edJEWcation

The Rabbi opens with a request: can we please put a moratorium on the word “anti-Semitism” until next July 4th? (Spoiler: no, but we try.) Then we celebrate some family news and dive into Matot-Masei, the double portion that closes out the book of Numbers. The Rabbi calls it one of the juiciest parshas of the year, and he makes his case: a war, an angry Moses, a real estate negotiation gone sideways, and an ancient legal system for accidental killers.
In this episode, we get into:
Why some Torah portions are read as doubles, and who divided (and named) the parshas in the first place

The trup (cantillation): how an ancient melody quietly narrates the story, including Joseph’s famous pause with Potiphar’s wife

Gad and Reuben asking to stay east of the Jordan, and how one reversed word order exposed their priorities

What the tribes’ obligation to fight alongside their brothers says about diaspora Jews when Israel is at war

Cities of refuge: the Torah’s “safe space” for accidental killers, and why the tribe of Simon got scattered on purpose

Whether you grew up with this parsha or you’re hearing “Matot-Masei” for the first time, pull up a chair. There’s a waffle bar story in here too.

Links
Parashat Matot-Masei (Numbers 30–36)

Gad and Reuben’s request and Moses’ response (Numbers 32)

“Every shock fighter among you crosses the Jordan” (Numbers 32:20–24)

Cities of refuge (Numbers 35:9–34)

The shalshelet in the Joseph and Potiphar’s wife story (Genesis 39:8)

Shogeg vs. ones, laws of exile

“Kol Yisrael arevim zeh bazeh” (all Jews are responsible for one another)

“Those who tend a tree eat the fruit” (Proverbs 27:18)

Some episodes start light. This one starts with a candle. We begin with Jay’s yahrzeit for his mom, twelve years gone and still deeply missed, and the Rabbi walks us through what the anniversary of a death really means in Jewish tradition. From there we widen out to a fast day heavy with history and a piece of tech that might change how any of us learns Torah.
In this episode, we get into:
What yahrzeit means and why we say Kaddish for eleven months, then every year after

The Rabbi’s own story of counting down the days, and the strange sadness when Kaddish ends

The five tragedies of the 17th of Tammuz and the start of the Three Weeks

Why you can get engaged during the Three Weeks but not married (and what that says about free will)

Yochai, the new AI tool that turns anyone into a Torah study partner

What makes two rabbis who disagreed about almost everything the most celebrated pair in Jewish history? This week we sit down with Hillel and Shammai, the original dynamic duo, and the answer turns out to be the way they argued, not what they argued about.
In this episode, we get into:
The lost art of disagreeing with someone you actually like and respect, and why Judaism treats a good argument as something close to sacred.

Machloket l’shem shamayim: what makes an argument “for the sake of heaven,” and where the line gets crossed

The Hanukkah menorah debate: do you start with eight candles or one, and why each side is right

The gentile who asked to learn the whole Torah on one foot, and the very different answers Hillel and Shammai gave

Why Hillel’s golden rule (”what you don’t want done to you, don’t do to others”) is not the same as “love your neighbor as yourself”

Lenient versus strict: how two yeshivas, two personalities, and one open door shaped Jewish law

Why we almost always rule like Hillel, and the surprising reason it comes down to humility

Pull up a chair, pick a side, and remember: the rest is commentary.

Resources:
Hillel and Shammai, sayings and character

Machloket l’shem shamayim (a dispute for the sake of heaven)

Korach’s rebellion against Moses and Aaron

We made it to the finish line. After two earlier episodes, we wrap up the Twelve Prophets and tie a bow on them all. Along the way we get into why these texts barely show up in yeshiva, a much-debated Midrash about Adam and the animals, and whether religion or just plain ideology has driven the worst of human history. Then we go prophet by prophet, all the way to the very last words of prophecy.
In this episode, we get into:
Micah, and the “swords into plowshares” verse that 99 percent of the world wrongly credits to Isaiah

Nahum and the fall of Nineveh, plus a thorny question: if God wanted the exile, why blame Assyria for carrying it out?

Habakkuk, who opens by arguing with God and reduces all 613 commandments to one: the righteous shall live by his faith

Zephaniah on fear, fight-or-flight, and the command “do not fear”

Haggai, Zechariah’s colored-horse visions, and Malachi closing the prophets with the hearts of parents and children turning back to each other

Grab a book of the prophets and read along with us. It only takes a few minutes a day, and as we say in here, it’s no great honor to be ignorant.
Resources:
Micah

Nahum

Habakkuk

Zephaniah

Haggai

Malachi

We picked up where we left off with the Twelve Prophets (Trei Asar), and Hosea throws us straight into one of the strangest stories in all of the Tanakh. Gd is furious that the Jewish people are chasing idols, so He gives Hosea an unusual assignment: go marry a woman of ill repute, have kids with her, and name them “Not My People” and “No Mercy.” It’s harsh, it’s strange, and the Rabbi calls it the most dramatic living metaphor any prophet was ever asked to act out.
In this episode, we get into:
Hosea, the harlot metaphor, and the Kabbalistic question of whether Gd can actually be affected by what we do

What a prophet (and a leader) is supposed to be: tough on the people, defender to Gd, never a politician

Joel and the locusts, the seven-year famine, and when punishment came measure-for-measure

Famous Amos (great cookies, great prophet) and why prosperity might be the harder spiritual test

Obadiah the convert who saved 100 prophets from Jezebel, the rabbinic tradition that Rome is Edom, and the famous widow with the miraculous oil

Micah and the morality prophets: how “idolatry” in our day reads as money, power, and the corruption that comes with success

We also kept circling back to something: most American Jews don’t think about Gd as Someone with expectations. That’s exactly the tension Hosea was preaching into 3,000 years ago. Same story, different costumes. Hit play, and stay with us for Part 3, where we close out the Twelve.