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Answers WithHeld
A podcast where we confront big questions with bold thinking and honest searching. Each week, Rabbi Shai Held sits down with a leading thinker or teacher to explore one powerful Jewish idea. This podcast doesn’t have all the answers, but it can uncover new insights and model what it means to take Torah and Jewish thought seriously.
Podcasting since 2024 • 22 episodes
Answers WithHeld
Latest Episodes
Dreaming of the Messiah: What Can We Learn from Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook?
Was Rabbi Kook a mystic, a radical, or a realist? And what did he really believe about redemption?In this season finale, Rabbi Shai Held is joined by Professor Yehudah Mirsky to unpack the bold and complex messianic vision of Rabbi Abraham ...
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39:23
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Is Torah Study the Highest Value?
Is studying Torah really the most important thing a Jew can do? Or is that just something rabbis say—because they're the ones doing the studying? In this episode, Rabbi Shai Held talks with Rabbanit Devorah Zlochower about the value and limits ...
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42:55
Judaism and the Heart
Is lighting candles, giving tzedakah, or saying a prayer enough if your heart’s not in it? Rabbis Shai Held and Josh Feigelson sit down to explore what it means to live a heart-centered Jewish life—and why it matters more than we often think. T...
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38:17
Where is God? Lessons from the Book of Ruth
What does it mean to embody God’s love in a world where God sometimes feels absent?In this episode, Rabbi Shai Held is joined by Christian biblical scholars Dr. Judy Fentress-Williams and Dr. Ellen Davis to explore what the Book of Ruth rev...
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41:58
Questions That Can't be Answered: The Theology of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik
What do we do with the questions that have no answers? How does Jewish faith confront suffering, loneliness, and finitude? And how did Soloveitchik's own life—marked by grief, tradition, and the tension between reason and revelation—shape his u...
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36:04