This week, Hebrew College rabbinical student Jessica Spencer is here to talk about how she helped found a yeshiva in her hometown of Edinburgh, Scotland. Modeled after projects like Pardes and Hadar, Azara brings together Jews from across the denominational spectrum to study sacred texts and stories.

Tune in this week to discover how Azara is guiding Edinburgh’s Jewish community through their first encounters with Talmudic texts. Among other things, Jessica is showing us how they make meaning out of difficult or problematic texts in the modern day while guiding people in making connections between the texts and their own lives, and sharing Azara’s unique approach to cross-denominational teffilah.

Get full show notes and more information here: http://hebrewcollege.edu/podcast-19

This week, we’re pleased to bring you a discussion with three Hebrew College rabbinical students, Becca Heisler, David Mahfouda, and Chaim Spaulding, who have started a food coop for the Hebrew College community.

Using local sources, students work together in preparing the meals, taking turns, and sharing responsibilities. Spending all day filling up your brain can only sustain you for so long, but the Food Coop brings minds and bodies together, nourishing the stomach as well as the heart.

Get full show notes and more information here: http://hebrewcollege.edu/podcast-18

On this episode of Speaking Torah, we’re introducing you to a tefillah with a difference. In this particular tefillah group, Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld leads the students not only in writing reflections on the prayers, but writing as an act of prayer. It is both the writing and the reading of poetry that allows for a deeply creative connection to The Divine. The poems are based on liturgy, combining ancient voices with their own, resulting in a truly timeless prayer.

Get full show notes and more information here: http://hebrewcollege.edu/podcast-17