L'Dor Vador: Generational Torah

Or Yochai Taylor and Michal Kohane
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  • JUDAISM
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

A mother and son explore the weekly Torah portion from our two worlds: she’s an Israeli rabbanit, he’s a American vet student. Together, we unpack the parsha like we're across the Shabbat table. New episodes weekly. Parsha blog available at https://miko284.com/ to ask questions and leave comments.

  1. 5D AGO

    Ki Tisa 5786

    Torah Reading Exodus 30:11-34:35; Numbers 19:1-22 Haftarah Ezekiel 36:16-38 | Shabbat Parah

    36 min

  2. FEB 26

    Tetzaveh 5786

    Torah Reading Exodus 27:20-30:10; Deuteronomy 25:17-19 Haftarah I Samuel 15:2-34 | Shabbat Zachor miko284.com

    30 min

  3. FEB 19

    Terumah 5786

    Torah Reading Exodus 25:1-27:19 Haftarah I Kings 5:26-6:13 miko284.com

    29 min

  4. FEB 12

    Mishpatim 5786

    As we move into Parshat Mishpatim together, we feel the shift from revelation to responsibility, from awe to the hard work of building a just society. After Sinai’s sweeping "statements", we are placed face to face with detailed laws that govern everyday life, work, injury, conflict, and care for the vulnerable, reminding us that covenant is lived out in the ordinary and the uncomfortable. We wrestle with laws that challenge us, especially those around servitude and injury, and ask whether the Torah is presenting absolute ideals or guiding a broken world toward something better. Again and again, we notice that the burden of law falls on those with power, limiting exploitation, insisting on proportionality, and pushing us away from vengeance toward justice. Mishpatim invites us to hold complexity without retreating from it, to recognize that law and compassion must coexist, and to accept that holiness is not only found at the mountain, but in how we treat one another when life is messy, imperfect, and real.

    32 min

  5. FEB 5

    Yitro 5786

    As we arrive at Parshat Yitro together, we are struck by the quiet boldness of the moment that leads into revelation. Before the thunder and the commandments, the Torah pauses for a conversation with an outsider, a seeker, Moshe's father-in-law who watches closely and speaks honestly. Yitro reminds us that wisdom does not belong to one people or one voice, and that leadership requires humility as much as vision. Moses, poised between worlds and shaped by many cultures, listens and learns, allowing human judgment, shared responsibility, and communal buy in to take root before divine law is given. It feels deeply intentional that Torah cannot be received in isolation, but only within a system that values people, process, and perspective. As the Ten Statements follow, we feel the tension between awe and closeness, between coercion and choice, playing out in our own lives as well. God introduces Himself not as creator of the universe but as the One who took us out of Egypt, grounding faith in lived experience rather than abstraction. We are reminded that law without relationship is hollow, and relationship without responsibility is fragile. Reading Yitro this way, we are invited to honor wisdom wherever it appears, to stay open to voices beyond our own circles, and to remember that covenant is renewed not only at the mountain but every time we choose to listen, to judge fairly, and to take part in shaping a living tradition together. For more reading, here is this year's blog post about the parsha: https://miko284.com/2026/02/05/like-a-bird-tzipor-a-for-parashat-yitro/

    33 min

  6. JAN 29

    Beshalach 5786

    In Parshat Beshalach we find ourselves struck by how leaving Egypt is not a clean moment of freedom but a complicated crossing into responsibility. Pharaoh sends us out, yet God guides us, and we live for a time in that uneasy space of having had two masters. Like the rabbinic image of the half slave and half free person, we cannot remain divided. The sea, the desert, and the manna all press the same question on us and on those who stood there before us: how do we move from the known, even when it was painful, into an unknown that demands trust, action, and growth. Their fear, their complaints, and their hesitation feel familiar. The crossing of the sea makes this especially vivid. We are told that God will fight for us, yet we are also pushed to step forward, even before we know how the story will resolve. Tradition imagines someone walking into the water before it splits, teaching us that faith is often enacted before it is rewarded. When the people finally sing at the sea, it is not in triumph, but is relief, gratitude, and survival finding a voice. We hear an invitation to be patient with ourselves and with one another as we complain, hesitate, and try again. Like them, we are learning how to trust, how to plan, and how to carry our past with us without letting it keep us from moving forward. For further reading, here is this year's blog post about the parsha: https://miko284.com/2026/01/29/and-he-showed-him-a-tree-bshalach/

    30 min

  7. JAN 22

    Bo 5786

    In Parshat Bo we experience the Exodus as a transformation of values, memory, and identity rather than only a dramatic escape. We explore why this portion could have opened the Torah, how the final plagues differ from the earlier ones as a clash of worldviews rather than simple punishment, and how creation, freedom, and responsibility are woven together through symbols like light, matzah, and the calendar itself. The conversation reflects on memory over history, the role of children’s questions, the mixed multitude who leave Egypt, and the painful necessity of breaking from cultures that once sustained us, leaving us with the enduring challenge of what it truly means to become a free people. For more reading, here is this year's blog post about the parsha: https://miko284.com/2026/01/21/this-month-is-to-you-and-us-parashat-bo/

    29 min

  8. JAN 14

    Va'era 5786

    In Parshat Va'era we sit together with the text and its hardest questions. We wrestle with why redemption unfolds so slowly, why the suffering must continue through ten plagues when freedom could come instantly, and what it means that liberation is as much about transforming belief as it is about leaving Egypt. The plagues emerge not only as punishment, but as a challenge to empire, ideology, and false power, a dismantling of both Egyptian gods and totalitarian systems that grow dangerously out of balance. We explore God’s shifting names, the promises made to the ancestors, and how identity is spoken differently to Pharaoh than to the Israelites themselves, religious language on one side and national destiny on the other. Along the way, we reflect on slavery’s psychological grip, how oppression can be sustained through small comforts, and why freedom often requires time, patience, and participation. This episode draws connections between Exodus and later history, from Pesach rituals to modern revolutions, asking why this story continues to shape moral imagination across generations. The story forces us to ask why our national memory begins with slavery rather than success. Maybe the power of the Exodus lies precisely in starting from the bottom, so that freedom, dignity, and faith become central values rather than privileges. As Va'era unfolds, we are left not with tidy answers, but with a deeper sense that redemption is complex, layered, and still very much a shared human struggle. For more reading, here is this year's blog post about the parsha: https://miko284.com/2026/01/15/vaera-and-in-my-name-i-was-not-known/

    29 min
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About

A mother and son explore the weekly Torah portion from our two worlds: she’s an Israeli rabbanit, he’s a American vet student. Together, we unpack the parsha like we're across the Shabbat table. New episodes weekly. Parsha blog available at https://miko284.com/ to ask questions and leave comments.

Information

  • Creator
    Or Yochai Taylor and Michal Kohane
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    37
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Or Yochai Taylor and Michal Kohane
  • Show Website
    L'Dor Vador: Generational Torah