Rabbi Joe’s Torat Tel Aviv

Yaakov returns to Israel after more than two decades away from home and is reunited with his brother Eisav. Their reunion might at first glance appear anti-climactic - hugs and gifts instead of war -  but just below the surface, major movements in personality development and the story of the family are taking place as Yaakov accepts himself for who he is and is able to let go of the heel that he h...

Yaakov flees his brother's wrath and heads north to find a wife. And ends up staying with his uncle Lavan for twenty years. Who is the Yaakov that Lavan meets? Why does Yaakov agree to work for free? How does the way that he left his father, mother and brother impact his relationship with his new family? And despite Lavan's manipulation, what does Yaakov learn and gain during these two decades? So...

Yaakov's taking of the beracha that was intended for Esav is one of the most challenging stories of the Torah. We will look at the relationship dynamics of Rivka and Yitzchak, their difficulties of communication, and suggest that in fact Rivka had completely misunderstood Yitzchak's intention. The tragic irony of the story is that Yitzchak had always intended to give the bracha to Yaakov and that...

This is a shiur about parents' love for children, and children's love for parents - and about how relationships seemingly broken can be fixed over time. At the beginning of Haye Sara, Avraham must think that even though he is 137 he has almost nothing to show for it. He has lost his life's partner Sara, one son is estranged and banished, the other is 40 and single and not seemingly able to settle...

God's choice of Avram is given at the start of the parsha. But the journey to becoming Avraham - the knight of faith - is slow, arduous, challenging, at times mundane, and in so many ways relatable to any one of us on our own journeys of becoming. This shiur focuses on four points in the parsha where Avraham struggles to understand how he is to become the person that God has told him he is destine...

After witnessing violence, pain and suffering, how does one pick oneself up and carry on? That is the question that we confront today - and it is one that Noah and Avraham themselves confronted after the flood and the destruction of Sedom The different paths they took - one tragic the other heroic - highlight the difference between their two personalities and provide us with us insights into our o...

Noach and Yonah are two of the central figures of rosh hashana and yom kippur - and their stories seem to have an awful lot in common with one another: boats surrounded dangerous waters, corrupt populations, decrees of destruction and much more. What is the meaning behind these many parallels? We present two very different takes of two great contemporary Tanakh teachers - Judy Klitsner and Yonatan...

The words Rosh Hashana do not appear anywhere in the Torah. The verses that do describe the first day of the seventh month are enigmatic to say the least. So how did Rosh Hashana come to be what we know it as today?  In today's class we follow the clues and spend time on an exceptional but not particularly well known episode in the book of Nehemia - which describes arguably the most important even...

This episode of THINK focuses on a particular story that the Sages told in multiple versions of an individual who strove to fulfill the mitzva of shiluach haken (shooing away the mother bird) but rather than receiving the reward for a good and long life as the Torah promises, instead fell off the tree and died. This mitzva and accompanying story became one of the great moments in which the Sages o...

The story of Pinchas and his zealotry is rich and multi-layered - and it is full of ideas deeply relevant to our own moment.  An act of violence to forcefully stop a desecration of God's name brings an end to the plague and clearly receives God's praise and gratitude. Yet below the surface there is more that meets the eye with much to say about the relationship of peace and power and the complimen...

In our parsha Balak, the king of Mo'av, hires the services of the pagan prophet Bilam. What are Bilam's motives? Does he really want to curse Israel, is he in it for the money or is he actually an obedient servant of God? Source sheet here

In honour of the sheva brachot of our dear community members, Sam Simons and Leah Seiff, we take inspiration from Yirmiyahu's description of the desert as the setting of God and Israel's early romance to explore themes of love and relationship in the parsha Source sheet here

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. So...

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 Genero...

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 secon...

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 t...

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 des...

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...

This year the eve of Pesach falls on Shabbat which presents us with some unique challenges. This shiur discusses how and when the search, annulment and destruction of chametz works in a year such as this, as well as the fast of the firstborn and how best to do the shabbat meals. Source sheet and summary guide here

In this shiur we examine how at famous distinction between two concepts of liberty made by Sir Isaiah Berlin, one of Rabbi Sacks' teachers, finds expression in some of the fundamental texts and ideas of seder night, as well as how Rabbi Sacks himself understood this distinction Source sheet here

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 w...

Today we look at two beautiful teshuvot - from the Seridei Eish (19th C.)  and  the Hatam Sofer (18th C) - that can transorm our understadning ofthe mitzva of mishloach manot - giving gifts to our friends on Purim.  Source sheet here. Given at Vine Venture's Sarona Unity Center, March 12th, 2025

In advance of Purim we explore some of the fundamental texts and ideas behind the beautiful mitzvah of matanot l'evyonim (gifts to those in need). Spoiler: it's all about simcha! Source sheet available here  

The wonderful thing about teaching Megillat Esther is that everyone knows the story. The terrible thing about teaching Megillat Esther is that everyone knows the story. In this week's THINK we try to question an assumption that almost all have - is Achashverosh a gross unthinking buffoon throughout, or is there some progress and development that he displays throughout the story.   Source sheet ava...

L'ilui nishmat Oded Lifshitz who is laid to rest on the afternoon on which the shiur was given. 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...