Orthodox Conundrum

Check out Orthodox Conundrum Commentary on Substack and get your free subscription by going to https://scottkahn.substack.com/ - and members get this and other episodes of the Orthodox Conundrum Podcast ad-free and with early access and additional bonus content! What if we've been fundamentally misunderstanding antisemitism? What if the problem isn't simply that people hate Jews, but that powerful individuals and movements have spent centuries convincing people that Jews are responsible for destroying everything they hold dear? Dr. Dara Horn, acclaimed author of People Love Dead Jews and The Final Solution to the Jewish Question, joins me for a wide-ranging and thought-provoking conversation about Jewish identity, antisemitism, Zionism, and the extraordinary persistence of Jewish civilization. We explore why Jews don't fit neatly into modern categories of religion, ethnicity, or nationality; why antisemitism thrives even among people who believe they're standing up for justice; and why defending ourselves against outrageous accusations may actually reinforce the very lies we're trying to refute. We also discuss the remarkable connection between Jewish monotheism and resistance to tyranny, the troubling ways Holocaust education can erase the very Jewish civilization the Nazis sought to destroy, and the importance of teaching Jews and non-Jews alike a fuller, more confident account of Jewish history. Most importantly, Dara offers a different way of thinking about the challenges confronting the Jewish people today: one that replaces defensiveness with curiosity, exposes the manipulation behind antisemitic accusations, and insists that the Jewish story is not merely one of persecution and survival, but of courage, continuity, and an enduring commitment to truth. Listen to the new Naaseh weekly podcast! Each week, host Ari Levisohn, joined by Rav Jeremy Tibbetts or Lazar Berman, starts with a close reading of the Parsha and asks what happens when we try to actually live it - not only in our own lives, but in the communities we create - and the kind of society we're trying to build. Because Torah isn't only meant to describe a better world. It's meant to help us build one. The latest episode of Naaseh is out now. Find it on Spotify, Apple Podcasts , or YouTube. Click here to order Dara Horn's book The Final Solution to the Jewish Question: A Love Story for the Living. Also learn about Dara's new educational initiative, The Tell Institute, by clicking here. If your business is interested in advertising to our engaged Orthodox audience, or if you'd like to sponsor an episode in honor of a loved one or simcha, please reach out to [email protected] to support meaningful Jewish conversations. Thanks to all of our Patreon subscribers, who have access to bonus JCH podcasts, merch, and more - we appreciate your help, and hope you really enjoy the extras! Visit the JCH Patreon site at https://www.patreon.com/jewishcoffeehouse. Write to [email protected] to learn all about creating your own podcast. Music: "Happy Rock" by bensound.com

Check out Orthodox Conundrum Commentary on Substack and get your free subscription by going to https://scottkahn.substack.com/ - and members get this and other episodes of the Orthodox Conundrum Podcast ad-free and with early access and additional bonus content! What's the point of God if God doesn't intervene? Rabbi Yitz Greenberg has spent more than sixty years wrestling with the meaning of faith after the Holocaust, and one of his central claims is that God increasingly expects human beings to take responsibility for the world rather than waiting for divine intervention. But if that's true, what role does God actually play? And what does it mean for covenant, religious obligation, and prayer? In this conversation, we discuss Rabbi Greenberg's understanding of Judaism as a religion that demands that we "choose life"; why he has significantly revised his famous idea of the "voluntary covenant"; why he believes God's increasing hiddenness represents not divine absence, but a more mature stage in the relationship between God and humanity; and what all of this means for the relationship between Orthodox and non-Orthodox Jews. We also discuss one of his more controversial claims: that Christianity may itself be part of God's plan for bringing the biblical message to humanity. And finally, I ask what prayer means in a world where God increasingly leaves the work to us. When we ask God to heal, to provide justice, or to repair what is broken, are we asking God to act, or are we accepting responsibility to act on God's behalf? This is a wide-ranging conversation about God, Torah, the Holocaust, religious pluralism, Christianity, human responsibility, and what faith means in a world where God may not intervene in the ways that we expect. Listen to the new Naaseh weekly podcast! Each week, host Ari Levisohn, joined by Rav Jeremy Tibbetts or Lazar Berman, starts with a close reading of the Parsha and asks what happens when we try to actually live it - not only in our own lives, but in the communities we create - and the kind of society we're trying to build. Because Torah isn't only meant to describe a better world. It's meant to help us build one. The Bereishit episode of Naaseh is out now. Find it on Spotify, Apple Podcasts , or YouTube. Rabbi Yitz Greenberg just released his new two volume set of classic essays, Life Against Death. Listeners to Orthodox Conundrum in the United States and Canada will receive a 40% discount, and a 50% discount for bulk purchases of ten or more copies of the set. Just go to JPS.org, and include the discount code 6AF26 for a regular purchase, and discount code 6LIFE2V50 for orders of ten copies or more. Please listen to and share this podcast, and let us know what you think on the Orthodox Conundrum Discussion Group on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/groups/432020081498108). If your business is interested in advertising to our engaged Orthodox audience, or if you'd like to sponsor an episode in honor of a loved one or simcha, please reach out to [email protected] to support meaningful Jewish conversations. Thanks to all of our Patreon subscribers, who have access to bonus JCH podcasts, merch, and more - we appreciate your help, and hope you really enjoy the extras! Visit the JCH Patreon site at https://www.patreon.com/jewishcoffeehouse. Write to [email protected] to learn all about creating your own podcast. Music: "Happy Rock" by bensound.com

