Rabbi Joe’s Torat Tel Aviv

In this week's class on Parshat Beha'alotcha we begin by looking at one of the turning points in the book of Bamidbar - the move from the dream and vision to the harsh reality of the journey to the Promised Land We then turn to Moshe's apparent breakdown as he says that leading the people after their complaints is a burden too great to carry. The class is based on Bamidbar (Numbers) chapter 12. Source sheet here These shiurim ha...

Our final instalment in the series examining the death of Rabbi Akiva's students during the omer for not honouring one another. In this class we look at Rabbi Eliezer's life after the oven of Akhnai and suggest that within the brilliantly creative approaches of Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Yehoshua to Torah study are contained the seeds for potential conflict bein adam l'chaveiro Source sheet here Generously sponsored by Yaacov & M...

Is the story of the oven of Akhnai the greatest triumph or a terrible tragedy? Last week we read the first half of the story and it's trumphal line of lo bashamayim hi - the Torah is not in heaven and its depiction of God laughing. This week we read the second half of the story which pushes in a very different direction. The text of the Akhnai story is here (reading the story, especially the second half, is recommended to understa...

In our first class we contrasted the approach to Torah study of Rabbi Eliezer with that of Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Yehoshua - asking whether Torah story is an exercise of creative insight or a focus on tradition and that which has been said by our teachers before us. Today we see how these two different approaches collide in perhaps the most famous of all Talmudic stories, the oven of Akhnai - and the declaration of lo bashamayim he...

For the next few weeks we will do a deep dive into the world of Rabbi Akiva and his students. Many are familiar with the teaching that it is the death of thousands of Rabbi Akiva’s students during this period that initially lent the omer an element of mourning (in addition to one of joy). The reason for their death? Because they didn’t treat one another with the respect and care that they each deserved

We will try to recreate the...

In this Yom HaShoah class we enter the world and learn the stories of two of the great rabbinic giants of Vilna - Rav Haim Ozer Grodzinski and Rav Yisrael Zev Gustman. The first was the last great leader of Vilna Jewry and we read the piece describing his funeral 'The Day Vilna Died'.

The latter was the youngest Dayan of Vilna whose story is one of survival and the world that he built in Israel after the war and who articulated ...

There's a lot going on here. Using a mash up of two great Israeli songs and a powerful piece of Rav Yitzchak Hutner's Pahad Yitzchak to look back the start of the pandemic five years ago, what we learnt from it and what it can mean for us today in the midst of a very different crisis. It might be advisable to listen to the songs (linked below) and then to skip to the discussion of Pahad Yitzchak which starts at the 20 minute mark ...

In 1985 the Israel government under Shimon Peres released 1,150 security prisoners in return for three captive soldiers Yosef Grof, Nissim Salem, and Hezi Shai in the deal known as Isskat Jibril. In this shiur we learn the contribution of Rav Shlomo Goren, former Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Of Israel and the first chief rabbi o...

Today we know the story of Entebbe as one of the great crowning moments of Israeli history. But before the daring Sayeret Matkal operation, Prime Minister Yitchak Rabin asked then sefardi chief rabbi, Rav Ovadia Yosef to share his opinion about the permissibility of acceding to the hostage takers demands of releasing 40 terrorists in exchange for returning the hostages. Rav Ovadia's response eventually became a 19,000 word monogr...