TFJ Season 5 Episode 20 Moral Imagination with special guest Joseph Telushkin
Release Date: 12/31/2025
Teller From Jerusalem
Way back in Season One (episode 28 – really worth listening to!) famous lecturer and New York Times best-selling author, Rabbi Joseph Telushkin came on the show to explain “moral imagination.” When the opportunity arose, I sat him down to get another vital installment concerning what should be a critical component of our character. Our sagacious guest discusses a widow marrying a second husband and if this entails betrayal to her former spouse or their children? Rabbi Telushkin analyzes the dying wish of the famous Jewish ethicist Rabbi Yisrael Salanter, and how people should prepare for...
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The military operation to capture the Sinai Peninsula faced several substantial obstacles. First, there was the terrain itself, the Sinai Peninsula was 24,000 square miles of pure desolation. The desert consisted of rolling sand dunes in the north that could swallow vehicles and exhaust troops within hours. In the south were the nearly impassable mountain ranges which created natural fortresses. The second obstacle was the Egyptian military with 100,000 troops, freshly armed with the latest Soviet equipment. Against this the IDF Chief of Staff, Moshe Dayan, was betting on surprise,...
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Egypt purchased state of the art weaponry from the Soviet Union that obliterated any balance of power between Israel and her Arab adversaries. Egypt would have the armament, it already had the desire, to wipe out Israel. Israel naturally turned to its trusted ally, the United States, but the days of Harry Truman were over. The new President, Dwight Eisenhower, together with his State Department which has traditionally been slanted against Israel, saw wisdom in aligning with the far more numerous Arabs. Israel desperately needed a friend that manufactured weapons, and that ally turned out to be...
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After Israel’s stunning and unpredictable victory (especially from the Arab perspective) in the War of Independence, there was a colossus of bruised pride in the Arab World. To answer the heretofore imponderable, “How could Israel have been victorious?” a narrative emerged, “We did not lose because Israel was strong, but rather because our leaders were weak.” The search began for strong military men who could restore Arab dignity, and the undisputed rising star was Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt. Nasser was a pan-Arabist who maintained that Arabs were born for greatness and...
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Life throws curveballs all the time, and not everyone has the consistency or the disposition to turn lemons into lemonade. Rabbi Dovid M. Cohen, previous pulpit rabbi in Manhattan, is currently the CEO of the Algemainer Jewish Media outlet. Everyone is different and everyone copes differently. Rabbi Cohen, a licensed therapist, shares with us how he has dealt with his own challenges and some of the counsel he has offered others. Credits: Shifting Great Expectations: Parenting a child with Down Syndrome | Lito Ramirez | TEDx Columbus Dr. Jordan Peterson, Why Confronting Challenges Makes you...
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As already explained in an earlier episode (Season Five Episode 6) the Fedayeen terrorist raiders would sneak into Israel, murder, sabotage, set fire, steal, and slip back across the border to Egypt and Jordan. This was death by a thousand cuts to Israel. And then things deteriorated precipitously when in September of 1955, Nasser announced that Egypt has signed a massive arms deal with Czechoslovakia (read: Russia) which will give Egypt an enormous military edge over Israel and enable the Fedayeen to be backed by tank brigades. Nasser openly states that he intends to destroy Israel and he...
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Nazi propaganda, how do we properly commemorate the murder of millions, the creation of the ghettos. Learn more at TellerFromJerusalem.com Don’t forget to subscribe, like and share! Let all your friends know that that they too can have a new favorite podcast. © 2025 Media Education Trust llc
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Stories of Heroism During the Holocaust Learn more at TellerFromJerusalem.com Don’t forget to subscribe, like and share! Let all your friends know that that they too can have a new favorite podcast. © 2025 Media Education Trust llc
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Resistance during the Holocaust; Breaking the myth that Jews went to their death like sheep to the slaughter. Learn more at TellerFromJerusalem.com Don’t forget to subscribe, like and share! Let all your friends know that that they too can have a new favorite podcast. © 2025 Media Education Trust llc
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Rabbi Aharon Zulberg, and the other people he credits, was still scratching his head as to what significant thing South African Jewry might do on behalf of their brethren affected by the war. His synagogue, “The Bais” teamed up with the Jewish National Fund of South Africa to offer respite for hostages released from the terror tunnels of Gaza and in urgent need of relaxation and tranquility. What better place could there be than the beautiful country of South Africa and an initiative was launched uniting Jews, and in the process learning about the inestimable good there is in people. ...
info_outlineWay back in Season One (episode 28 – really worth listening to!) famous lecturer and New York Times best-selling author, Rabbi Joseph Telushkin came on the show to explain “moral imagination.” When the opportunity arose, I sat him down to get another vital installment concerning what should be a critical component of our character.
Our sagacious guest discusses a widow marrying a second husband and if this entails betrayal to her former spouse or their children? Rabbi Telushkin analyzes the dying wish of the famous Jewish ethicist Rabbi Yisrael Salanter, and how people should prepare for their own demise. We are then taken to the Jewish community of New York City in 1895, fearful of the backlash from the visit of a prominent antisemite, and how the clever police commissioner, Teddy Roosevelt came to the rescue. The episode concludes with the moving portrayal of (remarkably unknown) Holocaust hero, Roddy Edmonds, and how his story was posthumously revealed.
Learn more at TellerFromJerusalem.com
Don’t forget to subscribe, like and share! Let all your friends know that that they too can have a new favorite podcast.
© 2025 Media Education Trust llc