Check out Orthodox Conundrum Commentary on Substack and get your free subscription by going to https://scottkahn.substack.com/ - and members get this and other episodes of the Orthodox Conundrum Podcast ad-free and with early access and additional bonus content! As Yom Kippur approaches, we naturally think about what's wrong: our failures, our mistakes, and the ways that we, and the Jewish community as a whole, need to change. Rabbi Judah Mischel challenges us to pay attention to something else as well: the nekudah tovah, the point of goodness in ourselves, in other people, and in the Jewish people. He argues that focusing on what's going right, magnifying it, and building upon it can be a far more effective path toward growth than constantly emphasizing what's wrong. I find that idea deeply inspiring. But I also struggle with it. Because sometimes things really are wrong. Sometimes people are hurt. Sometimes communities develop unhealthy patterns that desperately need to change. And if we become so determined to emphasize the good that we hesitate to call out the bad, are we encouraging growth, or are we actually becoming part of the problem? In this pre-Yom Kippur conversation, Rabbi Judah Mischel and I wrestle with these questions while also discussing the extraordinarily difficult, and extraordinarily hopeful, moment in Jewish history in which we are living. We talk about optimism and realism, judging people favorably, confronting wrongdoing, criticizing communities without condemning them, and how we can work toward meaningful change without losing sight of the tremendous good that already exists. As we approach Yom Kippur, perhaps the challenge is not to choose between seeing the good and confronting the bad, but to figure out how to do both in a way that actually makes us, and the Jewish community, better. Talli Rosenbaum and I have just released Intimacy and Sexuality for Emerging Adults, powered by Intimate Judaism - a new ten-part podcast series designed to give young Jewish adults the kind of honest, thoughtful and Torah-based guidance about relationships, sexuality, and intimacy that too many of them simply aren't getting. We talk about emotional intimacy and vulnerability, dating and physical boundaries, attraction and sexual desire, anatomy and sexual response, consent and communication, pornography, love and marriage, niddah and building intimacy within marriage, some of the difficult questions surrounding sexual orientation and Torah, and more. All ten episodes of Intimacy and Sexuality for Emerging Adults are available now; just click here to get it on Spotify or Apple. Please listen to and share this podcast, and let us know what you think on the Orthodox Conundrum Discussion Group on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/groups/432020081498108). If your business is interested in advertising to our engaged Orthodox audience, or if you'd like to sponsor an episode in honor of a loved one or simcha, please reach out to [email protected] to support meaningful Jewish conversations. Thanks to all of our Patreon subscribers, who have access to bonus JCH podcasts, merch, and more - we appreciate your help, and hope you really enjoy the extras! Visit the JCH Patreon site at https://www.patreon.com/jewishcoffeehouse. Write to [email protected] to learn all about creating your own podcast. Music: "Happy Rock" by bensound.com

