Episodi

  • 86. The Meaning of Life | Dr. Alan Mittleman

    86. The Meaning of Life | Dr. Alan Mittleman
    Feb 19 2026
    J.J. and Dr. Alan Mittleman make meaning out of a moment (or two). How does the Jewish tradition handle the big existential question? What does this all mean? Why are we here?

    If you or your business are interested in sponsoring an episode or mini-series, please reach out at podcasts@torahinmotion.org

    Follow us on Bluesky @jewishideaspod.bsky.social for updates and insights!

    Please rate and review the the show in the podcast app of your choice.

    We welcome all complaints and compliments at podcasts@torahinmotion.org

    For more information visit torahinmotion.org/podcasts

    Alan Mittleman is the Aaron Rabinowitz and Simon H. Rifkind Chair in Jewish
    Philosophy Emeritus at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City. He is the author of eight books. His most recent is Absurdity and Meaning in Contemporary Philosophy and Jewish Thought (Cambridge University Press, 2023). His previous book, Does Judaism Condone Violence? Holiness and Ethics in the Jewish Tradition (Princeton, 2018) won the National Jewish Book Award for Modern Jewish Thought and Experience in 2018. Other works include Human Nature and Jewish Thought: Judaism's Case for Why Persons Matter (Princeton, 2015), A Short History of Jewish Ethics (Wiley-Blackwell, 2012), and Hope in a Democratic Age (Oxford, 2009). He has edited six books, most recently Jewish Virtue Ethics (SUNY Press, 2023).Prof. Mittleman holds a B.A. (Magna cum Laude) from Brandeis University and an M.A. and Ph.D. (with distinction) from Temple University. He is the recipient of an Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Research Fellowship and served as Guest Research Professor at the University of Cologne (1994 and 1996). He has lectured widely in Germany in over fifty trips to that country. Mittleman received a Harry Starr Fellowship in Modern Jewish History from Harvard University’s Center for Jewish Studies (1997) and served as Visiting Professor in the Department of Religion at Princeton University (2007). He has received grants from the Herzl Institute and the Yale Center for Faith and Culture, both sponsored by the John Templeton Foundation. In 2020-21, he was a Visiting Fellow at the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University. In 2023, he was a Senior Fellow at the Maimonides Centre for Advanced Studies at the University of Hamburg.
    Mostra di più Mostra meno
    1 ora e 10 min
  • 85. Halakhic Codes & Responsa | Dr. Chaim Saiman

    85. Halakhic Codes & Responsa | Dr. Chaim Saiman
    Jan 29 2026
    J.J. and Dr. Chaim Saiman compare the two dominant modes of Jewish legal transmission, and put them in conversation with global legal traditions.

    If you or your business are interested in sponsoring an episode or mini-series, please reach out at podcasts@torahinmotion.org

    Follow us on Bluesky @jewishideaspod.bsky.social for updates and insights!

    Please rate and review the the show in the podcast app of your choice.

    We welcome all complaints and compliments at podcasts@torahinmotion.org

    For more information visit torahinmotion.org/podcasts

    Chaim Saiman is a scholar of Jewish law, insurance law and private law and published Halakhah: The Rabbinic Idea of Law with Princeton University Press. Saiman has served as the Gruss Visiting Professor of Talmudic Law at both Harvard Law School and the University of Pennsylvania Law School, a visiting fellow at Princeton University and a visiting professor at the University of Toronto, Bar-Ilan, Hebrew University, IDC and Pepperdine University faculties of law. Saiman sits as a rabbinical court judge (dayyan) with the Beth Din of America and serves as an expert witness in insurance law and Jewish law in federal court. Saiman received his BS from Georgia State University and his JD from Columbia University School of Law. He also studied for a number of years at Yeshivat Har-Etzion (Gush) and Yeshivat Kerem B’Yavneh in Israel. Prior to joining the faculty at Villanova, he was an Olin Fellow at Harvard Law School a Golieb Fellow at NYU Law School, a law clerk to Judge Michael McConnell on the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals and worked as a corporate associate with the firm Cleary Gottlieb in New York. At Villanova, Saiman teaches contracts, insurance law, insurance coverage disputes, Jewish law and arbitration.
    Mostra di più Mostra meno
    1 ora e 10 min
  • 84. The Mesorah & the Masoretes | Dr. David Moster

    84. The Mesorah & the Masoretes | Dr. David Moster
    Jan 15 2026
    J.J. and Dr. David Moster take a trip deep down into the tradition of our tradition in search of the true text of the Bible.

    If you or your business are interested in sponsoring an episode or mini-series, please reach out at podcasts@torahinmotion.org

    Follow us on Bluesky @jewishideaspod.bsky.social for updates and insights!

    Please rate and review the the show in the podcast app of your choice.

