Rav Joe's 929 Tanakh Podcast

Written in last 929 cycle: "Yesterday, Shabbat morning, I woke up horrendously early – about 5:15AM. I made myself a coffee and read most of the previous day’s New York Times. A Shabbat luxury before the kids are up. And has there ever been a more important time to be connected to current events. I read the coverage and the editorials. At about 6:30 I began tefilla: the early parts - brachot...

Chs. 47- 48 describe a stream flowing from under the temple and the tribal vision of the land - but as I try to show in my recording these sections take us back to multiple other places in Tanakh, including even the Garden of Eden, and conclude with the renaming of Jerusalem. Truly one of the most powerfully optimistic moments in Jewish history. Text here: https://www.sefaria.org/Ezekiel.47

Sam Lebens provides a beautiful audio contrasting the prince to the king, contrasting the Tanakh's presentation with that of the midrash, suggesting an evolution in Jewish thought and urging us to consider the wonder not of Hashem's enormity, but of his smallness, able to access even the smallest of spaces with his glory. Text here: https://www.sefaria.org/Ezekiel.46

Rafi Addlestone catches us up with an emphasis on the importance of paying attention to the detail. Text here: https://www.sefaria.org/Ezekiel.45

Chs. 40-48 are pirkei hamikdash - the chapters devoted to Yechezkel's vision of a newly rebuilt temple. These are difficult chapters to learn - indeed the Rambam and Rashi struggled with them - but thankfully we have a hand to help. Rabbi Gamliel Shmalo introduces these chapters with a special focus on ch.42 and considers the idea of harmony - both in music and in religious architecture - as a...

Text here: https://www.sefaria.org/Ezekiel.38

One of the most famous of all Biblical images - the valley of the bones. Text here: https://www.sefaria.org/Ezekiel.37

R. Dr Sam Lebens considers the question of what happens when teshuva does not precede God's kindnesses and how we should think of the problem of free will when God gives us things that perhaps we do not deserve - the inverse of the Pharoah's heart. Text here: https://www.sefaria.org/Ezekiel.36

"I'll try to give a sense of where we are in the structure of the sefer and describe Yehezkel's prescription for how leadership needs to look in the aftermath of the destruction" - Rabbi Joe Wolfson Text here: https://www.sefaria.org/Ezekiel.33

Here the metaphor is no longer tree but crocodile - mighty in the water but helpless on dry land. Text for this chapter can be found here: https://www.sefaria.org/Ezekiel.32

Considers the rise and fall of empires and explores the idea of Nevuchadnezar as God's agent in history. Text for this chapter can be found here: https://www.sefaria.org/Ezekiel.30

Text for these chapter can be found here: https://www.sefaria.org/Ezekiel.27 , https://www.sefaria.org/Ezekiel.28, https://www.sefaria.org/Ezekiel.29

Teases out the conundrum as to what actually happened to Tyre - involving some deep theologies along the way. Listeners who like Sam's audio will be excited to know that Oxford University Press are soon to be releasing Sam's work 'The Principles Of Judaism' - Offers the first comprehensive statement of the axioms of the Jewish faith in the vernacular of twenty-first-century analyti...

With a little help from Quentin Tarantino and Samuel L. Jackson - uses our chapter to humbly consider God's psychology and whether the attempt to bring Israel to him is doomed to fail. Text for this chapter can be found here: https://www.sefaria.org/Ezekiel.25

Provides a moving reflection on the coupling of national catastrophe with personal tragedy as Yechezkel's plight echoes that of Aharon many years previous. Text for this chapter here: https://www.sefaria.org/Ezekiel.24

Audio on how Yechezkel continues to invert metaphors! Text for this chapter here: https://www.sefaria.org/Ezekiel.23

No longer ir hakodesh the holy city, but rather ir hadamim the city of blood. He confronts emotionally and honestly his pain at reading a chapter in which his beloved city of Jerusalem is described in such terrible language. His audio is highly worth listening to and perhaps gives us an insight into how difficult it was for the message of the prophets to be received - not because the audience was...

The swords of destruction before arriving at JerusalemFocusing upon the milat mancha the repeated word, of ch.21 is cherev the sword and its role in Tanakh. Text for this chapter can be found here: https://www.sefaria.org/Ezekiel.21

Calev Ben Dor explains the inversion of metaphors as phrases which were applied to Israel's enemies are now given to Israel themselves. Finally Calev considers a mindbending verse in which Hashem appears to blame Himself for giving Israel bad laws. Text for this chapter can be found here: https://www.sefaria.org/Ezekiel.20

Rafi Addlestone - of previous 929 hiphop fame - channels the lion king to probe how two majestic images historically associated with Israel's grandeur, lion and vine, are inverted into a lament in Ezekiel's hands of the mighty falling. Text for this chapter can be found here: https://www.sefaria.org/Ezekiel.19

How can a prophet respond to the claim that 'we are being punished for the sins of our fathers?' - answer: the chapter of Tanakh most focused on the autonomy and responsibility of the individualindividual. Text here: https://www.sefaria.org/Ezekiel.18

Text here: https://www.sefaria.org/Ezekiel.17

A description of Israel's history from God's point of view, the foundling abandoned in filth, raised up to greatness, whose very success threatens to undo them. Yael Shahar offers a moving and eloquent reflection on the poetics and politics of Yechezkel's vision of that history - the significance of the humble origins and the danger of arrogance that comes with abundance and success. T...

In which the navi references three very different stories from very different parts of the Tanakh: Noach, Daniel and Iyov On 929 see: https://www.929.org.il/lang/en/author/47374/post/73727 Text for this chapter can be found here: https://www.sefaria.org/Ezekiel.14

Text for this chapter can be found here: https://www.sefaria.org/Ezekiel.13