Check out Orthodox Conundrum Commentary on Substack and get your free subscription by going to https://scottkahn.substack.com/ - and members get this and other episodes of the Orthodox Conundrum Podcast ad-free and with early access and additional bonus content! The Chareidi draft issue has become one of the most contentious questions in Israeli society, and the established Chareidi political parties have largely presented a united front: protecting the existing system and opposing efforts to draft Chareidi men into the IDF. But a newly formed Chareidi political party, HaTzibbur HaChareidi, is offering a very different approach. Its platform says that those who genuinely devote themselves full time to Torah study should be protected and allowed to continue learning, while those who don't should serve the country in some capacity. But the party's challenge to the Chareidi status quo goes well beyond the draft. It argues that many working Chareidim, Chareidim who have served in the army, and those who want greater participation in Israeli society are no longer adequately represented by the existing Chareidi political establishment. Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein is supporting HaTzibbur HaChareidi, and in today's conversation we discuss what this new party stands for and whether it has a realistic chance of changing Chareidi politics. We talk about the draft, who should qualify as a full-time Torah learner, whether yeshiva attendance should be monitored, Chareidi service in the IDF, Daas Torah, government funding, and the relationship between Chareidi society and the State of Israel. Rabbi Adlerstein describes the party's vision as a "new old Yiddishkeit." The question is whether that vision can offer a genuine alternative to the Chareidi political status quo. Talli Rosenbaum and I have just released Intimacy and Sexuality for Emerging Adults, powered by Intimate Judaism - a new ten-part podcast series designed to give young Jewish adults the kind of honest, thoughtful and Torah-based guidance about relationships, sexuality, and intimacy that too many of them simply aren't getting. We talk about emotional intimacy and vulnerability, dating and physical boundaries, attraction and sexual desire, anatomy and sexual response, consent and communication, pornography, love and marriage, niddah and building intimacy within marriage, some of the difficult questions surrounding sexual orientation and Torah, and more. All ten episodes of Intimacy and Sexuality for Emerging Adults are available now; just click here to get it on Spotify or Apple. Please listen to and share this podcast, and let us know what you think on the Orthodox Conundrum Discussion Group on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/groups/432020081498108). If your business is interested in advertising to our engaged Orthodox audience, or if you'd like to sponsor an episode in honor of a loved one or simcha, please reach out to [email protected] to support meaningful Jewish conversations. Thanks to all of our Patreon subscribers, who have access to bonus JCH podcasts, merch, and more - we appreciate your help, and hope you really enjoy the extras! Visit the JCH Patreon site at https://www.patreon.com/jewishcoffeehouse. Write to [email protected] to learn all about creating your own podcast. Music: "Happy Rock" by bensound.com

Check out Orthodox Conundrum Commentary on Substack and get your free subscription by going to https://scottkahn.substack.com/ - and members get this and other episodes of the Orthodox Conundrum Podcast ad-free and with early access and additional bonus content! Antisemitism in the United States is getting worse. But perhaps just as disturbing is the growing sense that many people no longer recognize antisemitism when it appears, particularly when it is expressed through the language of anti-Zionism, social justice, or supposedly progressive politics. My guest today, Dr. Logan Levkoff, has experienced this firsthand. After more than two decades teaching sexuality education at the same school, Logan found herself under scrutiny, not because of anything she taught in the classroom, but because some parents discovered that she was an outspoken Zionist. Eventually, she was fired. That experience serves as a starting point for a much broader conversation about what is happening to Jews in America today. We discuss antisemitism on both the political left and right, increased attempts to distinguish between anti-Zionism and antisemitism, and whether American Jews themselves bear some responsibility for failing to teach enough about Jewish peoplehood, Jewish history, and Zionism. And we spend significant time discussing a word that has become increasingly prominent in our political discourse: Islamophobia. Hatred or discrimination against Muslims simply because they are Muslim is obviously wrong. But what happens when accusations of Islamophobia are used to shut down legitimate criticism of Islamism, political Islam, or particular ideas and political figures? And why, when Jews raise concerns about antisemitism, is Islamophobia so often invoked alongside it, as though the two phenomena must always be discussed together? This is a conversation about antisemitism, anti-Zionism, the weaponization of the term Islamophobia, and the increasingly difficult challenge of talking honestly about uncomfortable ideas in a world that seems to have lost its appetite for nuance. Next Sunday at 8 PM Israel time, 1 PM Eastern, I'll be hosting a live Ask Me Anything for Orthodox Conundrum Commentary members. And when I say "anything," I really do mean anything. The Orthodox Conundrum, Orthodoxy, Israel, the IDF, Jewish Coffee House, the sale of the Lakers, the Beatles, the new podcast that Talli Rosenbaum and I just put together, Intimacy and Sexuality for Emerging Adults, what goes on behind the scenes of the podcasts, or pretty much anything else you're curious about. The questions can be about the weightiest issues facing the Jewish world, or about subjects that are considerably less consequential but still worth talking about. You can send your questions in advance to [email protected], and you'll also be able to ask questions live during the session. The Q&A is open to all Orthodox Conundrum Commentary members and Patreon supporters. Subscribe at https://scottkahn.substack.com/ today. Talli Rosenbaum and I have just released Intimacy and Sexuality for Emerging Adults, powered by Intimate Judaism - a new ten-part podcast series designed to give young Jewish adults the kind of honest, thoughtful and Torah-based guidance about relationships, sexuality, and intimacy that too many of them simply aren't getting. We talk about emotional intimacy and vulnerability, dating and physical boundaries, attraction and sexual desire, anatomy and sexual response, consent and communication, pornography, love and marriage, niddah and building intimacy within marriage, some of the difficult questions surrounding sexual orientation and Torah, and more. All ten episodes of Intimacy and Sexuality for Emerging Adults are available now; just click here to get it on Spotify or Apple. Please listen to and share this podcast, and let us know what you think on the Orthodox Conundrum Discussion Group on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/groups/432020081498108). If your business is interested in advertising to our engaged Orthodox audience, or if you'd like to sponsor an episode in honor of a loved one or simcha, please reach out to [email protected] to support meaningful Jewish conversations. Thanks to all of our Patreon subscribers, who have access to bonus JCH podcasts, merch, and more - we appreciate your help, and hope you really enjoy the extras! Visit the JCH Patreon site at https://www.patreon.com/jewishcoffeehouse. Write to [email protected] to learn all about creating your own podcast. Music: "Happy Rock" by bensound.com

