This podcast - based extensively on the research by Professor Bernard Dov Cooperman[1]—explores how the Italian rabbinic world dealt with their dynamic differences in theological expression during the early Modern period (Kotzk blog 512)

This podcast—based extensively on the research by Dr Assaf Tamari[1]—examines the Zohar’s unusual depiction of the exiled Shechina (the feminine aspect of the Godhead) as a patient requiring urgent treatment. (Kotzk blog 511)

According to the Zohar, several deviant sexual activities were necessary for the Davidic messianic dynasty to emerge. This is known as ‘redemption through sin’ and is connected to the Aramaic word  Tikla used by the Zohar which refers to a spinning wheel in the sky.

Kotzk Blog: 371) ‘Tikla’ and the zoharic concept that sin can bring redemption

This podcast —based extensively on the research by Professor Eitan Fishbane[1]—examines the rabbinic notion of the authenticity of a teaching or text being reliant on the perceived authority of its transmitter or originator. In other words, the greater the rabbi the more authentic the teaching, regardless of the independent status, nature and validity of the actual teaching itself.  (Kotzk Blog 509)

The rise of contemporary Religious-Zionism (Kotzk Blog 507)
This article—based extensively on the research by Professor Yoav Peled[1]—examines the rise of the Religious Zionist movement from relative non-dominance in 1948 to a position of unquestionable hegemony in the last decades.

Reading the biblical word אות (‘sign’) in its earlier context (Kotzk Blog 506)

This episode—based extensively on the research by Professors Idan Dershowitz and Na’ama Pat-El[1]—examines possible lost meanings of the Hebrew word אות (‘ot’) which is usually simply translated and commonly understood as a ‘sign.’

The ‘Three Oaths’: Theologies of Cancellation and Resurrection (Kotzk Blog 504)

This episode– based extensively but not exclusively on the research by Professor Reuven Firestone[1] ꟷ examines the Talmudic concept ofשלוש השבועות or Three Oaths. It focuses on the theological tension between the Three Oaths, which prohibit a return to the Land of Israel until the Messiah arrives, and the desire to settle in the Land. The Three Oaths were designed to engender a non-militaristic and exilic ethos within the Jewish people after the defeats of the Bar Kochba revolts against the Romans. It also touches upon the biblical notion of מלחמת מצווה, Mitzvah or Holy War.

Sebastianism: Crossover messianism that predated Sabbatianism (Kotzk Blog 503)This Episode ꟷ based extensively on the research by Professor Matt Goldish[1] ꟷ examines the unusual notion of messianic crossover between Jews, Christians and Muslims that developed around the sixteenth century. What is even more unusual, from a Jewish perspective, is that the rabbis who participated in such enterprises were always Kabbalists and often respected Halachists as well.

Kotzk Podcast 047: Moshe haGoleh of Kiev: a critical devotee of Avraham Ibn Ezra (Kotzk Blog 502)

This episode ꟷ based extensively on the research by Professor Eric Lawee[1] ꟷ examines a little-known and somewhat neglected exegete and commentator, R. Moshe ben Yakov (1448-1520) who compiled a supper-commentary (i.e., a commentary on a commentary) based on R. Avraham Ibn Ezra (1089-1164) who had preceded him by almost four centuries. Moshe ben Yakov is also known as Moshe haGoleh (the ‘exile’) miKiev.[2] 

Kotzk Podcast 046: Were some early Spanish Kabbalists defending a Maimonidean position? (Kotzk Blog 501)

This episode ꟷ based extensively on the research by Professor Tzahi Weiss[1] ꟷ examines an interesting and unusual approach to understanding how thirteenth-century Kabbalah suddenly emerged in Provence (southern France) and Catalonia (northeastern Spain). With this emergence, there was now a rapid interest in, and wide reception of, the notion of Sefirot (Divine emanations). Although the term ‘Sefirot’ was used in the earlier mystical work of the Bahir, it suddenly took on a specific meaning in thirteenth-century Spanish Zoharic Kabbalah. 

Kotzk Podcast 045: Mining Chassidic stories for kernels of historicity (Kotzk Blog 500)

This episode ꟷ based extensively on the research by Professor Glynn Dynner[1] ꟷ examines a possible methodology to extract aspects of historical truths from the often exaggerated and venerating style of Chassidic storytelling.

