edJEWcation
edJEWcation
edJEWcation
Dueling Rabbis
1 hour 3 minutes Posted Aug 22, 2025 at 10:00 am.
0:00
1:03:56
Download MP3
Show notes

This week on edJEWcation, we’ve doubled the rabbis and turned up the volume. ChayaLeah invites her friend Rabbi Daniel Levine to go head-to-head (in the nicest, most Jewishly passive-aggressive way possible) with her father. The topic? What’s gone wrong with Jewish education and how to fix it, without losing our kids to boredom, bagels-only Judaism, or anti-Israel campus mobs.

We cover:

  • Why Hebrew school might be the Blockbuster Video of Jewish education

  • Rituals vs. ideas: Which one actually keeps Judaism alive?

  • The “mimetic tradition” and why your bubbe’s kitchen might have been a better classroom than Hebrew school

  • How Israel got separated from Judaism in some circles and why that makes zero sense

  • Whether the “why” or the “how” matters more in bringing people back to Jewish life

Plus: the pepperoni pizza Passover story you didn’t know you needed, why motion beats emotion, and how chicken soup can do more for Jewish continuity than a thousand PowerPoints.

Links to Rabbi Daniel’s content: