The Zal

The Reddit forum r/Judaism is the world's largest anonymous Jewish community.  If you know the internet, and you've ever been in a comment section, you might think this faceless space would be cesspool of crazies, haters and pedants.

And it sure would be if it weren’t for a handful of committed moderators: our guests in The Zal.

We ask what it takes to maintain a forum whose mandate includes everything from complex legal clarification to Jewish feelings of loneliness to baby-Yoda Purim costumes.

Together, we (try to) define anonymity, and ways to prevent its pitfalls while promoting its perks.

In the long list of liturgical “I’m Sorrys” Jews recite on Yom Kippur, there's one which continues with: “for the sin... of a confused heart.”

But to the modern ear, confusion sounds like a pretty plausible excuse, not a mea culpa?

Can I replace my Rabbi with artificial intelligence? Do convenience and (the illusion of) privacy outweigh the power of the human touch? Will AI officiate weddings? 

For now, Dovid will keep his job because he can lift chairs — still, the AI Age is upon us. Once-complex questions are being answered with algorithmic ease. But should all questions be answered by the soul-free machine? (And where does this "should" even come from?)

In this unintended episode, we banter and vent (vanter?) on the ridiculousness that is the self-absorbed-thoughtful-post and the decorum governing it. 

Selfies at Auschwitz? Action shots at funerals? Memorial posts that feature your best angle? We go there. 

Nissim Black doesn't just ignore the haters, he studies them. The legendary musician knows there are people who see him as just another fad, an Orthodox Jewish rapper, a token intersection — but he's in it for the duration, batteries charged.

Keep your New Year’s resolution of entering The Zal more often and come get a taste of Nissim's music. Plus: excerpts of other contemporary rappers from religious circles and, purportedly, the first rap track ever recorded.

Nissim shares joy and loss and connections between his life, his art, and his community with big hats.

During times of crisis, weary eyes look for guidance.

Is our eyesight just getting worse or has the nature of leadership really changed? Are we just crusty curmudgeons or are leaders not what they used to be? 

Gotta be both. So: what do we do in this vacuum of guidance — should we be speaking more, or shutting up?

People are putting up and ripping down signs about hostages and casualties of war. People filming people filming, people losing jobs. We have a lot of questions.

What consequences constitute "cancellation"? Is silencing a form of speech? What does the first amendment have to say about all of this? (And yes, cards on the table — we've got a lot more questions than answers.)

We should probably ask, too: posting and ripping and firing and yelling... does any of it ever move the needle?

The war in Israel has shifted, or at least recast, certain political alliances - especially for progressive Jews.

There was a tacit understanding in the minds of many, that if I march for your cause, you'll march for mine.

Many of those who would march arm-in-arm for other humanitarian causes have discovered a newfound silence - or even taken up ranks on the anti-Israel side. And vice versa.

In this episode we discuss: false binaries vs. that famous poem and pragmatic support vs. creepy motives.

If this discussion is nothing else - it is a pretty solid (if we may say so) attempt at civility in debate.

It feels both sad and true that it took this October's tragedies to rouse a oneness among Jews that would be a dream at times of peace. All too often, it's an outside threat that lumps us together as “the Jews.”

In this episode, we talk about that lump. We talk about beards.

Episode 40 was recorded in the good ol' days of a few weeks ago, before we were swallowed up. When we could whimsically dissect our differences with that constant belief: they don’t ultimately matter.

We’ll be recording something soon that doesn't pretend the outside world doesn't exist — but in the meantime, here's a couple voices from a lighter time.

A big percentage of our audience (more than just our mothers, less than all of your mothers) commented to us (verbatim): "We love absolutely everything about the pod and have no notes at all, but we would like to hear more about you as individuals. Who are you guys?"

So for this last episode of the year 5783, we put humility further to the side and put ourselves under the magnifier to compare some differences of our infra-reform and ultra-orthodox backgrounds and how they shape our perspectives now. 

Big questions: is there such a thing as a Jewish Santa? Can we all fit under the same umbrella? Can Dovid count to seven? 

Music credits to:

Does engaging in (political) protest make a difference?

Is it apathy to stay home? Is silence concurrence? What is virtue and what is signaling? 

These questions grow more pertinent with the spotlight on protests, from America, to Israel, to... Kenya.

Reporting from Nairobi is our man Adam, where national unrest had the city half-closed, with millions taking to the streets or deciding not to.

We tangle up a list of whys and why nots.

Here, take some credit:

In this episode of The Zal, meet David Yarus, Founder at JSwipe (affectionately: Tinder for Jews).

We talk about the difficulties of modern dating: paradox of choice, cowardice, ghosting and worse.

Along the way we discuss insights for individuals in the journey for their “one” and, fixes for what David refers to as “Big Jewish.”