This episode examines various versions of the provenance of the iconic picture of the Alter Rebbe, the first Rebbe of Chabad. It offers a critical analysis as well as a possible defence of the authenticity of the portrait. Ultimately, though, the question is left open-ended (Kotzk Blog 499)

Did the Babylonian Talmud create the authoritative rabbi and the passive Jew? (Kotzk Blog 498)

This episode – based extensively on the research by Rabbi Dr Amir Mashiach[1] − explores the emergence of the rabbinic class after the failed Jewish revolts against the Romans during the first two centuries CE. Up to that point, the rabbis did not feature in leadership positions. On assuming power immediately after the failed military campaigns and revolts, the rabbis (and the Babylonian rabbis particularly) began to intensely promote passivity as the hallmark of the Torah Jew. Too many Jews had been killed during the wars and the rabbis saw passivity as the only way forward for Jewish survival into the future

Language as incubators of theological ideas (Kotzk Blog 497)

This Episode – based extensively on the research by Professor Edward Ullendorff (1920 -2011) – examines languages as distinct incubators of theological ideas. In other words, we are going to see to what extent “different languages reflect different realities” (Ullendorff 1966:273) which, in turn, reflect different theologies; and how translations, in this case from the Hebrew of the Torah into English, can project different meanings from those of the original language. I then take this a step further and propose that sometimes the reflected theologies can impose themselves back onto the original source language, creating a double distortion. 

Kabbalah: To print or not to print the ‘lost’ mystical tradition (Kotzk Blog 496)

This article ꟷ based extensively on the research by Avraham Oriah Kelman[1] ꟷ examines the little-known crisis in Kabbalistic transmission that became evident between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries. 

Inverted hierarchies: Humans making G-d more moral (Kotzk Blog 494) This article ꟷ based extensively on the research by Professor Dov Weiss[1] ꟷ examines how late Palestinian Midrashim, particularly the Tanchuma Yelamedeinu (fourth to ninth centuries CE), depict humans challenging G-d over morally problematic issues expressed in the Torah. In these cases, biblical figures are audaciously portrayed as both teaching and counselling G-d, as it were, convincing Him to adopt a more moral and ethical approach. The Midrashic work, Tanchuma Yelamedeinu exhibits about fifty examples of humans making G-d ‘more moral.’ 

Carrying on Shabbat: From Jeremiah to the Mishna (Kotzk blog 493)

This episode ꟷ based extensively on the research by Professor Alex P. Jassen[1] ꟷ examines how four pre-Mishnaic texts show evidence of the origin and expansion of the prohibition against carrying on Shabbat. The specific textual prohibition against carrying on Shabbat first begins with Yirmiyahu’s (Jeremiah’s) prohibition against carrying a ‘load’ (מַשָּׂא֙, massa), for trade and commercial purposes, and only in Jerusalem. It then underwent a process of expansion during Second Temple times as it passed through the four texts of Nechemiah (Nehemiah), the Book of Jubilees, the Dead Sea Scrolls and finally became the Mishna’s general Halachic prohibition, as we know it today, against carrying ‘anything’ to or from ‘any’ domain. We shall trace and map this textual progression. Our focus is on the textual trail, as the oral tradition (which we briefly discuss at the conclusion) is not possible to track in the same way.

Are Halachic rulings (Piskei Halacha) open to critical analysis or do they represent Divine Will? (Kotzk Blog 492) This episod – based extensively on the research by Professor Adiel Schremer[1] − takes an in-depth and forthright look at the sometimes mysterious process of Halachic decision-making as practised by the Posek (Halachic judge or decisor). The Torah teaches that if any matter of law shall arise in the future that is too difficult for people to determine by themselves, then they must approach the “judge who shall be in those days” (Deut. 17:8-11) for adjudication:

A source trail defending the Baal haTanya’s definition of the soul as ‘a part of G-d’ (Kotzk Blog 491)

Sunday 27 October 2024491) A source trail defending the Baal haTanya’s definition of the soul as ‘a part of G-d’

This podcast based extensively on the research by Rabbi Dr Louis Jacobs (1920-2006)[1] − traces possible sources that the author of the Tanya, R. Schneur Zalman of Liadi, also known as the Baal haTanya (1745-1812), may have used, to formulate what is sometimes described as his ‘controversial’ definition of a soul being an actual ‘part’ of G-d

Signature of the Lubavitcher Rebbe in a copy of the Tanya in 1979

This episode examines the methodology and the moment in history when the rabbinic class (Pharisees) unseated the priestly class (Sadducees) who had previously dominated the Temple for a thousand years. It examines the eye of the revolutionary storm as Hillel emerged as the new style of rabbinic leader defining the future Judaism we know today. (Kotzk Blog: 490)