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Rabbi Ariel Abel encourages cooperation, discussion and debate across the spectrum of the Jewish community. He is a rabbinic graduate of Midrash Sephardi in Jerusalem. He is a practising solicitor and a Sandhurst graduate chaplain in the British Army. 

Rabbi Samuel Klein discusses the remusiking of the Children of Israel.  Rabbi Samuel Klein is Director of Jewish Engagement at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, where he leads strategic initiatives that build meaningful connections to Jewish life. His work focuses on strengthening community through education, leadership cultivation, and multigenerational programming.  Rabbi Klein brings an interdisciplinary perspective to his work, shaped by a foundation in theology, the arts, and Jewish thought. He holds advanced degrees in Theology (Cambridge University), History of Art (University College London), and Jewish Studies (Spertus Institute), He frequently writes and lectures on the intersections of religion, ritual, and visual culture. For over fifteen years, Rabbi Klein has supported mixed-heritage couples and young families, creating inclusive programs that reflect the breadth of Jewish experience. His doctoral research extends this work, exploring how Jewish ritual, text, and aesthetics shape identity in diverse Jewish contexts—with an emphasis on how these lived experiences expand and challenge prevailing communal narratives

Professor Ishay Rosen-Zvi discusses how the Mekilta and the Wisdom of Solomon differ in their portrayal of the plagues Prof. Ishay Rosen-Zvi is Professor of Rabbinic Literature in the department of Jewish Philosophy and Talmud at Tel-Aviv University, and a research fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute’s Kogod Center. He holds a Ph.D. in rabbinic literature from Tel-Aviv University and was elected to the Israel Young Academy of Sciences in 2013. Among his many publications are Demonic Desires: Yetzer Hara and the Problem of Evil in Late Antiquity (2011); Body and Soul in Ancient Judaism (2012); and Goy: Israel’s Others and the Birth of the Gentile (2018, with Adi Ophir).

Dr. Rabbi Tzemah Yoreh has a PhD in Bible from Hebrew University, as well as a PhD in Wisdom Literature of the Hellenistic period from the University of Toronto. He has written many books focusing on his reconstruction of the redaction history of Genesis through Kings. He is the author of The First Book of God, and the multi-volume Kernel to Canon series, with books like Jacob’s Journey and Moses’s Mission. Yoreh has taught at Ben Gurion University and American Jewish University. He is currently the leader of the City Congregation for Humanistic Judaism in New York.

Dr Angela Erisman shares why the Exodus story serves as an allegory for King Hezekiah of the 8th Century in Judah. Dr Erisman is owner of Angela Roskop Erisman Editorial and was the founding editorial director of the Marginalia Review of Books. She earned her M.A. in Hebrew and Northwest Semitics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her Ph.D. in Bible and Ancient Near East at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. She is the author of The Wilderness Itineraries: Genre, Geography, and the Growth of Torah (2011), for which she won a Manfred Lautenschläger Award for Theological Promise in 2014. Her most recent book, The Wilderness Narratives in the Hebrew Bible: Religion, Politics, and Biblical Interpretation (2025) is available from Cambridge University Press.

Rabbi Nevins is dedicated to exploring the sacred realm of Torah and its intersection with contemporary ethics, culture, and technology. Ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary. He became Head of School of Golda Och Academy in 2021, dedicating himself to support the faculty and students in the creation of an outstanding and warm Jewish learning environment. Previously, he worked at The Jewish Theological Seminary as the Pearl Resnick Dean of the Division of Religious Leadership. He writes responsa on topics of contemporary halakhah, essays, prayers, and Torah commentaries, many of which can be viewed on his website rabbinevins.org. He is due to take up the post of Senior Rabbi at New North London Synagogue, London in the Summer of 2026. His most recent book is Torah and Technology: Circuits, Cells, and the Sacred Path, published by Izzun books.

Rabbi Alex Matthews has been part of the Congregation Ahavas Achim in Newburyport since 2015 and has been serving as its congregational leader since 2019.  Rabbi Matthews was ordained at Hebrew College in June 2023. He serves part-time as a staff chaplain at Beverly Hospital. He completed the 18 Doors Rukin Rabbinic Fellowship focused on interfaith engagement, as well as the Pardes Institute for Jewish Studies Machloket Matters fellowship, focused on working toward and through constructive disagreement.

Rabbi David Zucker discusses the theological role of dreams in Miketz.  Dr. Rabbi David J. Zucker is an Independent Scholar. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Birmingham (UK), and Ordination and an M.A.H.L. from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. He publishes regularly (see www.DavidJZucker.org) and his latest book is American Rabbis: Facts and Fiction, Second Edition.

