Judaism
Season 1: Episode 29 – Epilogue
The Expulsion from Spain marks a turning point in Jewish history. In addition to a national trauma which evokes the memory of the Temple’s destruction, it challenges the model of identity which has served the Jews for nearly 2000 years. In this epilogue, Rav Mike takes a look back at where we have been in…
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Season 1: Episode 28 – The Expulsion from Spain
A lot more happened in 1492 than Columbus sailing the ocean blue. Upon their marriage, Ferdinand and Isabella are determined to make newborn Spain a unified country, which means that there is no place for Am Yisrael. The tools of Inquisition and war will earn them the title of the Catholic Monarchs, and will birth…
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Season 1: Episode 27 – The Converso Problem
The forced conversion of tens of thousands of Jews may have seemed like a great victory for Christianity, but in reality these conversos were a ticking bomb in the heart of Christian culture. In this episode Rav Mike speaks about the lead up to the great expulsion – the last great Christian/Jewish debate of the…
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Season 1: Episode 26 – The Storm Breaks
When the storm broke in 1391, thousands were dead and even more converted. A new model of identity was born in the century before the expulsion, and it poses challenges that are present down to our day. Want to help tell the Jewish Story? Become a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/mfeuer
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Season 1: Episode 25 – The Coming Storm
When faced with the choice between the cross and the sword, the Ashkenazi communities of the middle ages chose martyrdom. Why was the decision of their Spanish contemporaries so different? Want to help tell the Jewish Story? Become a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/mfeuer
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Season 1: Episode 24 – Into the Mystic
In the thirteenth centuries the stories of Ashkenaz and Spain begin to draw together. This is the great age of Christian expansion, which brings on book burning and religious disputation. It is also the age in which the kabbalah emerges as an answer to the challenge of evil. Want to help tell the Jewish Story?…
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Season 1: Episode 23 – Depths Out of Darkness
The twelfth century was a time of spiritual expansion as the Tosafists transformed the Talmud and the Pietists of Ashkenaz awakened new depths of the soul. Darkness grew as well, as the Crusades rolled through Europe and the terrible new accusation of the blood libel was born. But it was specifically out of this darkness…
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Season 1: Episode 22 – The Birth of Ashkenaz
The origins of Ashkenazi Jewry are bound up with the rise of Christian Europe. As the kingdoms of the Middle Ages began to take shape, teachers like Rashi gave form to a kingdom of the Torah which the Jews could inhabit while living among their neighbors. But the tranquility of the early years was shattered…
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Season 1: Episode 21 – From Moshe to Moshe
The Rambam was the second famous Moses in Jewish History. His accomplishments in Jewish law and philosophy tower over his contemporaries, and are pillars of of the Torah to this very day. Nonetheless, he was the source of great controversy in his day, igniting a struggle which ended in excommunications and book burning. Want to…
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