Torah Cafe

Shabtai Tzvi proclaimed himself as Moshiach in the early 1600's splitting world Jewry between his earnest supporters and opponents. As his popularity grew among Jews, Christians and Muslims he at one point appeared unstoppable until he converted to Islam and the Jewish community rejected him. Listen to the unbelievable story of this charismatic impostor who convinced so many and mad...

At the center of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem stood a golden box called the Ark of the Covenant. Inside the Ark sat the tablets the Moses had brought down from Mt. Sinai and the original Torah scroll written by Moses. The Ark was central to Jewish worship throughout the time we had it and was at times taken out of the Temple for unique events. It disappeared before the destruction of the Temple in...

Anger is a challenging and problematic emotion that many feel at challenging times. Anger can be harmful to the person feeling the emotion and to others around them leading them to do and say things they later regret. Conquering anger is a challenge for everyone but particularly for people who struggle with constant anger outbursts. Judaism sees conquering anger as one of the most i...

The Hebrew scriptures includes 24 books that Jews consider holy. What are those 24 books? How are they organized?

For thousands of years Jews have prayed at the graves of our deceased loved ones and Tzaddikim (saintly individuals). But why do we pray at graves when we always pray directly to G-d without any intermediaries? What is the special significance to pray at graves and why has it been so important to most Jewish communities throughout history? A discussion about the Jewish tradition to visit and pray...

Do you need a label to be Jewish? Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist; where did all these labels come from? How did Judaism become so fragmented?  Were we better off for over 3,000 years before these groups were created? Join us to learn the fascinating story of how Judaism fragmented over the past 150 years and the battles waged that split Jewish communities into warring...

Deborah who lived more than 3,000 years ago was one of our 7 prophetesses mentioned in scripture. She was one of the few female Jewish leaders in ancient times. The fascinating tale of Deborah and the beautiful poem that she composed.

The Great assembly or Knesset Hagedolah was a group of Jewish scholars and leaders led by Ezra that made a number of important contributions to Judaism and Jewish practice at the beginning of the Second Temple period. Among the achievements are canonizing the Tanach (holy scripture), composing prayers and blessing and creating the synagogue. Learn about the Men of the Great Assembly and their...

Sexuality drives some of the most powerful feelings and experiences that humans have. Sexuality is both a primitive human instinct as well as the glue that joins two loving souls. Often sexual experiences can be powerfully positive while just as often they can be destructive and terribly harmful. Our society today grapples with the inherit contradictions in sexual relationships and experience. A f...

We count a new Jewish year number every year starting a new year on Rosh Hashanah How did we get to that number? Jewish tradition tells us that our Jewish year number is the number of years from Creation but have we really been counting since creation? Moses, the Torah and our people began more than 2,000 years after the counting began. A discussion about the Jewish year counting and how we got to...

Samson was a Shofet, leader of Israel in the Shoftim period when Israel first settled in the land of Israel. He was best known for his superhuman strength and mighty feats in battle with the Philistines. He was later betrayed by his wife Delilah who shared the secret of his superhuman strength with the Philistines. Discover the fascinating story of Samson.

One of the greatest Jewish figures in our history was Rabbi Moshe Ben Maimon known as Rambam of Maimonides who lived in the 12th in Egypt. This Sunday will be the 813th anniversary of his passing. Discover the fascinating story of Maimonides, his impact on Judaism and the way he singlehandedly organized the Torah.

The Torah we were given includes two parts. The Written Torah and the Oral Torah. We consider the Oral Torah to be the primary source of all our laws and rules in Judaism? What exactly is the Oral Torah? How do we know it is true and was transmitted accurately over the many generations? A discussion about the Oral Torah, what exactly it is and how we know it to be true.

Rashi, a 12th century scholar from France was one of the greatest Jewish scholars of all times. Best know for his commentaries on the Torah and Talmud that have become the standard commentaries on those central Jewish text Learn about Rashi, his life story and the great impact he made on Jewish scholarship and Judaism.

Tithing or separating a tenth of one's earnings for charity originates in Judaism where it is known as Maaser Kesafim and has since been adopted by other religions built from Judaism. When did we start tithing? Why do we tithe? What kind of earnings should be tithed? Where should the tithes go? A discussion of Ma'aser Kesafim - Tithing in Judaism

Modern medicine has given us the power to extend lives even when the individual is not expected to recover and may be in extreme pain or not responsive. At what point can we stop offering live saving treatment that is just temporarily extending the suffering? Can we do anything to make them die sooner and end their suffering? End of life care is relevant to all of us who have had loved o...

Do Jews have martyrs? There are religions in which it's a great thing to die for your faith, and doing so makes you a saint or gets you a ticket to paradise. What is the Jewish view? Millions of Jews have died for being Jewish but is it a central value in Judaism? Are martyrs heros? Do they get a ticket to paradise? Is Jew person supposed to die for their beliefs? What is the Jewish view on martyr...

The ethics of capital punishment has been hotly debated for decades with our Governor recently taking a strong position against capital punishment. Throughout this debate, the perspective of Judaism has been brought up repeatably by both side including by the Eighth Circuit in 1988 Hayes V. Lockhart case. What does Judaism in fact say about the death penalty? On which side of the debate does Judai...

One of the biggest cultural debates in the past century has been over abortion. Does allowing abortions protect a women's right to choose or does prohibiting abortions protect the fetus's right to live? What about abortion in cases of rape, teen mother, when the child poses a health threat to the mother or when the child is handicapped? What does the Torah say about abortions and the arguments on...

Vaccines have been administered across the world for decades as a way of building immunity to viral infections. While vaccines have limited the spread of disease and saved millions of lives, in recent years certain groups have organized against vaccines. Does Jewish law and values encourage vaccines? Should we require everyone to get vaccinated? What should we do when people refuse...

Animal Sacrifices were a central part of Jewish practice when our Temple stood in Jerusalem. Though we no longer practice sacrifice since we have no Temple, we still study the rules of the sacrifices and pray for the temple to be rebuilt and for sacrifice to be restored. Learn about the different types of sacrifices, the process of offering a sacrifice and the logistics of how large amounts of sac...

The greatest miracle in our history and the greatest event in the Exodus from Egypt was the splitting of the Red Sea when the Children of Israel crossed the Sea while the Egyptians who followed them into the sea drowned. We celebrate the great miracle of the splitting of the sea on the holiday of the 7th day of Passover, the anniversary of the great event.  Learn about the great mir...

While we never imagined that we would experience the total shutdown of society due to a virus, our ancestors have dealt with plagues of different forms repeatedly throughout our more than 3,000 years of history. Learn how our ancestors responded to plague and how we can learn from them to alleviate our own challenges in dealing with the Novel Cornavirus today!

In ancient Hebrew, letters and numbers are interchangeable. Words can be written in number format and numbers are written with letters. Every word has a number value and certain numbers have unique meaning. The system of Hebrew numerology is called Gematria. Learn about Gematria and other Jewish codes.

Esther was the unlikely heroine of the Purim story. She used her forced marriage to the Persian Emperor and position as queen Persia to save her people from annihilation. Listen to the full story of Esther, her background, ascendance as queen, her role in the Purim story and her impact on Jews in the Persian Empire.