Podcast
Orthodox Conundrum
Hosted by Scott Kahn · EN
The Orthodox Conundrum is a forum in which we look honestly at the Orthodox Jewish community, identifying what works well and what does not, so that, through an honest accounting, we can find solutions that will be successful. We will examine some of the major issues that affect the Orthodox world, without exaggeration, whitewashing, or pretending that they don't exist. Our hope is that the Orthodox Conundrum will spark wider discussion that will enable Orthodox Judaism to continue moving forward in the areas at which it excels, and to rectify the areas that need improvement.
10episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Ascending the Temple Mount, and Finding Meaning During the Three Weeks, with Rabbi Danny Myers (CLASSIC EPISODE)
2d ago00:53:51Tap to summarizeCheck out Orthodox Conundrum Commentary on Substack and get your free subscription by going to https://scottkahn.substack.com/ - and members get this and other episodes of the Orthodox Conundrum Podcast ad-free and with early access and additional bonus content! This episode was originally recorded before October 7, 2023. At the time, I opened by reflecting on how many of us found it difficult to connect to the mourning of the Three Weeks while living in a strong, vibrant State of Israel. Today, after everything our nation has endured, those words sound very different. We no longer need help understanding national tragedy or longing for redemption. Even so, I believe this conversation is worth revisiting. The question of ascending Har HaBayit remains one of the most important and controversial issues in the religious Zionist world, particularly during the Three Weeks. In this episode, Rabbi Danny Myers argues that ascending Har HaBayit is not only halachically permissible but may even be a mitzvah, perhaps even an obligation. Although, as I note both in the episode and in a new introduction, I continue to follow the mainstream halachic position against ascending, Rabbi Myers presents his case thoughtfully, seriously, and with an unmistakable love of Torah, Eretz Yisrael, and the Jewish people. Whether or not you agree with his conclusions, I think you'll find this to be an engaging and thought-provoking discussion. To read my article "Walking on the Temple Mount: Why Don't I Do It?" click here. Please listen to and share this podcast, and let us know what you think on the Orthodox Conundrum Discussion Group on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/groups/432020081498108). If your business is interested in advertising to our engaged Orthodox audience, or if you'd like to sponsor an episode in honor of a loved one or simcha, please reach out to aliza@jewishcoffeehouse.com to support meaningful Jewish conversations. Thanks to all of our Patreon subscribers, who have access to bonus JCH podcasts, merch, and more - we appreciate your help, and hope you really enjoy the extras! Visit the JCH Patreon site at https://www.patreon.com/jewishcoffeehouse. Write to aliza@jewishcoffeehouse.com to learn all about creating your own podcast. Music: "Happy Rock" by bensound.com
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What You Really Need to Know About the Three Weeks and the Nine Days, with Rabbi Chayim Soloveichik (297)
1w ago01:10:50Tap to summarizeCheck out Orthodox Conundrum Commentary on Substack and get your free subscription by going to https://scottkahn.substack.com/ - and members get this and other episodes of the Orthodox Conundrum Podcast ad-free and with early access and additional bonus content! Every year, as the Three Weeks begin, the same questions come up. Can I listen to music? Go to a baseball game? Buy new clothes? Shave? Go to movies? Travel? The answers may surprise you. In this episode, Rabbi Chayim Soloveichik joins me for a practical discussion of both the meaning and the laws of the Three Weeks and the Nine Days. We begin by exploring the ideas that underlie this period of mourning before turning to the practical halachot, clarifying what is actually prohibited, what isn't, and where different customs exist. Whether you've always wondered about a particular practice or simply want to make sure you're observing these days correctly, this conversation offers a clear, thoughtful, and accessible guide to one of the most significant periods on the Jewish calendar. Please listen to and share this podcast, and let us know what you think on the Orthodox Conundrum Discussion Group on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/groups/432020081498108). If your business is interested in advertising to our engaged Orthodox audience, or if you'd like to sponsor an episode in honor of a loved one or simcha, please reach out to aliza@jewishcoffeehouse.com to support meaningful Jewish conversations. Thanks to all of our Patreon subscribers, who have access to bonus JCH podcasts, merch, and more - we appreciate your help, and hope you really enjoy the extras! Visit the JCH Patreon site at https://www.patreon.com/jewishcoffeehouse. Write to aliza@jewishcoffeehouse.com to learn all about creating your own podcast. Music: "Happy Rock" by bensound.com
