Best Book Ever: Recent Episodes
Rabbi David Kasher
Every week, Rabbi David Kasher takes us on a 15-minute dive into the Parsha (the weekly Torah portion), to see some of its layers and complexity. We'll try to get a feeling for why this text has captured the human imagination for millennia, and why the Torah truly is the greatest story ever told.
A new cycle of reading through the Torah! A new book! And a new season of Best Book Ever!
This is a recording of Rabbi David Kasher's Parsha class from September 29, 2022 that has been edited for brevity. Watch the full class on IKAR's YouTube channel.
This is a recording of Rabbi David Kasher's Parsha class from September 29, 2022 that has been edited for brevity. Watch the full class on IKAR's YouTube channel.
Where does our national story begin? With a wandering Aramean, according to the story told in this week's parsha. But exactly who that Aramean was is a matter of great debate.
Where does our national story begin? With a wandering Aramean, according to the story told in this week's parsha. But exactly who that Aramean was is a matter of great debate.
Buried in the laws of inheritance is a subtle reference to one of the most tragic stories in the Torah - one that we usually miss.
Buried in the laws of inheritance is a subtle reference to one of the most tragic stories in the Torah - one that we usually miss.
The Torah warns us against someone - maybe even someone very close to us - who might come try to entice us to worship other gods! But when we look a little closer at the commentators, we begin to wonder if the real enticement might be coming from… a higher source.
If Moses speaks for God and the People of Israel, what happens when he decides to speak for himself?
Moses has a problem. This is an edited down recording of Rabbi David Kasher's weekly Parsha studies class from July 28, 2022.
The last stop in the itinerary of the Israelites' desert journey has a very strange name. And a heartbreaking story.
It's one of the most difficult problems in theology: does God know everything we're going to do, or do we have free will? This week, we consider an answer by Judaism's most deterministic thinker: Rabbi Mordechai Yosef Leiner, the Mei HaShiloach, and a response by his most illustrious student.
If Bilaam is really so bad, that brings us back to our original question - what is he doing in the Torah? What are we reading this bizarre story at all???
This is a recording of Rabbi David Kasher's Parsha Study Class from July 7, 2022. For the full class visit IKAR's YouTube channel.
n Chapter 21 of the Book of Numbers, after forty years of desert wandering, we suddenly detect the stirrings of a cultural awakening.
God gave us the law. Now we're giving it back. From Rabbi David Kasher's Parsha Studies class June 16, 2022
Someone must have slipped something into my drink. I’m reading my Torah late one night and, suddenly, the letters start to run backwards...
Three striking midrashim help us understand how the Hebrew name for this fourth book of the Torah can help frame our journey through it.
Pop Quiz: What Biblical verse is on the Liberty Bell? This is an edited version of Rabbi David Kasher's weekly Parsha Study class from 5/19/2022
How did counting the Omer become so much more than numbers? This is an edited down version of Rabbi David Kasher's weekly Parsha Studies Class from 5/12/2022.
Right in the middle of the first major list of the Jewish holidays comes a major interruption.
This week, we receive the first major list of kosher laws. But why are we supposed to keep kosher? There are some classic answers. But Rabbi Kasher's got a theory of his own.
The Book of Leviticus spends a lot of time explaining what to do once we have committed sins. But how did we get there in the first place? What drives us to sin? For that, we turn to the great commentary of the Kli Yakar.
As we close out the Book of Exodus, a 13th century Spanish preacher helps us, finally, make sense of all the details.
Who knows how to take the prophet's heavenly vision and bring it down to the ground? The Shadow knows!
"This week," says Rabbi Kasher, "we are going to look at an idea that seems so far outside of mainstream Jewish thought that if I came up with it myself, they’d kick me right out of Judaism!"
Water is the dominant motif in this week’s Parsha. Almost every event in the reading centers in some way around water: splitting water, begging for water, sweetening water, drawing water from a rock. Why so much talk about water? The Talmud provides us with some symbolism that will lend a new layer of meaning to all these watery scenes.
Right in the middle of all the action in the Exodus story - with the plagues devastating the land and the Israelites preparing to leave Egypt - the Torah suddenly pauses to introduce us to... the calendar?! This week I'm remembering an old friend who once taught me just how important this moment was.
Our experience of the pandemic has us asking all kinds of new questions about the Ten Plagues. Rabbinic tradition has answers, but they will take us into a very different reality.
How much work can one little verse do? We put that question to the test with the seventh verse in the Book of Exodus.
The family is back together again. Years of bitterness and resentment have been healed. Finally we're on the right track. But Jacob just can't let go of his great obsession...
70 people went down to Egypt. But we only count 69! Who's missing? The woman between the walls.
"Our Father Jacob never died.” That’s what our rabbis tell us. But he was embalmed and buried! So what could they mean?
This book has been analyzed and interpreted for millennia - so how can there possibly be anything left to say? But thanks to the concept of 'hiddush,' there's always room for a new approach.
Joseph rises to power in Egypt on the strength of his dream interpretations. But where did he learn how to do this so convincingly? Listen carefully, and you’ll find out.
The rabbis of the Talmud dig their fingers into the Joseph story and come up with some weird, wild stuff.
A talking snake. A talking donkey. And now… talking rocks! Are we really supposed to believe this stuff?! A 16th-century Jewish philosopher offers us a novel approach for reading the wildest texts in our religious tradition.
A Kabbalistic legend traces the Abrahamic family tree to a mysterious village of wise ones who possess great spiritual gifts. A 17th-century Hebrew printer thinks he’s figured out where it is.
The Binding of Isaac is such a nightmarish tale that it can leave us wondering how a holy book can contain such horrors. But what if the horror is intentional?
The story of Abraham begins with a thundering call to action, but then quickly starts to sound like a travel itinerary. Why does the Torah give us all the little details of the journey? There are lessons for the future hidden here, if we know how to read the signs.
“Noah saved all animal species - and humanity itself - from extinction. He’s the ultimate hero! We should be singing his praises every day! But…there’s something wrong with Noah.”
In this week's episode (Naked Torah - Parshat Bereishit), we examine the famous story of the Garden of Eden, and ask the question, "Is the forbidden fruit really just a metaphor for sex?" Answer: sort of, but not like you think.