Jewish Insights with Justin Pines

What if everything we have belongs to God, and our job is to pass it on? Greystone founder Steve Rosenberg built one of America’s leading real estate finance companies while giving at least half of its profits to tzedakah.

On this episode of Jewish Insights with Justin Pines, Steve shares how he started Greystone with no capital, working from the back of a friend’s music store, and built it into one of the nation’s leading real estate lenders. He explains why he believes nothing we own is truly ours, the obligation that comes with succes...

Israeli comedian Yohay Sponder believes Jews have a unique gift: “we take our suffering and turn it to your joy.” On Jewish Insights with Justin Pines, he shares how he brings that to stages around the world.

Raised on a farm in the Golan Heights by a Moroccan mother and a Polish father, Yohay began doing stand-up in Tel Aviv, then made the leap to performing in English. After October 7, he kept going onstage, for soldiers, for evacuated families, and for everyone who needed to laugh.

In this conversation:

In 1927, the first talking picture told the story of a cantor’s son who chooses Kol Nidre over Broadway. Jewish stories have been part of Hollywood from the moment Hollywood found its voice. A century later, who is making sure they’re told with depth and pride?

Allison Josephs founded Jew in the City after a visiting journalist arrived at her door expecting someone meek, frumpy, and closed-minded — and left inspired. In 2021 she discovered that the NAACP Hollywood Bureau was seventy years old, that the Muslim and Asian American communities had built their own, and that the Jews h...

We’ve rolled the Torah back to the beginning, and Rabbi Judah Mischel has written the companion for the year ahead — from Bereishit through Avraham’s journey in Lech Lecha and on through the cycle.

In his third visit to Jewish Insights, the executive director of Camp HASC sits down with Justin Pines to talk about Baderech: Along the Path of the Torah, his new two-volume work on the weekly parsha, following earlier volumes on Teshuvah and the Haggadah. Baderech means “on the way” — and no one embodies that more than Avraham, who becomes the first Jew only after G...

"Excuse me, is this yours?"

It turns out that may be the most dangerous question you can ask in the Holy Land.
Tuvia Tenenbom, bestselling author, playwright, and the journalist Die Welt called "Michael Moore and Borat in one", spent nearly a year living in the territory some call Judea and Samaria and others call the West Bank, through an active war, with Iranian missiles passing overhead. His new book, Excuse Me, Is This Yours?, is the story of what he actually found.

In this hour, Justin Pines sits down with him...

Kevin S. Bright was executive producer of Friends for all ten seasons and directed more than 50 episodes of one of the most beloved shows in television history. His newest documentary, The Bridge, follows ten young Israeli survivors of October 7th to Los Angeles for the legendary Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp. There, rock musicians from bands including Guns N' Roses, Van Halen, and Black Sabbath help them work through grief, fear, and survivor's guilt, and find their way back to their own voices.
In this episode of Jewish Insights, Justin Pines sits down with Kevin for a conversation...

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 dr...

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 accomp...

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 t...

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...

The Talmud is the foundational text of Judaism — every law, every debate, every dissenting opinion preserved across 2,711 pages. For centuries it was accessible only to scholars. That is changing.

Rabbanit Michelle Farber is the founder of Hadran and the host of Daf Yomi for Women, the first and only women's daily Daf Yomi podcast. From her dining room table in Israel, she has built a worldwide movement — bringing daily Talmud study into the lives of thousands of women and men from all backgrounds.

The story of how the Talmud went from the study halls of the...

The Shema is Judaism's most iconic declaration — six words carried across thousands of years, countries, and circumstances. Now, a bold new initiative is inviting a million Jews to reclaim them.

Rabbi Ephraim Buchwald, founder of New Jewish Outreach Program, and Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff, co-founder of Simchat Torah Challenge, join Rabbi Justin Pines to discuss the Shema Initiative — a collaboration to inspire one million Jews to recite the Shema twice a day, with love. They explore the meaning behind these ancient words, whether it matters to say them in Hebrew, and how they're pairing inspiration with practical tools — includ...

After October 7, Rabbi Yehoshua Pfeffer did something almost no Haredi rabbi has done: he put on a uniform. A community rabbi, he completed IDF basic training alongside soldiers half his age, served in the reserves during the Iran War — and his sons study in yeshiva and serve in the IDF.

But Rabbi Pfeffer isn't just a soldier. He grew up Hasidic, spent a decade in Jerusalem's elite Lithuanian yeshivot under Rav Moshe Shapira and Rav Asher Weiss, clerked at Israel's Supreme Court, and teaches at Hebrew University's law school. He chairs the board of Netzach Yehudah — the orga...

