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On the Other Hand: bringing you different perspectives for everyday problems.
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On the Other Hand: Ten Minutes of Torah, a podcast presented by ReformJudaism.org. Each week, Rabbi Rick Jacobs, President of the Union For Reform Judaism, will offer divrei Torah (insights into the weekly Torah portion) to help open up Jewish thought and its contemporary influence on your life. He condenses 2,000 years of Jewish wisdom into just 10 minutes of modern-day commentary. There are plenty of ways to interpret Torah and we want to hear what you think. You can weigh in on this week’ ...
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After four years of bringing you a new episode nearly every week, this podcast is taking a little break. Listen to this episode to learn more about our hiatus and where to find us in the meantime.
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Most of us today aren’t tasked with wandering through the desert, like the ancient Israelites were... but we still find plenty to kvetch about! What if, instead of focusing on small annoyances, we turned to community-building and togetherness? This episode first aired in May 2018.
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Parashat Naso, the longest of all the Torah portions, features a famous blessing – but what does it mean for us to bless one another? Is it a power reserved for clergy, or is it something any of us can do? In this episode, which first aired in May 2017, Rabbi Rick Jacobs talks about what kind of actions constitute a blessing and who, exactly, we ha…
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Chag Sameach and welcome to a special Shavuot edition of On the Other Hand! On this week’s holiday episode, Rabbi Rick Jacobs talks about Ruth, her connection to this unique Jewish festival, and what her story of unity and bridge-building means for us as we celebrate Shavuot today.
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Parashat Naso includes a passage about the sotah, the "errant woman" who is accused of adultery. It's a complex and problematic part of ancient Judaism, says Rabbi Rick Jacobs, so sometimes it's deliberately avoided. In this episode, though, which originally aired in June 2019, we deliberatly dive into figuring out what it means to us today.…
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The Torah commands us to take a census of the “whole Israelite community” – but who does the counting, and who, exactly, is counted? In this episode, which first aired in June 2019, Rabbi Rick Jacobs reflects on the Jewish community's chronic undercounting Jews of Color, as reported by a recent study. What does it mean to make equitable choices, an…
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How much do you care about the environment? Yourself? Other people? Rabbi Rick Jacobs talks about our fundamental responsibility to care for God’s earth and attend to the neediest among us. It’s not a newfangled, 21st-century idea; it’s literally what our age-old biblical text calls for. So how do we do it? (This episode originally aired in May 201…
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In ancient times, crimes of blasphemy were punished by stoning - but what does it really mean today to blaspheme? Rabbi Rick Jacobs explains the biblical prohibition against Chilul HaShem, desecrating God's name, and talks about what we are called to do to combat it. (This episode originally aired in May 2019.)…
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Let's talk about love: Torah talks about three kinds of love - and in fact, the phrase “love the stranger” appears in the Torah 36 times. Why is it written so often? Who is "the stranger," anyway? And who might be the strangers in our own lives? In this episode, which originally aired in April 2017, Rabbi Rick Jacobs talks about what it means to mo…
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For many Jews, Parashiyot Tazria and M’tzora are perhaps the most nerve-inducing of all the Torah portions. After all, none of us is exactly eager to discuss leprosy - or the fact that, in our ancient Jewish texts, illness is often seen as a metaphor for punishment for sin. In this episode, which originally aired in April 2017, Rabbi Rick Jacobs ta…
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Parashat Sh'mini tells of the deaths of two men who are though to have been punished for the sin was innovation - but today, don't we look at innovation as a positive thing? In this episode, originally released in March 2019, Rabbi Rick Jacobs says, "Innovators in Jewish life have always had serious pushback." Why? And what can we do about it? He e…
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Why is this Passover not like all other Passovers? How can we observe this festival meaningfully and connected to one another during this COVID-19 pandemic? How can we use Passover’s plagues to inspire us to combat the literal and figurative plagues that infect humanity today? This week, Rabbi Rick Jacobs shares his insight and advice for making th…
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Jewish wisdom says a child’s Torah education should start with the Book of Leviticus. As we read its second portion, Parashat Tzav, we share an episode that first ran in 2018, just after a school shooting in Parkland, FL, killed 17 people and injured 17 more. Rabbi Rick Jacobs stresses the importance of fighting for and with our young people, raisi…
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How can we find modern meaning in ancient rituals? From our "greatest hits" collection comes this episode from March 2019, featuring Rabbi Rick Jacobs in conversation with acclaimed author A.J. Jacobs, perhaps best known for his book The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally As Possible. Together, they t…
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Four years after launching our weekly Torah podcast, we’re getting ready to shake things up a little! Exciting new changes are coming to On the Other Hand: Ten Minutes of Torah – so take a quick listen to this special announcement for a sneak peek of what to expect in the days and weeks to come.
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In Vayak’heil-P’kudei, we see that God was so pleased with the Israelites’ sacred space (the Tabernacle) that God’s own presence descended upon them as they wandered through the desert. This week, Rabbi Rick Jacobs is joined by Rabbi Aryeh Azriel of the Tri-Faith Initiative in Omaha, NE who discusses how the Initiative came to be, how he co-created…
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What is the Jewish approach to anger? How do we deal with it in a way that’s healthy? This week, Rabbi Rick Jacobs explores Parashah Ki Tisa and explores God’s anger toward the Israelites for their idolatry as well as the impact that our own anger can have on ourselves.
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This week, Rabbi Rick Jacobs takes a look at parashat T’tzaveh, in which the Israelites are commanded to create the ner tamid (eternal light) in the Tabernacle. He wonders: How is light symbolic in the Jewish tradition, and how can we best shine our own light toward others?
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In this week’s Parashah, the Israelites contribute whatever they can to Moses in order to help build the Mishkan (Tabernacle). Join Rabbi Rick Jacobs and special guest Andrés Spokoiny (President and CEO of the Jewish Funders Network - https://www.jfunders.org) as they discuss how we, similarly, can work together to build something sacred to benefit…
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What does it mean to be "mindful," to truly slow down and pay attention to what's happening in our daily lives? This week, Rabbi Rick Jacobs explores this question through Parashat Misphatim when God beckons Moses to not only come up to a mountain, but to also "be" there.
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In Parashat Yitro, we are instructed to honor our parents, in part so that we may live longer lives. Rabbi Rick Jacobs takes a look at this commandment and wonders: What does honoring our parents mean, especially as our parents grow older, or if our relationships with them are complicated?
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This week, Rabbi Rick Jacobs discusses Parashat B'shalach and the powerful image of Aaron and Hur lifting Moses' hands as he grew weary. How can this story inspire us to lift our own hands in prayer and in strengthening one another, and how can we share leadership equitably the way our patriarchs did in this story?…
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This week, Rabbi Rick Jacobs takes a look at Parashat Bo and the behaviors of the Israelites during the Exodus from Egypt. He asks how we can use this story's moral framework, and our Jewish texts to understand and contextualize the idea of reparations owed to the descendants of kidnapped and enslaved Africans in the United States today.…
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This week, Rabbi Rick Jacobs discusses Parashat Va'eira and reflects on the commonalities between revolutionary leaders like Moses and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and how important it is that we fight tirelessly against injustice.
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This week, as we move into the book of Exodus, we transition from learning about Joseph to learning about another Jewish leader: Moses. Rabbi Rick Jacobs wonders what it means to be a Jewish leader, and how leaders like Joseph, Moses, and others can inspire us to lead and serve in our communities today.…
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