Check out Orthodox Conundrum Commentary on Substack and get your free subscription by going to https://scottkahn.substack.com/ - and members get this and other episodes of the Orthodox Conundrum Podcast ad-free and with early access and additional bonus content! Many Jewish young adults reach their wedding night with almost no real guidance on intimacy and sexuality. Rabbi Scott Kahn and sex and relationship therapist Talli Rosenbaum open the series by explaining why these conversations need to start years before the chuppah, and what's ahead in the next nine episodes. The remaining nine episodes of Intimacy and Sexuality for Emerging Adults will drop this Saturday night, August 8th. Subscribe today on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever else you get your podcasts. Please listen to and share this podcast, and let us know what you think on the Orthodox Conundrum Discussion Group on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/groups/432020081498108). If your business is interested in advertising to our engaged Orthodox audience, or if you'd like to sponsor an episode in honor of a loved one or simcha, please reach out to [email protected] to support meaningful Jewish conversations. Thanks to all of our Patreon subscribers, who have access to bonus JCH podcasts, merch, and more - we appreciate your help, and hope you really enjoy the extras! Visit the JCH Patreon site at https://www.patreon.com/jewishcoffeehouse. Write to [email protected] to learn all about creating your own podcast.

Check out Orthodox Conundrum Commentary on Substack and get your free subscription by going to https://scottkahn.substack.com/ - and paid subscribers get this and other episodes of the Orthodox Conundrum Podcast ad-free and with early access and additional bonus content! For generations, religious Jews prayed for a return to Zion. Today, for the first time in nearly two thousand years, there is a sovereign Jewish state, most Jews may soon live there, and millions of Jews around the world have the practical ability to move there if they choose. That reality raises profound questions that previous generations could barely imagine. What does it mean to be a fully realized Jewish community outside the land of Israel in an age of Jewish sovereignty? Is Jewish life in the diaspora inherently incomplete, or can it possess its own enduring religious integrity? Does affirming the centrality of Israel require seeing Jewish communities abroad as temporary, marginal, or even destined to disappear? Or is there a way to embrace a deep Zionism without negating the legitimacy of Jewish life outside Israel? Perhaps all of the above can be true: diaspora communities may be seen as temporary without losing their religious legitimacy. These questions have become increasingly urgent since October 7th, as Jews around the world have wrestled with issues of solidarity, responsibility, sacrifice, destiny, and identity. They also touch on larger questions about messianism, exile, religious authenticity, and the relationship between ideals and lived reality. To explore these issues, I'm joined by two thoughtful and deeply committed Zionist thinkers who approach these questions from different perspectives: Dr. Malka Z. Simkovich, Editor-in-Chief of the Jewish Publication Society and author of Letters From Home: The Creation of Diaspora in Jewish Antiquity, and Rabbanit Atara Eis, Dean of Nishmat and a leading educator in the Religious Zionist world. This is a conversation about Israel, the diaspora, and the future of the Jewish people - but also about how Orthodoxy speaks about aspiration, belonging, sacrifice, and the tensions that serious religious life sometimes demands. Please listen to and share this podcast, and let us know what you think on the Orthodox Conundrum Discussion Group on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/groups/432020081498108). If your business is interested in advertising to our engaged Orthodox audience, or if you'd like to sponsor an episode in honor of a loved one or simcha, please reach out to [email protected] to support meaningful Jewish conversations. Thanks to all of our Patreon subscribers, who have access to bonus JCH podcasts, merch, and more - we appreciate your help, and hope you really enjoy the extras! Visit the JCH Patreon site at https://www.patreon.com/jewishcoffeehouse. Write to [email protected] to learn all about creating your own podcast. Music: "Happy Rock" by bensound.com