Ta Shma

Episodios

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  R. Avital Hochstein on Parashat Ha'azinu: A Topography of Distance 16.09.2026 7m

  “I will hide My face from them” (Deuteronomy 32:20)—so declares the Holy Blessed One in Parashat Ha’azinu. This is one of the most painful and jarring statements in the Bible. It describes a deep rift in the relationship between God and Israel: a dynamic of hiding, withdrawal, and a sealed face. This is called in Jewish theology and tradition hester panim, the hiding of God’s face.
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  R. Dena Weiss: Language As a Lens: Prayer (Part 4) 14.09.2026 43m

  Explore the role that language plays in our personal, religious, and spiritual lives, by challenging assumptions about core areas of speech like prayer (is it supposed to be effective?) gossip (is it really bad?), and telling the truth (is it necessary?). Recorded in Summer 2026. Source sheet: https://mechonhadar.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/mh_torah_source_sheets/WeissLanguageLensPart42026.pdf
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  R. Avital Hochstein on Parashat Nitzavim-VaYeilekh: On Mutual Responsibility 02.09.2026 10m

  At this time of year, as the High Holidays approach, we are used to thinking about our own personal responsibility. In the Yom Kippur Vidui, we worry not only about our sins that we are aware of, but even those that “are not revealed to us,” rather known to God alone. But the verse that introduces the concept of revealed or hidden sins is about not personal, but national responsibility. Since the evil of others can be even more hidden to us than our own, this introduces diff...
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  R. Dena Weiss: Language As a Lens: When Is It OK to Lie? (Part 3) 31.08.2026 43m

  Explore the role that language plays in our personal, religious, and spiritual lives, by challenging assumptions about core areas of speech like prayer (is it supposed to be effective?) gossip (is it really bad?), and telling the truth (is it necessary?). Recorded in Summer 2026. Source sheet: https://mechonhadar.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/mh_torah_source_sheets/WeissLanguageLensPart32026.pdf
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  R. Avital Hochstein on Parashat Ki Tavo: Clearing the Holy from the Home 26.08.2026 12m

  Our parashah describes a ceremony known as vidui ma’aser. The word vidui here from the root י.ד.ה. probably means something like “declaration of thanks” (like the prayer Modim), but can be also literally translated as “confession,” like the vidui familiar to us from our High Holiday liturgy. What at first seems like an idyllic description of a perfect covenant in our land turns, through a reading of a Medieval commentator, into a pathway to move forward after sin and covenantal ru...
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  R. Dena Weiss: Language As a Lens Part 2 24.08.2026 43m

  Explore the role that language plays in our personal, religious, and spiritual lives, by challenging assumptions about core areas of speech like prayer (is it supposed to be effective?) gossip (is it really bad?), and telling the truth (is it necessary?). Recorded in Summer 2026. Source sheet: https://mechonhadar.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/mh_torah_source_sheets/WeissLanguageLensPart22026.pdf
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  R. Avital Hochstein on Parashat Ki Teitzei: Three Contemporary Readings of the Rebellious Son 19.08.2026 12m

  One of the most emotionally charged and provocative legal passages is found in our parashah: the case of the rebellious son.
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  R. Dena Weiss: Language As a Lens Part 1 17.08.2026 40m

  Explore the role that language plays in our personal, religious, and spiritual lives, by challenging assumptions about core areas of speech like prayer (is it supposed to be effective?) gossip (is it really bad?), and telling the truth (is it necessary?). Recorded in Summer 2026. Source sheet: https://mechonhadar.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/mh_torah_source_sheets/WeissLanguageLensPart12026.pdf
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  R. Avital Hochstein on Parashat Shoftim: The Torah of Military Service 12.08.2026 14m

  The preoccupation with the question of who goes to war is not new. It is a question that meets us, Israeli society, in our day-to-day lives. There is an acute sense here of exhaustion of military forces, alongside awareness of the high price that those who serve and their families pay, accompanied by political tension surrounding the issue of military service, all of which grow day by day—and even fuel one another.
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  R. Elazar Symon on Rosh Hodesh Elul: A Different Kind of Comfort 10.08.2026 8m

  The month of Elul marks the beginning of a process that leads us toward the Yamim Noraim, the days of awe. Yet in another sense, even at the beginning of Elul, we are already mid-process. Going back to at least medieval France, the sequence of haftarot we read in the synagogue on Shabbat from the 17th of Tammuz until Yom Kippur were understood as representing a long process split into three periods.
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  R. Avital Hochstein on Parashat Re'eih: The Dangers of Incitement 05.08.2026 12m