Rabbi Raps is back for part 2 of his visit into The Zal. In this episode he shares how he originally was compelled to influence, his need to remain not overly-prepared and why he loves an audience of gentiles. (That is: people who are fine with the temperature in the room.)

Plus, there are humans on the internet! Real ones. Individuals!

In this Internet Age the difference between a 4 and 5 star review may mean the success or failure of a business. (Or your Lyft wait times.) With so much at stake, Adam and Dovid examine several considerations for internet reviewers - and whether they should be reviewing at all.

There is no 'Amazon Chapter' in the Talmud, but the Sages didn't not see this kind of thing coming. Mixing ancient principles, personal analysis and a little common-sense, you'll have the tools to answer the biggest question in the book: What Would a Mensch Do?

After theorizing in part 1 why a Jew might be inclined to allow Antisemitism to define their Judaism, Dovid and Adam now lay out arguments why this framing should be prevented. The reasons for a real, human and proactive involvement in Judaism - or at least Jewyness - run from the pragmatic, to the substantive, to the purposeful.

Dovid'll instruct you to lay Tefillin or light Shabbat candles. Ask Adam and he might advise to host a binge of Mel Brooks - not Gibson - films. There is a consensus about billboards that demand "Please Love Us." Listen in to find out.

Conversations surrounding Antisemitism, though painful, typically are clear as to the danger, sources and ultimate foolishness of Jew-hate. What to do about it is less straightforward.

In this first part of The Zal's Antisemitism Episode, Dovid and Adam point to - and try to make sense of - the noticeable irony that the likelier a Jew is to be a victim of Antisemitism - the less they tend to speak of the problem of Jew-hate.

This topic is understandably fraught, but please join us - and chime in - to this important conversation.

No, they’re not on this episode, but their South Park ordeal got us thinking: Do you stand to lose by letting loose? Is there any importance to unimportance?

This time, we put ourselves to a new test: a twenty minute episode. The clock’s ticking as we bounce between the sub-rational and the trans-rational with a bit of royals sprinkled in between.  

Diversity is no small issue, but what all can it mean? Is our goal to acknowledge the commonality in diversity or to accept diversity as an end in itself? 

Current tech and ways of being have helped us silo our understandings *and* our understandings of those understandings. (Zal enough for ya?)

In this episode, Adam and Dovid discuss how this siloing happened, what contributes to it, and what might increase the truest kind of diversities in our lives.

We've told you a hundred times. We're The Zal, not the Za"L! You know, the place for discourse, not the deceased...

But if you insist, we'll talk about the dead. 

Join us as we discuss: What does Zichrono Livracha mean? How do Jews mourn? Can you mourn too much? Can a death be celebrated? And many more cheery topics!

Chazkel (Charlie) Roth was born in 1925 to a Chassidic family. He was a part of the first batch of students in the first Chabad Yeshiva on American Shores. Our recorded recollections of his, published here for the first time, paint a loving and colorful picture. 

Charlie became agnostic later in his life but still remained in warm contact with his Jewishness and the Chabad community. 

Like many other ‘hippie-Jews’ he rediscovered the depth of his religious birthright by identifying the parallels between the humanistic psychology and Jewish mysticism. 

Join Dovid and Adam as we remember an interesting life and a beautiful soul. May the Neshama of Yechezkel ben Meir Hillel have an Aliya. 

Because it does good or because it's just right? Are we expecting Mazal points to cash in later? What even is charity?  

The grayest areas, the Zalliest territory, and all new sponsors for our last episode of the year 5782.  

Thanks so much for being with us.

Music:

So, nu? We digressed. 

Welcome to The Zal After-Hours, where we share what we were already sharing but... later. Today: an ancient allegory we side-barred from our simplicity episode (#21) — Dovid goes a little deeper into simpleness. 

On last week’s episode, Dovid put a message out for the “simpletons.” Adam’s response, basically: “Dude, harsh!” This week we explore why “simple” isn’t a dig, why true simplicity — in approach and theory and desire and practice — ain’t simple.

On tap: the ultimate greatnesses of simplicity, from the divine to the academic to the personified. The old sages’ takes. The DUI field sobriety test.

Come get involved.

Thank you to our sponsors. Bad music by your co-host; great music by these folks:

It's Part 2 with media philosopher Andrew McLuhan. What is the antidote to a tech-triggered racing mind? Is *this* moment in communication evolution fundamentally different than other moments of media transformation?

Is it just "kids these days!" all over again? Does tweeting “Get Off Of Twitter!” help?

On this episode, we grapple with the concerns of legendary philosopher of media and communication Marshall McLuhan. From the scale of person-to-person conversations to broad social change: is evolving technology (and our choices between existing ones) more important than the very things we're saying?  

Dispatches from Ukraine, part two: Dima Susskiy, writer for the comedy show that made President Zelenskiy famous. Destruction and hope on the move.

