Torah Cafe

When Jews lived in the Land of Israel and our religious judicial system was in force, we had 6 cities of refuge for someone who killed a person unintentionally (manslaughter). The killer would flee to a city of refuge and be safe there from any relatives of the victim wanting to avenge the murder. A fascinating discussion about the Cities of Refuge. 

Jewish mysticism (Kabbalah) teaches that prior to creating our own universe, G-d creates a previous universe called Tohu (Chaos). The universe of Tohu could not survive and therefore crashed. Our universe called Tikkun was then created on top of the broken shards of Tohu leaving us humans with the job of cleaning up the shards of Tohu in our universe. A fascinating class explaining this esoteric c...

Jewish Aramaic was an ancient language spoken by most Jews for well over 1,000 years. Aramaic is used in Tanach (Jewish Scriptures) and many important Jewish works including the Babylonian Talmud, Jerusalem Talmud, Midrash Rabba and Zohar. A fascinating discussion about the forgotten language of Aramaic that is so central to our history and teachings.

Many people believe is paranormal forces that can be invoked or tapped into to discover otherwise unknown information and advise or to manipulate the forces of nature. Many people reject that paranormal forces exist and claim such beliefs to be primitive.  What does Judaism say about magic and paranormal forces? Do we believe they are true? Do they work? Are we allowed to practice any magic? Join...

Strife and divisiveness have challenged humans since the earliest of time. As long as we've had communities we've had divisiveness between people and as long as we've had nations we've had divisiveness between nations. What is the cause for this human tendency of fighting with each other? How can we counter it? A fascinating discussion about the human tendency towards divisiveness...

One of the worst tragedies that befell our people was the ant-Jewish pogroms during the Khmelnytsky uprising in Poland and Ukraine in 1648-1649. The Khmelnitsky Pogroms, known to Jews as Gzayrois Tach Vetat decimated Jewish communities across Eastern Europe and was one of the most cataclysmic events in the history of Eastern European Jewry. Learn the story of this horrific tragedy and understand i...

According to our tradition, the Erev Rav (Mixed Multitude) were a group of non-Jews who accompanied Israel out of Egypt and caused problems for them during their travels through the desert.. Why were they? Why did they join Israel when they left Egypt? What happened to them?

One of the most important works in Judaism is the Shulchan Aruch, often called the Code of Jewish Law. Since the Shulchan Aruch was printed in the 16th century it has become the primary source for Jewish law. What is unique about the Shulchan Aruch? Why is it so important to Jewish law?  A fascinating discussion about the Shulchan Aruch, how it was written and why it is so important to Jews.

The Jewish family has been one of the key pillars of Judaism. Jews retained and valued the nuclear family unit along with the extended family even when many around them lost it. A fascinating discussion about the role of family in Judaism and particularly, the role of fathers. 

Jews have been persecuted for most of our 3,000 year history. Some Jews responded to anti-Jewish persecution by attempting to assimilate or follow the dictates of those who hate them. Most Jews have responded by displaying pride in their Judaism and in their identity. A fascinating discussion about Jewish pride and its importance as part of a response to antisemitism. 

The Torah has various rules and laws for owning slaves. Throughout the early part of Jewish history, Jews owned slaves. Does Judaism allow for slavery? Is it ever okay for one human to own another? Since the Era of Enlightenment and particularly since the end of the Civil War in the United States, slavery has been viewed as a horrible institution and contrary to human rights and human dignity. How...

For the first 2,000 years or so of Judaism, Jews were mostly agrarian farmers. Many of the commandments of the Torah involve farming and agriculture particularly in the land of Israel. There are rules about how and when to plant and harvest, tithes, gifts for the poor and gifts for G-d.  Most Jews left farming about 1,300 years ago but there have been repeated attempts to return Jews to the farm i...

When someone is wronged, it is human nature to feel resentment towards the person who wronged them. Is it okay to feel resentment? Can we do something to express that resentment? Or should we just turn the other cheek? A fascinating discussion about the Jewish view of resentment. 

One of the most amazing events in Jewish history was the miraculous fall of Sennacherib and his massive armies at the gates of Jerusalem. This story is told in detail three times in Tanach (more than any other event) and mentioned countless times as well.  A class about this incredible Passover miracle. 

The Haggadah, the book that we use for our Passover Seder is one of the oldest and probably the most widely used Jewish book. It has been printed thousands of times with thousands of commentaries. A fascinating discussion about the Haggadah, it's history and how we got the Haggadah that we use today.

The Torah prohibits a Jew from owning Chametz on Passover. A common workaround to that prohibition is for Jews to sell their Chametz to a non-Jew before Passover and then purchase it back from them after Passover.  A fascinating discussion about selling our Chametz over Passover! Sell your Chametz today (by Sunday, April 21 at noon) at jccmb.com/sellchametz

One of the earliest works of Kabbalah is the Sefer Yetzirah - The Book of Formation, a very short book that describes the mystical building blocks of creation. The Talmud describes how the book was used by scholars to create a person.  A fascinating discussion about Sefer Yetzirah, its history, its impact and its teachings.

Solar Eclipses are a natural phenomena that fascinated people back in ancient times. With over 3,000 years of history, our people have lived through hundreds of solar eclipses. What do our Jewish traditions teach about a Solar Eclipse?

Today, we have a set Jewish calendar that has been in use for the past 1700 years. However, for the first 1600 years or so of Judaism, we used a variable calendar that was updated monthly based on sightings of the new moon and calculations made by the Sanhedrin, the Supreme Council of Judaism.  A fascinating class about Kiddush Hachodesh, the system used for the ancient Jewish calendar. 

We have recently seen a huge increase in expressions of the world's greatest hatred antisemitism. Why do people hate Jews? Why has it persisted over so much time, through so many places and cultures? What can we as Jews do about it? A fascinating discussion about the Purim festival and the lessons we can learn from the Purim story to help us respond to antisemitism today.

When we look around us, we see so many things going wrong in our own lives, people around us and the world on a whole. There seems to be endless violence, wars, corruption, disease, crime, natural disasters. G-d's world appears to be unjust and full of problems. Why did G-d create a world with so many problems? Why didn't he create a more perfect world where everyone got along and did the...

Chareidim is a term often used for a segment of the Jewish community that live in their own communities and forgo some western cultural norms. They are often misunderstood, derided and called offensive names such Ultra-Orthodox. Who are the Chareidim? What are their communities like? How do they live? And why they are widely misunderstood?

Shabbat, is one of the central parts of Judaism. From Judaism's earliest days, Jews stopped work on Friday before sundown and didn't resume working until after dark on Saturday. Observing Shabbat was not always easy for Jews. Often Jews found themselves in places that expected them to work on Shabbat.  A fascinating discussion about how Jews struggled to observe Shabbat in many times and places th...

One of the basic Kosher laws is a prohibition of not mixing milk and meat. As a result, Kosher kitchen must have separate ovens, pots, pans and dishes for milk and meat. A fascinating discussion about the kosher rules of not mixing milk and meat and how they impact our kosher kitchens.

One of the most important periods in Jewish history was the period of the geonim (600-1000 C.E.). During this period, Jewish life was centered in Babylon where there were two great Yeshivot (schools). The heads of these schools were called Ge'onim, The Ge'onim were effectively the leaders of world Jewry during this period. A fascinating discussion about the Ge'onim and  the Ge'onic...