Good morning students of Jewish history! Here’s a planning note for your Presidents’ Day. Join me tonight for a lecture and live chat online at 9:00 pm EST. We will be discussing the Roman-Jewish Wars of the 1st and 2nd centuries: the initial rise of the rebellion against Rome, the intervention of Vespasian and the…

Hello students of Jewish history! I’m really looking forward to this event next week. Please join me! I’m working on the lecture now. Register by clicking here.

Part I of the “I Survived Jewish History” lecture series is scheduled to premiere on YouTube this coming Monday, February 3 at 9:00 PM EST. Join me in a live chat! Just no hard questions, please. Here’s the link: https://youtu.be/Vr9r0RgllWQ.

I am really enthusiastic about the Spring 2020 series of lectures in Jewish history, beginning Wednesday evening at 7:30 prompt at Young Israel of Lawrence-Cedarhurst. Our plan is to cover the entire, amazing story of the Jewish people from the earliest time to the present day in twelve lectures (click here for calendar and topics).…

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…

Thanks 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…

By 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…

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…

Postmodernism and the Talmud in an era of unlimited connectivity.

Torah from the Years of Wrath: The Warsaw Ghetto Writings of Rabbi Kalonymus Kalmish Shapira

Stories You Never Learned in Yeshivah: Three Surprising Lectures in Talmudic History. Please come by and say hello!

A brief overview of three categories of exceptional women who made the Talmud possible: supporters, enablers, and even teachers. Lecture delivered at the Young Israel of Lawrence-Cedarhurst on November 20, 2019.

Join us for a brief study of the lives and work of three very different women and their relationship to Talmud study.

Hello friends and colleagues in Toronto! I am delighted to be coming back to visit the old stomping grounds this coming Friday, eh? I hope some of you will be able to join me for a Shabbaton at the Aish Thornhill Community Shul, followed by the David Shemtow Memorial Holocaust Lecture on Sunday night. Please…

This strange sculpture above the “Jewish Door” of the Saint Siffrein Cathedral continues to mystify visitors to Carpentras, France. What does it mean?

This was, for me personally, one of the highlights of my trip with Kosher River Cruises along the Rhone in the south of France. The President of the Carpentras synagogue, Mr. Meyer Benzecrit, graciously invited me to tour a section of the 14th century synagogue not yet open for public view. Excavations have revealed some…

Join me for three rather idiosyncratic, surprising lectures on the history of the Talmud and its transmission in the modern era. Three Wednesdays beginning November 13 at the Young Israel of Lawrence-Cedarhurst. Free and open to the community, no hard questions please.