  In Parashat Re’eih, the Torah warns against a uniquely insidious threat: the mesit or inciter. In Hebrew, this act of enticing or manipulating another person toward harm is known as hasatah, “incitement.” The discourse of incitement is one of the most central and sensitive topics in social and political interaction in Israel. The term hasatah is used by the Israeli public both as a formal legal definition (a prohibited call for violence, racism, or terrorism) and as a popula...
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  R. Tali Adler: What Are You Doing Here, Elijah? 03.08.2026 48m

  This class explores the powerful stories of the prophet Elijah, asking what they reveal about prophecy, leadership, and religious zeal. As Elijah performs miracles and confronts the people of Israel, the narrative raises difficult questions about certainty and compassion. Recorded at Hadar's Tanakh Intensive, Winter 2026.
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  R. Avital Hochstein on Parashat Eikev: Memory and the Divine-Human Partnership 29.07.2026 11m

  Two intertwined themes are explored in Parashat Eikev: memory and human agency. What is the connection between these ideas? And how do they work together in our brit, our partnership with God?
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  R. Shai Held: Hope After Hope Is Lost 27.07.2026 40m

  How might we maintain hope during a time when it seems to many of us that all hope is gone? One biblical idea is that, although God is frequently disappointed, God also refuses to give up. (What) can we learn from that? This class turns to Tanakh, to midrash, and to medieval Jewish thought to help think more deeply about hope and hopelessness—and about what we can hold onto in dark times. Recorded at Hadar's Rabbinic Yeshiva Intensive, 2026. Source sheet: https://mechonhadar.s3.us-east-...
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  R. Avital Hochstein on Parashat Va'Ethanan: Law After War 22.07.2026 12m

  Our parashah describes a deeply charged moment—a moment where the Israelites are at risk of forgetting the Holy Blessed One. Surprisingly, this danger does not stem from lack or deprivation, but rather from a reality of abundance and tranquility that awaits them after conquering the Land.
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  R. Elazar Symon on Tisha B'Av: Wood and Stone 20.07.2026 7m

  At least in the plain sense of Lamentations 4, the destruction of Jerusalem is not presented as the execution of a carefully designed plan. It is a moment of unleashed fury.
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  R. Avital Hochstein on Parashat Devarim: Eikhah: What Does God Lament? 15.07.2026 12m

  Parashat Devarim is always read on the Shabbat preceding Tisha B’Av, the week in which we read Megillat Eikhah (the Book of Lamentations). This creates a triple echo of a single word within our tradition: eikhah (which can mean both “alas” and “how”). The first is the one read on Tisha B’Av, the very eikhah that opens the scroll and gives it its name: “Alas (eikhah)! Lonely sits the city once great with people! She that was great among nations is become like a widow; t...
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  R. Dani Passow: Esh Kodesh: Finding God in the Midst of Suffering 13.07.2026 34m

  In the darkest days of the Holocaust, Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapira, the Piaseczner Rebbe, offered weekly teachings to his community in the Warsaw Ghetto. These sermons, later collected as Esh Kodesh (“Sacred Fire”), are among the most profound works of spiritual courage ever written. In this six-part series, we’ll explore how the Rebbe turned to Torah to confront unthinkable suffering, searching for God in moments of devastation, and uncovering sparks of hope, resilience, and inner st...
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  R. Avital Hochstein on Parashat Mattot-Masei: The Daughters of Tzlofhad and the Sons of Menashe 08.07.2026 12m

  The Book of Numbers concludes by revisiting a narrative we first encountered last week: the story of Tzlofhad’s inheritance. This episode appears first in chapter 27 and again in chapter 36, with the two accounts mirroring each other. Yet, despite the extensive linguistic parallels between them, these similarities actually serve to highlight the deep gaps and contrasts between the two parts of the story, inviting us to reflect on the ability of minority groups to speak and be hear...
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  R. Tali Adler: Rabbinic Personalities: Getting to Know R. Yohanan Ben Zakkai 06.07.2026 41m

  Who were the rabbis who shaped Judaism as we know it today? This class delves into Talmudic stories about Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai, comes to know him as a human being and tries to understand his approach to rebuilding Judaism in the wake of a lost world. Recorded in Winter 2026. The rest of the series is available on Hadar's Torah Library: https://hadar.org/torah-tefillah/collections/rabbinic-personalities-0 Source sheet: https://mechonhadar.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/mh_torah_sou...