What is the true purpose of music? Is it merely to entertain, or is it a vessel designed to uncover the soul and connect us directly to the Divine?

In this episode of Jewish Insights with Justin Pines, Justin sits down for a deeply personal, wide-ranging conversation with a true master of Jewish song and spirit, Eitan Katz. They trace Eitan’s transformative discovery of Reb Shlomo Carlebach’s legacy and his ongoing commitment to full-time yeshiva learning at Shor Yoshuv.

Together, they explore how music acts as a bridge from spiritual distance to ultimate inti...

How do you navigate grief and find true comfort after a devastating loss? In this episode, we sit down with Rabbi Steven Exler, Senior Rabbi of the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale – The Bayit, to explore the raw human landscape of mourning, healing, and pastoral care.

As the calendar pivots from the heavy collective mourning of Tisha B'Av to the promise of Shabbat Nachamu (the Sabbath of Consolation), Rav Steven shares profound insights drawn from guiding countless families through tragedy from the inside out, as well as navigating deep personal loss.

Widely regarded as one of th...

Auschwitz survivor Tova Friedman,  author of the New York Times bestseller The Daughter of Auschwitz [link], recounts her arrival and experiences at the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp and surviving a Nazi gas chamber. Tova shares the arduous journey of rebuilding her life and humanity after World War II. Later, she is joined by her grandson, Aron Goodman, to discuss "TovaTok"—their viral TikTok channel dedicated to Holocaust education and preserving her history for the next generation.

https://www.tiktok.com/@tovafriedman?_r=1&_t=ZP-9804AVbZ8bm

Holocaust survivor Tova Friedman, author of the New York Times bestseller The Daughter of Auschwitz [link], shares her harrowing story of survival. In Part 1, Tova details her family's life before World War II and the unimaginable experience of surviving a Jewish ghetto and a Nazi labor camp as a young child. She also opens up about the complex role of faith and wrestling with God in the face of profound tragedy.

https://www.tiktok.com/@tovafriedman?_r=1&_t=ZP-9804AVbZ8bm

American Jews have lately been sensing the end of their Golden Age — and asking whether the next century will be as kind to them and their children as the last one was. Dr. Mijal Bitton thinks we're asking the wrong question.

A sociologist, spiritual leader, and public intellectual, Mijal is Scholar in Residence at the Maimonides Fund, Rosh Kehilla of the Downtown Minyan in New York City, co-host of the podcast Wondering Jews and author of the Substack newsletter Committed.  She recently published the landmark essay "The Future Is Sephardic," [https://sapirjournal.org/aspiration-ii/2026/the-future-is-sephardic/] published in Sap...

Happy 250th Birthday, America! To celebrate this massive milestone, Jewish Insights with Justin Pines goes on location to Philadelphia to uncover a foundational, untold story most Americans have completely forgotten: Jewish Americans have been fighting for, supporting, and shaping this nation since the very beginning.

Located at the literal crossroads of freedom, just steps from the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall, the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History and the historic Congregation Mikveh Israel sit at the very heart of the story of America and Jewish America, which are inextricably intertwined.

In this special...

Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback (Stephen Wise Temple, Los Angeles) and Russell Robinson (Jewish National Fund-USA) examine the future of Jewish communal life and engagement in a conversation moderated by Karen Rivo at Re-CHARGING Reform Judaism from the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in NYC. 

URJ President Rabbi Rick Jacobs outlines priorities for the movement's next era, calling for Reform Judaism to stop managing decline and start leading a renaissance. From the Re-CHARGING Reform Judaism Conference of the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue (NYC). 

What do a ping-pong paddle, a global shoe empire, and Independence Mall in Philadelphia have in common? Stuart Weitzman. One of America's most celebrated designers, Stuart built a brand worn by Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, and Kate Middleton — and then went on to compete in the Maccabiah Games in Israel, carrying the American flag into the opening ceremony. He also made a transformative gift to save the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia. In this conversation, Stuart talks about his Jewish identity, his love of the Maccabiah, his passion for philanthropy, and what it means to leave a l...

