Lectures in Jewish History and Thought. No hard questions, please.
Good morning students of Jewish History! I’m really excited about the I SURVIVED JEWISH HISTORY Spring Semester of Jewish History Lectures beginning later this month. Please check the flyer for the live lectures with our New York audience (please join us if you’re in town!). Here’s a tentative syllabus of the online dates and times […]
Read More I SURVIVED JEWISH HISTORY Schedule of Spring 2020 LecturesHere’s the trailer for the Spring series of lectures in Jewish History @ YILC. There’s a free T-shirt, too.
Read More I Survived Jewish HistoryThanks to Sandy Eller of Mishpacha Magazine for writing this piece about one of my best chevrusas ever, Rabbi Nati Gamedze. Here’s the link to the full piece, pasted in below. BETTER TOGETHER: LEARNING WITH THE SWAZI PRINCE By Sandy Eller | DECEMBER 25, 2019 It was the unlikeliest of pairings: a Swazi prince and a Toronto […]
Read More Learning Daf Yomi? Get a Great Study PartnerBy now your social media feed (not to mention your news feed) should be filled with the phenomenal Siyum HaShas, the monumental gathering of Jews in celebration of the global study of the Babylonian Talmud. I was privileged to be among nearly 100,000 Jews gathered in Met Life stadium yesterday, along with tens of thousands […]
Read More Three Essential Skills to Learn the Entire Talmud. Yeah.Friends, if the second best thing is to go to the Siyum Ha-Shas tomorrow morning, certainly the very best thing is to start Daf Yomi on Sunday. Let’s do it together at YILC! And for those of you who live too far away to enjoy the breakfast: be sure to download the free All Daf […]
Read More Begin the Daf TogetherFeedback on this lecture was very positive, but one person suggested I was “the Grinch who stole Chanukah.” Kind of an ironically Hellenistic comment. So viewer beware: this is a more historical treatment of the social, economic, and political roots of the Maccabean revolt. Happy Hannukah!
Read More “The Grinch Who Stole Chanukah”Tonight at YILC: a deeper discussion of the Maccabean Revolt, from Antiochus’ inferiority complex to fissures between Jewish factions under Yehudah Maccabee’s role. Surprisingly (or not surprisingly) relevant issues for our own times. What else are you doing tonight? Join us at the Young Israel of Lawrence-Cedarhurst at 7:30 for a timely talk on Chanukah. […]
Read More Tonight: Beyond dreidels. A real look at the history of the Maccabean RevoltSomething new and exciting from YouTube.
Read More New! Deepen Your Study of Jewish HistoryAlways distracted but historical minutiae, I don’t think I was ever going to be a great Talmud student. Now, with the introduction of the amazing All Daf app (slated for launch on December 22), there’s finally a place for my approach to Talmud! Please enjoy this brief video from the recent Torah NY conference at […]
Read More Confessions of a Poor Talmud Student