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PODCAST

Orthodox Conundrum

The Orthodox Conundrum is a forum in which we look honestly at the Orthodox Jewish community, identifying what works well and what does not, so that, through an honest accounting, we can find solutions that will be successful. We will examine some of the major issues that affect the Orthodox world, without exaggeration, whitewashing, or pretending that they don"t exist. Our hope is that the Orthodox Conundrum will spark wider discussion that will enable Orthodox Judaism to continue moving forward

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All Episodes

51:33

The Revolution in Women's Torah Learning: What We've...

Orthodox Conundrum ·

2024/06/10

We’re approaching the holiday of Shavuot, when we celebrate and commemorate the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai. The Rambam explains that our belief in Torah and in Moshe is predicated upon the fact that all of us were present at Sinai, where we together heard God talking to Moshe. And we have a longstanding tradition as well that God did not stop speaking once ma’amad Har Sinai was over; in fact, He never stopped speaking at Sinai. What made the revelation 3300 years ago unique was not that God

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55:05

Does the IDF Care Enough About the Safety of Its...

Orthodox Conundrum ·

2024/06/04

Is the Israeli army taking care of its soldiers? That’s a question with a potentially painful answer. Daniel Mael has helped donate over 13,000 helmets to IDF soldiers, along with thousands of vests and other equipment - and he argues that the army’s behavior in procuring equipment has been nothing less than scandalous. In fact, he claims, the Israeli army knows that its protective equipment is often out of date and faulty, but for whatever reasons continues to provide that flawed equipment to its

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01:21:18

Kids Going "Off the Derech": Reasons, Reactions, and...

Orthodox Conundrum ·

2024/05/27

Just as many young people who are not religious become Orthodox, so do many young Orthodox Jews leave Orthodox practice behind. Colloquially, this is often called being “off the derech” - that is, off “the” way of traditional Torah practice. The phenomenon of Orthodox Jews becoming less classically religious is real, and it’s important to think about why it happens. Is it simply a question of disbelief or doubt regarding dogma? Are there other reasons that we, as parents and educators, should take

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01:01:33

Tzniut, Integrity, and Leadership: Reframing the...

Orthodox Conundrum ·

2024/05/20

Any discussion surrounding tzniut (loosely - and, perhaps incorrectly - translated as “modesty") is inevitably fraught with challenges and difficulty. Indeed, there are few topics in Orthodoxy that are as triggering to so many people. Rabbi Moshe Simkovich offers a traditional yet unique approach to tzniut, and he attempts to redefine the concept altogether, moving it further away from quantitative questions about dress and sexuality, and towards a vision that, he says, is more in line with what the

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01:05:25

Shattering a Religious Monopoly Versus Ideological...

Orthodox Conundrum ·

2024/05/13

In his classic work Kol Dodi Dofek, Rav Soloveitchik asserts that God’s gift of the State of Israel demands a response. God wants a dialogue where we answer his generosity by using His gifts to make Him present in the world. The major challenge for Religious Zionism, then, is to decide, as best as we can, what that response should be. Does it mean settling every square kilometer of the Land? Does it mean creating a medinah l’mofet, an exemplary society in every way possible? Discovering what this

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36:50

Remembering My Dad (203)

Orthodox Conundrum ·

2024/05/06

It’s the little things that hit hardest. The big moments when I expect to be emotional have generally felt unremarkable; I seem to have experienced them with relative ease. The surprises come when I’m taking a walk, talking about a silly childhood memory, or seeing an old friend. Above all, I’ve learned that my emotions are often hidden - from myself as well as from others - and then I think that I’m done having feelings. But I repeatedly learn that they lie barely below the surface, ready to emerge

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46:38

The Dangers of a Living Prophetic Judaism: Rabbi...

Orthodox Conundrum ·

2024/05/01

In episode 201, Rabbi Alex Israel, citing Rav Kook, asked whether nowadays we need to add a greater prophetic element to Judaism, alongside our continued commitment to halacha. Perhaps today we need a new infusion of prophecy - both in terms of its spiritual content, as well as through a renewed emphasis on Torah values that may sometimes be lost in standard halachic discourse. In that episode, Rabbi Israel and Scott talked about the sad reality that some people feel that halacha alone does not

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01:01:06

How Much of the Exodus Story is Historical - and Does...

Orthodox Conundrum ·

2024/04/18

Did the Exodus from Egypt happen exactly as the Torah describes? How should we contend with archeological evidence that seems to indicate that certain aspects of the Torah's narrative don't make sense? And, for that matter, how can we contend with similar questions that surround other historical Biblical narratives? Rabbi Dr. Raphael Zarum, Dean of the London School of Jewish Studies (LSJS) and the Rabbi Sacks Chair of Modern Jewish Thought, addresses these and other pressing questions in this

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01:08:33

Creating a Living Prophetic Judaism for the 21st...

Orthodox Conundrum ·

2024/04/08

For over two millennia, the Jewish People has lived in a world largely defined by Jewish law, or halacha. While the Tanach is filled with what might be called prophetic Judaism - a Judaism, that is, which is dominated by those who spoke in the name of God - the Judaism that emerged during the era of the Second Temple and thereafter placed a greater emphasis on the minutiae of halachic practice and the intense study of Torah. This halachic Judaism has been a massive success, and has kept the Jewish

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54:36

Hollywood, Antisemitic Tropes, and Anti-Orthodox...