He rebuilt Jewish life post-Holocaust and advised world leaders—but the Lubavitcher Rebbe was also a profound counselor to the human soul. Rabbi Levi Shmotkin, author of the global bestseller “Letters for Life: Guidance for Emotional Wellness from the Lubavitcher Rebbe” [https://www.amazon.com/Letters-Life-Guidance-Emotional-Lubavitcher/dp/0826690149] investigated over 23,000 letters written by the rebbe and explains how the Rebbe's private correspondences mapped out a timeless framework for mental health, including positive psychology, and overcoming anxiety, bad moods and isolation.

He was called a “once-in-a-millennium scholar.”

Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz z”l was a physicist by training who became a towering Torah authority — a prolific author of over 300 titles, an Israel Prize laureate, the first person since the medieval sage Rashi to produce a complete commentary on the entire Babylonian Talmud, and the first ever to translate it into modern Hebrew. It took him 45 years.

In this conversation on Jewish Insights with Justin Pines, his son Rabbi Menachem “Meni” Even-Israel — CEO of the Steinsaltz Center in Jerusalem (https://steinsaltz-center.org/)— reflects on the man behind the mission: the sch...

Bruce Pearl built Auburn into a college basketball powerhouse — five SEC championships, two Final Four runs, and an NCAA Coach of the Year award. But for Pearl, the game has always been about something much bigger.

In this episode of Jewish Insights with Justin Pines, Coach Pearl opens up about the Jewish grandfather who shaped everything — a plumber from Roxbury who came to America at age 11, housed Black tenants through hard times without charging rent, and made sure Bruce understood that this country saved their family's life. Pearl traces the through-line from that grandfather to the advocacy work...

What does it mean to write about Jewish hope and renewal — and then lose your son a week later?

Rav Dr. Tamir Granot is the Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Orot Shaul, a hesder yeshiva in the heart of south Tel Aviv. He is a Holocaust scholar, a student of Rav Amital and Rav Lichtenstein at Yeshivat Har Etzion, and the author of multiple books on Jewish thought. Days after October 7th he published a major theological essay arguing the massacre was a watershed moment demanding Jewish renewal — not despair. One week later, his son Amitai, a 24-year-old IDF...

What makes the Book of Ruth one of the most beloved texts in the Jewish canon — and what does it have to say about the choices we face in our own lives?

Dr. Raizi Chechik — founding Director of the Pava Center for Women’s Torah Scholarship at Yeshiva University (https://go.yu.edu/pava), Community Scholar at The Jewish Center of Manhattan, and veteran Jewish educator who has taught in over one hundred communities across the globe — offers a fresh and compelling reading of Megillat Ruth. She reveals what makes it unique in all of Tanach: a story wi...

The Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9) is one of the Torah's most familiar yet mysterious stories. In this episode of Jewish Insights, host Justin Pines is joined by Ms. Shuli Taubes — educator, scholar, and chair of the Jewish Thought department at SAR High School — who takes us back to Migdal Bavel and uncovers something in the text that most of us have never noticed. What is G-d actually worried about? And what does the answer reveal about the nature of the divine-human relationship?

This is Torah learning that will surprise you.

This episode is part of J...

What does it really mean to receive the Torah — and is it actually designed for imperfect people? In this illuminating first installment of our special three-part Shavuot Torah series, Jewish Insights host Justin Pines sits down with Rabba Yaffa Epstein to explore two extraordinary stories from the Babylonian Talmud that reveal the behind-the-scenes drama of Moses ascending to receive the Torah at Sinai.

From Moses' epic battle with the angels (Tractate Shabbat 88b–89a) to his humbling time-travel into Rabbi Akiva's study hall (Tractate Menachot 29b), these ancient stories carry a radical and deeply human message: the Torah...

Dr. Tal Becker — architect of the Abraham Accords, Israel's voice at the Hague, former Legal Adviser to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, senior peace negotiator across multiple rounds of talks, and Vice President of the Shalom Hartman Institute (https://www.hartman.org.il/person/tal-becker/) — joins Jewish Insights with Justin Pines for a conversation about Jewish identity, how we talk about Israel, and the evolving organizing narrative of the Jewish people in a fractured moment. 

He brings to this conversation not the week's headlines, but something harder to find: wisdom.

Every year, Israel moves in a single day from its deepest grief to its greatest celebration — from Yom HaZikaron, Memorial Day for fallen soldiers, to Yom Ha'atzmaut, Independence Day. How do we hold both? And what does it mean to love Israel from across the ocean?

Rabbi Sam Klibanoff — spiritual leader of Congregation Etz Chaim in Livingston, NJ (https://www.etzchaimnj.org/about-us/clergy/), and one of the most passionate advocates for Israel in the American rabbinate — joins Jewish Insights with Justin Pines for a wide-ranging conversation about memory, resilience, solidarity, and the enduring bond between the Jewish...

