Keep the Faith with Shammai Engelmayer
Rabbi Shammai Engelmayer—author, lecturer, Judaica-related adult-ed teacher, and bi-weekly columnist for The Jewish Standard—discusses contemporary issues through the prism of Jewish law and tradition. If you believe Judaism is out of touch with today's world, this podcast may give you reason to reconsider.
Episodes
159 episodes
Episode No. 161: Immigration, Trump, and the Bible
Jewish texts, Christian texts, neither of them matter to the man who claims he wants to make America a Christian nation espousing Christian values. Immigration is the perfect example. On a scale of 1 to 10, when it comes to honoring biblical la...
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13:51
Episode No. 160--What the Kosher Laws Tell Us About Trump
There's no disconnect here. The laws of permitted and forbidden creatures have much to say about the rule of law and what it means to act as if one is above the law. The audio quality may not be great this week, but the message is an important ...
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13:34
Episode No. 159--the Carefree Guide to Passover Made Easy
All things Passover, all things Pesach, are high up on the contemporary issues list, starting with the budge-busting shopping needed to buy the foods we're allowed to have in our homes on Pesach. And what about some of the foods we’re no...
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29:28
Episode No. 158--Judges Under Attack
On Sunday morning, February 9th, I couldn’t help but do exactly the opposite after I ran through my morning news feed. That’s because one item in the news that morning made my heart rejoice and my mind to conjure up the image of Elon Musk runni...
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14:07
Episode No. 157--should we celebrate the newyear
Planning on celebrating New Year's tonight and tomorrow? If yes, listen at your own risk! The kvetch who ruined Chrismukkah is at it again. If you do listen, it runs under 20 minutes and there's a lot of study material packed into it, so you mi...
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19:52
Episode # 155: The Real Reasons Harris Lost, Reasons Judaism Rejects As Repugnant
Don't be fooled by what the pundits tell us about why Donald Trump won and Kamala Harris lost. While their analyses have some merit, they skirt the two issues that the results themselves prove were the real reasons Harris lost: she was a she, n...
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16:10
Episode No. 153—How green are our festivals?
Given the devastation caused by Hurricanes Helene and Milton and other horrific storms around the world, all blamed on global warming, Sukkot, which arrives Wednesday night, offers us an opportunity to discuss this question: What does “green,” ...
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20:31
episode # 152—The High Holy Days Explained
We’re podcasting a few days early this week because the High Holy Days begin tomorrow evening, which is when Rosh Hashanah 5785 begins. Very few people really understand what the purpose of this 10-day period that ends on Yom Kippur is—but we n...
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21:39
Episode # 151--Hate, Robinson, Trump, the GOP and Election 2024
Shammai's Episode No. 151We need to take the issue of hate very seriously as we approach the Election 2024 finish line, because of North Carolina Gubernatorial Candidate Mark Robinson’s long well-documented history of hateful rhetori...
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21:18
Episode # 150--A Tale of Two Netanyahu Brothers
Summer is over and we’re back to our biweekly schedule. The topic for this week is how Benjamin Netanyahu has dishonored the memory of his brother, someone over whose dead body he built his career. That is what Benjamin Netanyahu did. He began ...
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24:01
Episode No. 149: The True Nature of Tishah B'Av
In this special summer episode, the contemporary issue being explored is the one day in every Jewish year that way too many of us choose to ignore (assuming that we even know it exists): the grueling nearly 35-hour fast smack in the middle of s...
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16:56
Episode No. 148: The Trump Shooting
I contend that former President Trump, because of his rhetoric, is to blame for creating the atmosphere that allowed that horror to happen. I also blame his rhetoric for the culture of violence in America. I cite chapter and verse from his stat...
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37:25
Episode No. 147: Our Democracy is Teetering On the Brink
As we prepare to celebrate the creation of this democratic republic of ours, two seemingly unrelated events (they are very much related in a profound way) threaten to fundamentally change this country--and not in a good way. Those events are th...
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30:33
Episode No. 146--The Ten Yet Again
Once again, a state’s display of the Ten Commandments has become an issue that will most certainly be appealed all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court, which narrowly decided the issue 44 years ago, but this time may be different. The Ten Comm...
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23:48
Episode No. 145--The Ongoing Campus and Other Protests
The ignorance being displayed by college campus protestors is astounding--and it bodes ill for this country as well as for Israel. This isn't a very long episode, but it IS an important one.
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13:57
Episode No. 144--Haggadah Issues
The way to have constructive and meaningful s'darim next week is to study the Haggadah beforehand. That requires some help from more modern versions and haggadah commentaries. This episode explains why. It's being released several days ea...
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24:10
Episode No. 142--Keeping Kosher Without the Pain
What do I know about Jewish law? I'm a heretic. I can't tell you how many times I've heard that nonsense over the years—including from some members of my own family. So this week I'm going to let someone else say the things about keeping kosher...
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18:37
Episode No. 141--Purim
Purim begins after Shabbat ends and lasts until sundown on Sunday. You might think you know all there is to know about Purim. If you do, this episode may show how much more there is to know about the book from which Purim sprung--Megillat Esthe...
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29:09
Episode No. 140: Calendar Conundrums
What with last Thursday having been Leap Day, with the leap month of Adar II beginning on Saturday evening with Rosh Chodesh, and the Muslim month of Ramadan beginning on Monday, I thought it would be interesting to leap into a discussion of ho...
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22:47
Episode No. 139--Gun violence and what Judaism says we must do about it
At 10 a.m. this morning, when I recorded this episode, there already had been 2,266 people who died by guns so far this year. That number is now up to 2,294. That averages out to nearly two gun deaths every hour since the new year began....
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23:57
Episode No. 138--Dangerous weather and what Judaism says we must do about it
The weather these days is a killer--literally. Scores of thousands of people died in 2023 of severe weather-related causes, and deaths are already mounting in the first six weeks of 2024. Judaism has much to say about our role in minimizing the...
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22:21
Episode No. 137--MLK Day and why Jews should celebrate it
On Monday, we here in the United States and also in Israel will celebrate Martin Luther King Day. That we celebrate this day here is understandable and commendable. After all, he was a great warrior for equality and justice for all people. But ...
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21:14
Episode No. 136--Israel and the rise of Jew-hatred worldwide
We who do not live in Israel have always maintained that we have no right to interfere in the Jewish state's internal affairs. Given the explosion of Jew-hatred we are seeing around the world, however, it is clear that "Jew" and "Israel" are sy...
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