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Should Yeshiva Students Serve in the IDF? The Torah Case for Saying Yes, with Rabbi Menachem Copperman (296)
2w ago01:00:38Tap to summarizeCheck out Orthodox Conundrum Commentary on Substack and get your free subscription by going to https://scottkahn.substack.com/ - and members get this and other episodes of the Orthodox Conundrum Podcast ad-free and with early access and additional bonus content! Last week on the podcast, Rav Shaya Karlinsky presented the case for broad draft deferments for full-time yeshiva students. This week, we continue that conversation by hearing a very different perspective. My guest is Rav Menachem Copperman, who argues that military service is not merely a civic responsibility or a practical necessity - although it is certainly those, as well. He believes it is a religious obligation rooted in halachah, Jewish morality, and the Torah's demand that we take responsibility for one another. In our conversation, we discuss whether Torah study can ever justify exemptions from military service, whether the IDF has done enough to accommodate religious soldiers, the relationship between Torah learning and national responsibility, the meaning of leadership and religious authority in this debate, and what both the Religious Zionist and Haredi communities can learn from one another. Whether you agree with Rav Copperman or not, he presents a thoughtful, passionate, and deeply Torah-based vision of why he believes more yeshiva students should serve. As with last week's episode, my goal is not to tell you what to think, but to help you better understand one of the most consequential debates facing Israeli society and the Jewish world today. As always, I hope this conversation challenges you to think more deeply and more carefully about an issue that affects us all. Please listen to and share this podcast, and let us know what you think on the Orthodox Conundrum Discussion Group on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/groups/432020081498108). If your business is interested in advertising to our engaged Orthodox audience, or if you'd like to sponsor an episode in honor of a loved one or simcha, please reach out to aliza@jewishcoffeehouse.com to support meaningful Jewish conversations. Thanks to all of our Patreon subscribers, who have access to bonus JCH podcasts, merch, and more - we appreciate your help, and hope you really enjoy the extras! Visit the JCH Patreon site at https://www.patreon.com/jewishcoffeehouse. Write to aliza@jewishcoffeehouse.com to learn all about creating your own podcast. Music: "Happy Rock" by bensound.com
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The Chareidi Draft Debate: Is Common Ground Possible? with Rav Shaya Karlinsky (295)
3w ago00:59:56Tap to summarizeCheck out Orthodox Conundrum Commentary on Substack and get your free subscription by going to https://scottkahn.substack.com/ - and members get this and other episodes of the Orthodox Conundrum Podcast ad-free and with early access and additional bonus content! The debate over Chareidi military service has become one of the most contentious issues in Israel today. It touches questions of national responsibility, Torah study, religious freedom, political power, social cohesion, and the very nature of the Jewish state. Since October 7, those questions have only become more urgent - and they are at the forefront of the current crisis in both Israeli government and society. In this episode, I speak with Rav Shaya Karlinsky about how we can resolve the current impasse between much of the Chareidi community and the rest of Israeli society. We talked about the relationship between the Chareidi community and the IDF, the role of full-time Torah study in Israeli society, and what a workable long-term solution might look like. Rav Karlinsky argues that full-time Torah learners should continue receiving deferments, that Chareidim who are not learning full time should serve, and that the state must create and maintain frameworks that genuinely accommodate Chareidi religious commitments. I suspect many listeners will agree with some of what