Parsha in Progress

This week we discuss why the Israelites so freely donated their time and money to build the Tabernacle, and whether volunteer work is best focused on one's community or those outside it.

This week we discuss the Bible's detailed descriptions of the High Priest vestments, and why clothing is such a powerful site of identity for many people.

This week, we ask who really counts as the stranger and whether the answer upends the idea of compassion.

This week, we discuss the final plague of Egypt, and the impulse to provide bad answers to good questions.

This week, we discuss the purpose of the Ten Plagues, and why God didn’t expedite the whole Exodus-from-Egypt thing.

Parsha in Progress is off this week, so instead we're introducing you to Take One, the new Daf Yomi podcast from Tablet Magazine hosted by Liel Leibovitz. As Jews around the world begin a new seven-and-a-half year cycle of Daf Yomi, reading the entire Talmud one page per day, Tablet Magazine's new podcast, Take One, will offer a brief and evocative daily read of the daf. We launch the cycle with a brief introduction to the Talmud at large before diving into the text with Tractate Berakhot, page 2, and a meditation on the meaning of time, why you might want to think twice before you Netflix and chill, and how all these rabbinic strictures can help us make sense of our modern, messy lives.

This week, we discuss why Joseph is the one who cries the hardest.

This week, we discuss Pharaoh's odd visions and why dream interpretation was such a hot Biblical qualification for leadership.

This week, Dov and Abby discuss sibling rivalry, the pain of infertility, and whether or not Genesis would pass the Bechdel test.

This week, Dov and Abby discuss kindness, cruelty, camels, and the trait they think every marriage requires.

This week, Dov and Abby wonder what it would mean if we all had the potential to be an Abraham, and how the divine promise of Israel lives on in Israeli politics.

This week, Dov and Abby discuss why Noah is considered worthy enough to be the last man standing and the FIRST human to restart humanity. Why did God gave up on his own creation so fast, and how can Noah be called “righteous” when he didn’t protect anyone but himself?  At a time in this country when there’s so much talk about meanness versus compassion, whether we are good or evil— born mean or taught—it’s an ideal moment to revisit Noah’s selfishness, God’s exasperation, and the massive do-over of creation. 

This week, Dov and Abby reflect on the last parsha of the Torah, and the concluding message of Moses and the verses.

This week, Dov and Abby discuss God's insistence that the people of Israel will go astray when they enter the Promised Land, and consider the role of free will in sin.

This week, Dov and Abby consider the difference between requiring people to sacrifice their first fruits to God and requiring them to write out the Torah in public, as the Israelites prepare to enter the Land of Israel.