Judaism Unbound

David Hirshberg, author of My Mother's Son, Jacobo's Rainbow, and A Bronx Cheer (Upcoming), joins Dan and Lex for a conversation about the role of Jewish fiction in the Jewish present and future.  If you're enjoying Judaism Unbound, please help us keep things going with a one-time or monthly tax-deductible donation. Support Judaism Unbound by clicking here!To access shownotes for this episode, click here.

Natalie Ginsberg and Madison Margolin, two co-founders of the Jewish Psychedelic Summit, join Dan and Lex to discuss their upcoming event, taking place on May 2nd-3rd. Register for the Jewish Psychedelic Summit here!The third co-founder of the summit, Zac Kamenetz, is himself a past guest on Judaism Unbound (listen to his episode here). Learn more about the Jewish Psychedelic Summit by heading to www.JewishPsychedelicSummit.org. For full shownotes on this bonus episode, click here.

Aimee Lucido and Sofiya Pasternack, award-winning authors of novels geared toward students in middle grades, join Dan and Lex for a conversation about Jewish fiction. They explore some of the gaps in the ecosystem of Jewish literature and envision what it would look like to fill some of those gaps -- through their own work, but also through work done by other authors.Aimee Lucido is the author of Emmy In the Key of Code, a semifinalist for the UK's Carnegie Medal (comparable to the American Newberry Award), and of Recipe for Disaster, an upcoming (Fall 2021) book centering a 12-year-old girl who isn't sure if she's "Jewish enough."Sofiya Pasternack is the author of Anya and the Dragon and Anya and the Nightingale -- the latter a Finalist in 2020 for the National Jewish Book Award. These novels blend elements of Jewish tradition and history with the genre of fantasy, helping readers imagine when those two theoretically-separate realms collide.If you're enjoying Judaism Unbound, please help us keep things going with a one-time or monthly tax-deductible donation. Support Judaism Unbound by clicking here!To access shownotes for this episode, click here.

Dan and Lex close out a mini-series of conversations about Torah (and the Bible more generally) by claiming that Torah isn't just those books from a few thousand years ago. It's not even just those books, plus the oral conversations written down centuries later. We -- our experiences and our intuitions -- are also part of the term "Torah."If you're enjoying Judaism Unbound, please help us keep things going with a one-time or monthly tax-deductible donation. Support Judaism Unbound by clicking here!To access shownotes for this episode, click here.

Xava De Cordova and Michael Sokolovsky, co-hosts of Xai, How Are You? (a fellow podcast in the Jewish pod-o-sphere), join Dan and Lex for a crossover episode, airing simultaneously as an episode of Judaism Unbound and an episode of Xai, How are You! The four of them talk about what the Talmud is, who Shabbetai Zevi is, what Xai How are You is, and -- for the first time in Judaism Unbound's history -- how Dan and Lex are doing. Perhaps most importantly, they dwell on the figure of Shabbetai Zevi, and what his life may have to teach us as we build Judaisms for the future.If you're enjoying Judaism Unbound, please help us keep things going with a one-time or monthly tax-deductible donation. Support Judaism Unbound by clicking here! You can support Xai, How are You by becoming a patron of theirs on Patreon. You can do so at this link!To access shownotes for this episode, click here. 

Tzemah Yoreh, author of Why Abraham Murdered Isaac: The First Stories of the Bible Revealed and leader of The City Congregation for Humanistic Judaism, joins Dan and Lex to talk about what Yoreh terms "the original bible." Find out how some of the stories, like the binding of Isaac, may not have always looked the way they do today, and why that matters for those who are interested in the stories of the Bible!If you're enjoying Judaism Unbound, please help us keep things going with a one-time or monthly tax-deductible donation. Support Judaism Unbound by clicking here!To access shownotes for this episode, click here.

Liana Wertman joins Dan and Lex to discuss her work as the founder of The Torah Studio, a new (and fully-digital) center for Torah study that encourages people to take ownership of traditional Jewish texts. If you're enjoying Judaism Unbound, please help us keep things going with a one-time or monthly tax-deductible donation. Support Judaism Unbound by clicking here!To access shownotes for this episode, click here.

Baruch Halpern, the Covenant Foundation Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of Georgia, joins Dan and Lex for a conversation about Biblical history and Biblical archaeology. They explore how those two realms relate to one another (get it? "DIGGING" up Biblical History!), along with what these ancient texts and discoveries have to do with us today.If you're enjoying Judaism Unbound, please help us keep things going with a one-time or monthly tax-deductible donation. Support Judaism Unbound by clicking here!To access shownotes for this episode, click here.

Dan and Lex, in celebrating 5 years since Judaism Unbound launched its podcast, reflect on some of the core ideas they've explored in that time -- and they add on some new thoughts, drawing on a framework of "low-voltage" and "high-voltage" forms of Jewish experience.If you're enjoying Judaism Unbound, please help us keep things going with a one-time or monthly tax-deductible donation. Support Judaism Unbound by clicking here!To access shownotes for this episode, click here.

Shawn Lichaa is a Karaite. "What's that," you ask? Very valid question! Karaites are a group of Jews whose traditions, and interpretations, are built around the Bible alone -- not the Talmud or any other piece of what Rabbanites (rabbinic Jews) call "the oral Torah."Lichaa, founder of The Karaite Press and A Blue Thread: A Jewish Blog with a Thread of Karaite Throughout, joins Dan and Lex to explore Karaite Jews' relationship to the Bible, and ways in which their approaches differ from rabbinic Jews'. In their conversation, they also ask what light Karaites can shine on broader issues affecting many other groups of marginalized Jews as well.If you're enjoying Judaism Unbound, please help us keep things going with a one-time or monthly tax-deductible donation. Support Judaism Unbound by clicking here!To access shownotes for this episode, click here.