalem is the Israeli city where “the religious stuff” happens, while Tel Aviv is, if not “sin city,” then at least a much more secular, European metropolis. There is some truth to that, of course, but reality, not surprisingly, is more nuanced. There is plenty of culture in Jerusalem that is not religion-based, and a number of newly thriving religious communities in Tel Aviv as well.One of those Tel Aviv communities caters to a young Anglo community that has developed as a by-product of the many English-language college programs that not that lon...
2024-09-1842 min