Rav Karlinsky says and disagree with other parts. I certainly do. But regardless of where one stands, I believe that serious conversations require us to listen carefully to views that challenge our own, and I hope this discussion contributes to that effort. Among other topics, we discuss whether Israel can maintain a world-class Torah community while meeting its military needs, why distrust has become such a central obstacle in this debate, the future of Chareidi service in both the army and sherut leumi, and what a healthier relationship between different sectors of Israeli society might look like. This is not a debate. It is an attempt to understand a perspective that is often discussed, frequently criticized, and rarely heard in its fullest form. Please listen to and share this podcast, and let us know what you think on the Orthodox Conundrum Discussion Group on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/groups/432020081498108). If your business is interested in advertising to our engaged Orthodox audience, or if you'd like to sponsor an episode in honor of a loved one or simcha, please reach out to aliza@jewishcoffeehouse.com to support meaningful Jewish conversations. Thanks to all of our Patreon subscribers, who have access to bonus JCH podcasts, merch, and more - we appreciate your help, and hope you really enjoy the extras! Visit the JCH Patreon site at https://www.patreon.com/jewishcoffeehouse. Write to aliza@jewishcoffeehouse.com to learn all about creating your own podcast. Music: "Happy Rock" by bensound.com
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Why Return to Israel If Judaism Can Thrive Anywhere? Lessons from the First Exile, with Yael Leibowitz (294)
Jun 1501:16:02Tap to summarizeCheck out Orthodox Conundrum Commentary on Substack and get your free subscription by going to https://scottkahn.substack.com/ - and paid subscribers get this and other episodes of the Orthodox Conundrum Podcast ad-free and with early access and additional bonus content! Last month on the Orthodox Conundrum, I spoke with several guests about the relationship between Israel and the Diaspora. We discussed questions of aliyah, Jewish peoplehood, covenant, sovereignty, and the role of Diaspora communities in an era when most Jews may soon live in the State of Israel. Today, I'd like to revisit that broader conversation from a very different perspective with my guest, Tanakh educator Yael Leibowitz. Rather than beginning with today's headlines or contemporary debates, she takes us back to the destruction of the First Temple, the Babylonian exile, and the return to Israel. Her argument is that many of the questions we are wrestling with today first emerged more than 2,500 years ago. How could Judaism survive outside the Land of Israel? Why return if Jewish life could flourish elsewhere? What responsibilities do Jews in the Land and Jews outside the Land owe one another? And what does it mean for a people to maintain both a homeland and a Diaspora at the same time? Drawing on the books of Yirmiyahu, Yehezkel, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, and others, Yael shows how exile transformed Jewish life and identity, while also explaining why the Land of Israel remained central to the Jewish story. This is not a conversation about contemporary politics. It is an exploration of the origins of one of the most important debates in Jewish life, and why that debate remains so relevant today. For more of Yael's writing visit: yaelleibowitz.com. Please listen to and share this podcast, and let us know what you think on the Orthodox Conundrum Discussion Group on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/groups/432020081498108). If your business is interested in advertising to our engaged Orthodox audience, or if you'd like to sponsor an episode in honor of a loved one or simcha, please reach out to aliza@jewishcoffeehouse.com to support meaningful Jewish conversations. Thanks to all of our Patreon subscribers, who have access to bonus JCH podcasts, merch, and more - we appreciate your help, and hope you really enjoy the extras! Visit the JCH Patreon site at https://www.patreon.com/jewishcoffeehouse. Write to aliza@jewishcoffeehouse.com to learn all about creating your own podcast. Music: "Happy Rock" by bensound.com
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Intimacy in an Age of Anxiety and Uncertainty: How Chronic Stress Changes Relationships (CO-RELEASE WITH INTIMATE JUDAISM)
