Stay ConnectedTEXTing with Elana Stein Hain delves deeply into Jewish texts to guide and inspire us as we grapple with the concerns and meaning of this moment. Join Elana as she addresses the issues of our day through the lens of classical Jewish texts, in conversation with Hartman scholars Christine Hayes, Yonah Hain, and Leora Batnitzky.
TEXTing. Where ancient wisdom meets contemporary relevance.
We are grateful to the Walder Charitable Fund and Micah Philanthropies for their generous support of TEXTing.
As we recall the miraculous story of the Maccabean victory this year, the ongoing Israel-Hamas war highlights challenging questions of national and individual identity. How do we see ourselves in relation to our enemy in times of conflict?
In this episode of TEXTing, Elana Stein Hain and Christine Hayes study a text from Bereshit Rabbah about how we compare ourselves to our enemies and discuss how those comparisons influence who we are and who we imagine ourselves to be in war.
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In a world that is so connected through technology, we are inundated with highly curated images of other peoples’ seemingly perfect lives. Many of us feel jealous of these imagined realities. In this episode, Elana Stein Hain and Leora Batnitzky discuss a text from Deuteronomy Rabbah 9:9 to help us understand where jealousy comes from and how to manage it.
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In times of heartache, how do we find room for gratitude? In this episode of TEXTing, Elana Stein Hain and Christine Hayes study a text from Tractate Brachot, Chapter 9, about divergent blessings for times of joy and times of sorrow and discuss how gratitude can help us through dark times.
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As Americans race to the polls to make their voices heard, uncertainty about the future hangs in the air. On this episode of TEXTing, Elana Stein Hain and Leora Batnitzky examine three musings from Pirkei Avot on the function of government, and discuss election anxieties, the purpose of governing bodies, and the importance of voting in this crucial election.
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In times of great tragedy, joy can feel out of place, or even inappropriate. However, when tragedy becomes a consistent part of our lives, we must learn to survive and continue to live through it. On this episode of TEXTing, Elana Stein Hain and Yonah Hain explore a text from Tosefta Sotah and discuss how to muster joy when tragedy seems to have no end.
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During the High Holiday season, the focus of the Jewish people turns to the millenia of shared history and tradition reflected in the Days of Awe. In a session given by Elana Stein Hain for A Day of Learning for Our Hostages, Elana explores the connection between solidarity and memory, and the pieces of our tradition that bind us even across our differences. A Day of Learning for Our Hostages was held on September 30, 2024 to honor the shloshim of the six hostages murdered in August, show solidarity with the hostages still in captivity, and call on the Israeli government and the international community to prioritize their return.
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When you feel like running away, where do you go to see things from a new perspective?
In this episode of TEXTing, Elana Stein Hain and Yonah Hain explore the story of Jonah and the fish — the story traditionally read as haftorah on Yom Kippur afternoon — through the lens ofPirkei DeRabbi Eliezer, Chapter 10, Section 9. Through this powerful midrash, Elana and Yonah discuss how temporarily seeking shelter from our problems can help us approach them in a more thoughtful and healthy way. They ask the question: what’s your fish?
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The parents of Hersh Goldberg-Polin z”l did everything they could to rescue their son and the other hostages taken by Hamas on October 7 but in the end, they were unable to prevent his murder along with five other hostages.
In this special episode, Elana Stein Hain turns to a midrash in Sifrei Bamidbar to consider how to grieve this tremendous loss of life and grasp the seeming senselessness of this tragedy, in conversation with three Israeli scholars at the Shalom Hartman Institute—Tal Becker, Tehila Friedman, and Shoshana Cohen.
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History repeats itself, but are we doomed to relive the mistakes of the past?
In this episode Elana Stein Hain and Christine Hayes explore cycles of life, destruction, and redemption through the lens of Tisha B’Av Kinot (liturgical poetry), Kohelet (Ecclesiastes), and Devarim (Deuteronomy), and ask whether we could—or should—break out of them.
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Living through crisis propels us to reflect on historical crises and consider the consequences of our behavior on future generations. As Tisha B’av approaches, Elana Stein Hain and Leora Batnitzky study a text from Jeremiah (Yirmiyahu) chapter 32 about how we process cataclysmic events and imagine a future beyond them.
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The world has changed dramatically over the past millennium, yet the challenges we face concerning how we exist in public, and who we allow to shape our world view, is a tale as old as time. On this episode of TEXTing, recorded live at Hartman’s Rabbinic Torah Seminar in Jerusalem, Elana Stein Hain and Christine Hayes explore texts about rabbinic ‘influencers’ and discuss how universal public scrutiny shapes how we think and behave.
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Everyone does things that they regret sometimes but expressing that regret can often be a challenge. On this episode of TEXTing, Elana Stein Hain and Yonah Hain examine a text from Shemot Rabbah to discover how we can meaningfully express our regrets and make amends.
