episode list
5.15 Torah Study on Shavuot
Back by popular demand, Rabbi Shira and Hanna cap off this season with a Shavuot celebration and Torah study Back by popular demand, Rabbi Shira and Hanna cap off this season with a Shavuot celebration and Torah study. They help a young listeners preparing for his Bar Mitzvah and lead us us through Sh’lach L’cha, which Rabbi Shira loves because it’s one of the stories that has the most to teach us about our lived experience today.
5.14 eww self-care
Beyond face masks and candles is there such a thing as “Jewish Self-Care”? Rabbi Shira and Hanna admit they are allergic to the lavender-scented concept and respond to a listener who wants to know more about Judaism’s notion of taking care of oneself.
5.13 Holy $#@%!
A listener tells us she loves the show – it’s funny, it’s wise (aww shucks), but oy such language! She says feh to the vulgar cursing and prompts Rabbi Shira and Hanna to wonder what Judaism says about “working blue.”
5.12 My Jewish Friend is a Murderer. Can We Stay In Touch?
A listener’s friend committed a heinous crime and is now in prison. She wonders if remaining friends and visiting him dishonors his victim’s memory. Tune in to hear Rabbi Shira and Hanna’s advice.
5.11 Rabbi Shira in Conversation with David Brooks
Rabbi Shira shares her live conversation with New York Times' Opinion columnist David Brooks. And on Yom Ha'atzmaut (Israeli Independence Day) she talks about the importance of voting in the World Zionist Congress.
5.10 I Never Taught My Kids About the Holocaust
On the eve of Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day), Rabbi Shira asks a surprising question: Do we actually have to teach our kids about the Holocaust? (Spoiler Alert: She didn’t.)
She looks back at her own choices about Holocaust education and finds a way forward.
5.09 Bringing Your Gun to the Seder: Violence, Resistance and the Passover Story
As we celebrate Passover during the current climate, Rabbi Shira talks to Hanna about what Judaism says about violence, resistance and freedom. And they speak to a Jewish gun owner about his choice to protect himself.
More on preventing harm and stumbling blocks in the Torah
5.08 Not In A Happy Passover Mood
Hanna asks the questions this week as we prepare for Passover. How do we tell and interpret the Passover story when it feels like we’re firmly stuck at the beginning of our own contemporary plight? Do we have the opportunity to have perhaps the most authentic seder any of us have had in our lived experience? Rabbi Shira has tips and wisdom for you as you prepare your own seders.
5.07 Judge Jewdy
Are you Jewish enough? Too Jewish? Why are we Jews so judgy of one another? Rabbi Shira and Hanna receive a letter from a listener whose embrace of Judaism as an adult is making her less religious mother bristle.
5.06 should I join my temple board?
Ever wondered what an actual rabbi thinks about the temple board? What makes some temple communities work and others fail? Rabbi Shira and Hanna help a listener figure out whether or not to join her temple board.
5.05 the jewish way to a good life
Hanna talks to Rabbi Shira about her new book The Jewish Way to a Good Life. She distills thousands of years of Jewish wisdom into practical, time-tested strategies for living a more meaningful life and reminds us: You don’t have to be Jewish to do Jewish. And she tells us how.
5.04 purim for grown-ups
Rabbi Shira makes a passionate plea to reclaim the holiday of Purim away from just the kids. But what does Jewish debauchery even look like? And why does it give Hanna the ick?
Rabbi Shira and Hanna talk to “Sabbath Queen” Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie, co-founder of LabShul, about his family story, drag and finding Jewish joy in dark times…even for us adults.
5.03 What's Up, Doc?
Rabbi Shira and Hanna read a letter from a listener who has been nagging her husband to go to the doctor for over a decade. What does Judaism say about being responsible for your partner? And are we commanded to be good patients?
5.02 WTF, God!?
We hear from a listener who spent a lifetime looking for love, hoping to become a parent. Now, single, childless and in his 70s he is asking WTF, God!?
5.01 Should You Give Your Kid a Super Jewy Name?
Rabbi Shira Stutman and Hanna Rosin are back with new episodes for Season 5 of Chutzpod. They kick things off by answering a question from a listener named Moshe. His mother insisted he receive a “super Jewy name,” but what does Judaism say about this? What makes a name Jewish? And can we just name our kids Tom, Dick or Harry?