    We welcome all complaints and compliments at podcasts@torahinmotion.org

    For more information visit torahinmotion.org/podcasts

    Dr. David Z. Moster is the Director of the Biblical Hebrew Program at JTS. He is the Director of the Institute of Biblical Culture (BiblicalCulture.org) and the author of Etrog: How a Chinese Fruit Became a Jewish Symbol (Palgrave Pivot, 2018). He received his Ph.D. in Biblical Studies from Bar-Ilan University, writing on the biblical tribe of Manasseh. He also holds an M.A. in Ancient Israel and Near Eastern History from New York University and a number of degrees (B.A., M.A., M.S., Semikhah) in Hebrew Bible, Jewish Philosophy, Jewish Education, and Rabbinics from Yeshiva University.
    Mostra di più Mostra meno
    59 min
  • 83. The Biblical Canon(s) | Dr. Hindy Najman

    83. The Biblical Canon(s) | Dr. Hindy Najman
    Jan 9 2026
    J.J. and Dr. Hindy Najman on authorship, authority, and the creation of the Jewish canon.

    If you or your business are interested in sponsoring an episode or mini-series, please reach out at podcasts@torahinmotion.org

    Follow us on Bluesky @jewishideaspod.bsky.social for updates and insights!

    Please rate and review the the show in the podcast app of your choice.

    We welcome all complaints and compliments at podcasts@torahinmotion.org

    For more information visit torahinmotion.org/podcasts

    Hindy Najman (MA and PhD Harvard, NELC) is the Oriel and Laing Professor of the Interpretation of Holy Scripture and a fellow at Oriel College. She is the director and founder of the Centre for the Study of the Bible in Oriel College. In the University of Oxford, she is a member of the faculty of Theology and Religion, Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, and member of the Sub-faculty Classics, and a member of the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies. Prior to her joining the faculty in Oxford, she has held posts at the University of Notre Dame, University of Toronto, and Yale University. Her areas of research are entanglement of Ancient Culture; Reading Practices in Jewish Antiquity; Comparative Philology; Performance; Formation of the Self and the Subject; Collection and Canon; Authority and Author Function; Biblical Figures and Exemplarity; Practices of Pseudepigraphy and Pseudonymous Attribution; Revelation; Diaspora and Exile; Trauma Studies; and Nature and Law. Her major publications include Losing the Temple and Recovering the Future: An Analysis of 4 Ezra. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014; Past Renewals: Interpretive Authority, Renewed Revelation, and the Quest for Perfection. Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism 53. Leiden: Brill, 2010.; Seconding Sinai: The Development of Mosaic Discourse in Second Temple Judaism. Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism 77. Leiden: Brill, 2003. Reissued in paperback by the Society of Biblical Literature in April 2009. She has published over 50 articles and has edited 20 volumes. She has contributed as editor and associate editor to a variety of journals and book series, among them are Journal of Biblical Literature from; Dead Sea Discoveries and the Journal for the Study of Judaism Supplement Series. Her most recent monograph has appeared in December 2024 with Oxford University Press, Scriptural Vitality: Rethinking Hermeneutics and Philology. In current projects are on Pluriformity and hermeneutics, Metathinking in Ancient Judaism, and Aesthetics and Poetics in ancient Jewish Song.
    Mostra di più Mostra meno
    1 ora e 6 min
  • 82. Zechariah al-Dhahiri | Dr. Adena Tanenbaum

    82. Zechariah al-Dhahiri | Dr. Adena Tanenbaum
    Dec 25 2025
    J.J. and Dr. Adena Tanenbaum unravel the dynamics of late medieval and early modern Jewish intellectual life in Yemen.

    This episode is sponsored by the Touro Graduate School of Jewish Studies, a leading academic program in Jewish Studies. For information on admission and course offerings, including generous scholarships, please visit gsjs.touro.edu/history/ or get in touch by calling 212-463-0400, ext. 55580 or emailing karen.rubin@touro.edu

    If you or your business are interested in sponsoring an episode or mini-series, please reach out at podcasts@torahinmotion.org

    Follow us on Bluesky @jewishideaspod.bsky.social for updates and insights!

    Please rate and review the the show in the podcast app of your choice.

    We welcome all complaints and compliments at podcasts@torahinmotion.org

    For more information visit torahinmotion.org/podcasts


    Dr. Adena Tanenbaum is an associate professor in the Department of Near Eastern and South Asian Languages and Cultures at THE Ohio State University. Her research focuses on medieval Jewish intellectual history with a special emphasis on literary works from Islamic lands. She has a long-standing interest in philosophical themes in Hebrew poetry from Spain, and has published a book entitled The Contemplative Soul: Hebrew Poetry and Philosophical Theory in Medieval Spain (Leiden: Brill, 2002). Before coming to OSU, Dr. Tanenbaum spent twelve years in England as a Member of the Oriental Studies Faculty of Oxford University, a Senior Associate of the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, and a Visiting Lecturer at University College London.
    Mostra di più Mostra meno
    1 ora e 9 min
  • 81. The Revolutions of 1782 | Dr. Shmuel Feiner

    81. The Revolutions of 1782 | Dr. Shmuel Feiner
    Dec 11 2025
    J.J. and Dr. Shmuel Feiner tell tales of 1782 CE, a turning point in Modern Jewish History.

