The Voices of Emanu El Podcast
The Voices of Emanu El is the podcast from Congregation Emanu El in Houston, Texas. Each week, you’ll hear sermons and reflections from our clergy team, and engaging conversations that explore our faith, traditions, community and the music of Emanu El. Whether you’re joining us for the first time or you’ve been part of our community for years, these are the voices of Emanu El.
Episodes
In this week's episode of The Voices of Emanu El, Rabbi Pam Silk explores Lo bashamayim hi, “It is not in heaven,” from Parashat Nitzavim.
Using the image of an item pushed to the back of a top shelf, Rabbi Silk conside...
As Elul invites us to pause, reflect, and prepare for the High Holy Days, Cantor Rollin Simmons shares a musical preview of the season ahead in this special episode of The Voices of Emanu El. Listen to meaningful selections and discover how music helps us enter these sacred days with intention, connection, and hope.
In this episode of The Voices of Emanu El, Rabbi Pam Silk reflects on the Torah’s first-fruits ritual in Parashat Ki Tavo and its enduring call to tell the whole story: the wandering and hardship alongside the blessing and abundance.
In this episode of The Voices of Emanu El, Rabbi Oren Hayon examines tzaar ba’alei chayim, Judaism’s call to take the suffering of living beings seriously.
Beginning with a child who says, “I feel bad for the chicken,” Rabbi Hayon considers the quiet but consequential moment when a conscience awakens. The To...
In a world where misinformation and conspiracy theories can make it difficult to know what to believe, Judaism calls us to do something essential: ask questions. In this episode of The Voices of Emanu El, Rabbi Josh Fixler reflects on Parashat Shoftim, magicians and skeptics, false prophets and genuine moral vision, and Judaism’s enduring call to question, think critically, and seek truth.
In Parashat R’eih, Moses tells the Israelites: “See, I set before you this day blessing and curse.” But what if blessing and hardship are not always separate paths? What if they can exist in the same moment?
In th...
In this episode of The Voices of Emanu El, Rabbi Josh Fixler shares a recurring dream that sends Itzhak on a long, uncertain journey from Krakow to Prague in search of treasure, only for a palace guard to point him back to the stove in his own home. This episode retells the folktale behind the Itzhak Synagogue and connects it with ...
In this episode of The Voices of Emanu El, Rabbi Oren Hayon wrestles with one of the Torah’s most heartbreaking moments: Moses’ repeated, fervent prayers to cross the Jordan and God’s unyielding refusal. Through midrash, the comedic chaos of Bruce Almighty, and Stephen Colbert’s honest reflections on grief, ...
This week on The Voices of Emanu El, Rabbi Pam Silk opens the book of Devarim with a surprising companion: the World Cup. From Cape Verde refusing to lose, to Argentina’s four minutes from despair to delirium, to orange‑painted buses gathering strangers into community, Rabbi Silk traces how joy, heartbreak, and unpredictabili...
What if true freedom isn’t just the right to keep moving, but also the right to stop? In this episode, Rabbi Oren Hayon shares a story from his rabbinical school days in Jerusalem, when an elderly man in a black hat would pause his slow walk to shul each Shabbat to wag his finger at every passing car.
In this episode of Voices of Emanu El, Rabbi Oren Hayon shares a reflection on Micah’s timeless charge to "do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God" as America begins its 251st year. Through scripture, history, and a memorable story about a visitor to Houston, he invites us to imagine what our country — and our community — might become when guided by humility, generosity, and hope.
On this special Independence Day episode of Voices of Emanu El, Rabbi Josh Fixler asks a piercing question first posed by Frederick Douglass: “What to the American slave is your Fourth of July?” and then turns it toward the American Jewish experience. Tracing the bold promises of the Constitution and First Amendment, he explores how religious liberty for Jews in the United States has always lived in tension with ex...
From Babylonian clay tablets to COVID-era conspiracy theories, Rabbi Oren Hayon sat down recently down with vaccine scientist Dr. Peter Hotez and Assyriologist Dr. Irving Finkel for a wide-ranging conversation on how humans have understood disease, healing, and risk across millennia. They explore ancient Mesopotamian medical recipes and divination, the slow birth of germ theory, cycles of mistrust in physicians, and the deadly powe...
What makes a rebellion and what makes a revolution? When does passionate disagreement become a holy argument and when does it collapse into a struggle for power. In this episode of The Voices of Emanu El, recorded on Juneteenth with America’s semi‑quincentennial on the horizon, Rabbi Josh Fixler reflects on the dissonance bet...
In this episode of The Vocies of Emanu El, Rabbi Pam Silk weaves together summer camp send-offs and the Torah portion Sh’lach L'cha, where twelve scouts survey the Promised Land and declare, “We were like grasshoppers in our own eyes.” Their report is factually accurate, but their fearful interpretation keeps a ge...
This week on Voices of Emanu El, Rabbi Oren Hayon reflects on Aretha Franklin’s “Call Me,” the Torah portion Beha’alotcha, and the haunting image of a menorah whose flame must eventually rise on its own. Drawing on Rashi’s teaching that Aaron is commanded to kindle the lamp &...
Rabbi Josh Fixler recently sat down with Reverend Katey Zeh, CEO of the Religious Community for Reproductive Choice, for a powerful conversation about reproductive justice and why “reproductive freedom is religious freedom." Together they trace the often-erased history of clergy who helped people access safe abortion care before Roe, examine how white Christian Nationalism has shaped today’s laws and myths, and explore ...
In this episode of The Voices of Emanu El, Rabbi Oren Hayon is joined by NYT Best Selling cookbook author Adeena Sussman to talk about “easy-breezy Tel Aviv-y” cooking, Shabbat “forever recipes,” and how simple food became her therapy after October 7. Together they explore Israeli food, how to host Shabbat without exhausting yourself, why great hospitality starts with letting guests bring “good convers...
In this episode of The Voices of Emanu El, Rabbi Josh Fixler asks a deceptively simple question: What is the difference between a desert and a wilderness? Through the lens of Parashat B'midbar, he reimagines the midbar as a wild, ownerless space where Torah — and truth itself — cannot be claimed by any one person or ideology...
In this episode of The Voices of Emanu El, Rabbi Pam Silk weaves the spectacle of the Kentucky Derby into the timeless teachings of the double Torah portion B’har B’chukotai. From trainer Sherry DeVoe’s history‑making victory and the story of brothers Jose and Irad Ortiz, to the Torah’s radical vision of Shmita and Jubilee, she explores what it means to believe that no win or loss is ever final and that...
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