Iyun Podcast

Episode 35 - Is Violence the Answer? with R' Yehoshua Pfeffer

In this episode, we take a hard look at a growing crisis within the Torah world: what happens when a system built around the ideal of total Torah immersion leaves too many young men without genuine learning, productive work, responsibility, or purpose? Drawing on Rabbi Yehoshua Pfeffer’s provocative essay, we explore how idleness can lead not only to boredom, but to anger, extremism, and the erosion of the dignity and character traditionally associated with a ben Torah. The conversation challenges us to distinguish between protecting the Torah world and defending a system that may no longer be serving everyone within it, and asks what honest leadership, meaningful expectations, and constructive alternatives might look like. Read the article here: “Idleness, Anger, and the Erosion of the Torah World”. (iyun.org.il) For more quality content, join our weekly newsletter: https://iyun.org.il/en/join-our-newsletterOur Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/Tzarichiyun

Episode 34 - Poverty and Identity in the Chareidi Community

Dr. Nechumie Yaffe is a Haredi scholar and lecturer at Tel Aviv University whose work focuses on Haredi sociology and the challenge of translating the lived experience of the ultra-Orthodox world to audiences outside of it. Her research explores the tensions, assumptions, and internal complexities of Haredi society, offering a rare voice from within the community who can both analyze it academically and articulate it authentically. In this episode, we discuss the sociology of the Haredi world, how insiders and outsiders often misunderstand one another, and what is gained when the Haredi experience is explained with nuance rather than caricature. For more quality content, join our weekly newsletter: https://iyun.org.il/en/join-our-newsletter Our Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/Tzarichiyun

Episode 33 - Chareidi Women in Tech...in the IDF?!

Esti Salomon is the founder and CEO of Atida, a pioneering Israeli nonprofit creating new pathways for ultra-Orthodox women to serve in elite technological units within the IDF as civilian employees. Under her leadership, Atida has placed more than 400 women in prestigious roles in units such as Unit 8200, the Air Force’s Ofek Unit, the Communications Corps, and the Ground Forces Command. In addition to her groundbreaking leadership, Esti is currently pursuing her Ph.D. at Bar-Ilan University, where her doctoral research focuses on the emerging phenomenon of ultra-Orthodox women working within the IDF. In this episode, we discuss the intersection of Haredi society, military service, women’s professional advancement, and Israeli social change, and what Atida’s work reveals about the evolving future of the ultra-Orthodox community in Israel. For more quality content, join our weekly newsletter: https://iyun.org.il/en/join-our-newsletter Our Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/Tzarichiyun

Episode 32 - Tradition or Innovation: Gender Roles in Chareidi Society

Mrs. Miriam Kosman is originally from Baltimore, Maryland, a longtime resident of Bnei Brak, and now lives in Afula in Israel’s north. The daughter, descendant, and wife of distinguished talmidei chachamim, she has emerged as one of Orthodoxy’s most compelling thinkers on the subject of Judaism and gender. Her groundbreaking work, Circle, Arrow, Spiral, draws on academic insight, psychological depth, and the esoteric teachings of Judaism, particularly those of Rav Moshe Shapiro zt”l, to offer a rich and often countercultural framework for understanding masculine and feminine spiritual energies in Torah thought. In our conversation, we explore the theological dimensions of gender in Judaism, along with contemporary expressions, common misconceptions, and some of the stranger distortions that have emerged in the current cultural moment. For more quality content, join our weekly newsletter: https://iyun.org.il/en/join-our-newsletter Our Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/Tzarichiyun

Episode 31 - What is a "Kiddush Hashem" And Why Does it Matter? With Rabbi Shraga Freedman

Rabbi Shraga Freedman, a resident of Baltimore, Maryland, has dedicated himself to restoring the centrality of Kiddush Hashem as a defining value in Jewish life. Through the work of the Living Kiddush Hashem Foundation, he has developed programs, educational materials, and practical resources designed to inspire Jews to live in a way that reflects honor, integrity, and moral beauty. In this episode, we explore the contours of this timeless Jewish concept through its classical Torah sources, consider how it may have lost some of its central place in contemporary religious consciousness, and discuss how to restore it to a position of primacy within the lived experience of Torah observance. You can visit livingkiddushhashem.org for a wide range of resources, including the videos and educational materials featured in this episode. Contact Rabbi Freedman at livingkidushhashem@gmail.com For more quality content, join our weekly newsletter: https://iyun.org.il/en/join-our-newsletter Our Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/Tzarichiyun