edJEWcation

Jonah Ghosted God. It Did Not Go Well.

Jonah gets swallowed by a fish, and that is the part everybody remembers, but the real story is what happens after: Nineveh repents, Hashem forgives, and Jonah sits down

Listener Questions: Elul, Damages, and Israel

Some weeks we pick the topics. This week you picked them for us. The Rabbi opens by informing both of us that the frivolity is over, because Elul has arrived and we hav

Planning a Chabad Wedding

It is just CL and I this week, because we wanted to give her a chance to speak this week (sorry, Rabbi). Her oldest son got engaged a few weeks ago, there has already be

The Book of Deuteronomy: Moses' Last Words

Moses has five weeks left. He starts talking on the first of Shevat, he dies on the seventh of Adar, and in between he delivers the longest, most repetitive, most urgent

Parenting Adult Children: Boundaries & Grace

Nobody warns you that the hardest parenting years might come after your kids are grown. We opened with a story Jay picked up in a Delta Lounge, a man quietly putting on t

Lament This: The Book of Lamentations

Tisha B’Av is coming, and before we sit on the floor with the lights low, we’re doing our homework. This week we open the Book of Lamentations, the scroll Jeremiah wrote

Matot-Masei: Vows, Tribes & Cities of Refuge

The Rabbi opens with a request: can we please put a moratorium on the word “anti-Semitism” until next July 4th? (Spoiler: no, but we try.) Then we celebrate some family n

Yahrzeit, Kaddish & the 17th of Tammuz

Some episodes start light. This one starts with a candle. We begin with Jay’s yahrzeit for his mom, twelve years gone and still deeply missed, and the Rabbi walks us thro

Hillel & Shammai: Judaism's Dynamic Duo

What makes two rabbis who disagreed about almost everything the most celebrated pair in Jewish history? This week we sit down with Hillel and Shammai, the original dynami

The Twelve Prophets, Part 3: Micah to Malachi

We made it to the finish line. After two earlier episodes, we wrap up the Twelve Prophets and tie a bow on them all. Along the way we get into why these texts barely show

The Minor Prophets, Part 2: Hosea to Micah

We picked up where we left off with the Twelve Prophets (Trei Asar), and Hosea throws us straight into one of the strangest stories in all of the Tanakh. Gd is furious th

Shavuos: The Forgotten Holiday

Let’s be honest: when someone you’re not a fan of gets bad news, there’s a tiny, guilty dopamine hit. We open this episode by confessing that impulse out loud and digging

A Jewish Bookshelf

The rabbi’s out this week, so we’re are doing what any self-respecting book nerds would do: geeking out about reading. In this episode, we get into: Jay breaks down hi

The Twelve Prophets of Judaism, Part 1

What does it actually take to be a prophet? Spoiler: it’s not just hearing voices and shouting in the marketplace (though there’s some of that). In this kickoff to our

Dear Rabbi: Jewish Marriage Advice

King Solomon had a thousand wives, wrote a book of proverbs, and still felt the need to write a whole passionate love poem about a shepherd boy and a maiden. Coincidence?

Dear Rabbi: Caring For Aging Parents

We’re kicking off a brand new segment called “Dear Rabbi,” where we bring real-life issues to the Rabbi and actually get into it with honest, often hilarious, sometimes p

Plagues, Purpose & Passover Planning

We kicked off this month's Zoom talking about the Rebbe's birthday and why his legacy still hits so hard, from growing Chabad's global mission to his no-nonsense philosop

The Seder is a 3,500 Year Old Hack

On this chag episode, we tackle a section of the Haggadah that almost everyone breezes past: Jacob's fateful decision to "temporarily" settle in Egypt, only to buy land,

Up From Slavery: A Jewish Take

In this edJEWcation Book Club episode, Jay brings the crew one of his all-time favorite books: Up From Slavery, the autobiography of Booker T. Washington. Born into sla

Canaan, Palestine, Judea... What Are We Even Calling This Place?

When the British Museum quietly updated some of its ancient Near East exhibit labels from "Palestine" to "Canaan," the internet exploded. But what does the history actual