Classes by Mordechai Dinerman
Episodes
The Hostage Dilemma: Part III (Israel, 1970–1976)
09 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this class (third of a four-part series), we look at the halachic debate over freeing hostages as it unfolded in Israel during the 1970s. After the...
The Hostage Dilemma: Part II
25 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Today, we’re returning to the topic of hostages in Jewish history. Last time, we spent most of our attention on the exceptions to the rule. This tim...
The Hostage Dilemma: Part I
17 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This class takes up one of the most challenging moral questions in Halachah: how far should we go to redeem captives? We’ll look at how this issue u...
Bidding Wars: Inside the History of Selling Shul Honors
24 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this class, we’ll trace how the sale of mitzvos in shul began, why it caught on, and how it spread across the Jewish world. We’ll look at halac...
We’ve Been Singing It All Wrong? Solving the V'chol Maaminim Mystery
19 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Ever feel like some piyutim just don’t flow right, as if the stanzas are out of order? Join us for a historical detective journey as we trace the pi...
The Saga of Shul Shmoozing: A Historical Look at Talking in Shul Across the Centuries
11 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Jews have been talking in shul for centuries, and rabbis and communities have tried countless ways to stop it. From twelfth-century Cairo to the Lower...
The Cantonist Crisis
22 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In 1827, Czar Nicholas I decreed that Jewish boys and young men be conscripted into the Russian army, a policy that shook Jewish life in Russia to its...
The Four Halls That Never Were: A Critical Look at Yosifun’s Design of the Beis Hamikdash
30 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this class, we will delve into the architectural anomaly of the “four halls” described in Yosifun’s account of the Beis HaMikdash. This descr...
The Draft Dilemma: The Chilling Reality of Jews Deciding Who Gets Drafted
04 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What do you do when the government demands soldiers and says you have to choose who goes? That’s exactly what Jewish communities in the late 1700s f...
The Dilemma of Handing Over One to Save Many
20 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Can a Jewish community surrender one of its own to save the many? This class explores three cases from the 1600s and 1700s, where this wrenching quest...
The Rabbi Who Couldn’t Quit Gambling
10 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Today, we’ll examine the debate in Venice in 1630 over a communal ban against gambling. Local leaders moved to outlaw games of chance, but Rabbi Yeh...
Up High or Down Low? The Battle Over the Proper Trop for the Aseres Hadibros
28 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In 1725, Rabbi Zalman Hena published Shaarei Tefilah and sparked controversy by calling for a complete stop to the use of taam ha’elyon—the unique...
The Great Semicha Controversy, Part II
20 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Today, we’re picking up where we left off in the story of chidush hasemicha. We’ll look at what unfolded after Rabbi Levi ibn Chabib pushed back a...
The Great Semicha Controversy, 1538
13 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
After the Spanish Expulsion, a group of leading rabbis in Tzfas, led by Rabbi Yaakov Beirav, set out to revive semichah—the original form of judici...
The Doctored Talmud: Prague, 1728
06 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
There’s a long and painful history of the Gemara being censored in Christian lands, but in 1728, a draconian form of censorship led to the publicati...
The Marranos’ Secret Pesach
02 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Sometime in the mid-1400s, Rabbi Shlomo Duran of Algiers penned a remarkable teshuvah directed at a group of conversos in Spain. These individuals, ...
The Machine Matzah Controversy
02 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the 1850s, a groundbreaking innovation was introduced in Galicia: machines to facilitate matzah production. What followed was a fierce and dramatic...
The Story of the Alter Rebbe’s Script
26 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Alter Rebbe’s unique script for safrus has a rich and winding history. It has been inked, shelved, revived, and debated—and everyone seems t...
Rambam, the Almohads, and the Secret Jews
13 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the mid-12th century, the Almohads swept across North Africa and Spain, driven by a vision of a strictly unified Muslim society. For the Jewish com...
Rambam to the Rescue: His Legendary Letter to Yemen
28 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the 1170s, the Jewish community in Yemen faced an existential crisis: a radical ruler forced them to convert to Islam, an apostate Jew spread anti-...
