Ta Shma

Rabbi Tali Adler teaches a beautiful combination of midrashim about the lulav and etrog—which completely rethinks our relationship with God and God’s relationship with us. Before and after, Joey Weisenberg plays one of his original compositions. Recorded in Summer 2020 as part of a course "Melody and Midrash."

How do we relate to our enemies through prayer? Can we pray for their failure? Might we ever pray for their welfare?

Our rabbis imagine an intense confrontation between Eli the high priest and Hannah, our model for how we recite the Amidah. Explore this fascinating midrash and think about the power of prayer in the hands of forgotten members of society. This lecture was originally delivered at the Summer Learning Retreat in 2021.

Is it worth persisting in prayer, even if we aren’t answered right away? What does it mean to pray for something for years—or even decades? Moshe can serve as one model for addressing these questions.

Anyone living in America today will eventually encounter racism they cannot easily fix or change, just as our ancestors could not entirely avoid or correct idolatry. What do we do when that happens? How can we reject ideas as pervasive and corrosive as racism? The Talmud’s reflections on the struggle against idolatry raise similar questions and offer instructions on how to actively demonstrate objection through our behavior so that we do not unintentionally uphold the status quo. The anti-idol mandate can teach us a lot about how to live in a culture we see as fundamentally evil, even when we do not have the power to change it. Transferring idolatry to racism, the entire tractate of Avodah Zarah can be read as an attempt to think through how to live an anti-racist life.

Our most fundamental prayer, the Amidah, doesn’t mention Moshe by name. But the scene of Moshe at the burning bush is one of the central images of the Amidah’s first blessing. How does Moshe’s subtle presence change how we might experience the opening of the Amidah?

Are you permitted to lie if the truth might be worse? In this series, Dena Weiss considers Jewish texts that span time and space in order to arrive at a set of concrete guidelines and best practices for having painful conversations. This lecture was originally delivered as part of Hadar's Winter Lecture Series in January 2021.

Where is God in my life and why am I stuck in a difficult place? Will God ever intervene on my behalf, and help me—and all of us—come to a better place? What if I am skeptical if God can rescue at all? These are questions so often on the mind of those who pray. How do our prayer texts themselves give voice to some of these wonderings?

How do you share painful or unsettling news? In this series, Dena Weiss considers Jewish texts that span time and space in order to arrive at a set of concrete guidelines and best practices for having painful conversations. This lecture was originally delivered as part of Hadar's Winter Lecture Series in January 2021.

How might we come closer to God in prayer? What are the physical acts that deepen the potential for relationship with God while praying? The rabbinic understanding of Yehudah’s actions offers some insight on these questions.