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PODCAST

Ta Shma

Hadar Institute

Bringing you recent lectures, classes, and programs from the Hadar Institute, Ta Shma is where you get to listen in on the beit midrash. Come and listen on the go, at home, or wherever you are. Hosted by Rabbi Avi Killip of the Hadar Institute.

religion & spirituality judaism

All Episodes

8:43

R. Avital Hochstein on Parashat Terumah: The...

Ta Shma ·

2026/02/18

Parashat Terumah opens with a divine request. God asks the Children of Israel for a contribution to achieve a specific goal: “And let them make Me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them” (Exodus 25:8). The entire parashah, along with its layers of midrash, serves as a blueprint for how God seeks to be together with us—and how we can be together with others, even in an encounter that might otherwise seem impossible.

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52:11

R. Shai Held: Loving the Stranger-Sojourner (Ger)

Ta Shma ·

2026/02/17

In addition to loving God and loving our neighbor, the Torah also commands us to love the stranger-sojourner (ger). This lecture delves into this surprising biblical mandate to love the stranger-sojourner and seeks to understand its relationship to more foundational ideas in Jewish theology, ethics, and spirituality. R. Shai considers questions like: Why does the God of the Torah love strangers-sojourners? How does a truly Torah-based society respond to its most vulnerable members? What is th...

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8:12

R. Avital Hochstein on Parashat Mishpatim: Who Rests...

Ta Shma ·

2026/02/11

Parashat Mishpatim shines a spotlight on human beings and their responsibility for the rest of others on Shabbat.

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45:38

R. Ethan Tucker: Reading the Torah Like a Love Letter

Ta Shma ·

2026/02/09

Do you love midrash? Hate it? In this class, Rabbi Ethan Tucker delves into this unique rabbinic genre to try and understand its essence: Reading the Torah like a love letter, poring over every phrase, while also allowing our deepest values and concerns to come to the fore. Out of this alchemy, midrash is born and the traditional canon is never the same. Recorded at Hadar's Tanakh Intensive 2026. Source sheet: https://mechonhadar.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/mh_torah_source_sheets/TI2026T...

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12:28

R. Avital Hochstein on Parashat Yitro: An Intimate...

Ta Shma ·

2026/02/04

The Torah describes a moving encounter between Yitro and Moshe, in which Moshe shares his journey and experiences. A close reading of the details reveals that the Torah offers us a model for meaningful human connection—a way of meeting another person with openness, allowing space both to show and to be seen, to listen deeply and to receive with empathy.

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8:13

R. Elazar Symon on Tu Bishvat: Celebrating a Birthday...

Ta Shma ·

2026/02/02

Tu Bishvat is often called the “birthday of the trees.” There is also a reactionary trend to reject this framework of “birthday” and go back to its original, technical and halakhic purpose, which is found in the Mishnah.

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10:54

R. Avital Hochstein on Parashat Beshallah: Where Does...

Ta Shma ·

2026/01/28

The Torah describes: “Amalek came and fought with Israel at Refidim” (Exodus 17:8). Where does Amalek come from? What is the context out of which this war begins?

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34:10

R. Shai Held: Why Don’t We Make Blessings for...

Ta Shma ·

2026/01/26

On its face, it is a real anomaly in Jewish practice: we recite blessings before putting on tefillin or lighting Shabbat candles, but we don't recite any before we visit the sick or comfort a mourner. In this session, we'll probe a range of sources that try to explain why that is, culminating in a careful examination of one of Maimonides' post-powerful and important essays about the role of character and virtue in Jewish life. Recorded at the Rabbinic Yeshiva Intensive 2025. Sourc...

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8:56

R. Avital Hochstein on Parashat Bo: Slaves or...

Ta Shma ·

2026/01/21

Woven into the account of the Exodus are two distinct and seemingly contradictory images of the Children of Israel. On one hand, they are a nation of oppressed slaves, redeemed from a bondage of both body and soul. On the other, they appear as a vast, armed, and formidable group, driven out in haste by an Egypt terrified of their power. The opening chapters of the Book of Exodus present these two narratives in parallel, without attempting to reconcile them.

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8:20

R. Avital Hochstein on Parashat Va'Era: What is Slavery?

Ta Shma ·

2026/01/14

Pharaoh succeeded. He brought the Children of Israel into a state of slavery. The opening of Parashat Va’Era focuses on one particular consequence of this: the loss of the ability to listen.

