Join Geoffrey Stern and Rabbi Adam Mintz recorded live on Clubhouse. This week’s parsha includes a blessing about goodness, delivered by a prophet of the nations that is so inspiring it is used to initiate the morning prayers in Jewish houses of worship of every denomination and until today. This week another 20-something kid took a gun and killed …

Join Geoffrey Stern and Rabbi Adam Mintz recorded live on Clubhouse. This week’s parsha iis as much about water as it is about Chukim or challenging rules. It starts with the death of Miriam and her well, segues into Moses fatal sin in striking the water rock and concludes with the Red Heifer and its purifying water. Today we focus on the ability o…

Join Geoffrey Stern and Rabbi Adam Mintz, recorded on Clubhouse. Moses uses a title for God he uses in only one other place and which is not used again in all of Tanach: "God of the spirits of all flesh". This name for God strikes us as very universalist, even humanistic and we explore. Sefaria Source Sheet: www.sefaria.org/sheets/576389 Transcript…

Join Geoffrey Stern and Rabbi Adam Mintz recorded on Clubhouse. The so-called Biblical Spies are actually not characterized as undercover agents but rather as tourists or in Hebrew; Turim. Broadcasting live from Venice, Italy, we take this opportunity to explore the significant impact that journey has played in defining the Jew. Sefaria Source Shee…

Join Geoffrey Stern and Rabbi Adam Mintz recorded on Clubhouse. We’ve encountered age limits in the Torah with regard to reaching the age of majority, military age and the age required to serve as a priest, but there is a singular verse which provides a mandatory retirement age and this is the subject of our discussion. Sefaria Source Sheet: www.se…

Join Geoffrey Stern and Rabbi Adam Mintz recorded on Clubhouse. This week we start the fourth Book of the Torah and it is also my grandson Ari’s Bar Mitzvah. As the Torah quantifies and qualifies its members, there is nothing new with the emphasis on the genetic lineage of the tribes. What is surprising, is a strategically placed Rabbinic comment t…

Join Geoffrey Stern and Rabbi Adam Mintz recorded live on Clubhouse. God threatens to scatter the Israelites among the nations. The Septuagint, in its Greek translation, coins a new word, maybe a new concept. A Greek word used, not for migrants but to reference a people who identify with a specific geographic location, but currently reside elsewher…

Join Geoffrey Stern and Rabbi Adam Mintz recorded on Clubhouse. This week’s parsha is Behar, which means “at the Mountain”. While Rabbi Mintz is not at the Mountain, he is in Israel and will share impressions of his recent visit to the only Haredi Hesder Yeshiva. The Talmud suggests that we set aside specific times for Torah study and we will use t…

Join Geoffrey Stern and Rabbi Adam Mintz recorded on Clubhouse. We usually think of Tishrei and the Fall as a marathon of Jewish holidays, but if you count Rabbinic and Israeli holidays, the seven weeks of Spring win the holiday race with ease. Pesach, Yom Hazikaron, Yom Ha’atzmut, Pesach Sheni, Lag ba’Omer, Yom Yerushalyim and Shavuot. We use Levi…

Join Geoffrey Stern, Rabbi Adam Mintz and special guest Rabbi Menachem Bombach recorded on Clubhouse. This year Yom Hazikaron; Israeli Memorial Day, will be different for many reasons and from many perspectives. We invite Rabbi Menachem Bombach, a maverick visionary in the Haredi community to join us for a conversation about the meaning, history an…

This week’s parsha is Acharei Mot.. literally; After Death. From Rabbinic Judaism up until the present, we Jews “Choose Life”. Was it always so? Was it so obvious? Is it the secret sauce of Jewish survival? And…. Is it at the core of the current conflict? So many questions and only half an hour. Join us for Life Comes First recorded live on Clubhou…

Join Geoffrey Stern and Rabbi Mintz recorded on Clubhouse. This year our Seder will be different from other seders. For the first time in many of our lives it will be a Leil Shemorim, a night of concern; a night of uncertainty, fatigue and confusion. So, let’s follow the advice of the Rabbis to see ourselves as though we too are leaving our Egypt. …

