Orthodox Conundrum

Check out Orthodox Conundrum Commentary on Substack and get your free subscription by going to  https://scottkahn.substack.com/  - and members get this and other episodes of the Orthodox Conundrum Podcast ad-free and with early access and additional bonus content! Every year, as the Three Weeks begin, the same questions come up. Can I listen to music? Go to a baseball game? Buy new clothes? Shave?...

Check out Orthodox Conundrum Commentary on Substack and get your free subscription by going to  https://scottkahn.substack.com/  - and members get this and other episodes of the Orthodox Conundrum Podcast ad-free and with early access and additional bonus content! Last week on the podcast, Rav Shaya Karlinsky presented the case for broad draft deferments for full-time yeshiva students. This week,...

Check out Orthodox Conundrum Commentary on Substack and get your free subscription by going to  https://scottkahn.substack.com/ - and members get this and other episodes of the Orthodox Conundrum Podcast ad-free and with early access and additional bonus content! The debate over Chareidi military service has become one of the most contentious issues in Israel today. It touches questions of nationa...

Check out Orthodox Conundrum Commentary on Substack and get your free subscription by going to  https://scottkahn.substack.com/  - and paid subscribers get this and other episodes of the Orthodox Conundrum Podcast ad-free and with early access and additional bonus content! Last month on the Orthodox Conundrum, I spoke with several guests about the relationship between Israel and the Diaspora. We d...

Check out Orthodox Conundrum Commentary on Substack and get your free subscription by going to  https://scottkahn.substack.com/ ! Instead of a regular episode of the Orthodox Conundrum Podcast, we're releasing a new episode of  Intimate Judaism , which is dropping on that channel today, as well. We hope you find this episode meaningful. We'll be back next week with a brand new episode of the Ortho...

Check out Orthodox Conundrum Commentary on Substack and get your free subscription by going to  https://scottkahn.substack.com/  - and paid subscribers get this and other episodes of the Orthodox Conundrum Podcast ad-free and with early access and additional bonus content! Three women recently took Israel's rabbinate exams after an eight-year legal battle. What should have been a routine academic...

Check out Orthodox Conundrum Commentary on Substack and get your free subscription by going to  https://scottkahn.substack.com/  - and paid subscribers get this and other episodes of the Orthodox Conundrum Podcast ad-free and with early access and additional bonus content! Most people know Rav Adin Steinsaltz as the scholar who transformed access to the Talmud. But beneath the translations, commen...

Check out Orthodox Conundrum Commentary on Substack and get your free subscription by going to  https://scottkahn.substack.com/  - and paid subscribers get this and other episodes of the Orthodox Conundrum Podcast ad-free and with early access and additional bonus content! For many Orthodox Jews, Judaism is ultimately defined by Torah and halakha. We received the Torah at Har Sinai, and from that...

Check out Orthodox Conundrum Commentary on Substack and get your free subscription by going to  https://scottkahn.substack.com/  - and paid subscribers get this and other episodes of the Orthodox Conundrum Podcast ad-free and with early access and additional bonus content! For generations, religious Jews prayed for a return to Zion. Today, for the first time in nearly two thousand years, there is...

Check out Orthodox Conundrum Commentary on Substack and get your free subscription by going to  https://scottkahn.substack.com/  - and paid subscribers get this and other episodes of the Orthodox Conundrum Podcast ad-free and with early access and additional bonus content! Why do some of our most deeply held truths end up pushing people away instead of drawing them closer? It's a question that com...

Check out Orthodox Conundrum Commentary on Substack and get your free subscription by going to  https://scottkahn.substack.com/  - and paid subscribers get this and other episodes of the Orthodox Conundrum Podcast ad-free and with early access and additional bonus content! I'm joined by Rabbi Zach Truboff and Daniel Goldman for a conversation about the changing discourse within the Religious Zioni...

Check out Orthodox Conundrum Commentary on Substack and get your free subscription by going to  https://scottkahn.substack.com/  - and paid subscribers get this and other episodes of the Orthodox Conundrum Podcast ad-free and with early access and additional bonus content! When people talk about emunah, faith, it is often framed as a simple question. Do you believe in God, or don't you? But what i...

