edJEWcation

edJEWcation
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Your weekly dose of Jewish wit and wisdom. Each week Rabbi Abba Perelmuter, Chayaleah Sufrin, and Jay Covitz explore Jewish history, culture, and writings. Whether you're a relapsed Jew or an old pro there is something for us all to learn.

  1. 19 Aug

    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 have thirty days to get our act together before Rosh Hashanah. Also, he would like an apology for being cut out of last week’s episode (an apology is not forthcoming). Then ChayaLeah tells us about a 6 am Uber ride in Jackson Hole that she was too tired to want, with a driver who would not stop talking about Hashem, trees, and energy, and who turned out to be saying exactly the thing she needed to hear. And then we open the mailbag. In this episode, we get into: Why Elul works like a thirty day notice before the tax bill, what gets added to the prayers, and why teshuvah is a terrible translation of “repentance” The year Rosh Hashanah falls on Shabbat, no shofar on day one, and the headline about 9/11, COVID, and October 7th that nobody needed to see right now The five categories of damages in Torah law, and how a family divides one lump sum among kids who were all in the car but not all hurt the same Whether settlement money is blood money, from an insurance check in America to the fight in 1950s Israel over taking German marks Where you actually start if you want to engage more with Judaism, why Judaism is a religion of deeds before creeds, and why you will never understand kosher before you keep it What to say when a friend, a cousin, or a sibling drops “genocide” at dinner, who is worth engaging, and when to just walk away You ask, we answer, whether or not we know what we are talking about. Send us your questions and we will do this again.

  2. 12 Aug

    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 been an engagement party in Crown Heights and a second one on the West Coast, and the wedding is coming fast. So we thought people would be interested: what actually goes into planning a Chabad Hasidic wedding? The answer starts with a phone call where you plan a huge party with people you have never met, and it only gets more interesting from there. In this episode, we get into: Why dating stays a secret until the engagement is announced at the Rebbe’s grave, and why the whole thing takes weeks instead of years Who pays for what, the fifty fifty split, and the gifts each side is expected to give Takana weddings, the thirty thousand dollar all in package that makes sure every couple gets a beautiful wedding, and why the community treats that as everyone’s responsibility The seven days before the wedding when the bride and groom do not see or speak to each other, get escorted everywhere, and get treated like a king and a queen Fasting on your wedding day, why it is considered a mini Yom Kippur, and the Rosh Chodesh loophole The badeken, the completely opaque veil, and the moment the next morning when the bride covers her hair for the first time Sheva Brachos, a full week of parties, and why the wedding is really a celebration of the entire family Come for the logistics, stay for ChayaLeah whispering under her own chuppah asking if anyone was even out there.

  3. 7 Aug

    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 speech in the Torah. The traditional name for it is Mishneh Torah, the repetition of the Torah, and many commentators say this is the one book Moses spoke on his own behalf. So this week we skip the parsha by parsha treatment and take the whole book at once, because the themes only show up when you stand back far enough to see them. In this episode, we get into: Why Deuteronomy reads differently from the first four books, and what “Moses spoke on his own behalf” actually means The discrepancies with Numbers, starting with who really wanted to send the spies, plus the small differences in the Ten Commandments Who Moses is actually talking to: a generation born in the desert with no slave mentality and no memory of Egypt The warning that prosperity, not persecution, is what makes people forget, and how uncomfortably well that lands in America Why Moses was not allowed to enter, what God showed him from the mountain, and why he wanted in so badly in the first place The Shema line by line: hearing as integrating, why “one” and not “alone,” the two inclinations hiding in V’ahavta, and how anyone can be commanded to love We also end up on free will, the chocolate bar, and a sixth grade yearbook from 1992 that somehow ties the whole thing together.

  4. 29 July

    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 tefillin who turned out to be a Soviet Jew that did not learn he was Jewish until his family reached America. That pulled us into the Rebbe and Soviet Jewry, quiet diplomacy versus loud demonstrations, and a father exiled to Kazakhstan whose wife made ink from berries so his Torah could survive. Then we turned to the question a lot of you have written in about: how do we stay parents to our kids once they are adults with lives, spouses, and kids of their own? In this episode, we get into: Why grown children still need their parents more than anyone expects, and what that means for us Where the boundary sits, and how to give feedback that lands from a place of love instead of criticism Protecting your spouse first, and why in-laws have to tread more carefully than parents Raising kids who become friendly with you without ever forgetting you are the parent Free choice, and how you can do everything right and still get a result you did not plan for Overbearing parents, helicopter moms, the Little League dad, and when to bring in a third party Whether you are the parent watching your kid make a call you would not make, or the adult child trying to keep the peace, come sit with us. There is grace in here for both sides.

