The Podcast of Jewish Ideas

J.J. and Dr. Reuven Leigh finally bring Chabad into the 20th century! They inspect the life and thought of the fifth Lubavitcher Rebbe–Rabbi Sholom Dovber Schneersohn. This is part two of our mini-series on the intellectual history of Chabad Hasidut. 

J.J. and Dr. Eli Rubin revel in the traditional and rebellious thought of Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, author of The Tanya, and first Rebbe of the Chabad Hasidic sect. 

J.J. and Dr. Yair Furstenberg contextualize the ethical teachings of the Tannaim. 
 

J.J. and Dr. Ephraim Kanarfogel comment on the happenings in Medieval Ashkenaz and add their spin on to the era of the Tosafists.

J.J. and Dr. Aaron Segal freely choose to wade through the murky medieval and contemporary debates over the existence of free will. 

J.J. and Dr. Jacob Howland round up a storm of fascinating comparisons between Talmudic and Platonic methods of discourse. 

J.J. and Dr. David Myers scientifically examine the thought and legacy of the Wissenschaft des Judentums movement. 
 

J.J. and Dr. Shai Secunda set Talmudic discourse ablaze. They put the Talmud in its Zoroastrian and Sasanian context, and have bloody good discussion about how Judaism interacted with its socio-religious environment in the first few centuries of the Common Era. 
 

J.J. and Dr. Joanna Weinberg make their way back to sunny 15th century Italy and the surrounding centuries to visit some of the more interesting Jewish characters of the Italian Renaissance. They weave their way through cross-cultural influences and intra-cultural tensions during this remarkable era of rebirth. 
 

J.J. and Dr. Martin Goodman go antiquing! They discuss the most important Jewish historian of the Roman period–Josephus Flavius. What did he write? Who was he writing for? And what ideological framework motivated his histories?