The Regensburg Blood Libel
21 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the 1470s, a series of outrageous blood libels were leveled against Jewish communities in the Germanic lands, including one in Regensburg. To secur...
The Scandalous Marriage, 1348
24 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
On the fifteenth of Shevat, 1348, in the city of Tudela, a man named Yosef performed kidushin with a young woman named Belita. What began as a seemi...
Taxes and Tensions: The Story of Jewish Tax Disputes in Medieval Spain
17 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Rabbi Shlomo ben Aderes, the legendary rabbi and leader of Barcelona, received countless questions during his tenure, many of which have been preserve...
Josephus
09 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The book known as Yosifun, cherished in traditional Jewish circles, and the books of Josephus, preserved in Greek and Latin by non-Jewish hands, spark...
Lost Lights of Chanukah: Exploring the Books of Maccabees
02 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Books of Maccabees tell the dramatic story of the Chanukah revolt and the heroism of the Jewish fighters. But who wrote these books, and why were ...
The Titanic Question: The Halachic Dilemma of Men Lost at Sea
13 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When a shipwreck in the 1500s left families wondering about the fate of their loved ones, rabbinic authorities debated whether the wives of the missin...
Benches, Bargains, and Bickering: Shul Seating in the Middle Ages
29 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We kick things off with seven fascinating stories from the teshuvos of medieval Spain, where we discover shul seats being treated like real estate: bo...
The Climate Clash: Rain, Rabbis, and Rulings for the Southern Hemisphere
22 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In the 1630s, pioneering Jewish immigrants in Brazil asked when they should daven for rain, given that their seasons were reversed from those in Europ...
The Warder Cresson Story
08 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In 1848, a man in Jerusalem on a journey to Judaism was devastated when told he must desecrate Shabbos because, despite undergoing a bris, he wasn’t...
The Rebbe’s Rashi: Insights from Manuscripts and Incunabula Editions
01 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
As we mark the 60th anniversary of the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s sichos on Rashi, we will dive into how the Rebbe engaged with some of the earliest print ...
Rooted in Tradition: The Calabria Esrog Story
10 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Why has the Chabad community favored esrogim from Calabria? In this class, we’ll explore the backstory, diving into the halachic debates about graft...
Lost in the Geniza: An Anonymous Teshuvah on the Two-Day Yom Tov Debate
28 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
From the Cairo Geniza, we uncover an ancient Judeo-Arabic rabbinic essay offering unique insights into the history and development of the Jewish calen...
The Vanishing Verses: Curious Cases of Textual Tampering in Our Machzor
24 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this class, we will analyze four beautiful piyutim that we chant on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, uncovering some structural oddities along the w...
Art of the Blast: Shofar Blowing Customs in Medieval Manuscripts
11 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we’re diving into fascinating early 16th-century woodcut images and priceless medieval machzor manuscripts to see how they portray ...
Fowl Play: The Great Turkey-Chicken Debate of the 19th Century
04 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In the 1860s, European Jewish communities faced a unique halachic challenge: the arrival of new chicken breeds from distant lands. As these exotic fow...
Dreams of Revision: The Role of Dreams in Altering Halachic Rulings
21 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In the 1970s, a Chabad journal in Israel published a story about the Alter Rebbe reversing a halachic ruling based on a dream, sparking significant co...
The Rabbi Who Wouldn’t Wait: A Proposal to Reinstate the Korbanos
08 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In the 1830s, Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch Kalischer penned an extensive letter to one of the Rothschilds, seeking his support for an ambitious plan to reinstate...
Unconditional Love: A Commemorative Study of a Talk by the Lubavitcher Rebbe
02 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
As we approach Gimmel Tammuz, marking the Rebbe’s thirtieth Hilula, we’re doing something different: a text-based class on an important talk by th...
The Provocative Portrait: Unveiling the True Face of Moshe Rabbeinu
18 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Rabbi Yisrael Lifshitz, a well-known commentator on the Mishnah, included a provocative legend about Moshe Rabbeinu in his writings, suggesting that M...
Yom Tov Burial: The Talmud, the Rishonim, and the Baal Shem Tov
05 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Baal Shem Tov passed away on Shavuos in 1760, but the exact day of his passing and the time and manner of his burial have long been subjects of co...