Without expertise or first-hand experience, there’s little to add to the conversation about the situation in Ukraine. But we can listen. 

Michael Zatloff is a faith-minded individual who left behind his house and home of 24 years to escape Putin’s bombs. This is his viewpoint. 

Groupthink, group expressions, even in-group vocabulary: it's easy and reliable, and a good way to keep feathers unruffled. But this ease can be outweighed by a lost opportunity to make an idea your own. In this episode, recorded in collaboration with the Jewish Learning Institute, Adam and Dovid discuss the advantages of developing (and "chewing") your own conception of ancient ideas. Practical and theological perks are all on the table. 

We’re back to that little old issue: man’s search for Meaning. Are we born with a need for belief beyond what we can reason? What forms can that take — what are their pitfalls? Trans-rational thought: restock on aisle humanity?

Oy. Yo. Shift a letter, shift the meaning. Nosson gets involved in the conversation about Jewish melody and rap, traditional and contemporary, differences and common ground. 

In this episode Dovid, Adam and Hassidic rap sensation Nosson Zand discuss how successful each of these art forms are at: evoking joy, breaking limitations, melting inhibitions and building inter-human connections. 

Toward the end of the episode Nosson captures his “drop the rake” moment and depicts what it felt like to collaborate with reggae superstar Matisyahu.

The first dance at many Jewish weddings is the Horah. It is replete with a medley of religious sounding (Klezmer-ish) music: that is, most of the lyrics are "Oy Oy Oy." Only once that box is checked can the celebration move into the 21st century.

But, what happens when those parts are mixed? When Jewish sentiments are delivered in a hip-hop package, is the religious sanctity lost? Is the song even hip-hop? What are the specific and shared values and purposes of older and newer music?

To answer some of these question, The Zal is thrilled to host its first ever guest: Hassidic Rapper, Nosson Zand.

The OG Hassidic reggae superstar Matisyahu said: “Nosson Zand is the real thing. In the world of ‘Jewish Music’ and Jewish rappers there is absolutely no one who if they asked me to write a recommendation quote, I would get behind, with the exception of Nosson. Religious Jew or not he can hold his own with an authentic style. The fact that he represents our people and his lyrics carry weight is unique in this age of the prostitution of hip hop music and the unyielding emptiness and spiritual death that is drowning American youth.”

Envision yourself meditating. Seriously. In this vision, have you sprouted a 10-inch beard and teleported to the edge of a forlorn mountainside? The arts of meditation and prayer are so foreign to our existence that they're either too vague or too specific to grasp — do we need an app or a New Age album or nothing or...?

In this episode, Adam and Dovid discuss praying vs. just saying, meditating or just standing by a wall — and lots of the in-betweens.  What can different practices aiming towards accessing something sublime mean — or do? — for us in a usual day in our usual head. 

"Hassids don't say farewell, for they're always together" is an oft-quoted maxim but seldom understood. Maintaining closeness with a friend while gaining the advantages of distance, seems like having your herring and eating it. On this episode we discuss frames-of-mind and tactics for elevating the current, dull, Facebook friend era. 

Mazel Tov is arguably the most known Hebrew phrase to the English speaker. "Congratulations!" Literally, it means "good luck," but — do Jews even believe in luck? With the number of people wishing they should be billionaires, it appears that we’ve got little of it.  Where is the space for luck between destiny and agency, and what do we really mean (or want to mean) when we call someone lucky?

It was G.I. Joe in a 1980s cartoon who first said "knowledge is half the battle". The traditional Rabbinic phrase goes even further: "knowledge of the ailment is half the remedy."  In a time defined maybe most by its glut of information, how far will all this *knowing* take us? On tap: a discussion around physical ailments, mental health issues, the war and recent collapse in Afghanistan, and more.

Is a Jew still a Wandering Jew if she chooses to be on the road? In this episode we discuss the Jewish perspective on the necessary balance between mind and body — spirituality and physical labor — hidden in stories that seem as straightforward as war journalism. Join us in The Zal and listen to Adam's mind get blown as we unpack the story of crossing the River Jordan (or choosing instead to wander) from practical and mystical perspectives. 

What is a mentor? A useful connection? Someone with experience and wisdom? A kind person? Smart? Educated? Even when finding these traits, it's hard to know if they're a good fit for you. This episode addresses the general goal of mentorship - and three different types of mentors. Torah sources, real world applications.

Once a good deed is performed, the second guessing starts. People immediately get judgmental of themselves and others — if a mitzvah comes naturally, the judgment says "too easy!" And if it was hard, the judgment says "you can't be that good if it was that hard!" In this episode we try to understand three of the very different places inspiration to do good can come from, and what makes all of them equally valid. 

Music by Joe Bagale.