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PODCAST

Judaism for the Thinking Person

Rabbi Nadav Caine

Scholarly, Compassionate, and Practical Jewish Teachings on God, Prayer, Torah and Kabbalah with Rabbi Nadav Caine (ravnadav)

religion & spirituality judaism

All Episodes

27:09

The Victim Triangle: Moving from Blame to...

Judaism for the Thinking Person ·

2021/09/17

Our society is permeated with a victim mentality that presents itself as prophetic, but is punitive. Caught in the Victim Triangle, everyone must fit into a role of Victim, Persecutor, or Rescuer --both in individual dramas and in societal theory. Change presents itself only in the options of shifting roles in the triangle: persecutors must become victims, victims will fix things by teaching them (and society) a lesson, someone gets stuck in rescuer role. Is teshuvah, repentance, about being

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17:59

It‘s Time to End the Fertility Bias: Our Shame in...

Judaism for the Thinking Person ·

2021/09/10

How often do people say to me, "Rabbi, Rosh Hashanah is not about prayers, theology and sermons -- it's about getting together with family!" or "My grandfather was a model Jew because he was committed to his grandchildren" or "One does not know true awe until one has had children." And how often have I as a rabbi said similar things at a bat mitzvah or baby naming from the bimah, or when explaining a prayer like the one that says "You shall love God...through diligently teaching your children..."

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15:55

Saving One Life is Saving the World: Jewish Law and...

Judaism for the Thinking Person ·

2021/08/16

In the parashah of "Shoftim" in Deuteronomy, we have the norms for shoftim v'shotrim, the judges and professional criminal justice system officials. We are commanded that tsedek tsedek tirdof, known as "justice, justice you shall pursue" though tsedek means "justice" in the sense of "righteousness," not in the sense of revenge. The parashah goes on to discuss capital crimes, an eye for an eye, and the death penalty. For many, they read it assuming that Judaism endorses the death penalty, with

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18:24

The Depth of Loving Torah and Being Loved Through It:...

Judaism for the Thinking Person ·

2021/08/02

After Moshe recounts the 10 Commandments --the 10 "word-statements"-- in Deuteronomy chapter 5, we get the Shema and the Ve-Ahavta, we must Hearken to "these words," incribe them in our hearts, and return God's love by loving through teaching these words. What are the words? Given the context of chapter 5, it would make sense these are the 10 Commandments, perhaps to be the text of the mezuzah and teaching the VeAhavta is exhorting. Of course, the Rabbis argue vociferously that this cannot be,

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14:11

Leading our Children to Transcendence

Judaism for the Thinking Person ·

2021/06/13

The oldest, continually used blessing in the world is the Torah's "Priestly Blessing." May God bless you [with bounty] and guard you. May God's face radiate grace (of getting your needs met) upon you. May God turn God's face to you [when you don't get what you need] so [you do not feel alone but meet God there and] God places peace within you. The Rabbis stress that the person blessing is merely a "window" to letting God in, but in this Dvar Torah I question whether this isn't exactly what we

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12:57

Reopening the Synagogue When People Are Coming up the...

Judaism for the Thinking Person ·

2021/05/26

How do we reopen the synagogue after over a year of being virtual? For some it's procedural: distance appropriately, follow guidelines, limit numbers, maybe wait on the food. But the Temple is not a gathering of bodies, it's a gathering of souls. How do we reopen appropriately to be a holy community, one that recognizes each other as souls? One of my favorite mishnayot speaks to this, and I was happy to be scooped by Professor Naomi Kalish in applying it to us today:

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13:37

God the Mother

Judaism for the Thinking Person ·

2021/05/09

Leviticus ends with a long list of horrifying predictions (or curses) of the vicious suffering of the Israelites when they eventually enter the Land and break the covenant. Western Civilization has been shaped by European Christian intellectuals who created the unchallenged image (and therefore a Western bias) that the God of the Old Testament is a God who is disposed toward anger and punishment, who seems to enjoy punisment and retribution (and thus God had to be made flesh in the Son to introduce

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14:59

Ross Douthat, Biblical Impurity, and Antipathy toward...

Judaism for the Thinking Person ·

2021/04/30

Is Leviticus's insistence that those with skin afflictions (as well as having buried the dead) not go to Temple an exclusionary punishment for being sick? Or is that our modern reading which presumes that religion is exclusionary and judgmental? In this presentation, I use Ross Douthat's essay "Can the Meritocracy Find God? The secularization of America probably won’t reverse unless the intelligentsia gets religion" as a way to talk about America's prejudices against religion, and my particular

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13:06

Jewish Law on Cremation and Burial, and What We're...

Judaism for the Thinking Person ·

2021/04/22

As the percentage of Jews opting for cremation has risen from around 2% to over 20% in twenty years, how do we balance the mitzvah of burial of Jewish remains with the prohibition on cremation?

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13:30

The Tabernacle -- and our Lives-- as a Purposeful...