Jun 800:50:48Tap to summarizeCheck out Orthodox Conundrum Commentary on Substack and get your free subscription by going to https://scottkahn.substack.com/! Instead of a regular episode of the Orthodox Conundrum Podcast, we're releasing a new episode of Intimate Judaism, which is dropping on that channel today, as well. We hope you find this episode meaningful. We'll be back next week with a brand new episode of the Orthodox Conundrum. October 7 changed countless lives. But for many Jewish people across the world, the deeper challenge has been what came afterward: months and years of ongoing stress, uncertainty, grief, and vigilance. In this episode, Talli Rosenbaum and Rabbi Scott Kahn explore how chronic stress affects relationships, intimacy, and sexuality, and why connection remains one of our most important sources of resilience and healing. To access resources including articles, subsidized therapy, and workshops, go to the Intimate Judaism website. Please listen to and share this podcast, and let us know what you think on the Orthodox Conundrum Discussion Group on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/groups/432020081498108). If your business is interested in advertising to our engaged Orthodox audience, or if you'd like to sponsor an episode in honor of a loved one or simcha, please reach out to aliza@jewishcoffeehouse.com to support meaningful Jewish conversations. Thanks to all of our Patreon subscribers, who have access to bonus JCH podcasts, merch, and more - we appreciate your help, and hope you really enjoy the extras! Visit the JCH Patreon site at https://www.patreon.com/jewishcoffeehouse. Write to aliza@jewishcoffeehouse.com to learn all about creating your own podcast.
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Is the Rabbinate Protecting Torah... or Protecting Itself? Rabbi Seth Farber on the Women's Exam Controversy, Power, and the Future of Religious Authority in Israel (293)
Jun 101:03:11Tap to summarizeCheck out Orthodox Conundrum Commentary on Substack and get your free subscription by going to https://scottkahn.substack.com/ - and paid subscribers get this and other episodes of the Orthodox Conundrum Podcast ad-free and with early access and additional bonus content! Three women recently took Israel's rabbinate exams after an eight-year legal battle. What should have been a routine academic exercise instead became a national controversy, complete with delayed tests, last-minute changes, emergency court filings, and the subsequent cancellation of the next rabbanut exams for both men and women. But this episode is about far more than three women. Rabbi Seth Farber joins me to discuss what this story reveals about the current state of Israel's Chief Rabbinate. Why would an institution fight so hard against women taking exams that do not even lead to ordination? Why were future exams suddenly canceled? Who actually controls the rabbinate today? And what happens when religious institutions become increasingly bureaucratic, political, and disconnected from the communities they are meant to serve? Our conversation explores questions of authority, transparency, public trust, and institutional power. We discuss the rise of women halakhic scholars, the changing face of Orthodoxy, the composition of the Chief Rabbis Council, the influence of political patronage, and whether the rabbinate is still capable of serving as a unifying religious voice for the Jewish state. Most importantly, we ask a deeper question: What should a religious establishment look like in a modern democratic Jewish state? Should the rabbinate remain a service provider with broad powers over religious life, or should it evolve into something very different - or even disappear altogether? This conversation begins with a controversy over exams. It ends with a debate about the future of religion and state in Israel. To learn more about Rabbi Farber's work with ITIM, go to Itim.org.il. Please listen to and share this podcast, and let us know what you think on the Orthodox Conundrum Discussion Group on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/groups/432020081498108). If your business is interested in advertising to our engaged Orthodox audience, or if you'd like to sponsor an episode in honor of a loved one or simcha, please reach out to aliza@jewishcoffeehouse.com to support meaningful Jewish conversations. Thanks to all of our Patreon subscribers, who have access to bonus JCH podcasts, merch, and more - we appreciate your help, and hope you really enjoy the extras! Visit the JCH Patreon site at https://www.patreon.com/jewishcoffeehouse. Write to aliza@jewishcoffeehouse.com to learn all about creating your own podcast. Music: "Happy Rock" by bensound.com
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"Better an Apikores Than an Am Haaretz": Rav Meni Even-Israel on Rav Steinsaltz's Vision (292)