Orthodox Conundrum ·

2024/04/01

Jews control Hollywood - or so everyone seems to believe, for better and very often for worse. And it’s true that there are many Jewish people who work in the entertainment industry. But this fact is quite distinct from the question of how Jews are typically portrayed in movies and TV shows - and in that realm, there are serious problems, both regarding the depiction of Jews in general, and the depiction of Orthodox Jews in particular. According to Allison Josephs, founder of Jew in the City, this

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01:20:18

The Present and Future of Religious Zionism (Part...

Orthodox Conundrum ·

2024/03/18

Last week’s episode of the Orthodox Conundrum was supposed to be a wide-ranging conversation about the present and future of Religious Zionism, including a discussion of our relationship with the Palestinian population in Yehuda v’Shomron and Gaza. As it turns out, Scott and his guests, Daniel Goldman and Rabbi Elie Mischel, ended up spending the entire podcast speaking about that one issue, so they came back this week to discuss many of the topics that they had not yet addressed. That episode

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01:02:21

The Present and Future of Religious Zionism (Part...

Orthodox Conundrum ·

2024/03/11

In some recent episodes of this podcast, Scott and his guests have discussed numerous issues relevant to the Religious Zionist world, including some of the ways that Religious Zionism differs from Modern Orthodoxy. But Religious Zionism is not a monolith; there are many different paths within Religious Zionism, and the differences between these paths can sometimes be vast. For example, the Mafdal - that is, Mifleget Dati Leumi, the old Religious Zionist Party which dominated Religious Zionist

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01:04:25

"It Was Never 'Heal the World' at the Expense of...

Orthodox Conundrum ·

2024/03/04

After October 7th, Jews around the world have felt besieged by some erstwhile allies, as some have been silent in the face of rampant antisemitism, and others have openly supported Hamas and its genocidal goals. While there have been many who openly support Jews and Israel, the war in Gaza has also provided a moment of reckoning as we discovered some unhappy surprises about people we thought were our friends. A good example is the reaction to October 7th by the American Association of Sexuality

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01:06:41

Overcoming the Eisav Complex: Raising Orthodox ADHD...

Orthodox Conundrum ·

2024/02/26

35 years ago, Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) was essentially unknown among the general public; today, it is spoken about all the time. We’ve learned that some behaviors that were once considered signs that a child didn’t care about school or achievement, or simply lacked normal self control, are actually indicators of a difference in the way the mind works - and instead of criticizing the people whose minds work this way, we need to find ways to help them succeed. Indeed, when

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01:07:29

"Where Does a Jew Belong? Where Do the Jewish People...

Orthodox Conundrum ·

2024/02/19

What does Israel mean to you? For years, this was a theoretical question for many people who live in the diaspora. Given Israel's war against Hamas and its army of terror, however, the question has gained additional resonance and, in some ways, can no longer be put off; it demands an answer. With Israel under military attack, and the Jewish people experiencing verbal attacks unlike any seen since World War II, Jews outside of Israel have been forced to consider what kind of relationship they have

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01:05:42

Ultra-Orthodox Integration, Military Service, and...

Orthodox Conundrum ·

2024/02/12

In Episode 184, Scott spoke with Michael Eisenberg and Rabbi Yehoshua Hershberg about their conviction that the time has come for the ultra-Orthodox community in Israel - often referred to as the Chareidim - to participate more fully in Israeli society, specifically by ending what has effectively become a blanket exemption from military service, and by their becoming integrated into Israel's economic life. What was lacking, however, was an explanation of the Chareidi point of view on these matters

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01:12:20

Giving a Voice to Diaspora Jews: What Should Israelis...

Orthodox Conundrum ·

2024/02/05

A week or two ago, on the Orthodox Conundrum Discussion Group on Facebook, Scott posted a question about the propriety of Jews living outside of Israel going on fancy vacations while the Israeli population is experiencing a world where there are kidnapped Jews trapped in Gaza, where we continue to mourn the loss of 1200 victims of October 7th plus over 200 soldiers who have died in the aftermath, and when almost every family is directly experiencing the anxiety of having family currently fighting in

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01:28:24

“Sometimes I Wonder Why We Have to Be So Afraid”:...

Orthodox Conundrum ·

2024/01/29

In episode 190, Scott and Dr. Mijal Bitton talked about the idea of creating synagogues that follow Orthodox halacha while embracing an egalitarian aesthetic. One of the ideas that they discussed was the balance between using our Torah texts to determine normative Jewish law, versus what Rabbi Dr. Haym Soloveitchik famously described in his seminal essay “Rupture and Reconstruction” as the preeminence of the mimetic tradition - that is, a way of living that is less learned than it is imitated,

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01:26:35

Diaspora Modern Orthodoxy and Israeli Religious...

Orthodox Conundrum ·

2024/01/22

The war in Israel, which is now well over one hundred days old, has in some ways highlighted the commonalities between all Jews across the world, no matter where they live, and in other ways demonstrated the gaps that continue to exist between an Israeli public that is dealing with the reality of war on their doorsteps, and a non-Israel Jewish world which, despite its emotional investment in Israel, obviously is not experiencing war in the same way that Israelis do. The highlighting of these

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01:05:01

Orthodox Halacha, Covenantal-Traditional Community,...

Orthodox Conundrum ·

2024/01/15

This podcast is called “The Orthodox Conundrum” and many of us self-identify as Orthodox, pray in Orthodox synagogues, affiliate with Orthodox institutions, and consider ourselves part of the wider Orthodox world. But is that term “Orthodox” - and perhaps the concept of denominations in general - a help or a hindrance? Do denominations lead to the building of walls that separate us, and the creation of institutions that are cornered into an inability to change? And let’s say that they do; is that a

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306 results

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