How does a visionary Hasidic leader simply… vanish?

In this episode of Jewish Insights, Justin Pines sits down with historical detective and scholar Rabbi Pini Dunner to uncover a decades-old mystery, a secret identity, and a journey home. 

Discover the unbelievable life of Yechezkel Taub (The Yabloner Rebbe)—a world-renowned leader who led hundreds of pioneers from pre-Holocaust Poland to found a village in pre-state Israel, only to vanish and reappear decades later as an 80-year old secular psychology student in Los Angeles.

He didn't just leave his village; he left his identity behin...

What if your Haggadah could meet you exactly where you are this year — checked out, overwhelmed, full of joy, or somewhere in between? Rabbi Yakov Danishefsky, therapist, author, and creator of the Attached Haggadah - https://www.amazon.com/Attached-Haggadah-Rabbi-Yakov-Danishefsky/dp/B0GN9NDTC1-, joins us for one of our most ambitious episodes yet: unlocking the entire Pesach Seder in one hour.

We explore the Attached framework and what it means to bring your full, authentic self to the Seder table. Yakov shares the vision behind the Attached Haggadah — a Haggadah built on dialogue between your inner world an...

What if the 25 hours of Shabbat weren't just a break from your week, but the very engine of your spiritual growth?

Host Justin Pines sits down with Dr. Alan Morinis — founder of the Mussar Institute and a leading voice in the contemporary revival of Mussar, the Jewish tradition of character refinement — to explore his new book, The Shabbat Effect: Jewish Wisdom for Growth and Transformation.

Together they dive into how practicing Shabbat with conscious intention creates lasting change — not just on the seventh day, but across the six days that follow.

In this episode...

How do you turn 2,000-year-old prayers into modern hits?

For the 100th episode of Jewish Insights, Justin sits down with the world-renowned Hasidic folk-rock duo, Zusha. Shlomo Gaisin and Zachariah Goldschmiedt open up about their journey from wordless niggunim to electronic soundscapes, and the "idol smashing" required to keep their art authentic.

In this episode:

The Creative Process: How Zusha bridges the gap between the ancient and the modern.

The Evolution: Moving from folk melodies to atmospheric electronic music.

God's Voice: Bringing God into their lyrics.

Soulful Perform...

In this episode of Jewish Insights, Justin Pines welcomes Alana Rifkin Gelnick, founder and CEO of Dreamearly, for a deep dive into the "pedagogy of the Seder." As we navigate rising antisemitism and global uncertainty, Alana explores how the ancient rituals of Passover - from the Ma Nishtana to the Four Sons - provide a timeless framework for modern parenting and education, and healthier relationships in general.

Together, they discuss why "kids do well if they can," the power of modeling emotional regulation, and how to meet every type of learner exactly where they are. Whether you are...

In this episode of Jewish Insights, Justin Pines sits down with one of the most celebrated Jewish historians of our time — Professor David B. Ruderman, the Joseph Meyerhoff Professor Emeritus of Modern Jewish History at the University of Pennsylvania and former founding Director of the Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies — for a rich and deeply personal conversation about a remarkable 50-year career, from growing up as a rabbi's son to building Jewish Studies programs at Yale and Penn and teaching across a dozen European cities.

At the heart of the conversation is Professor Ruderman's life...

In this episode of Jewish Insights, Justin Pines welcomes back Dr. Mijal Bitton for a raw and sophisticated look at the "new reality" facing the Jewish community on occasions of Purim and Shabbat Zachor. Two years after their conversation following October 7thhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzQrygsFtT0], they move past the initial shock to explore what it means to build resilience when the "clarity of evil" transitions into the "ambiguity of the everyday."

Dr. Bitton uses the contrast between the explicit commands of Shabbat Zachor and the hidden, dizzying narrative of the Megillah (the Scroll of...

Join Justin Pines for a special episode of Jewish Insights, recorded live at the Yeshiva University Seforim Sale! Justin welcomes renowned Tanakh scholar Dr. Yael Ziegler for a deep dive into the "writing revolution" of the Torah. Dr. Ziegler explores how ancient texts like the Epic of Gilgamesh illuminate Tanakh's unique values, the power of writing to process national tragedy, and the foundational themes of exile and redemption in Exodus and Psalms. Discover the ongoing legacy of Jewish writing in Jewish life and the mission of the Matan Kitvuni program to bring women's Torah to print.

Dr...