The Masada Martyrs: Halachic Perspectives on History’s Hardest Choices
22 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
How does a halachic mind interpret the harrowing events at Masada, where Jewish rebels chose death at their own hands over surrender? In this class, w...
Grain Matters: Navigating the Chadash Predicament Across the Centuries
15 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Throughout history, Jewish communities have thrived in diverse locales, each presenting unique agricultural schedules. While adhering to the prohibiti...
The Frankist Blood Libel
08 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In 1759, a clandestine faction of Shabetai Tzvi’s followers in Poland committed a startling act: they collectively converted to Christianity while s...
The Kittsee Haggadah
10 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Kittsee Haggadah The library of Agudas Chasidei Chabad houses a remarkable manuscript crafted in 1760 by the talented scribe and artist Chaim be...
The Printers’ Clash: The Battle Over Rambam’s Mishneh Torah, Venice 1550
08 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In the year 1550, two non-Jewish printers published competing editions of Rambam’s Mishneh Torah. One of them partnered with an esteemed rabbi from ...
Seduction and Sacrifice: From the Purim Story to the Responsa Literature
20 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
There have been tragic instances where Jewish women felt compelled to take drastic measures to save the lives of their fellow Jews. When rabbis were p...
Scrolls, Scribes, and Shortcuts: An Incomplete Megilah in the Cairo Geniza
13 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Today, we explore enigmatic Megilahs, where the absence of the text eclipses the written word. We’ll learn that this peculiar phenomenon is just a f...
Lost Scrolls, Lost Souls: A Spanish Jew’s Plea to Rediscover Tanach | Favorite Episodes
27 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Tunisian Jews used to refer to Tanach with a very odd name, and few understood why. Fortunately, illuminated medieval Jewish manuscripts can help solv...
The Scandalous History of Aleinu
19 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
When we examine medieval manuscripts that feature Aleinu, we uncover intriguing instances of censorship within this ancient prayer. What motivated the...
The Meaning of Dreaming: Talmudic Perspectives | Favorite Episodes
12 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Favorite Episodes Are our dreams significant? Do they have predictive value? Should we pay heed to their warnings? The Talmud seems to offer contradi...
Rambam’s Menorah: Insights from Ancient Hebrew Manuscripts | Favorite Episodes
06 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Click here to view the class PowerPoint slides. Favorite Episodes | Initially released in July 2023. We are all acquainted with the renowned depiction...
Between Ashkenaz and Sefard: Medieval Women, Biblical Dena, and the Public Square | Favorite Episodes
29 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Favorite Episodes | Initially released in December 2022. We can learn about the public presence of women in a given society by examining how various r...
In the Dungeons of the Inquisition
25 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we explore the intriguing narrative of a Jew named Shlomo, also known as Fillipo, who found himself ensnared by the Inquisition in Ve...
The Heartless Chicken
18 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We examine the tale of the heartless chicken that ignited lively discussion among rabbinic authorities in the year 1709. We introduce the pivotal figu...
The Puzzle of Peshat: Rashbam’s Controversial Commentary
11 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In 1158, Rabbi Avraham ibn Ezra found himself disturbed by a provocative dream, which ultimately inspired him to author a treatise concerning the pro...
The History of Kol Nidrei
20 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Kol Nidrei has been associated with controversy since its inception, and we’re here to delve deep into its intriguing story. We’ll unravel the cri...
The History and Evolution of the Chabad Machzor
13 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
What is the story behind the Chabad Machzor? In the first part of this class, we find ourselves comparing two sacred machzorim. The current Chabad Mac...
Troubling Tales: The Rebbe’s Approach to Controversial Stories
31 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Lubavitcher Rebbe raised an interesting question on the renowned tale of Rabbi Amnon and Unesaneh Tokef. We’ll show that this comment was just t...
The Politics of Divorce: King Henry’s Wives and the Italian Rabbis
25 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Delve into the riveting saga of King Henry VIII’s marital turmoil as he sought to dissolve his marriage in order to marry a second queen. We’ll di...
