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Asking Permission to Pray

Madlik Podcast – Disruptive Torah Thoughts on Judaism

Release Date: 10/01/2025

Left Behind-The Jewish Rapture show art Left Behind-The Jewish Rapture

Madlik Podcast – Disruptive Torah Thoughts on Judaism

How a Story of Liberation Was Used to Exclude What if the Exodus wasn’t just a story of freedom… but also a story of exclusion? Key Takeaways Redemption stories are rarely neutral—they are often weapons. The charge of being “left behind” usually says more about the accuser than the accused. A story about leaving becomes an excuse for not moving at all. Timestamps [00:00] Moses' Uncompromising Message to Pharaoh [00:24] The Irony of the 'Left Behind' Story [01:48] Introduction to Madlik and This Week's Topic [02:42] Exploring the Tradition of Those Left Behind [04:00] The Ambiguous...

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Madlik Podcast – Disruptive Torah Thoughts on Judaism

The Exodus isn’t just a freedom story — it’s the Torah’s first argument about gatekeeping. Pharaoh asks a simple question: “Who exactly is going?” — mi va-mi ha-holchim. Moses answers with a revolution: Everyone. Key Takeaways Who’s going?” really means “Who counts? Inclusion isn’t modern — it’s Torah. Presence matters more than status. Timestamps [00:00] Pharaoh's Question: Who's Going? [01:26] Introduction to Madlik and This Week's Topic [01:58] The Essence of Hasidism and Inclusion [05:03] Exploring the Exodus Story [07:14] Moses' Radical Answer to Pharaoh...

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Madlik Podcast – Disruptive Torah Thoughts on Judaism

Rav Shlomo Wolbe, Mussar, and the Theology of Human Greatness Moses delivers the greatest promise in Jewish history—freedom, redemption, a future—and the Torah says something heartbreaking: the Israelites don’t listen. Not because they reject God or Moses, but because of “kotzer ruach” (Exodus 6:9)—shortness of spirit. Key Takeaways The Torah’s Greatest Threat Isn’t Sin — It’s Smallness True Greatness Is Internal, Not External Mussar Teaches Us How to Grow, Not Just What to Do Timestamps [00:00] The Devastating Reality of kotzer ruach [00:45] Introduction to Rabbi Shlomo...

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Madlik Podcast – Disruptive Torah Thoughts on Judaism

What Children Hear That Adults Miss We begin the Book of Shemot (Exodus) with a New Year’s-style resolution: read more Torah out loud—to our children, and to our grandchildren. Because the Exodus isn’t just Judaism’s greatest story; it’s Judaism’s most re-read story—told at the Seder, year after year, the longest-running book club in history. We’re joined by scholar and author Ilana Kurshan to discuss her new book Children of the Book, a beautiful exploration of how reading to kids shapes not only them, but us. Together we read Exodus through young eyes: the burning bush as a...

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Madlik Podcast – Disruptive Torah Thoughts on Judaism

In this episode of Madlik Disruptive Torah, Geoffrey Stern and Rabbi Adam Mintz explore one of the Torah’s most enigmatic verses—Jacob’s blessing of Judah and the phrase “until Shiloh comes.” Claimed by Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, this single line opens a sweeping conversation about the power of religion to shape history—for good and for evil. Drawing on classical commentators, medieval Jewish-Christian encounters, and modern interfaith scholarship, we ask hard questions: What happens when sacred texts become battlegrounds? Can religion be part of the solution to religious...

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Madlik Podcast – Disruptive Torah Thoughts on Judaism

As we close one year and step into another, we’re revisiting a live Madlik Disruptive Torah conversation recorded in December 2022, back when the podcast was broadcast weekly on Clubhouse in front of a live audience. This episode explores the enduring power of numbers in Jewish thought—especially the number 70. From the seventy souls who descend to Egypt, to seventy nations, seventy languages, seventy judges on the Sanhedrin, and the rabbinic idea that Torah itself has shiv’im panim—seventy faces—this conversation asks what numbers can teach us without turning Torah into...

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Madlik Podcast – Disruptive Torah Thoughts on Judaism

Was Hanukkah really a war of Jews vs. Greeks — or a Jewish civil war we chose to forget? Was Hanukkah really Jews vs. Greeks — or a Jewish civil war we chose to bury under a story about oil? In this episode of Madlik Disruptive Torah, Geoffrey Stern and Rabbi Adam Mintz revisit the Hanukkah story through the sources. From Maccabees I and the politics of Ptolemy vs. Antiochus, to the lone Talmudic mention of the oil miracle (Shabbat 21b), they show how a messy internal power struggle became a clean miracle narrative. Key Takeaways Hanukah began as a Jewish civil war — not just Jews vs....

