Jewish Insights with Justin Pines

What is the Torah? If you think it's just the Five Books of Moses, you're only seeing the surface. The Torah encompasses the written law, the oral law, the Mishnah, the Talmud, and an extraordinary chain of transmission and interpretation that stretches from Mount Sinai to today. In this episode of Jewish Insights with Justin Pines, historian Rabbi Ken Spiro walks through the full story of the Torah — what actually happened at Sinai (including the part most people don't know), when the written and oral laws were given and why God would deliver a law orally, the dramatic moment when King Josiah's workers discovered a lost Torah scroll in the Temple, Ezra's public reading at the Water Gate that transformed Jewish life after the Babylonian exile, why the oral law was eventually written down, how the Torah system survived the destruction of the Temple and centuries of exile, the role of the Rambam in organizing and transmitting the tradition, what the Dead Sea Scrolls revealed about the accuracy of the text over two thousand years, how traditional Judaism responds to the Documentary Hypothesis, and the living process by which rabbis derive Jewish law from these ancient sources today. Rabbi Ken Spiro is a historian, author, and Senior Lecturer at Aish HaTorah in Jerusalem. He holds an MA in History and rabbinic ordination from Aish HaTorah and has lived in Israel since 1982. He served in a combat infantry unit in the IDF and is a licensed tour guide in Israel. He is the author of "WorldPerfect — The Jewish Impact on Civilization," "Crash Course in Jewish History," and "Destiny — Why a tiny nation plays such a huge role in history." His work has been featured on BBC, National Geographic, the History Channel, and Fox News. He hosts the weekly podcast "Remember What's Next" on Spotify and YouTube, and his writings can be found at kenspiro.com and aish.com.

Every year on Sukkot, Jews around the world read the prophet Zechariah's vision of a future in which all the nations of the earth come up to Jerusalem. Not on Passover. Not on Yom Kippur. On Sukkot — the holiday Jewish tradition identifies with the Messianic era itself. So what is the Messiah? For an idea this central to Judaism — woven into the daily prayers, enshrined as the 12th of Maimonides' 13 Principles of Faith, built into the structure of Jewish history and Jewish hope — most Jews would struggle to say what Mashiach actually is, what he has to accomplish, or how anyone would recognize the real one. In part one of this two-part Sukkot and Simchat Torah special, Justin Pines sits down with Rabbi Ken Spiro — historian, author, and senior lecturer at Aish HaTorah in Jerusalem — for an hour that turns a vague idea into something you can actually hold. Jewish Insights with Justin Pines airs on JBS (Jewish Broadcasting Service), available on Comcast, Spectrum, DirecTV, and Verizon. Watch more episodes at jbstv.org.

Join JBS CEO Rabbi Justin Pines as he offers his special 2026 Yom Kippur Message, which calls on all people to take action to bring more truth, or "EMET" in Hebrew, into our lives.

This Yom Kippur, Justin Pines welcomes back his teacher and rebbe, Rabbi Avi Weiss, for an hour-long journey through the holiest day of the Jewish year.  Rabbi Weiss, founding rabbi of the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale (the Bayit) and founder of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah and Yeshivat Maharat, opens with a tefillah he wrote and recites each morning: a prayer for help in giving thanks for the blessings he has, and in not letting his heart be weighed down by the blessings he lacks. From there, the conversation moves through the themes of the day including the shofar and teshuva – Rav Kook’s teaching that repentance is not only an accounting of past deeds, but a return to your own inner self. Strength and love – why love itself is not a feeling but a decision, an action. Kol Nidre – the power of words and the dangers of them. The confession (vidui), and the positive vidui Rabbi Weiss composed: ahavnu, we have loved; barachnu, we have blessed; gadalnu, we have grown. The Avodah, and the idea that every one of us can be a Kohen Gadol, and finally Neilah.  Rabbi Weiss reflects, “I would always think: God, don’t lock me out. Lately I’ve been thinking that maybe we should be saying: God, don’t lock me in. Let me go out. Let me experience the entire world." ”  Recorded on the eve of 9/11, Rabbi Weiss also reflects on walking into Ground Zero as a clergy first responder and finding a holy place, and on the soldiers, families, and small daily steps that have shaped his thinking since October 7th. He closes with a blessing. 

Can God be vulnerable? National Jewish Book Award winner Gila Fine explores the stunning talmudic tale of Rabbi Yishmael ben Elisha, who entered the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur and was asked by God for a blessing (Berakhot 7a). What does it mean for an omnipotent God to ask a mortal for help? Through the lens of rabbinic literature, Shakespeare's King Lear, and modern philosophy, Fine reveals the difference between the God of the Bible and the God of the Talmud — and what divine vulnerability teaches us about the relationship between God and humanity.  Gila Fine is a lecturer in rabbinic literature at Shalem College and the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, and the author of "The Madwoman in the Rabbi's Attic: Rereading the Women of the Talmud," winner of the 74th National Jewish Book Award and the 2024 Rabbi Sacks Book Prize.