On the last day of a wartime visit to Israel, I visit the Shittim Institute; The Kibbutz Institute for Holidays and Jewish Culture, situated on kibbutz Beit Hashita in Northern Israel. I recently discovered this amazing institute when I purchased a first edition Kibbutz Be'eri Haggadah from 1950. I was researching the provenance of this new edition…

A conversation in Jerusalem with Professor Daniel Polisar, co-founder of Shalem College and his assistant, Hannah Liberman. We talk about the miraculous and sui generis emergence of the Hamal Yerushalyim; The Jerusalem Civilian Command Center at the beginning of the October 7th War. We also try to quantify and comprehend the IDF’s cataclysmic failu…

Join Geoffrey Stern in the Negev to meet with soldiers in the 97th Netzah Yehuda Battalion, previously known as Nahal Haredi, a battalion in the Kfir Brigade of the Israel Defense Forces. The soldiers are all Haredi and you will be hearing first from the commander and then from one of the new recruits, both of which spoke English and approached me …

Join us for a conversation with Elimelech Crystal; one of the leaders of Beyahad Em Lochamey Kippur 1973, an organization dedicated to supporting Israel's combat soldiers while at the same time protesting the current government. Transcipt on episode web page: https://madlik.com/2024/03/30/veterans-of-the-yom-kippur-war-are-heard/…

Join Geoffrey Stern in conversation with Ruth Calderon. In Israel while the war in Gaza rages on and with over 100 hostages still in captivity, we sit down with Talmud scholar and founder of Amla; Ruth Calderon to discuss the need to reclaim Jewish texts and create a shared cultural language in Israel..... now more than ever. Sefaria Source Sheet: …

Join Geoffrey Stern and Rabbi Mintz recorded on Clubhouse. The Book of Vayikra (Leviticus) is also called Torat Cohanim (The Priestly Torah) and has traditionally been the first book to be studied by children in the Cheder. Today there is a growing and no longer fringe group of Mikdashnikim who want to rebuild the Temple. So today, from the mouth o…

Join Geoffrey Stern and Rabbi Adam Mintz recorded on Clubhouse. Moses feels obliged to acknowledge the individuals who designed and built the Tabernacle and to provide an exact accounting of all the funds used. We explore the profound place that transparency, accountability and most of all; honoring one’s sources, play in Jewish tradition, culture …

Join Geoffrey Stern and Rabbi Adam Mintz recorded on Clubhouse. By tradition, the holiday of Passover is preceded by five specially named Shabbatot. The first is called Shekalim and we discuss the meaning of this shabbat in light of both Rabbinic and New Testament texts and in the process join our forebears in preparing for the Spring awakening. Se…

Join Geoffrey Stern and rabbi Adam Mintz recorded on Clubhouse. We invite Berel Dov Lerner the author of recently published: Human-Divine Interactions in the Hebrew Scriptures to discuss his book and his premise of Covenants and Cross-Purposes. We’ll use a simple basin made of pedestrian copper found in the Tabernacle as our point of departure. Sef…

Join Geoffrey Stern and Rabbi Adam Mintz recorded on Clubhouse. We explore the enigma of the Urim and Thummim; the priestly breastplate, especially within the context of the Torah’s explicit rejection of sorcery and divination. And we wonder …. We wonder about contemporary incarnations of divination and prophesy in the form of opinion-polling and s…

Join Geoffrey Stern and Rabbiu Adam Mintz recorded on Clubhouse. According to Rabbinic tradition Moses was shown a paradigm of the Menorah but was uncertain how to translate the vision into reality of the moment. Bezalel had no such reservations and succeeded where Moses failed. We use this tradition to explore the modern concept of Paradigm Shift …

Join Geoffrey Stern, Rabbi Adam Mintz and special guest, the Reverand Dumisani Washington recorded on Clubhouse. As the rubber meets the road and the Torah begins to translate its vision of liberation into practical rules and regulations, we sense a pattern. The Torah starts by addressing a legal institution close to home; slavery, and provides law…

Join Geoffrey Stern, Rabbi Adam Mintz and special guest Shikh Muhan Fares for a discussion recorded on Clubhouse.. We celebrate Yitro and our Druze brothers and sisters. We marvel at the superlatives that the Torah uses to describe Jethro and how the same characteristics of loyalty, leadership and integrity are showcased by Israeli Druze today…. an…