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Madlik Podcast – Disruptive Torah Thoughts on Judaism

Imagine being told you belong to a faith that is fighting to keep you out—and refusing to leave. In this week's Madlik, Geoffrey Stern and Rabbi Adam Mintz welcome Rabbi Steve Greenberg, the first openly gay Orthodox-ordained rabbi, for a deeply personal and wide-ranging conversation. Key Takeaways Vulnerability transforms the meaning of Torah. Bottom-up change is reshaping Orthodoxy. The tradition has the capacity — and the precedent — to grow. Timestamps [00:00:12] Rabbi Steve Greenberg’s coming-out context and the question of LGBTQ+ Jews as teachers of Torah. [00:03:11] Steve’s...

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Madlik Podcast – Disruptive Torah Thoughts on Judaism

Beneath the surface, Israel is fighting for the soul of its religion — and most of us don’t even see the battle lines. In this episode of Madlik Disruptive Torah, Geoffrey Stern and Rabbi Adam Mintz are joined by Professor Adam S. Ferziger to explore the quiet revolution reshaping Israeli Judaism. Drawing on his new book, Agents of Change, Ferziger reveals how American Modern Orthodoxy—its values, institutions, and worldview—has profoundly influenced Religious Zionism and the broader Israeli religious landscape. From the tension between nationalism and modernity to the emergence of a...

info_outline He’s Christian. He Fights for Israel. He Speaks Talmudic Aramaic. show art He’s Christian. He Fights for Israel. He Speaks Talmudic Aramaic.

Madlik Podcast – Disruptive Torah Thoughts on Judaism

Ready to discover how reviving a lost language can reshape the whole Middle East? Ta Shma (come and hear) Geoffrey Stern and Rabbi Adam Mintz are joined by Shadi Khalloul—IDF paratrooper veteran, founder of the Israeli Christian Aramaic Association, and one of the world’s most passionate advocates for reviving the Aramaic language. Together, they explore Parshat Vayetzei and the hidden “Rosetta Stone” moment in Genesis 31, where Jacob and Laban name the same monument in Hebrew and Aramaic. Key Takeaways Aramaic is the Hidden Backbone of Jewish Life Aramaic Once United the Ancient...

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From Moses to Leonard Cohen: The unexpected dilemma at the heart of Jewish prayer

Leonard Cohen called If It Be Your Will “a sort of a prayer.” In this episode of Madlik Disruptive Torah, Geoffrey Stern and Rabbi Adam Mintz uncover just how deeply Jewish that prayer really is. Drawing on the words of Moses in Ha’azinu, the Psalms of David, the prayer of Hannah, and rabbinic debates in the Talmud and Maimonides’ Guide for the Perplexed, we explore how Cohen’s haunting lyrics echo one of the most radical ideas in Jewish liturgy: that prayer itself requires God’s permission.

From whispered lips to audacious praise, from silence as the highest form of worship to the chutzpah of demanding forgiveness, this episode connects the High Holidays’ most prayer-rich moments to Cohen’s timeless song. Was Cohen consciously channeling biblical and rabbinic texts he knew from childhood? We think the evidence is striking.

Join us as we show how If It Be Your Will isn’t just a song—it’s the continuation of a 3,000-year-old Jewish wrestling match with the meaning of prayer.

Key Takeaways

  1. The Audacity of Prayer: We examine the chutzpah of addressing God and the need for "permission" to pray.
  2. Silent Revolution: Hannah's innovation of praying silently and its impact on Jewish prayer traditions.
  3. Words Matter: The power and peril of language in prayer, and why sometimes silence speaks loudest.

Timestamps

  • [00:00:00] Opening reflection on Yom Kippur and the nature of prayer.
  • [00:02:00] Deuteronomy 32—Moses asking permission to speak.
  • [00:04:00] Psalms as a source: prayer from both mouth and heart.
  • [00:06:00] Transition from singular to plural in liturgy.
  • [00:10:00] Hannah’s silent prayer as a model for Jewish prayer.
  • [00:13:00] Out loud vs. silent prayer; Shema as an exception.
  • [00:17:00] Can one pray all day? Talmudic debate.
  • [00:20:00] Concluding prayers about words and their power.
  • [00:23:00] The audacity of praising God—permission to pray.
  • [00:28:00] Leonard Cohen’s “If It Be Your Will” as modern midrash.

Links & Learnings

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Transcript here: https://madlik.substack.com/

Leonard Cohen - If It Be Your Will - https://youtu.be/SDemnguRYj4?si=7YGgCucKZ5-0fwFy