Shows
Holy Madness - The Show#17 Unintelligent DesignWe discuss free will, providence, intelligent design and evolution, chaos, lag ba'omer, and feature callbacks to episodes 8 and 9.
This is a more rambling episode, as Tzvi had a migraine during recording, and Meir Simcha carried the load here.
We would love for y'all to comment, critique, and share.2021-02-221h 06Holy Madness - The Show#16 What to Die For / What to Live ForEpisode 16 starts with some ruminations on Israel's 70th birthday, specifically zooming in on Israel's marking of Memorial Day and Independence Day back to back and comparing it to the United States. We talk about our experiences of both, but continue on to discuss the difference between having something to die for versus having something to live for (an important distinction, indeed!).2021-02-221h 04Holy Madness - The Show#15 Freedom through Words - Intro to Pesach (Passover)This episode is an overview of Passover - what is being celebrated, why, and how.
We discuss the oddly universal celebration of our little nation's holiday commemorating its emancipation, the themes and imagery of the holiday, and we go back to place issues discussed in Episode 12b (freedom and liberty) in the Passover milieu.
Ultimately, this is a fantastic overview of the holiday's ubiquitous insistence on freedom through words. We discover a little bit of what that means, and set the stage for the coming episodes - where we will explore the Haggadah in depth and inside.2021-02-221h 01Holy Madness - The Show#14 Education, Religion, IdeologySarah returns as a special guest. We discuss our personal connections with books in the bible, and segue into a conversation about education within religion.
We compare belief and ideology, talk about the effects of religious education on faith, and end with a discussion on the shortcomings of modern "classical liberal" ideology in giving a society a "why" to their lives, as well as something that connnects them all. Along the way, we compare orthodox and orthoprax, define what an "ummah" is, and highlight some of the real aims we ought to have in education.2021-02-2250 minHoly Madness - The Show#13 Randomness - More on Esther and PurimWe discuss randomness (with a meandering random way of getting to it), then explain how the random nature of the universe is what gives us choice. Choice is the bedrock of freedom, and liberty. We then discuss the differences between the two, the need for limitations, and end up back in different views of randomness - the postmodern version, and the Torah version. Along the way, we highlight these ideas within the Book of Esther and the holiday of Purim.
This is a fun episode, featuring some bad InfoWars Alex Jones impressions, ruminations on apophenia and libations, and some personal...2021-02-221h 13Holy Madness - The Show#12 The Book of EstherIn honor of the upcoming holiday of Purim...here is Episode 12a of the Holy Madness!
Join us as we explore a little bit about the holiday, and do a quick overview of the central book about it - the Book of Esther. We tease out the farcical tone it is written in, identify many of its comedic elements, and identify some of its main themes. (Those themes will be more fully explored in episode 12b.)
We humbly suggest you read the book along with us!2021-02-221h 05Holy Madness - The Show#11 Social Justice WorshippersJoin us as we explore the odd parallels between the postmodern "social justice" beliefs system and religion. We visit economics and financial markets, black swans, epistemology, facts and "alternative facts", how people form their beliefs, and sink our teeth into the difference between faith and love. We discuss Popper, Taleb, Wittgenstein, Tertullian, and Sartre, plus detour into language, antisemitism, and the difference between staying true to your beliefs and wanting to be proven wrong.2021-02-221h 12Holy Madness - The Show#10 The New Year of the Fruit Trees - Tu BiShvatHappy Tu B'Shvat to those celebrating or not!
This epsiode takes a good look at Tu B'Shvat the holiday, tracing it from the Mishna to modern day. Along the way we discuss the halachot (Jewish Law) of produce, why Man likes tree metaphors so much, what the Tree of Knowledge actually was, means and ends (which justifies which?), Spinoza and Plato, and end off with a nice insight into the deeper meaning of the holiday.
Tzvi's daughters make a guest appearance in the introduction.2021-02-221h 03Holy Madness - The Show#9 Betting Against PascalWhy Tzvi won't convert to Christianity, Pascal's Wager, sin, salvation, the afterlife and the world to come, Christian music (again), community, prayers, and more.2021-02-221h 03Holy Madness - The Show#8 The Pursuit of HappinessIt's Episode 8 as the Holy Madness continues, this time welcoming special guest Adam K into the studio to discuss happiness!
Listen in as we question, what is happiness? How do people find it? Is it worth looking for? Where would be a good place to start finding it? Why care about happiness at all? Can you be happy without G-d? Can you be happy with G-d? Is happiness an emotion, a choice, something else?
As always with a special guest, we adopt a conversational style. Come for the rambling, stay for the ambling, and walk away with some thought provoking...2021-02-221h 05Holy Madness - The Show#7 Iran, And Here I AmOh my, we've done it again! Another fantastic episode, this time about Iran/Persia, exile, redemption, identity, and way, way more.
(This episode was recorded during the protests taking place in Iran in 2018.)