Join Geoffrey Stern and Rabbi Adam Mintz recorded on Clubhouse. Nachshon is the posterchild of what Heschel called “Praying with your feet”. He personifies Judaism’s clear bias for action over the status quo, action over prayer and even action over reflection. Today we explore the darker side of Nachshon and the potential deficiencies of Action Bia…

Join Geoffrey Stern and Rabbi Adam Mintz recorded on Clubhouse. Of all the plagues, only the plague of the firstborn carries a timeless message. It represents the culmination of the Torah’s critique of primogeniture and takes on a life of its own in the Israelite law of the firstborn and first fruits. So join us as we explore how the death of the f…

Join Geoffrey Stern and Rabbi Adam Mintz recorded on Clubhouse. We explore Martin Luthur King Jr.’s iconic “I have a Dream” speech along with an interview he gave at the Convention of the Rabbinical Assembly for Conservative Judaism, a year after the 6 Day War and 10 days before he was assassinated. We will showcase King’s identification with a pro…

Join Geoffrey Stern and Rabbi Adam MIntz recorded on Clubhouse. Following Classical Rabbinic sources that show a link between the Family Story of Genesis and the Birth of a Nation Story of Exodus we review a recently published book: Why the Bible Began: An Alternative History of Scripture and its Origins by Jacob Wright and reflect on what made the…

Join Geoffrey Stern and Rabbi Adam Mintz recorded on Clubhouse. As we complete the book of Genesis, we look at a few verses that have been interpreted by both Jewish and Christian exegetes and explore how these commentaries may have been a conversation rather than a polemic. In the process, and without ignoring the divisive nature of religion, we w…

Join Geoffey Stern and Rabbi Adam Mintz recorded on Clubhouse. Joseph is confronted with his long-lost family who thought he had died. It is the so called: “holiday season” which can be a difficult time. While many of us celebrate, some of us wonder, with the passing of another season, of another year, what difference has our life made. In wartime,…

Join Geoffrey Stern and Rabbi Adam Mintz recorded on Clubhouse. Jacob, now called Israel, approaches is estranged brother with trepidation. He splits his clan in half in order to minimize any losses and he sends gifts and otherwise tries to appease Esau. We explore appeasement and compromise in the Torah and Rabbinic Literature. Sefaria Source shee…

Join Geoffrey Stern and Rabbi Adam Mintz recorded on Clubhouse. In a week where indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas, mediated by Qatar and with pressure from the public and the US have appeared to have reached a tentative and partial hostage deal, we explore, what according to Rabbinic tradition was the first instance of an anti-Israel c…

Rav Stav is the co-founder of the Tzohar, a rabbinical organization which aims to provide religious services to and create dialogue with the broader Israeli population. He also serves as the rabbi of the city of Shoham. Previously he served as the rabbi of the religious film school, Maale, and was one of the founding heads of Yeshivat Hesder Petach…

Join Geoffrey Stern and Rabbi Adam Mintz recorded on Clubhouse. In the only parsha named after a woman we continue our exploration of issues raised by Israel at war. In the Jewish State, Jewish law (Halacha) has exclusive jurisdiction over marriage and divorce for Jews. One area where Orthodox women have radically broken with Rabbinic authority is …

Join Geoffrey Stern and Rabbi Adam Mintz recorded on Clubhouse. Over 250,000 innocent civilians have been displaced since the advent of the Oct 7th war from both the South and the North of Israel. Volunteers, non-government organizations and tech workers who were organizing protests a month ago have taken the lead in welcoming these fugitives and p…

Join Geoffrey Stern and Rabbi Adam Mintz recorded on Clubhouse. What about Abraham was so radical? What about Abraham has created such extremes of love and hate… such rivalry, such animosity, such promise and such despair? Sefaria Source Sheet: www.sefaria.org/sheets/520323 Transcript on episode web page: https://madlik.com/2023/10/25/abraham-and-t…