Prof. Jack M. Sasson is the Mary Jane Werthan Professor (Emeritus) of Judaic and biblical Studies at Vanderbilt University as well as Kenan Professor (Emeritus) of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina. He holds a Ph.D. in Mediterranean Studies from Brandeis University. Sasson’s publications include commentaries on the Biblical books of Ruth (1979), Jonah (1991), Judges 1-12 (2014), and Judges 13-21 (forthcoming). His most recent monograph is From the Mari Archives: An Anthology of Old Babylonian Letters (Eisenbrauns, 2015).

Dr George Savran asks whether Esau and Jacob really reconciled. Dr George Savran taught at the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies since 1996, and was director of biblical studies. He received his Ph.D. from Brandeis University and is the author of Telling and Retelling: Quotation in Biblical Narrative (Indiana University Press, 1989) and Encountering the Divine: Theophany in Biblical Narrative (Sheffield University Press, 2005).

Professor Zvi Ben-Dor Benite shares how Jacob's departure from Haran acts as a precursor for the Exodus from Egypt and how the Jacob story foreshadows so much else both in Torah and the development of Judaism itself.  Professor Zvi Ben-Dor Benite is Professor of History, Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at NYU. He holds a Ph.D. in history from UCLA. He is the author of The Dao of Muhammad: A Cultural History of Muslims in Late Imperial China and The Ten Lost Tribes: A World History and is working on a new monograph, Crescent China: Islam and the Nation After Empire.

Rabbi Alex Matthews discusses Rivkah's moment of existential and physical crisis.  Rabbi Alex Matthews has been part of the Congregation Ahavas Achim in Newburyport since 2015 and has been serving as its congregational leader since 2019. Rabbi Matthews was ordained at Hebrew College in June 2023. He serves part-time as a staff chaplain at Beverly Hospital. Rabbi Matthews completed the 18 Doors Rukin Rabbinic Fellowship focused on interfaith engagement, as well as the Pardes Institute for Jewish Studies Machloket Matters fellowship, focused on working toward and through constructive disagreement. 

Professor Tammi Schneider discusses the life of Sarah in the context of the Ancient Near East.  Tammi J. Schneider holds the Danforth Chair of Religion at Claremont GraduateUniversity. She specializes in the Hebrew Bible and the ancient Near East. She received her BA is in Hebrew Language and Literature from the University of Minnesota and her doctorate in Ancient History from the University of Pennsylvania. Her books include: Sarah: Mother of Nations published by The Continuum International Publishing Group, she serves as the secretary for the Council for the Society of Biblical Literature. She is writing a book on “peripheral” men in the book of Genesis.

Dr Noam Cohen uncovers the fascinating link between the background to Isaac's birth and the Ugaritic text of the Aqhat Epic.  Dr. Noam Cohen is Visiting Assistant Professor of Hebrew and Jewish Studies at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, PA. He received his PhD from NYU, with a dissertation examining portrayals of spousal violence in the Hebrew Bible and other ancient West Asian texts.

Due to several requests we are extending this series of audios featuring Rabbi Jacobs, from 2005 recordings. All are also avaialable with video by visiting www.booksof.louisjacobs.org. A free months subscription is available. Rabbi Louis Jacobs reflects in this video upon his past appointments, starting from his early steps as assistant Rabbi in Eli Munk’s Beit Midrash in Golders Green, and concluding with the creation of the New London synagogue and the instigation of the Masorti movement. He offers intimate descriptions of his experience in these communities, each time contemplating the religious outlook of their respective congregants and the various initiatives he undertook to further their development. He takes the opportunity to offer some insights on what he refers to as minhag Angliya, or more simply, the traditional religious outlook of English Jews. The civility and intellectual integrity which, in his view, characterizes Anglo-Jewry, was lost over the past decades to a more haredi-influenced notion of hashkafah. Rabbi Jacobs debases this shift as ‘inauthentic’, and claims that it was with the intention of upholding the traditional religious outlook of British Jewry that he established the New London synagogue. Finally, Louis Jacobs offers some insights on recent infighting within the English-Jewish community. He expresses certain reservations concerning the ideology professed by the Masorti movement, and in a similar vein, justifies his opposition to the Stanmore Accords, proclaiming that there is no use of holding back criticism in situations of ideological conflict. The recording is followed by a short extract on mysticism, in which Rabbi Jacobs offers some reflections on the role of mysticism in contemporary Judaism. He puts forward his belief in the continued relevance of mystical and kabbalistic Jewish sources, each representing forms of expression of the ineffable. He debases, on the other hand, ‘Pop Kabbalah’, or the attraction to mystical excitement or ecstasy professed by a large number of individuals today (including Madonna, Barbara Streisand, or Mick Jager), arguing that such views are based on superstition, and come out as quaint.