We discuss Iran as a country (taking care to avoid politics as always), its history, and the Jewish People's history with Persia - and that takes us to Exile and Redemption, the World to Come, identity, peoplehood, and the unique conception of exile/redemption that the Jewish people has forged and crafted in its development. Come for the banter, stay for the knockout insights, and enjoy the...2021-02-221h 11Holy Madness - The Show#6 Prayer - Where Are You NowEpisode 6 is finally here, and with a special guest in the studio! Sarah joins us in our meandering exploration of prayer. We go through some Facebook comments on Meir Simcha's post on prayer, discuss different conceptions of prayer, introduce theme music for one avid listener (and commenter), and suggest a paradigm shift on what prayer really might be. There is even a suggestion for a great Christian prayer song, too, from your favorite Jewish podcasters, along with quite a few callbacks to concepts introduced in previous episodes as well.2021-02-221h 00
Graceful Atheist PodcastMeir-Simchah: On Orthodox JudaismMy guest this week is Meir-Simchah. Meir-Simchah Panzer lives in Jerusalem with his wife and their four children. He co-hosts the podcasts Two Christians And A Jew, with Frank M. Taylor and Dr. Jennifer Brown Jones, where the team dives into how Christians and Jews read the Hebrew Scriptures differently and what difference it makes for our lives, and the Artifact Podcast with Nachliel Selavan where ordinary objects become portals into the history, ideas, and existential mystery behind them. Formerly, he co-hosted Holy Madness – The Show, with Tzvi Zucker. Meir-Simchah is a student of Rabbi Matis Weinberg. He is a co-founde...2021-02-081h 33Holy Madness - The Show#5 Jerusalem is calling[Holy Madness is no longer in production, but check out Meir-Simchah's new shows https://my.captivate.fm/TwoChristiansAndAJew.com (Two Christians And A Jew) and the https://my.captivate.fm/ArtifactPodcast.com (Artifact Podcast with Nachliel Selavan).
You can connect with us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TzviZucker (@TzviZucker) and https://twitter.com/MeirSimchah (@MeirSimchah).]
Join us as we take a look at Jerusalem, moving from sacred cities and divided cities in general to Jerusalem in particular, and ending up with a deep look at what makes Jerusalem so special in the first place.
(This episode comes at the point...2020-12-211h 06Holy Madness - The Show#4 Find the light, or become it?[Holy Madness is no longer in production, but you may enjoy Meir-Simchah's new shows https://my.captivate.fm/TwoChristiansAndAJew.com (Two Christians And A Jew) and the https://my.captivate.fm/ArtifactPodcast.com (Artifact Podcast with Nachliel Selavan). You can connect with us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TzviZucker (@TzviZucker) and https://twitter.com/MeirSimchah (@MeirSimchah).]Grab some latkes and/or eggnog and join us for our fourth episode, where we discuss winter light festivals, light and darkness, metaphors, get into some of the differences between Christmas and Hannukah, reminisce on holiday season growing up, and make a key point...2020-12-211h 06Holy Madness - The Show#3 If I'm not for myself, who will be?[Holy Madness is no longer in production, but you may enjoy Meir-Simchah's new shows https://my.captivate.fm/TwoChristiansAndAJew.com (Two Christians And A Jew) and the https://my.captivate.fm/ArtifactPodcast.com (Artifact Podcast with Nachliel Selavan). You can connect with us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TzviZucker (@TzviZucker) and https://twitter.com/MeirSimchah (@MeirSimchah).]
Join us as we talk about the German migrant issue, teasing apart the political talking points to get into the heart of the matter – identity.
We clocked in at just about an hour here, and hopefully addressed some of the sound issues.
As always, he...2020-12-211h 03Holy Madness - The Show#2 Why do bad ideas happen to good people?[Holy Madness is no longer in production, but check out Meir-Simchah's new shows https://my.captivate.fm/TwoChristiansAndAJew.com (Two Christians And A Jew) and the https://my.captivate.fm/ArtifactPodcast.com (Artifact Podcast with Nachliel Selavan).
You can connect with us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TzviZucker (@TzviZucker) and https://twitter.com/MeirSimchah (@MeirSimchah).]
Where else can you find an earnest discussion of Richard Dawkins, sin and mistakes, evolution, paradigm shifts, and Torah, that isn’t a sarcastic take down of religion, but a search for self improvement and spiritual growth?
Holy Madness is no longer in production, but yo...2020-12-211h 38Holy Madness - The Show#1 Anomie, Israel, Palestine[Holy Madness is no longer in production, but you might enjoy Meir-Simchah's new shows https://my.captivate.fm/TwoChristiansAndAJew.com (Two Christians And A Jew) and the https://my.captivate.fm/ArtifactPodcast.com (Artifact Podcast with Nachliel Selavan). You can connect with us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TzviZucker (@TzviZucker) and https://twitter.com/MeirSimchah (@MeirSimchah).]
Join us as we discuss a news article about the horrors of daily life in Gaza, and tackle some points about Israel-Palestine.
Article discussed in the podcast available here - https://gate.sc/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.haaretz.com%2Fmiddle-east-news%2Fpalestinians%2F1.821771...2020-10-131h 33