A core thread running through Jewish tradition is a continuous yearning toward a promised future. In our holy texts, the Prophets preach to a people in exile of a day in which they will be gathered together again in their land with God. In our davening, we pray for the future rebuilding of Jerusalem and the Holy Temple. Each week when we observe Shabbat, we imagine it as a taste of the more perfect world-to-come. We live in the reality of now—and we are always waiting and striving for a promised future.

In this episode of the Shofar, So Good! podcast, host Kate Mishkin delves into havruta learning, the Jewish tradition of studying Torah in pairs. The goal of this paired endeavor: arguing "for the sake of heaven." Kate speaks with Hadar's Rabbi Avi Killip as well as Pedagogy of Partnership's Dr. Orit Kent to explore what exactly that means, teaches us about Jewish history's most famous study partners, and learns how AI is changing havruta learning. Then, Kate and her dad become havrutas.

You can check out the Shofar, So Good! podcast here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/shofar-so-good/id1773839577

Where there is order, there is the potential for disorder. Where forces are held back, there is the potential for them to break free.

Last week, in Parashat Bereishit, God ordered the world, separating light from darkness, the upper waters from the lower waters, dry land from water, and the powerful tehom, the watery depths at the foundation of God’s world, was held at bay. A fragile kind of existence was created which allowed for the creation of life in these new conditions. But in Parashat Noah, we see what happens when the tehom breaks free. The question our parashah poses is: what happens next?

This class explores the competing claims to religious authority in the Talmudic era between the Land of Israel and Babylonia. Through close reading of selected stories and debates in the Talmud, one can trace a broader struggle over where Torah resides and who has the authority to shape it. These texts help consider how categories and tensions continue to inform contemporary conversations about the relationship between Israel and the Diaspora.

Source sheet: https://mechonhadar.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/mh_torah_source_sheets/JLS2026RogoffCooperationCompetition.pdf

In the beginning, God lifted the world out of chaos.

The Torah paints a dramatic scene. A wasteland. A darkness covering the surface of the tehom, the great depths. God sweeping over the face of the water. Out of this expanse of nothingness, God creates something. God creates order.

We long for a better world. Judaism teaches us to yearn and pray and work to bring the messiah, reach redemption, and earn our place in the world to come. But what does that mean? What are these different conceptions of redeemer and redemption, and what does each require of us? This class explores these terms and the tremendous, exhilarating, terrifying potential each holds. Recorded at Hadar's July Learning Seminar, 2026.

Source sheet: https://mechonhadar.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/mh_torah_source_sheets/JLS2026KillipLongRoadGeulah.pdf

In Israel, Shemini Atzeret-Simhat Torah feels like the busiest day of the year. So many prayers; so many different atmospheres. Year after year, juggling back and forth from the joy of celebrating the completion of the annual Torah cycle with singing, dancing, and endless Torah readings, to the more somber parts of the holiday—Yizkor; the prayer for rain—leaves me exhausted and a little dizzy, almost wishing for the peace and quiet of “aharei ha-hagim - after the holidays.”

R. Simlai taught: Torah—its beginning is kindness and its end is kindness.

Its beginning is kindness—as it is written, “God made leather garments for Adam and his wife and dressed them” (Genesis 3:21) And its end is kindness—as it is written, “[God] buried [Moshe] in the valley” (Deuteronomy 34:6), (from Tractate Sotah 14a).

Dear Friends, with the end of the year, we also complete another cycle of reading through the Five Books of the Torah. This offers a pause to look back on the philosophical, moral, and human journey we walked together.