Check out Orthodox Conundrum Commentary on Substack and get your free subscription by going to  https://scottkahn.substack.com/  - and paid subscribers get this and other episodes of the Orthodox Conundrum Podcast ad-free and with early access and additional bonus content! Today's episode deals with a topic that many people have heard about, but far fewer people actually understand. Terms like get...

As Jewish people across the globe prepare for Pesach, we're pleased to re-release this classic episode of the Orthodox Conundrum, originally published in March, 2023. More than any other Jewish holiday, Pesach is associated with questions. That's obviously true for the Seder, but it's also true when it comes to the intense preparations that precede the chag. Jewish law regarding cleaning for Pesac...

This week's episode is a little different. Instead of our usual format, I'm sharing a conversation where I'm the guest on Alana Gelnick's excellent  Stream of Dreamearly podcast, in an episode entitled Ways to Make the Seder Matter: Being Your Authentic Self. As we prepare for Pesach, this discussion explores a simple but powerful idea: the Seder is not about getting everything right, but about cr...

Check out Orthodox Conundrum Commentary on Substack and get your free subscription by going to  https://scottkahn.substack.com/  - and paid subscribers get this and other episodes of the Orthodox Conundrum Podcast ad-free and with early access and additional bonus content! In the wake of war, many Israelis have begun asking a difficult question: Have American Jews become more distant from Israel,...

Check out Orthodox Conundrum Commentary on Substack and get your free subscription by going to  https://scottkahn.substack.com/  - and paid subscribers get this and other episodes of the Orthodox Conundrum Podcast ad-free and with early access and additional bonus content! What if the story we tell at the Seder was originally speaking directly to the world of Pharaoh? In this episode of the Orthod...

Check out Orthodox Conundrum Commentary on Substack and get your free subscription by going to  https://scottkahn.substack.com/  - and paid subscribers get this and other episodes of the Orthodox Conundrum Podcast ad-free and with early access and additional bonus content! Over the past few years, and certainly over the past week, anxiety has become part of the background noise of Jewish life. Peo...

Check out Orthodox Conundrum Commentary on Substack and get your free subscription by going to  https://scottkahn.substack.com/  - and paid subscribers get this and other episodes of the Orthodox Conundrum Podcast ad-free and with early access and additional bonus content! When disturbing stories emerge from within a religious community, the instinctive response is often immediate:  they don't rep...

Check out Orthodox Conundrum Commentary on Substack and get your free subscription by going to  https://scottkahn.substack.com/  - and paid subscribers get this and other episodes of the Orthodox Conundrum Podcast ad-free and with early access and additional bonus content! Let me begin with a slightly uncomfortable question. How much of what we believe, value, and even desire has been shaped not b...

Check out Orthodox Conundrum Commentary on Substack and get your free subscription by going to  https://scottkahn.substack.com/  - and paid subscribers get this and other episodes of the Orthodox Conundrum Podcast ad-free and with early access and additional bonus content! Since October 7th, something unexpected has been unfolding among young Jews in Israel and, in different ways, across the diasp...

Check out Orthodox Conundrum Commentary on Substack and get your free subscription by going to  https://scottkahn.substack.com/  - and paid subscribers get this and other episodes of the Orthodox Conundrum Podcast ad-free and with early access and additional bonus content! This episode of Orthodox Conundrum addresses an extremely painful and unsettling subject. Last week, we learned that Nechemya...

Check out Orthodox Conundrum Commentary on Substack and get your free subscription by going to  https://scottkahn.substack.com/  - and paid subscribers get this and other episodes of the Orthodox Conundrum Podcast ad-free and with early access and additional bonus content! Last week in Jerusalem, two babies lost their lives. The details are painful. The families are grieving. And out of basic dece...

Check out Orthodox Conundrum Commentary on Substack and get your free subscription by going to  https://scottkahn.substack.com/  - and paid subscribers get this and other episodes of the Orthodox Conundrum Podcast ad-free and with early access and additional bonus content! One of the most difficult questions in religious life is also one of the most basic: how do we show genuine respect for Torah...

Check out Orthodox Conundrum Commentary on Substack and get your free subscription by going to  https://scottkahn.substack.com/ - and paid subscribers get this and other episodes of the Orthodox Conundrum Podcast ad-free and with early access and additional bonus content! One of the most common questions people ask about dating is a deceptively simple one: How do I know? How do I know whether to k...