Into the Verse - A Parsha Podcast

Parshat Mishpatim tells us what should happen if people get hurt because of someone else's actions – fighting, stealing, keeping dangerous animals around the house. In each case, the Torah explains what should happen to the offender, but what's interesting is that the same injury doesn’t always carry the same penalty. Sometimes it depends on the person's intentions: Were they actually planning to cause the harm or not?

In this week's episode, Rabbi Fohrman points out that one of those laws in Mishpatim looks like a clue to something he’s wondered about for a long time: a mysterious unsolved death back in Genesis. So he and Ari Levisohn dig into that case and share the evidence they discover, along with a theory about how it all fits together. Come along as Rabbi Fohrman uses his detective skills to explore a curious case of divine justice.

For a limited time, you can get a free copy of Rabbi David Fohrman’s renowned book The Queen You Thought You Knew when you sign up for an annual Aleph Beta premium subscription.

Interested in hearing the fuller version of Rabbi Fohrman's theory about Rebecca, Jacob, and the blessings? You can find it here.
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Into the Verse is a project of Aleph Beta, a Torah media company dedicated to spreading the joy and love of meaningful Torah learning worldwide. If you’re enjoying this podcast, help support our work by subscribing to Aleph Beta.
For past episodes of Into the Verse, go to our website, alephbeta.org, where a premium subscription gets you access to all of our past episodes and our full library of over 1,000 videos and podcasts on the parsha, holidays, and so much more!
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Rabbi David Fohrman and Imu Shalev study the tale of the blasphemer, a dark and puzzling episode buried deep in Leviticus. The details of this story are scarce: an anonymous man provokes a fight in the Israelite camp, curses God, and ultimately is stoned to death as punishment. But a close read of these few short verses sends Rabbi Fohrman and Imu on a surprising journey, raising provocative moral questions about God’s judgment and uncovering an unlikely connection between the condemned blasphemer and one of the Bible’s greatest heroes.

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Into the Verse is a project of Aleph Beta, a Torah media company dedicated to spreading the joy and love of meaningful Torah learning worldwide. If you’re enjoying this podcast, help support our work by subscribing to Aleph Beta.
For past episodes of Into the Verse, go to our website, alephbeta.org, where a premium subscription gets you access to all of our past episodes and our full library of over 1,000 videos and podcasts on the parsha, holidays, and so much more
Follow us on your favorite social media.

We’re starting Sefer Vayikra this week! But if we’re honest, Leviticus isn’t the easiest book to be excited about. Genesis and Exodus have so much drama: the family stories of our patriarchs and matriarchs, the liberation from Egypt, the great encounter with God at Mount Sinai. Whereas Vayikra... so much of it is about animal offerings, or how the priests need to do their jobs in the mishkan, the tabernacle. It’s got a lot of laws that don't even apply to us any more. So how do we find meaning in this central book of the Five Books of Moses?

In this episode, Imu Shalev brings that exact question to Rabbi Fohrman, along with a suggestion about how Vayikra is actually a connected, embedded part of the Torah’s overall story. And their conversation shows that this isn’t actually an isolated book of laws. Instead, it’s a key part of our national mission statement. Vayikra is about learning to live a life of closeness with God.

What did you think of this episode? We’d genuinely like to hear your thoughts, questions, and feedback. Leave us a voice message – just click record, and let your thoughts flow.
Into the Verse is a project of Aleph Beta, a Torah media company dedicated to spreading the joy and love of meaningful Torah learning worldwide. If you’re enjoying this podcast, help support our work by subscribing to Aleph Beta.
For past episodes of Into the Verse, go to our website, alephbeta.org, where a premium subscription gets you access to all of our past episodes and our full library of over 1,000 videos and podcasts on the parsha, holidays, and so much more!
Follow us on your favorite social media.

Parshat Bo is where the Exodus really happens. God sends the last plagues and tells the Israelites to prepare for liberation, and on the night of the tenth plague, Pharaoh finally gives the order: Leave now. But just when the Israelites are gearing up to get out of Egypt, there are a few details that seem to slow the action down. For one thing, there are God’s instructions: “Get your shoes on, be ready to leave... but don’t walk out of your houses!” And for another, God specifically picks a longer road out of Egypt, because the other one is “nearby.” What should we make of these strange facts?

In this episode, Ari Levisohn takes a closer look and discovers surprising parallels with an earlier Biblical story. There was another nighttime escape from an evil place, another moment when people had to get ready to leave. And it turns out that when we read these two stories together, we learn something new – not only about the Exodus, but about the meaning of liberation itself.

Want even more textual parallels? You can find Ari's full chart here.

What did you think of this episode? We’d genuinely like to hear your thoughts, questions, and feedback. Leave us a voice message – just click record, and let your thoughts flow.
Into the Verse is a project of Aleph Beta, a Torah media company dedicated to spreading the joy and love of meaningful Torah learning worldwide. If you’re enjoying this podcast, help support our work by subscribing to Aleph Beta.
For past episodes of Into the Verse, go to our website, alephbeta.org, where a premium subscription gets you access to all of our past episodes and our full library of over 1,000 videos and podcasts on the parsha, holidays, and so much more!
Follow us on your favorite social media.

Rosh Hashanah – it’s Yom Hadin, the Day of Judgment, right? God is going to judge the whole world and decide its fate for the coming year. And our job is to search our hearts, confront our misdeeds from the past, and do teshuvah, repentance. Sounds like a big responsibility! But as it turns out, the Torah itself doesn’t say anything about Rosh Hashanah’s being Judgment Day. So how does the Torah explain what Rosh Hashanah is about, if it’s not about judgment? And what did the Sages see in the Torah’s take on Rosh Hashanah that led to the idea of Yom Hadin?

Listen in as Imu and Rabbi Fohrman explore the question of what Rosh Hashanah really is primarily about. We’ll get some clues from the prayers that we say on this day, and we’ll see how we might be able to stand before God and ourselves, truly celebrating and even looking forward to this holiday.

Here’s the course Beth recommended on relating to God through the Rosh Hashanah prayers: How Do I Get Closer to God?

What did you think of this episode? We’d genuinely like to hear your thoughts, questions, and feedback. Leave us a voice message – just click record, and let your thoughts flow.
Into the Verse is a project of Aleph Beta, a Torah media company dedicated to spreading the joy and love of meaningful Torah learning worldwide. If you’re enjoying this podcast, help support our work by subscribing to Aleph Beta.
For past episodes of Into the Verse, go to our website, alephbeta.org, where a premium subscription gets you access to all of our past episodes and our full library of over 1,000 videos and podcasts on the parsha, holidays, and so much more!
Follow us on your favorite social media.