Dancing with History: The 15th of Av and Its Legacy in Renaissance Jewry
02 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This class delves into the story of Jews during the 1500s who were drawn to the Renaissance and embraced immodest dancing. They sought justification i...
Rambam’s Menorah: Insights from Ancient Hebrew Manuscripts
26 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We are all acquainted with the renowned depiction of the menorah created by the Rambam. In this class, we dig into the story of this image. Where did ...
The Controversial Haskamah
19 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Starting in the 1870s, a visionary Jerusalem rabbi was consumed by the idea of resurrecting the ancient mitzvah of guarding the site of the Beis Hamik...
Techeles: A Tangled Tale
05 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
During the late 1880s, an audacious endeavor was set forth by the Radziner Rebbe, aimed at renewing the ancient legacy of techeles through his arduous...
The Missing Section in the Shulchan Aruch
28 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It’s truly astonishing: the Shulchan Aruch, the most important work of Jewish law, doesn’t codify the mitzvah of ahavas Yisrael and many of its re...
Banned and Burned: The 1232 Controversy Surrounding Rambam’s Works
21 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In today’s episode, we turn our attention to the dispute over the Rambam’s works that took place in Europe in 1232. The controversy revolved aroun...
Remembering and Forgetting: The History of Chof Sivan | Replay
08 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This day has a sad history of persecution, but also an interesting tendency to be taken seriously at first, only to peter out after some time. Rememb...
In the Wake of Shabtai Tzvi’s Betrayal
07 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In the summer of 1666, Shabtai Tzvi’s conversion to Islam shattered hopes and dreams, leaving Jewish communities grappling with the aftermath of a f...
Women and the Study of Talmud
31 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Over the past century, significant changes have occurred in the area of women’s Torah education, but a vibrant and ongoing debate about this subject...
The Lion and the Snake: Tensions Over Artistic Expression in the Medieval Sanctuary
17 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Step back in time as we delve into a fascinating story about the Jewish communities of Cologne and Mayence around the period of the First Crusade. We ...
Rashba’s Rebuttal: Defending Judaism in Medieval Barcelona
03 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Rabbi Shlomo ben Aderes (Rashba) took a maximalist position about the eternality of mitzvos, arguing that none of them could ever be suspended, not ev...
Censoring Rambam’s Mishneh Torah in Czarist Russia
26 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In 1850, an unusual edition of Rambam’s Mishneh Torah was published in czarist Russia. A perusal of this work reveals that it was censored in a pecu...
The Fate of the Marranos
19 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In 1636, the Sephardic Jewish community in Amsterdam was embroiled in a heated debate over the fate of their converso relatives residing as Christians...
First Edition: The Rebbe’s References to the 1485 Soncino Haggadah
29 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In his commentary on the Haggadah, the Lubavitcher Rebbe referenced many different sources from the vast library of Judaism, but three of them stand o...
Vanished Hero: Exploring the Absence of Moshe in the Haggadah
22 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Join us for an in-depth discussion exploring the enigmatic absence of Moshe’s name from the Haggadah text. While his name does appear once in the te...
The King’s Prayer: A Controversial Statement by a 19th-Century Rabbi
15 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In today’s episode, we will step back in time to explore the controversy that erupted when a famous rabbi made a controversial statement about Dovid...
Zecher vs. Zeicher: Unraveling the Parshas Zachor Mystery
01 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Join us on this episode as we explore the centuries-old debate surrounding the placement of a tzeirei or segol in the reading for Parshas Zachor. Thro...
History and Development of the Talmudic Page
22 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Join us on a journey through the rich history of Talmudic manuscripts and print editions. You will learn that although we don’t have manuscripts tha...
Debating the Death Penalty
15 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In 1615, the Jewish community in Poland was confronted with a disturbing accusation of murder against one of its members. At the time, contemporary ra...
Dividing Tanach into Chapters: A Historical Overview
08 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The division of Tanach into chapters didn’t originate with Jewish scholars or rabbis. This class surveys when, how, and why this became an accepted ...
Secrets of a Chozer: An Interview with Rabbi Simon Jacobson
30 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
(0:38) – General Introduction (3:08) – Rabbi Jacobson’s introduction about תורת חב"ד (7:36) – Introduction about himself...
