Hanukkah 5785 Kiddush Hashem

A backstory conversation w/David Goodwin. Follow all the way to hear the best anecdotes about my life in the woods!

A conversation on memory and self actualization. Rav Mike and Eitan dig deep into the struggle to be part of the national experience, and dream bid about the opportunity presented by national independence.

What is the difference between fantasy, myth and Torah? How does the sacred imagination serve as a vessel for prophecy? What are we meant to be doing on Seder night? Hear about these questions and more as Rav Mike and Eitan engage in a deep conversation about this unique human capacity.

Here is an introduction to a new way of being. If you are seeking the Torah's guidance on how to become your best self, looking for tools of growth and frames for new consciousnes - tune in and take the Jewish Hero's Journey. Find more information at www.jewishheroism.com and sign up to join a the seven paths workship live or online here - https://forms.gle/N2fauG5MPy4jANzv8

Rav Mike's annual Hanukkah shiur given in honor of his father's yartzheit. The commandment to sanctify God's name was foundational to the Hanukkah story, and has taken a central role once again today as the Jewish people are faced with war. What light can it help us shine in the world?

Join me for a live class at The Torah Cafe. We explore the intersection between the ten days of repentance and October 7th, asking how to take a heroic stance on teshuva.

Sometimes history and the Hebrew calendar coincide in remarkable ways. Join Rav Mike and guest R' Aaron Leibowitz as they discuss the nature of the the spiritual and material challenges faced by the Jewish people today. The conversation touches on the limits of agency, the nature of responsibility and the question of how we hold the pain of past and present in order to make for a better future.

American Jewry stands at a crossroads, facing great risks and real opportunities. Success in such a moment requires clarity of vision, confidence in identity and readiness for action - all elements of a heroic stance. This first class of Rav Mike's recent US tour is an exploration of what Jewish heroism is, how it can be cultivated in our lives and communities, and what a heroic path forward might look like for American Jews today.

There are many models of Jewish hero, and the healer is among the most important. In a time when Israeli Jews are struggling to be victorious warriors, here is a call for American Jewry to pick up the task of healing. Because if victory means nothing more than smashing your enemies, we are still left with a broken world in the end

Malchut is good made manifest. This class introduces malchut, the seventh and final step in the Torah’s heroic journey. Malchut is the ability to bring the pieces into right relationship - in the personal dimension as identity, between people as leadership and facing creation as Divine consciousness. On the heroic journey it is a manifestation of the goodness we are seeking, whole even when it is not yet the complete expression of creation’s good. We begin by understanding the three dimensions in which the heroic journey takes place, and how malchut can be a manifestation of good in all of them. Along the way we learn that malchut expresses the iterative quality of the heroic journey, how the hero is constantly “coming of age.” Malchut manifests good in a manner which is both the end of a process, and the beginning of a new path toward the good. The second half of the class focuses on the power of the heroic moment, how the hero’s actions can manifest good in multiple dimensions with potentially legendary results. In this context Queen Esther is considered as an archetype of malchut, and her story offered as an example of the power of the heroic moment.