  5. 22 July

    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 as Jerusalem fell (or was about to fall, depending on which commentators you ask). It’s a book with a wild backstory: a king who burned the first draft, a scribe named Baruch who took dictation for round two, and an alphabet-shaped message hiding in the book. In this episode, we get into: Who Jeremiah was and why nobody wanted to hear his “doom and gloom” prophecies The scroll King Yehoyakim burned, and what Rashi says was in it Was Lamentations written before the destruction as prophecy, or after as eyewitness testimony? Why Jerusalem is described as a widow, and what that metaphor really means The Dubner Maggid’s parable of the needle-and-thread wagon: trading something real for nothing Whether Jews blame themselves too much for their own tragedies, from the Babylonians to October 7th Why we end our reading of Lamentation not on despair but on “bring us back to You, Hashem, and we shall return” It’s the heaviest book in Tanakh, but we promise this isn’t a stuffy seminary lecture. Come study with us before the fast.

  6. 15 July

    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 news and dive into Matot-Masei, the double portion that closes out the book of Numbers. The Rabbi calls it one of the juiciest parshas of the year, and he makes his case: a war, an angry Moses, a real estate negotiation gone sideways, and an ancient legal system for accidental killers. In this episode, we get into: Why some Torah portions are read as doubles, and who divided (and named) the parshas in the first place The trup (cantillation): how an ancient melody quietly narrates the story, including Joseph’s famous pause with Potiphar’s wife Gad and Reuben asking to stay east of the Jordan, and how one reversed word order exposed their priorities What the tribes’ obligation to fight alongside their brothers says about diaspora Jews when Israel is at war Cities of refuge: the Torah’s “safe space” for accidental killers, and why the tribe of Simon got scattered on purpose Whether you grew up with this parsha or you’re hearing “Matot-Masei” for the first time, pull up a chair. There’s a waffle bar story in here too. Links Parashat Matot-Masei (Numbers 30–36) Gad and Reuben’s request and Moses’ response (Numbers 32) “Every shock fighter among you crosses the Jordan” (Numbers 32:20–24) Cities of refuge (Numbers 35:9–34) The shalshelet in the Joseph and Potiphar’s wife story (Genesis 39:8) Shogeg vs. ones, laws of exile “Kol Yisrael arevim zeh bazeh” (all Jews are responsible for one another) “Those who tend a tree eat the fruit” (Proverbs 27:18)

  7. 8 July

    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 through what the anniversary of a death really means in Jewish tradition. From there we widen out to a fast day heavy with history and a piece of tech that might change how any of us learns Torah. In this episode, we get into: What yahrzeit means and why we say Kaddish for eleven months, then every year after The Rabbi’s own story of counting down the days, and the strange sadness when Kaddish ends The five tragedies of the 17th of Tammuz and the start of the Three Weeks Why you can get engaged during the Three Weeks but not married (and what that says about free will) Yochai, the new AI tool that turns anyone into a Torah study partner

  8. 17 June

    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 dynamic duo, and the answer turns out to be the way they argued, not what they argued about. In this episode, we get into: The lost art of disagreeing with someone you actually like and respect, and why Judaism treats a good argument as something close to sacred. Machloket l’shem shamayim: what makes an argument “for the sake of heaven,” and where the line gets crossed The Hanukkah menorah debate: do you start with eight candles or one, and why each side is right The gentile who asked to learn the whole Torah on one foot, and the very different answers Hillel and Shammai gave Why Hillel’s golden rule (”what you don’t want done to you, don’t do to others”) is not the same as “love your neighbor as yourself” Lenient versus strict: how two yeshivas, two personalities, and one open door shaped Jewish law Why we almost always rule like Hillel, and the surprising reason it comes down to humility Pull up a chair, pick a side, and remember: the rest is commentary. Resources: Hillel and Shammai, sayings and character Machloket l’shem shamayim (a dispute for the sake of heaven) Korach’s rebellion against Moses and Aaron

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Your weekly dose of Jewish wit and wisdom. Each week Rabbi Abba Perelmuter, Chayaleah Sufrin, and Jay Covitz explore Jewish history, culture, and writings. Whether you're a relapsed Jew or an old pro there is something for us all to learn.

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  • Creator
    edJEWcation
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    122
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © edJEWcation
  • Show Website
    edJEWcation

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