Judaism for the Thinking Person ·

2021/03/22

Inspired by the teachings of the great American ceramicist, Richard DeVore, I examine what the mishkan tells us about the nature of artistic composition, drawing a stark contrast between Golden Calves and Purposeful Composition, in Exodus, and especially in how we live our lives.

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12:42

Keruvim, Cherubim, Griffins, Sphinxes, and the angel...

Judaism for the Thinking Person ·

2021/03/10

What were the Keruvim, the two hybrid beast angels 10 cubits high protecting the Ark of the Covenant, and from between whom God speaks? I rehearse all the theories, and end with a Maimonidean vision of what the angel as an extension of God's presence really is.

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15:49

The Building of the Tabernacle through the Lens of...

Judaism for the Thinking Person ·

2021/03/04

Given that some of the most influential narratives and Torah legislation are but a few verses long, why is so much of the book of Exodus chapters and chapters of detailed, repetitive descriptions of the instructions and building of the Tabernacle (Mishkan), the priestly uniforms, the utensils, the hundreds of curtain rods and hooks? I answer this question through my reflecting on the observations of Henry Louis Gates in his PBS Series (during Black History month) on the history of the Black Church

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04:28

Making Sense of the Most Disturbing Statement in the...

Judaism for the Thinking Person ·

2021/03/01

No statement by God seems more morally challenging than the prophet Samuel's demand for the complete annhilation of the Amalekites and their animals, followed by his condemnation of Saul for failing to kill King Agag and the choicest of the animals. The Amalekites are equated with the nature of evil itself, and so the resurgence of evil and especially genocidal anti-Semitism throughout the rest of time is somehow linked to the failure to "complete the job" of vanquishing them earlier on. In this

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05:13

"God, Let me receive good counsel!" The 5 minute...

Judaism for the Thinking Person ·

2021/02/17

In this 5 minute teaching, I read a poem by Zbigniew Herbert and then share a seriously short spiritual practice that involves receiving the deepest of advice. In that, I connect the prayer Hashkiveinu to the Mourners Kaddish to my own experience of practicing it.

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11:10

Jonah versus Moshe: When Do We Hold the King...

Judaism for the Thinking Person ·

2021/02/02

As America faces what to do and think about impeachment, I reflect on the dramatic difference between the book of Jonah and account of the final plagues in Exodus where God hardens Pharoah's heart. In the former, God is so anxious to accept an apology, move on, and look to the future that Jonah wants to refuse God's service, and in the other God prevents the moving on that Moshe is so anxious to get to.

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14:50

Zikaron and the Filibuster: The Memory of Slavery...

Judaism for the Thinking Person ·

2021/01/24

Parashah Bo repeatedly connects the memory of slavery to the establishment of Jewish rituals for all time, from the main features of the Passover seder to the First Fruit offerings in the Temple to ones we forget to associate with the memory of slavery like tefillin. (Later, even Shabbat will be firmly connected to the memory of slavery.) We in America have done the opposite by divorcing our institutions from the memory of slavery: case in point, the Filibuster which was not a patriotic

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16:36

Geneivat Daat: The Theft of Subjectivity by Media and...

Judaism for the Thinking Person ·

2021/01/18

I examine the sin of Geneivat Daat -- theft of another's consciousness through words that might be parse-able but lead another to think something is true which isn't-- as the prevalent sin in a world of fragmented media tailored to incite us, and I relate this to former Jewish Theological Seminar chancellor Arnold Eisen's insight that we readers cheer Moshe on in his riotous act in the name of justsice, only to wonder how we found ourselves in that dubious moral place.

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19:30

The Dreams of Genesis and Our Dreams: Our Alignment...

Judaism for the Thinking Person ·

2020/12/21

The saga of Yosef is about dreaming beginning to end, with the parashah of Miketz as itself operating according to dream logic. Are dreams special in the Torah, unlike ours, as some kind of prophecy? Or is much of Genesis calling our attention to the God world all around us, the one we only know through "knowledge by inacquaintance" (Abraham Joshua Heschel)? Is it telling us that our conventional "common denominator" way of processing and understanding the world is flawed, limited, one of not

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17:13

Reuniting Religion and Psychology: Jacob's Dreams and...

Judaism for the Thinking Person ·

2020/12/06

I relate Jacob's dream of the stairway to heaven and his dream of God-wrestling to the therapeutic uses of psilocybin to treat PTSD, depression, addiction, and end-of-life fear.

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19:14

"It's Their Money!"- The Ketubah, Traditional Jewish...

Judaism for the Thinking Person ·

2020/11/30

The stories of Jacob being defrauded by Lavan are taken to be the plot of the famous period of Jacob working for Lavan for 20 years before fleeing in the middle of the night. In this teaching, I show that this is a misunderstanding. Jacob has worked for 20 years for Lavan without being paid, but only 6 of those years are for Jacob and his arrangements with Lavan! The first 7 years are to earn money that goes directly to Leah, and the next 7 years are for the money that goes to Rachel! The story

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