May 2501:05:36Tap to summarizeCheck out Orthodox Conundrum Commentary on Substack and get your free subscription by going to https://scottkahn.substack.com/ - and paid subscribers get this and other episodes of the Orthodox Conundrum Podcast ad-free and with early access and additional bonus content! Most people know Rav Adin Steinsaltz as the scholar who transformed access to the Talmud. But beneath the translations, commentaries, and publishing projects was a much larger, richer, and more complicated vision of Judaism itself. In this episode, I speak with Rav Meni Even-Israel, Rav Steinsaltz's son and the director of the Steinsaltz Center, about the worldview that animated his father's life and work. Rav Steinsaltz believed Torah should produce intellectually serious, spiritually alive, deeply curious human beings who were unafraid of complexity, unafraid of difficult questions, and unafraid of the broader world. He resisted a Judaism that was narrow, insulated, or intellectually fragile. At the same time, he was deeply committed to tradition, profoundly shaped by Chassidut, and fiercely loyal to the Lubavitcher Rebbe. That creates a fascinating tension running through this conversation. How did someone so intellectually independent accept the authority of a rebbe? How did he reconcile Rambam-style rationalism with deep immersion in mysticism? Why did he believe broad knowledge and curiosity were religious necessities rather than spiritual threats? And what happens to a Torah revolution when the revolutionary himself is gone? One especially revealing part of our discussion centers on Rav Meni's own battle with cancer as a teenager, and the way Rav Steinsaltz navigated medical expertise alongside the guidance of the Rebbe. The story captures something essential about him: he was neither blindly submissive nor dismissively skeptical; instead, he attempted to hold together scientific judgment, spiritual intuition, and religious trust without compromising or undermining any one of them. We also discuss Rav Steinsaltz's belief that Judaism should never become boxed in or one-dimensional, but should instead cultivate curiosity, intellectual depth, spirituality, and genuine personal ownership of Torah. Please listen to and share this podcast, and let us know what you think on the Orthodox Conundrum Discussion Group on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/groups/432020081498108). If your business is interested in advertising to our engaged Orthodox audience, or if you'd like to sponsor an episode in honor of a loved one or simcha, please reach out to aliza@jewishcoffeehouse.com to support meaningful Jewish conversations. Thanks to all of our Patreon subscribers, who have access to bonus JCH podcasts, merch, and more - we appreciate your help, and hope you really enjoy the extras! Visit the JCH Patreon site at https://www.patreon.com/jewishcoffeehouse. Write to aliza@jewishcoffeehouse.com to learn all about creating your own podcast. Music: "Happy Rock" by bensound.com
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How Do Non-Religious Jews Participate in the Jewish Covenant? Rabbi Dr. Judah Goldberg on Brit Avot and Brit Sinai (291)
May 1801:18:16Tap to summarizeCheck out Orthodox Conundrum Commentary on Substack and get your free subscription by going to https://scottkahn.substack.com/ - and paid subscribers get this and other episodes of the Orthodox Conundrum Podcast ad-free and with early access and additional bonus content! For many Orthodox Jews, Judaism is ultimately defined by Torah and halakha. We received the Torah at Har Sinai, and from that moment onward, Jewish life became a life of mitzvot, obligation, and commandedness. But what about everything that came before Sinai? What about the covenant with Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov? What about Jewish peoplehood, responsibility for other Jews, the Land of Israel, ethical mission, and the sense of belonging to a shared Jewish destiny? And perhaps most provocatively: what does all of this mean for the way religious Jews relate to nonreligious Jews today? In this episode, Rabbi Dr. Judah Goldberg argues that Brit Sinai did not erase Brit Avot. The covenant of Torah stands at the center of Judaism, but it exists alongside an earlier covenant that still shapes Jewish life and Jewish obligation. Drawing on Rav Soloveitchik and Rabbi Walter Wurzburger, Dr. Goldberg explains why covenantal responsibility cannot be reduced entirely to halakhic categories, and why Jewish destiny, Jewish nationhood, and commitment to the Jewish people possess real significance even beyond formal