Judaism for the Thinking Person

Rabbi Nadav Caine
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Scholarly, Compassionate, and Practical Jewish Teachings on God, Prayer, Torah and Kabbalah with Rabbi Nadav Caine (ravnadav)

  1. FEB 2

    Seeing ICE Through Scripture (from local rally)

    My remarks from a local rally.

    7 min

  2. JAN 4

    Jacob's Blessings and Aging Out of People Pleasing

    Drawing on the book "(Un)kind: How 'Be Kind' Entrenches Sexism" by Victoria Smith and Ellen Scherr's essay "The Neuroscience of Why You Suddenly Can’t Pretend Anymore," I examine Jacob's deathbed blessings to his sons, which are impartial statements of fact with neither personal commentary nor people-pleasing softening. I see in my own life the draw of middle age to convey factual statements without personal judgment, but the societal messages that everything has to be couched in uplifting, taking-care-of-others'-feelings language or you're a bad person or a bad supervisor.

    14 min

  3. 12/31/2025

    Agriculture, Economic Collapse, and the Joseph Story

    At the end of Genesis, Joseph centralizes the agricultural system of Egypt, saving the country from collapse due to upcoming years of bad crops (e.g. due to drought), but turning farmers into serfs upon their own land in the process. The Rabbis debate whether Joseph did a good thing or a bad thing to the people. I take two stories from the headlines to take each side of this debate: first, the collapse of American farms due to corporate monopolies (turning American farmers into serfs on their own land), and second, the upcoming collapse of great world cities like Tehran if they refuse to centralize power and exercise eminent domain to enforce collective action.

    13 min

  4. 12/08/2025

    The AI Gods Taking Away our Souls and Our Community

    My Kol Nidrei 2025 Sermon on how our phones are amplifying the centrifugal force of the pull of our individual lives, sacrificing the centripetal force of community, by holding out a fake community, a false version of ourselves (the shadow masquerading as the soul), and building Temples for us to worship the A.I. gods.

    18 min

  5. 11/20/2025

    Parashat Toldot: Is Imposter Syndrome a Fault or a Gift from God?

    This is a revision of a podcast I released several years ago. It focuses on Isaac as the patriarch of Imposter Syndrome. In my own life, I've come to make peace with my own Imposter Syndrome, seeing the anxiety I must live with as a gift that leads me not to shame, but to service. It has made me appreciate Isaac enormously.

    17 min

  6. 10/28/2025

    What Can the Rabbinic Debate about Noah Teach Us About Equity?

    I relate the debate from Bereishit Rabbah to This American Life episode 550.

    15 min

  7. 10/19/2025

    Maimonides' Laws of War & Talking About Gaza

    Most of us have been avoiding the painful conversations with friends and family over Gaza. Why? It seems like we have no common frame of reference, and so it hardly seems worth it. In this Rosh Hashanah sermon, I do something a little bizarre: I use Judaism's main halakhic code about war -- Maimonides' codification of all the Torah's statements on war-- to illuminate the war we are at with ourselves. My hope is that it opens us all up a little to each other.

    26 min

  8. 10/09/2025

    Getting "Miracles" Right in Judaism and in Our Lives (Yom Kippur Sermon 2025)

    Miracle may be the most misunderstood concept in Judaism. While some Jewish sects officially (like Chabad), and most Jews unofficially, construe "miracles" as supernatural interventions in the nature, as in Christianity, the Jewish tradition tends to understand the word "miracle" (in Biblical Hebrew: "nes") in a far more subtle way. In this sermon, I explain the true meaning of "nes" as "sign" or "that which is risen above the ordinary" to help us deepen our sense of God's presence in our everyday lives, and change our concept of God from a Being within reality to the Being that is Reality.

    26 min
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About

Scholarly, Compassionate, and Practical Jewish Teachings on God, Prayer, Torah and Kabbalah with Rabbi Nadav Caine (ravnadav)

Information

  • Creator
    Rabbi Nadav Caine
  • Years Active
    2016 - 2026
  • Episodes
    100
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2016 All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    Judaism for the Thinking Person

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