Parsha in Progress

This episode discusses how it can be more difficult to connect with God in synagogue than, say, nature (which is how Dov feels), but also how the beauty and community of a synagogue makes it easier for some to be spiritually connected (how Abby feels). They also talk about the communal importance of the act of building a spiritual place, and why the process of a community coming together in a religious project can be just as meaningful as the end result.

This week, we discuss the ten commandments and consider how this text became foundational to understanding the Jewish relationship to God.

This week we delve into the Song of the Sea, the Biblical poem which celebrates the drowning of the Egyptians and the Israelite exodus from Egypt, and whose central message has been reinterpreted throughout centuries of Jewish history.

This week we discuss leadership in action, looking at the early life of Moses and considering the challenges of cultivating fierce ideological commitment alongside a deep and personal concern for individuals. 

Parshat Vayechi: Are humans the instruments of God, or are we responsible for our own actions? This week, we’re discussing the moment when Joseph acknowledges the evil his brothers did to him while assuring them that God used their actions for good. 

This week on Parsha in Progress: Parshat Vayeshev—Do Good Intentions Matter? Abby and Rabbi Dov discuss the story of Joseph and his brothers.  Their conversation explores how to assess the role of Reuven, who attempted to save Joseph from death by suggesting the brothers throw him in a pit, but ultimately could not keep him from being taken into slavery.

This week’s episode covering the parsha Vayishlach, opens a discussion into one of the most disturbing events in Genesis: the episode known as “the rape of Dinah.” Is this a straightforward example of sexual violence and the silencing of a female victim? Or, as some more modern commentators have suggested, is there a more complicated story of forbidden desire and individual agency lurking beneath the violent surface? Abby and Rabbi Dov discuss.

For this week’s Torah portion, Toldot, we encounter the story of Isaac and Rebecca whose prayers are finally answered when, after 20 years of trying to conceive, Rebecca becomes pregnant with twins. But the trouble starts right away as Jacob and Esau struggle in the womb and a simmering conflict ensues between the brothers and their parents. Listen as writer Abigail Pogrebin (author of My Jewish Year) and Rabbi Dov Linzer (head of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah) try to work out whether ‘pulling the wool over someone’s eyes’ can ever really be a moral act.

It’s one of the thorniest stories in the Bible—when Abraham took his son Isaac to be sacrificed on Mount Moriah. How could God demand filicide as proof of faith? This week on “Parsha in Progress,” writer Abigail Pogrebin (author of My Jewish Year) and Rabbi Dov Linzer (head of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah) take on the Binding of Isaac and how it tests us even now.

With Simchat Torah now behind us, it’s time to start a new cycle of reading the Torah and what better way than with a podcast. This week we start at the beginning with Bereshet, Hebrew for “in the beginning,” the story of creation. Or, should we say stories since the Torah actually contains more than one account of Adam and Eve as this inaugural episode of “Parsha in Progress” reveals.