    This episode is sponsored by the Touro Graduate School of Jewish Studies, a leading academic program in Jewish Studies. For information on admission and course offerings, including generous scholarships, please visit gsjs.touro.edu/history/ or get in touch by calling 212-463-0400, ext. 55580 or emailing karen.rubin@touro.edu

    If you or your business are interested in sponsoring an episode or mini-series, please reach out at podcasts@torahinmotion.org


    Follow us on Bluesky @jewishideaspod.bsky.social for updates and insights!

    Please rate and review the the show in the podcast app of your choice.

    We welcome all complaints and compliments at podcasts@torahinmotion.org

    For more information visit torahinmotion.org/podcasts

    Shmuel Feiner is Modern Jewish History Professor Emeritus at The Department of Jewish History, Bar Ilan University, Israel. He is the Chairperson of The Historical Society of Israel. Shmuel Feiner was born in Tel Aviv (1955) and studied at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (BA, 1980, MA, 1984, PhD 1990). After receiving the Alon scholarship he joined the Jewish History Department at Bar Ilan University, Jewish Studies Faculty. He is full Professor from 2001. Between 2001-2004 he served as Head of Department, and until 2023 as the Head of The Samuel Braun Chair for the History of the Jews in Germany. He retired from teaching in 2023. He published many books in Hebrew and English on the history of the Jewish Enlightenment in Central and Eastern Europe, on the origins of Jewish secularization, and on the Jewish Kulturkampf in the 19th Century. His biography of Moses Mendelssohn was published in Hebrew, English, German and Chinese. Recently he completed a two volume project: The Jewish Eighteenth Century, A European Biography (Indiana University Press).
    Shmuel Feiner is editor of “Zion” (Jewish History), served as the Chairperson of the Jerusalem Leo Baeck Institute, and the recipient of the Koret Jewish Book Award in History (2004), The Meyer Struckmann Prize (2007), the Shazar Prize, and the Alexander von Humboldt Research Award (2011-2012).
    Mostra di più Mostra meno
    1 ora e 10 min
  • 80. Contemporary Attitudes | Dr. Alon Goshen-Gottstein (Universalism & Particularism #5)

    80. Contemporary Attitudes | Dr. Alon Goshen-Gottstein (Universalism & Particularism #5)
    Dec 4 2025
    J.J. and Dr. Alon Goshen-Gottstein stay current. They discuss 21st century Jewish thinkers like Jonathan Sacks, Irving Greenberg, and Goshen-Gottstein himself.

    This is the fifth and final episode in our miniseries about universalism and particularism in Judaism. Over the course of the series we explored and complicated Jewish attitudes to these ideas across the centuries.

    Follow us on Bluesky @jewishideaspod.bsky.social for updates and insights!

    Please rate and review the the show in the podcast app of your choice.

    We welcome all complaints and compliments at podcasts@torahinmotion.org

    For more information visit torahinmotion.org/podcasts

    Rabbi Dr. Alon Goshen-Gottstein is acknowledged as one of the world's leading figures in interreligious dialogue. He is the founder and director of the Elijah Interfaith Institute since 1997. His work bridges the theological and academic dimensions with a variety of practical initiatives, especially involving world religious leadership. A noted scholar of Jewish studies, he has held academic posts at Tel Aviv University and has served as director of the Center for the Study of Rabbinic Thought, Beit Morasha College, Jerusalem. His most recent publications are Idolatry - A Contemporary Jewish Conversation (Academic Studies Press, 2023) and Covenant and World Religions - Irving Greenberg, Jonathan Sacks and the Quest for Orthodox Pluralism (Littman Library, 2023), finalist of the Rabbi Sacks Book Prize for 2023.
    Mostra di più Mostra meno
    57 min
  • 79. Early Modern Attitudes | Dr. Jeremy Fogel (Universalism & Particularism #4)

    79. Early Modern Attitudes | Dr. Jeremy Fogel (Universalism & Particularism #4)
    Nov 21 2025
    J.J. and Dr. Jeremy Fogel reflect on the oneness of nature, the nature of oneness, and particularism vs. universalism in the thought of Benedict Spinoza, Moses Mendellsohn, and Hermann Cohen.

    This is the fourth episode in our miniseries about universalism and particularism in Judaism. Over the course of the series we will explore and complicate Jewish attitudes to these categories across the centuries.

    Follow us on Bluesky @jewishideaspod.bsky.social for updates and insights!

    Please rate and review the the show in the podcast app of your choice.

    We welcome all complaints and compliments at podcasts@torahinmotion.org

    For more information visit torahinmotion.org/podcasts



    Jeremy Fogel is a senior faculty member in the Department of Jewish Philosophy and Talmud at Tel Aviv University. He is also the academic director of Alma Home for Hebrew Culture and a faculty member in the Mandel Program for Leadership in Jewish Culture. In addition, Jeremy lectures on philosophy in a variety of public forums and records popular podcasts on cultural and academic topics. Among his books are "Tel Aviv is Water and Other Seasidian thoughts" (Haba Laor, 2019) and Jewish Universalisms (Brandeis University Press, 2023).
    Mostra di più Mostra meno
    1 ora e 11 min