Matan: One on One Parsha Podcast

In this intimate and moving conversation, Simi Peters reflects on her love for midrash, for teaching, and for reading. She speaks about her journey from the uniquely devout home of holocaust survivors in New York to becoming a beloved teacher and writer in Israel. Check out Simi's book Learning to Read Midrash, a Hebrew version is forthcoming this year: https://www.amazon.com/Learning-Read-Midrash-Simi-Peters/dp/9657108578

Welcome to the second season of One on One! In this season we explore women writing Torah, Halakha, Jewish wisdom, midrash, and so much more. What moves them to write? How has writing changed their careers? How can we encourage women to write more? In this insightful and empowering episode, Matan graduates and teachers Rabbanit Surale Rosen and Fran Miller speak about their passion for halakha and Talmud and about their joint endeavor, Shayla: Matan Women's Online Responsa.

In this intimate conversation about the shaping of a world of women's learning, Rabbanit Malka Bina shares Matan history as well as moving personal stories. With this conversation, we close the first season of this podcast, speaking with the unique woman who created it all. Stay tuned for the next season in which we delve into women's Torah writing, leading and other fascinating topics.

In this fun, personable, and honest conversation, seasoned tour guide Shulie Mishkin speaks about her professional life (in corona and non-corona times), raising an observant family in a post-modern age, and the dynamic relationship between Torah and the land of Israel. Note: This episode was recorded at the end of Israel's third lockdown, and this is reflected at several points in the conversation. Shulie Mishkin is a licensed tour guide who in normal times guides all ages all over Israel and gives tour and text courses at Matan and other institutions. She is currently focusing on virtual tours, bringing Israel to the world and the world to Israel. She was a Matan Beit Midrash Scholar in 1993-94.

Dr. Ayelet Hoffmann Libson taught at Matan for over a decade. She is currently a senior lecturer at the Harry Radzyner School of Law at the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya. Ayelet is a graduate of Matan's Advanced Talmud Institute as well as the Beit Morasha Program in Jewish Law. In this enlightening conversation, Ayelet speaks about her journey into the Torah learning world and about the fascinating thesis of her book, Law and Self-Knowledge in the Talmud. Ayelet reminds us that the most pressing questions of the modern age are rarely new, and how a deep look at our rabbinic sources can shed endless light on these questions.

In this important and honest conversation, Rabbanit Shani Taragin speaks about her perspective on the Achilles heels of current Torah education and the need for more Torah ambassadors in Israel and beyond.

Margot (Reinstein) Botwinick is a graduate of Matan's Bellows Eshkolot Educators Institute for Tanakh and Jewish Studies. She and her husband currently serve as the Mizrahi/OU/JLIC couple on the IDC campus. In this episode, Margot shares her organic journey into the world of Torah study and Torah leadership and speaks about her unique involvement in religious life on the IDC campus.

Rabbanit Nechama Goldman Barash teaches contemporary halacha and Talmud at Matan and is a graduate of its Advanced Talmud Institute and in Hilkhata, a program for the advanced study of halacha. In this engaging and honest conversation, Nechama speaks about aspects of Orthodox life that both embrace and challenge her identity as a feminist. She speaks about the writing process and the fascinating content of her upcoming book on issues of nakedness in Talmudic texts and Jewish Law.

Tanya White is a graduate of Matan’s Matmidot program and teaches in Matan’s Raanana and Zichron Yaakov branches. She has lectured for Matan in North America and her zoom classes attract hundreds of students from around the world. In this conversation she speaks about her journey as a philosophically curious young woman in England to becoming a revered lecturer and writer on the cusp of completing her doctorate in post-holocaust theology. Tanya’s intellectual creativity and passionate personality leaves a moving mark on all those she meets. Items mentioned in this episode: R. Irving Greenberg, about whose works Tanya is writing her doctoral thesis: https://rabbiirvinggreenberg.com/ On Tanya’s nightstand: Leon Kass, Leading a Worthy Life https://www.amazon.com/Leading-Worthy-Life-Finding-Meaning/dp/1594039410

Dr. Yael Ziegler is a senior Tanakh lecturer at Matan and Herzog College and is a graduate of the Matan Scholars Program. In this inspiring conversation she shares her perspective on the shifts in women's and men's Torah learning witnessed in her 30 years of teaching. She speaks candidly about her experience writing commentaries on Tanakh that intend to both enlighten and elevate the reader. Dr. Ziegler's warm personality and positive outlook on the evolution of societal change steered a conversation we didn't want to end. Related links and institutions mentioned in this episode: Herzog College: https://www.herzog.ac.il/ Dr. Yael Ziegler's previous book on Ruth for purchase: https://korenpub.com/products/ruthhardcover