Join Geoffrey Stern and Rabbi Adam Mintz recorded on Clubhouse. Noah has been denigrated for saving only himself and his family and not for saving all of humanity. In a world where victims and survivors of terrorism are vilified and protecting ones life and the security of ones family a sin, we look at Noah differently and learn something about our…

Join Geoffrey Stern and Rabbi Mintz recorded on Clubhouse. As Hamas finally achieves its goal of massacring thousands of Israelis, we reconsider the Talmudic saying that man was created single to teach that for anybody who destroys a single life it is counted as if he destroyed an entire world. So join us as we mourn and Study Torah.... Sefaria Sou…

Join Geoffrey Stern and Rabbi Adam Mintz recorded on Clubhouse. As we finish the annual Torah cycle we use the legendary partnership between Zebulun and Issachar to explore Rabbinic Judaism’s various and many times conflicting position on financial support for Torah Study. Sefaria Source Sheet: www.sefaria.org/sheets/515056 Transcript on Episode we…

Join Geoffrey Stern recorded on Clubhouse as he preaches the Yom Kippur Sermon on the 50th Anniversary of the Yom Kippur War and while 100s of thousand Iisraeli citizens are protesting on a weekly basis for the soul of Israel and the future of the Jewish People. Sefaria Source Sheet: www.sefaria.org/sheets/513577 Transcripton on episode website: ht…

Join Geoffrey Stern and Rabbi Adam Mintz recorded on Clubhouse. We have previously remarked that the ultra-orthodox are re-creating a world and traditions that never existed. Moses admonishes the Children of Israel to “Ask your parent, who will inform you” and we explore the function and exploitation of custom in the Rabbinic Tradition up unto toda…

Join Geoffrey Stern and Rabbi Adam Mintz recorded on Clubhouse. One of the arguments that you hear for not supporting the current demonstrations in Israel is that they are supported or funded by foreign players or …. that criticizing the Government of Israel will provide fodder to our enemies. And so …. we examine a deep-seeded reflex of the Ancien…

Join Geoffrey Stern and Rabbi Adam Mintz recorded on Clubhouse. We re-visit Bikkurim; the offering of the First Fruits to the priest. We explore the development of this parsha from its ancient beginnings where it excluded everyone besides a male landowner through Rabbinic literature up until the present where it is used to accommodate converts and …

Join Geoffrey Stern and Rabbi Adam Mintz recorded on Clubhouse. The Biblical prohibition against leaving a human being unburied overnight; no matter how unworthy the deceased may be, has both practical and profound lessons …. which we shall explore. Sefaria Source Sheet: https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/506265 Transcript on episode web page: https://…

Join Geoffrey Stern and Rabbi Adam Mintz recorded on Clubhouse. As the State of Israel is polarized by the role and authority of the Supreme Court we read the Biblical injunction to provide Judges and pursue Justice. We will study the primary sources and we wonder ….. why both sides are claiming the mantle of Democracy but no one in the Jewish Stat…

Join Geoffrey Stern and Rabbi Adam Mintz recorded on Clubhouse. Deuteronomy, and only Deuteronomy stipulates … over 20 times, centralized worship in what ultimately became Jerusalem. The Samaritans accepted this centralized approach but substitute Mt. Gerizim for Jerusalem. The Essenes rejected Jerusalem and its corrupt priests and power-brokers an…

Join Geoffrey Stern and rabbi Adam Mintz, recorded on Clubhouse. Moses links the rights the Israelites have to occupy their homeland with the radically contingent nature of those rights. We marvel at how when asked what is the most important concept in the Torah, Israelis almost always answer ‘am segulah’ … a Chosen People, or the like and the Amer…

Join Geoffrey Stern and Rabbi Adam Mintz recorded on Tisha B'av 2023 / 5783. In this past week, Israel has been subjected to nationwide protests, potentially catastrophic strikes, deep division and a total lack of political leadership culminating in a rash move by the Knesset. We’ve seen this movie before… so we mourn, we learn and maybe we discove…

Join Geoffrey Stern and Rabbi Adam Mintz recorded on Clubhouse. Moses tries to (re)formulate the message of the Torah for a new generation which did not know the Exodus. The founders of the State of Israel chose not to write a constitution and we wonder if and how the ideals of those who established the State of Israel can guide a new generation. S…