The Living Jewishly Podcast

In part one of a 3 part series Living Jewishly's three sages Rabbi Yossi, Professor Malamet and Rabbi Bluth share a fascinating, free range conversation about the secret lives of Rabbis we hope will whet your appetite for the upcoming holiday season. Please do listen and if you're moved to give us feedback, we'd love to hear from you. Part 2 airs on August 25, 2020.

Introducing: The Art of Living Jewishly, a new content series with Rabbi Bluth who will share her perspectives on Jewish experience through the lens of the Jewish calendar, and especially Rosh Chodesh, as the anchor. Listen to this episode to learn about Rabbi Bluth and her spiritual journey that began after her ordination at Yeshiva. Celebrate with us as we welcome her to the Living Jewishly fami...

Episode 13: The Jewish Response To HomelessnessIn this episode, Rabbi Yossi talks with Cari Kozreiok of Ve'ahavta which provides much needed support to the homeless Jewish community of Toronto. Cari shares some of the struggles that the homeless community of Toronto has been experiencing in recent months in combination with the pandemic, and what Ve'ahavta has been working on in order to...

In this episode, Rabbi Yossi and Dr. Malamet discuss Halacha, Jewish law, which provides us with an agreed upon set of values. They discuss whether Halacha is capable of standing on its own without the presence of God, and what life might be without it? The different types of Halacha are broken down into things that are antiquated, things that are anachronistic, things that are archetypal - that&a...

Rabbi Yossi interviews backyard urban farmers Marc Green and Arlene Hazzan, co-owners of BUFCO (Backyard Urban Farm Company), about how they transform urban spaces into amazing gardens. Their passion to grow nourishing food in urban spaces led them to help others to grow their own food, and to help them reconnect with nature. As part of the Year of Living Jewishly Bar/Bat Mitzvah program, Rabbi Yo...

Episode 10: The Kvetcher In The RyeYossi begins by telling a story about when he was travelling and stopped at a friend’s house where his friend made him biscuits from 100-year old starter sourdough. Yossi relates this to selling your chametz every year before Pesach (if you had 100 year-old sourdough you would have to sell it). Is our goal in Judaism to skirt around the law (in this case, to not...

Episode 9: The Wicked SonOne of the centre pieces of the Seder is the section on the four sons. Both Yossi and Elliott like the “wicked son” above all. Yossi notes that according to the Haggadah, once they finish “smacking around” the wicked son, we do not hear from him again, either because he has just upped and left, or because after a show of aggression the rest of the family leaves him alone....

Episode 8 - Love Me Two Times, BabyElliott begins by recalling how his daughter would dress up like Esther on Purim, all made up as though entering a “beauty contest.” But when you read the Megillah, the facts are far scarier. The key verb in relation to the story’s central figure, Esther is that “she was taken.” And in fact, just like the Liam Neeson movie, she is taken, kidnapped, to be a sex sl...

Episode 7: Turn off the TapeElliott begins the podcast by telling a story about a few years ago he was invited to moderate a panel comprised of a number of Orthodox singles, who talked about what it was like being single and trying to remain observant Jews. Elliott asked them about how they had navigated Judaism’s sexual restrictions and whether they had spoken to rabbis about this and what they h...

Tu B'Shvat is a Jewish holiday that celebrates the renewal of trees in a yearly cycle. Elliott notes, the timing of the holiday on the Jewish calendar is weird, falling out in the middle of winter. If we really wanted to get into the spirit of the day, we'd send everyone out into the middle of mature, "into the wild," to experience the trees. Rabbi Yossi points out that the win...

Rabbi Yossi and Dr. Elliott Malamet talk about Chanukah in episode 5 of the Living Jewishly Podcast.

Episode 4: The Road To ResilienceDr. Elliott Malamet hosts a conversation about resilience with author Sherri Mandel.  He opens with an interesting juxtaposition. In Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, two tramps stand around at the side of the road and make up games and conversations to pass the time, and although they repeatedly threaten to move on, they never do. In Sherri’s books Blessing of A...

Healing through Atonement and ForgivenessAll relationships depend on forgiveness. Even the one we have with ourselves. People can hurt each other no matter how much they love one another. Often we hurt or are hurt by those we love the most. And sometimes it seems that some hurts (e.g. infidelity, sexual and/or emotional) are too difficult to forgive. Is atonement possible for such betrayals? Can a...

Rabbi Yossi Sapirman and Dr. Elliott Malamet talk about Sukkot. Sukkot literally means “the booth” which is meant to represent the escape from Egypt. Rabbi Yossi challenges the typical interpretations of Sukkot and its symbolism. Harvesting Your LifeThe original intention of Sukkot was a harvest festival. Sukkot has evolved into an opportunity to invite our history into our lives. People we miss,...

Living Jewishly Episode 1 - Atonement and ForgivenessCW: Mention of sexual abuse and incestIn the first episode of the Living Jewishly podcast, Rabbi Yossi Sapirman and Dr. Elliott Malamet discuss atonement and forgiveness in preparation for Yom Kippur. Through personal experiences and examples from the Torah, they dig into what it really means to forgive and be forgiven, and the grey areas we oft...

It's the trailer for the Living Jewishly podcast with Rabbi Yossi Sapirman and Dr. Elliott Malamet!