Podcast
Can't Stop Scrolling
Hosted by Avidan Halivni and Rabbi Avigayil Halpern · EN
Can’t Stop Scrolling is a podcast for Torah teachers, Torah learners, Torah lovers, and the Torah-curious. Each week, Avidan and Rav Avigayil interview a millennial or Gen-Z Torah educator about their relationship to Torah, and learn a favorite text together. Come learn with us!
14episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Chavruta Geometry with Rabbi Avigayil Halpern and Avidan Halivni
Mar 3000:34:56Tap to summarizeWe wrap up the season with a conversation between Avigayil and Avidan about chavruta learning! We cover our chavruta origin story, what makes a chavruta work or flop, the Chavruta Triangle, gender and aggression, metaphors for Torah learning, and more.Primary Source: Taanit 7aOther sources: Pedagogy of Partnership, powered by the Hadar Institute
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Dancing With Torah with Leah Kahn
Mar 2301:16:11Tap to summarizeAs is befitting for the time between Purim and Passover, this episode features a deep dive into the verses of the story of Esther through the lens of Leah's own "4 Questions" pedagogy. We talk through a cross-country move to Chicago, the choreographies of modern dance and modern Torah learning, and analyze Leah's pedagogical style in real time! Primary Source: Esther 5:2-5Other sources mentioned: Moshe in Rabbi Akiva’s classroom: Bavli Menachot 29bRav's wife who prepares peas and lentils: Bavli Yevamot 63a
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The Expansiveness Inside the Mountain with Dr. Tova Hopemark
Mar 1600:37:27Tap to summarizeIn this episode, we talk about the multi-layered interpretive work of making theater about modern midrash, the potential of empty space, and if solo travel is liberating, terrifying, or both.Primary Source: Rabbi Jill Hammer's Sisters at Sinai, "Miriam under the Mountain"Other source: the commandment to send away a mother bird if you are to take the eggs from her nest: Deuteronomy 22:6–7.
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Rabbinic Bibliomancy with dr. rafa kern
Mar 900:52:12Tap to summarizedr. rafa kern joins the pod to offer his critique of Martin Buber's skills as a playwright, but more importantly to share poignant insights on making meaning of text study and of the multiple elements that make up the phenomenon of chevruta learning. We do bibliomancy in this ep - spontaneously opening up a rabbinic text and seeing what meaning we can make of it! Primary source: Mishnah Shevuot 4:6, 4:3:Other sources mentioned:Martin Buber's play Elijah, staged at Yale University in 2011The ritual of the "decapitated calf / Egla Arufa," Deuteronomy 21:1-9To donate to the Yesod Fund, a mutual aid fund coordinated by Shir Tikvah Synagogue in Minneapolis: https://www.yesodfund.org/
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"The God of Becoming" with Rabbi CB Souther
Mar 200:36:36Tap to summarizeDogs in a perpetual state of wonder? Being an independent rabbi? A sense of newness every day? We wander towards the Burning Bush with Rabbi CB Souther, spiritual director and passionate Jewish educator, and discuss the overlap between life coaching and chavruta learning, and God as a process for good. Primary source: Exodus 3:11-14Other sources mentioned: The "still, small voice" of 1 Kings 19:12.
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“The Whole World is Torah” with Rabbi Matthew Ponak
Feb 2300:43:57Tap to summarizeRabbi Matthew Ponak teaches us about the Torah that is infused through everything, a return to the concept of “rav-chaver” (“friend-rabbi”) and juggling pumpkins. Primary Source: Menachem Nachum of Chernobyl, Me'or Einayim, Shemot 3:2: Other sources: R. Matthew's books Embodied Kabbalah.Follow R. Matthew on Facebook (RabbiMatthewPonak) and Instagram @rabbimatthewponakhttps://matthewponak.com/
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The Sea of Torah with Rabbi Joel Goldstein
Feb 1600:47:10Tap to summarizeIn this episode, Rabbi Joel Goldstein joins us to discuss if it is harder to work on a submarine or in a Jewish high school, parallels between baseball and Judaism, and hierarchies in the Beit Midrash. Plus, do Jewish educators overdo chavruta learning?Primary Source: Vayikra Rabbah 2:1 -- Is the study of Talmud an elitist project?Other sources mentioned: Ramban on Exodus 12:2., on Marheshvan: "Our Rabbis have already mentioned this matter when saying, “The names of the months came up with us from Babylon,” (Yerushalmi RH 1:2), since at first we had no names for the months. The reason for this [adoption of the names of the months when our ancestors returned from Babylon to build the Second Temple], was that at first their reckoning was a memorial to the exodus from Egypt, but when we came up from Babylon, and the words of Scripture were fulfilled (Jeremiah 16:14-15) from then on we began to call the months by the names they were called in the land of Babylon."Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer 10:7 on Jonah's midrashic tour of the sea.
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“Come on the Road with Me” with Rabbi Rachel Rosenbluth
Feb 900:37:16Tap to summarizeWhat Hebrew letter are you feeling most like today? We talk Tu B'Shvat, seasons, sleep, and yoga with Rabbi Bluth.Primary source: the letters Aleph א and Bet בBluth's Tu B'Shvat guide 5786Genesis 2:10: "A river issues from Eden to water the garden,..."For more from R. Bluth, check out www.rbluth.com
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Chavruta with an Art Piece: Rabbi Arielle Stein
Feb 200:37:24Tap to summarizeIn this episode, we learn about Yiddish poetry and the parallels between art school critique and Torah learning with rabbi, visual artist, and Instagram star Rabbi Arielle Stein. Primary text: “Lot’s Wife” by Rokhl Korn, translated by Sheva Zucker.Rabbinic Fitcheck with Rabbi Rafi Ellenson: @rabbinicfitcheckGRWM for Yom KippurVogue: "Meet the Rabbi With a Freaky Shoe for Every Occasion"More Yiddish materials from Sheva Zucker, including a Yiddish poem for every parsha: https://shevazucker.com/For more, follow Arielle at @rabbiariellestein
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"Torah Can Hold That!" with Rabbi Lauren Tuchman
Jan 2600:44:11Tap to summarizeIn the first episode of Season Two, we learn from and with Rabbi Lauren Tuchman about finding ourselves in the text, the perils and possibilities of religious authority, and donkeys.Primary text: Babylonian Talmud Taanit 20a & b.Other sources mentioned in the episode:R. Lauren's ELI Talk: "We Were All At Sinai: The Transformative Power of Inclusive Torah"References to the blind Talmudic sages Rav Yosef (Kiddushin 31a) and Rav Sheshet (Berakhot 58a).Dr. Orit Kent and Allison Cook., The Partnership Learning Triangle,For more from R. Lauren, see https://rabbituchman.com/
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