observance. That raises difficult and controversial questions. Can secular Zionism contain authentic religious value? Is there spiritual significance in Jewish solidarity even outside full halakhic commitment? And if covenantal values exist alongside halakha, how do we prevent Judaism from becoming untethered from Torah itself? As Shavuot approaches, this conversation explores how Torah, covenant, peoplehood, and Jewish destiny intersect, and what that might mean for the relationship between religious and nonreligious Jews in the modern Jewish world. To listen to Dr. Goldberg's series, Before Sinai: Jewish Values and Jewish Law, click here. Please listen to and share this podcast, and let us know what you think on the Orthodox Conundrum Discussion Group on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/groups/432020081498108). If your business is interested in advertising to our engaged Orthodox audience, or if you'd like to sponsor an episode in honor of a loved one or simcha, please reach out to aliza@jewishcoffeehouse.com to support meaningful Jewish conversations. Thanks to all of our Patreon subscribers, who have access to bonus JCH podcasts, merch, and more - we appreciate your help, and hope you really enjoy the extras! Visit the JCH Patreon site at https://www.patreon.com/jewishcoffeehouse. Write to aliza@jewishcoffeehouse.com to learn all about creating your own podcast. Music: "Happy Rock" by bensound.com
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Are Jewish Communities Outside Israel Meant to End? A Conversation with Dr. Malka Simkovich and Rabbanit Atara Eis (290)
May 1201:13:51Tap to summarizeCheck out Orthodox Conundrum Commentary on Substack and get your free subscription by going to https://scottkahn.substack.com/ - and paid subscribers get this and other episodes of the Orthodox Conundrum Podcast ad-free and with early access and additional bonus content! For generations, religious Jews prayed for a return to Zion. Today, for the first time in nearly two thousand years, there is a sovereign Jewish state, most Jews may soon live there, and millions of Jews around the world have the practical ability to move there if they choose. That reality raises profound questions that previous generations could barely imagine. What does it mean to be a fully realized Jewish community outside the land of Israel in an age of Jewish sovereignty? Is Jewish life in the diaspora inherently incomplete, or can it possess its own enduring religious integrity? Does affirming the centrality of Israel require seeing Jewish communities abroad as temporary, marginal, or even destined to disappear? Or is there a way to embrace a deep Zionism without negating the legitimacy of Jewish life outside Israel? Perhaps all of the above can be true: diaspora communities may be seen as temporary without losing their religious legitimacy. These questions have become increasingly urgent since October 7th, as Jews around the world have wrestled with issues of solidarity, responsibility, sacrifice, destiny, and identity. They also touch on larger questions about messianism, exile, religious authenticity, and the relationship between ideals and lived reality. To explore these issues, I'm joined by two thoughtful and deeply committed Zionist thinkers who approach these questions from different perspectives: Dr. Malka Z. Simkovich, Editor-in-Chief of the Jewish Publication Society and author of Letters From Home: The Creation of Diaspora in Jewish Antiquity, and Rabbanit Atara Eis, Dean of Nishmat and a leading educator in the Religious Zionist world. This is a conversation about Israel, the diaspora, and the future of the Jewish people - but also about how Orthodoxy speaks about aspiration, belonging, sacrifice, and the tensions that serious religious life sometimes demands. Please listen to and share this podcast, and let us know what you think on the Orthodox Conundrum Discussion Group on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/groups/432020081498108). If your business is interested in advertising to our engaged Orthodox audience, or if you'd like to sponsor an episode in honor of a loved one or simcha, please reach out to aliza@jewishcoffeehouse.com to support meaningful Jewish conversations. Thanks to all of our Patreon subscribers, who have access to bonus JCH podcasts, merch, and more - we appreciate your help, and hope you really enjoy the extras! Visit the JCH Patreon site at https://www.patreon.com/jewishcoffeehouse. Write to aliza@jewishcoffeehouse.com to learn all about creating your own podcast. Music: "Happy Rock" by bensound.com
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