The Names of God in Judaism in 10 Minutes
Everything Jewish - 10 Minutes at a Time
Release Date: 02/01/2026
Hillel the Elder in 10 Minutes
Everything Jewish - 10 Minutes at a Time
We’re spending time with the one and only Hillel the Elder—the sage of sages, the king of calm, and the master of turning Torah into tweet-sized wisdom 2,000 years before Twitter. You’ve heard his greatest hits: “If I am not for myself…” “That which is hateful to you…” “In a place where there are no people…”—all Hillel. But behind the quotes is a man of radical patience, spiritual gentleness, and deep humility. He welcomed converts with kindness, outwitted rivals with grace, and taught that Torah must be lived with love. In this episode, we unpack Hillel’s...
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Shimon bar Yochai in 10 Minutes
Everything Jewish - 10 Minutes at a Time
This week, we’re lighting a spiritual fire with Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai—the Talmudic sage, mystic legend, and star of every Lag BaOmer bonfire. Known for speaking truth to power (like, Roman Empire–level power), hiding in a cave for 13 years, and possibly authoring the Zohar—the central text of Jewish mysticism—Rashbi’s story is equal parts drama, depth, and divine secrets. He comes out of the cave burning with holiness (and maybe some social awkwardness), ready to teach the inner meanings of the Torah. In this episode, we explore how one rabbi’s exile turned into a mystical...
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Rabbi Akiva in 10 Minutes
Everything Jewish - 10 Minutes at a Time
We’re talking about the rockstar of the Talmud: Rabbi Akiva—the shepherd-turned-scholar who didn’t even learn the aleph-bet until age 40 and still became one of the greatest sages in Jewish history. His story has everything: late-in-life transformation, deep romance (shoutout to his legendary wife Rachel), Torah study under Roman persecution, mystical adventures, and yes, a tragic but heroic end. He’s the guy who saw the letters on the Torah crowns and smiled, who laughed at the ruins of the Temple, and who taught love your neighbor is the core of it all. In this episode, we explore...
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Joshua in 10 Minutes
Everything Jewish - 10 Minutes at a Time
We’re marching into the man who is the focus of Book of Joshua, who took the reins from Moses and led the Israelites into the Promised Land. Joshua: warrior, prophet, spiritual successor, and possibly the most underrated biblical action hero. He brings down the walls of Jericho with a marching band, pulls off military campaigns with divine backing, and still finds time to give inspirational farewell speeches. But he’s not just about battles—Joshua is about faith, leadership, and figuring out how to move forward when your mentor is gone and the desert wandering is over. In this episode,...
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The Chosen, by Chaim Potok, in 10 Minutes
Everything Jewish - 10 Minutes at a Time
We’re stepping into the baseball fields, yeshiva halls, and quiet living rooms of 1940s Brooklyn with The Chosen—Chaim Potok’s beloved novel about friendship, faith, and the space between fathers and sons. On the surface, it’s a story about two brilliant teenage boys—one Hasidic, one Modern Orthodox—who meet after a baseball game gone wrong. But underneath? It’s about the struggle between tradition and change, silence and speech, destiny and choice. In this episode, we unpack why The Chosen still resonates decades later, how it captures the beautiful tension of Jewish identity,...
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Man's Search for Meaning, by Victor Frankl, in 10 Minutes
Everything Jewish - 10 Minutes at a Time
What gives life meaning—even in the darkest places on Earth? That’s the question at the heart of Man’s Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl’s powerful memoir and psychological masterpiece. A Holocaust survivor and psychiatrist, Frankl takes us through his time in Nazi concentration camps—not just to tell what happened, but to explore why some people survived spiritually while others collapsed. His answer? Purpose. Even in suffering. Especially in suffering. In this episode, we explore how Frankl’s message—that we can’t always control our circumstances, but we can choose our...
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Maus, by Art Spiegelman, in 10 MInutes
Everything Jewish - 10 Minutes at a Time
This week, we’re diving into Maus—Art Spiegelman’s groundbreaking graphic novel that somehow manages to tell a Holocaust survivor’s story through… cartoon mice and cats. But don’t let the drawings fool you—Maus is raw, layered, and emotionally devastating. It weaves together two timelines: the harrowing experiences of Vladek Spiegelman, a Polish Jew who survives Auschwitz, and the present-day struggles between father and son as Art tries to make sense of trauma, memory, and inheritance. It’s part memoir, part history, part deeply human family drama—all told in black-and-white...
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Night, by Elie Wiesel, in 10 Minutes
Everything Jewish - 10 Minutes at a Time
In this episode, we explore Night—Elie Wiesel’s haunting and unforgettable memoir of surviving the Holocaust. Written with searing honesty and devastating clarity, Night tells the story of Wiesel’s journey from a devout teenage boy in Sighet to a witness of unimaginable horror in Auschwitz and Buchenwald. It’s not just a testimony—it’s a reckoning with faith, silence, memory, and what it means to be human in a world that seemed to forget. This isn’t a light read, but it’s an essential one. Join us as we walk gently through this powerful work, honoring its pain, its truth, and...
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Hannah Arendt in 10 Minutes
Everything Jewish - 10 Minutes at a Time
Witness the "thinker without a banister" in our episode on Hannah Arendt, one of the most influential and controversial political theorists of the 20th century. In this installment, we unpack her journey as a Jewish refugee fleeing Nazi Germany, an experience that forged her profound obsession with the nature of power, authority, and evil. We’ll dive into her landmark work, The Origins of Totalitarianism, where she analyzed how Nazism and Stalinism weren't just extreme versions of old tyrannies, but a terrifyingly new form of government that sought to destroy human individuality and reality...
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Chavot HaLevavot (Duties of the Heart) in 10 Minutes
Everything Jewish - 10 Minutes at a Time
We're diving into Chovot HaLevavot—“Duties of the Heart”—the medieval Jewish guidebook that basically says, “It’s nice that you keep kosher… but how’s your humility doing?” Written by Rabbi Bahya ibn Paquda in 11th-century Spain, this classic reminds us that Judaism isn’t just about what you do—it’s about what’s going on inside. Think of it as spiritual introspection meets divine accountability, with chapters on gratitude, trust in God, and avoiding the spiritual ego trip. In this episode, we explore how Chovot HaLevavot calls us to check our inner world—not just...
info_outlineWhat’s in a name? When it comes to God — everything. In this episode, we explore the many names of the Divine in Judaism — from Adonai and Elohim to Shaddai, HaShem, and the mysterious four-letter Tetragrammaton that can’t even be spoken aloud. Each name reveals a different face of the Infinite: mercy and justice, creation and compassion, power and presence. We’ll uncover why Jewish tradition guards these names so carefully, how they shape prayer and theology, and why even saying “HaShem” — “The Name” — is its own act of reverence. The Names of God isn’t just about language; it’s about relationship — the idea that the more we learn to name the Divine, the closer we come to hearing the echoes of the One beyond all names.