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51:14

R. Avi Strausberg: The Promise and Impossibility of...

Ta Shma ·

2026/01/12

What does it mean to strive toward unity and togetherness in a moment in which we are so divided? What is gained—and what is lost—by holding fast to notions of klal yisrael? Is it possible and even desirable to bridge our differences, or are there times in which our values take priority over notions of togetherness? R. Avi explores these questions through biblical, midrashic, and hasidic sources in her lecture in memory of Dr. Eddie Scharfmanm, given in 2026. Source sheet: https://mechonhadar...

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12:30

R. Avital Hochstein on Parashat Shemot: The Choice of...

Ta Shma ·

2026/01/07

The deterioration of relations between Egypt and the Children of Israel proceeds rapidly. What values, emotions, and perspectives make such a breakdown possible—and what could prevent it? The contrasting figures of Pharaoh and his daughter offer two opposing models, each of whom go through three steps. On the one hand, Pharaoh exemplifies the descent from relationship into fear, oppression, and alienation. On the other, his daughter represents a path grounded in courag...

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37:56

R. Avi Killip: And God Waited

Ta Shma ·

2026/01/05

For generations our relationship with God has been mediated through texts written almost entirely by men. In these sessions, Rabbi Avi Killip explores a collection of midrashim, written by contemporary Israeli women writers, exploring images of God that are uniquely female oriented while being deeply rooted in the images and language of the Torah and classical midrash. "And God Waited" engages with midrashic answers to an imagined question “What might God be waiting on from us?” Recorde...

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12:58

R. Avital Hochstein on Parashat Vayehi: Truth and Peace

Ta Shma ·

2025/12/31

We find ourselves at the closing moments of the Book of Genesis—moments of transition as a family becomes a nation. We stand on the threshold between Yosef’s personal trauma and the national trauma soon to come, the slavery in Egypt. What mindset does Parashat VaYehi seek to give us as a tool for facing the suffering of Egypt?

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9:44

R. Elazar Symon on the 10th of Tevet: “A Day of...

Ta Shma ·

2025/12/29

We know about the fasts that mark the destruction of the Temple from a prophecy of Zekhariah. While the Jewish exiles were in Babylon, the prophet was asked whether traditional fasts would continue to be observed. In his response, Zekhariah refers to four fast days.

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11:24

R. Avital Hochstein on Parashat Vayigash: Three Paths...

Ta Shma ·

2025/12/24

The word “vayigash” (“he approached”) opens one of the most dramatic scenes in the Torah: a climactic moment in the tense encounter between Yehudah, the brothers and Yosef, a moment in which the fate of the entire family rests on the words and actions of a single person. “And Yehudah approached him and said…” (Genesis 44:18).

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37:02

R. Avi Killip: Birthing Worlds

Ta Shma ·

2025/12/22

For generations our relationship with God has been mediated through texts written almost entirely by men. In these sessions, Rabbi Avi Killip explores a collection of midrashim, written by contemporary Israeli women writers, exploring images of God that are uniquely female oriented while being deeply rooted in the images and language of the Torah and classical midrash. “Birthing Worlds,” the second class in this series, introduces midrashim on the life experience of birthing and pregnancy los...

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9:04

R. Avital Hochstein on Parashat Mikeitz: How Do You...

Ta Shma ·

2025/12/17

Parashat Mikeitz teaches that dreams hold immense power: the power to bring downfall or renewal, life or death, destruction or creation, war or peace. This means that the way we, as human beings, pursue a dream—whether out of spiritual emptiness or fullness, with an expectation that it will disconnect or connect—places before us both choice and responsibility.

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7:38

R. Elazar Symon on Hanukkah: The Miracle of Home...

Ta Shma ·

2025/12/15

One of the differences between the Hanukkah candles and the other significant candles in our religious practice, the Shabbat candles, is their location. While Shabbat candles are lit inside the house, in the private domain (or, the technical term: reshut ha-yahid), the Hanukkah lamps are ideally lit in the doorway that connects to the public domain (reshut ha-rabim). But what is the significance of this difference? What is the meaning of the liminal space of the doorway? And what spiritual me...

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10:18

R. Avital Hochstein on Parashat VaYeishev: Yosef's...

Ta Shma ·

2025/12/10

One of the most dramatic turning points in Yosef’s life is his fall from a respected and powerful position in Potiphar’s house in Egypt to the status of a prisoner in jail. In the Rabbinic tradition, this moment is seen not merely as a downfall but as a moment of personal choice, a point at which Yosef chooses to invest in a future. He chooses active continuity rather than starting anew. Interestingly the character who represents this choice is one from his past: his father.

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737 results

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