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What is so painful about forgetting? The Jewish people rely on collective memory to keep traditions and communities alive, so a loss of memory is equivalent to a loss of connection. On this episode of TEXTing, Elana Stein Hain and Leora Batnitzky examine a passage from the Sifrei Devarim (Midrash on the Book of Deuteronomy), chapter 48, and explore our fear of forgetting, and how we keep memory alive.
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The rise of antisemitism on both the right and the left has the Jewish people caught on the center line of a high-stakes tennis match. On this episode of TEXTing, Elana Stein Hain and Yonah Hain explore a Talmudic passage from Tractate Yoma 10a, to discuss how we maintain agency during troubling times, and how we look to the future when we can’t yet see the horizon.
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Major moments of change, as Israelis and Jews around the world have experienced over the course of this past year, impose a daunting uncertainty about the future. On this episode of TEXTing, Elana Stein Hain and Christine Hayes dive into a story from Vayikra (Leviticus) Rabbah 29:2 that explores the complicated relationship that we have with both change and the status quo.
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What does it mean to feel out of place? When is discomfort something to work through, and when does it indicate that a change is needed? On this episode of TEXTing, Elana Stein Hain and special guest Shlomo Zuckier explore two stories of misfits, mistreatment, and the search for belonging, from the Jerusalem Talmud in Tractate Berachot, and how they can help us navigate Jewish community in a post-October 7 world.
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Our political landscape and personal relationships are rife with misunderstandings and miscommunications. On this episode of TEXTing, Elana Stein Hain and Yonah Hain dive into a story from Nedarim 66b about a series of miscommunications between a Talmudic married couple to understand the difference between miscommunications and conflicting viewpoints and consider how we take responsibility for such differences.
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How do we understand the role of chaos in our lives, which feels so omnipresent right now? How can we defend against the mayhem? On this episode of Texting, Elana Stein Hain and Leora Batnitzky examine two passages from the Jerusalem and Babylonian Talmuds and explore the surprising ways that chaos can be contained.
This episode of TEXTing is sponsored by Nancy and Brad Bell.
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In excess, both pride and shame can be destructive forces, yet to cultivate a healthy ego, one needs a moderate dosing of each. In this episode of Texting, Elana Stein Hain and Christine Hayes unpack tractate Yoma page 22b, which highlights the tension between the need to stand up for oneself and the imperative to be magnanimous and forgiving. What emerges is the importance of interpersonal relationships, as we strive to treat others as we want to be treated.
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Right now, Jews are struggling to live with conflicting feelings— loyalty and dissent, compassion and rage, fear and hope. In this episode of TEXTing, Elana Stein Hain and Leora Batnitzky turn to an ancient text—Kohelet (Ecclesiastes)—as well as rabbinic interpretations, to consider how we might live and thrive amidst contradiction.
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Many Jews have found themselves frequently code-switching, altering their speech to fit in, during the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. In this episode of Texting, Elana Stein Hain and Yonah Hain take a close look at an instance of code switching in the rabbinic Midrash, Pesikta DeRav Kahana 4:7-8, and what it can tell us about communicating with different audiences today.
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As the rabbis of the Talmud faced exile and marginalization, they sometimes turned to humor and satire to cope with the challenges they faced. On this episode of TEXTing, Elana Stein Hain and Christine Hayes examine a passage from Talmud Bavli Bekhorot 8b-9a that preserves how the rabbis satirized the Roman cultural sphere—and consider what we can learn about how humor might comfort and guide us through difficult times.
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In times of war, personal tragedy tends to be subsumed by a collective sense of loss and grief. Borrowing a metaphor from a rabbinic passage about the spread of wildfire in Bava Kamma 60a-60b, Elana Stein Hain and Leora Batnitzky, a professor of philosophy and Jewish studies at Princeton University, explore human interconnectedness as it relates to evil in the world. Together they consider the question: during times of communal pain, when is it right, or even necessary, to close ourselves away, and when are we morally bound to participate in the wider community?
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How do we relate to power today beyond the binary narrative of oppressor and oppressed? In this episode of TEXTing, Elana Stein Hain and Yonah Hain examine a passage from the Talmud in tractate Sanhedrin that explores what it means to challenge those who hold power. Through the classic rabbinic reading of the story of the rebellion of Korach from Numbers 16, more complex possibilities emerge for understanding and critiquing power through a Jewish lens.
We are grateful to the Walder Charitable Fund and Micah Philanthropies for their generous support of TEXTing.
You can now sponsor an episode of TEXTing. Click HERE to learn more.
Since the devastation on October 7 and throughout the subsequent Israel-Hamas War, Israelis and Jews worldwide have endured tremendous loss and deep uncertainty. In the first episode of TEXTing, a podcast devoted to the exploration of Jewish texts in relation to current events, Elana Stein Hain and Christine Hayes turn to the Talmud in tractate Hagigah to address this shock, disbelief, alienation, and despair.
We are grateful to the Walder Charitable Fund and Micah Philanthropies for their generous support of TEXTing.
This episode is also sponsored by Erica Schacter Schwartz
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