Loathing Our Clothing: The Despot’s Decree and Rabbinic Response
25 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In 1844, the Czar of Russia issued a ban on traditional Jewish clothing worn by Eastern European Jews for centuries, leaving the community with a dile...
Burning of the Books: The Alter Rebbe, the Gra, and the Tzimtzum Tussle
18 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In 1796, a work of the Baal Shem Tov’s teachings was consigned to the flames. What were the specific passages in this book that some deemed objectio...
The Nile on Trial: 16th-Century Rabbis and Aquatic Science
12 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In 1549, the rabbinical court in Cairo held hearings and engaged in extensive research to learn about the source of the annual flooding of the Nile. T...
Evolution of the Tanya: Timely Lessons from the Eighteenth-Century Battle against Chasidism
04 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The pre-print manuscripts of Tanya shed light on what the Alter Rebbe added to this seminal text at a later stage. Curiously, three of the most notabl...
When A London Rabbi Was Accused of Heresy
16 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In November 1703, Rabbi David Nieto delivered a controversial sermon at the Bevis Marks Synagogue in London, causing a rift in the local Jewish commun...
Between Ashkenaz and Sefard: Medieval Women, Biblical Dena, and the Public Square
07 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
We can learn about the public presence of women in a given society by examining how various rabbis understood the story of Dina. We’ll witness the d...
The Meaning of Dreaming: Talmudic Perspectives
30 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Are our dreams significant? Do they have predictive value? Should we pay heed to their warnings? The Talmud seems to offer contradictory teachings on ...
Liturgical Warfare Among 16th-Century Italian Jews
23 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
As Italian Jews immigrated to the Ottoman Empire during the sixteenth century, many wanted to switch to the Sephardic liturgical style. The question t...
Is It Kosher To Elope? Marriage Without Parental Consent
16 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Does the mitzvah of honoring parents imply that parents wield halachic control over their children’s marriage? Intriguingly, this question became a ...
Friday Night Kiddush Between 6 and 7
09 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This class traces the minhag of avoiding the recitation of the Friday night kiddush during the seventh hour after midday. When and why did this custom...
After A Decade of Barrenness: What Actually Happens
02 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Talmud famously rules that a childless couple must divorce after ten years of infertility. Yet, this law has often been overlooked, a reality that...
The Battle Over Machnisei Rachamim (Part 2)
21 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In the previous episode, we witnessed some of the greatest halachic figures waging war against Machnisei Rachamim and a number of other piyutim. In Pa...
The Battle Over Machnisei Rachamim (Part 1)
14 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
It’s a beloved piece of liturgy, recited as we begin the new year. But some of the greatest halachic figures waged war against it, suggesting that i...
Buried Alive: The 18th-Century Halachic Debate
07 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In 1772, the Duke of Mecklenburg decreed that Jews could not bury their dead until three days after death. The Jewish community faced difficult questi...
The Cracow Couple and Rama's Remarkable Responsum
31 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A controversial wedding ceremony ca. 1550 sheds important light on the inner rabbinic process, the history of Jewish marriage, and the limits of ...
The Rebbe Rashab, Zionism, and Expediting the End
10 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Rebbe Rashab invoked “dechikas haketz” as one reason to be against Zionism. What are the contours of this prohibition? Does it still apply? T...
The Barcelona Disputation: Was Moshiach Born on Tisha B’Av?
03 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
At two medieval disputations, a famous Midrash was invoked to argue that Moshiach had already come. The rabbinic approaches to this Midrash unveil dif...
The Mekashya Mystery
27 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Tunisian Jews used to refer to Tanach as Mekashya, but few understood why. Fortunately, illuminated medieval Jewish manuscripts can help solve th...
Does Israel Amount to (the Beginnings of) Kibutz Goliyos?
24 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Rebbe Rashab addressed this issue when confronted with Zionism, and the Rebbe did the same a few decades later after the State of Israel was estab...
The Day After: Reacting to Moshiach’s Not Coming in Chabad History
20 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
How have Jewish sages responded when a predicted Messianic time didn’t materialize? Here we focus on this phenomenon within Chabad history. The Day...