The Tanakh Podcast

Here David is on the run, hiding in a cave, and calling to God. we speak about the despair of isolation and loneliness, and the transformation - religious and social - the shift of mindset that such a situation might engender.

David expresses his concerns and worries that he might succumb to the methods and morals of his adversaries. Today we speak about the virtue of self-doubt.

This chapter resonates strongly with contemporary events. It is a wonderful example of how Psalms written millennia ago can resonate afresh in other times.

God knows everything about me. That can be such a crushing burden that at times a person wishes to run away from God. What insights and understandings help a person to find his way back?

Chapter 138 is filled with gratitude. We stop to think today about the power of appreciation

Jews never forgot Jerusalem, though they wandered the globe for 2000 years. What was the formula for their survival? This chapter gives us some key tools for the Jewish art of making Jerusalem our home no matter where we lived.

This is a Hallel, a chant, an opportunity to sing and shout to God. We will draw connections to the themes of the upcoming holiday, Sukkot: 1. The universal and the particulatr 2. Appreciation for the blessing of our daily bread.

This is a chapter of Hallel. What is the subject of God's praise?

"Bless God all you servants of God who stand at night in the house of God" There is no Temple service at night! Who are these servants who praise God at night in the Temple?

"How good and how pleasant it is that brothers dwell together." We explain the dramatic story behind this Psalm, a story of sibling rivalry and reconciliation in five acts.

David promises that he will make a house, a Temple for God; God promises that he will make a royal house for David and his progeny. Today we discuss the relationship between king and Temple.

Do we rely on God because we expect everything to turn out okay; or do we rely in God because attachment to God is simply life itself?

This Psalm is one of the most commonly recited Psalms in times of trouble, sickness, or distress. It is also recited during the Ten Penitential Days between Rosh Hashannah and Yom Kippur.

In every generation, "since my youth, the haters, the assailants have attacked me, but they will never prevail against me." This is a song about anti-Semitism and Jewish survival.

This Mizmor offers the Godfearing person individual and national blessings. We discuss the images of the vine and the olive tree, the family and the nation.

Today we study the chapter with an eye to the year we have experienced. Wishing everyone a Shanna Tova!

This Psalm sung on Shabbat and festive moments before Birkhat Hamazon. It starts with the joy of the return to Zion. But then it requests of God: "Return our captives! Have we returned or not? And if we are so joyous, why are we crying?

"Jerusalem has mountains surrounding it, and God surrounds His people now and forevermore" We examine this statement both topographically and historically. Has Jerusalem always been protected by God "now and forevermore"?

This is the song of what might have been, the chorus of Jewish survival, the symphony of thangsgiving to God for having our back throughout the millennia and not allowing our enemies to succeed in destroying the Jewish People, in thwarting the designs of anti-Semites and would be destroyers.

What can a slave expect from his master? In this podcast we relate chapter 123 to our Rosh Hashanna liturgy.

This beautiful and colourful chapter describes the excitement of a pilgrims journey to Jerusalem and the sights that they encounter. It ends with a three-fold prayer for peace.

"i lift up my eyes to the mountains. From where will my help come?" This is one of the most famous and popular mizmorim. In what context might it have been composed and recited?

This psalm opens one of the most famous sub-sections of Tehillim - the Songs of Ascent or Shirei Hamaalot. In this podcast we: 1. offer 4 explanations for the term "Shir Ha-Maalot" 2. Study Psalm 120 which speaks about hate speech, peace and war.

This - the longest pslam - is a paean to Torah, its study, its laws and the meaning it offers those who walk on the pure path of Torah. Its poetry is wrapped in an delightful eightfold alphabetical acrostic.

Have you noticed the ups and downs of Hallel; how it lurches from elation to the depths of anxious despair in a single line - and then back again? And why do we double certain lines in Hallel?