18Forty

About 18Forty

18Forty is a podcast on Lehallel — the filtered YouTube platform. 74+ of their episodes can be watched here, with no ads and no comments.

18Forty is a podcast of long conversations about the questions of Jewish life and thought, and its channel arranges them in series, each a few conversations deep. The Teshuva series opens with Rabbi Beryl Gershenfeld on what Jewish outreach teaches about teshuva and goes on to Rabbi Michael Rosensweig on the majesty of Torah study; the Jewish Education series opens with Rabbi Yisroel Kaminetsky on the goal of Jewish education and ends with the cost of Jewish education; the Books series brings Rabbi Emanuel Feldman on being a Jewish writer and Rabbi Yisroel Besser on how to share Jewish stories; the Prayer and Humanity series asks Moshe Koppel about artificial intelligence and Torah; the Rationality series and the Origins of Judaism series - Rabbi Yosef Bronstein on Rav Tzadok and Rav Kook on Jewish history - complete it.

A whole shelf is given to Jewish mysticism: Rabbi DovBer Pinson on the Jewish people's path of teshuva, Joey Rosenfeld on what Jewish mysticism says about this moment, Rabbi Daniel Rowe on mysticism and Torah, Rabbi David Aaron on the Divine Presence, Moshe Gersht on why the world of mysticism begs for practicality, Zevi Slavin, and Shmuel Ozhekh on the mind as the greatest block to a person's spirituality.

Many of the conversations are with a single guest: Rabbi Judah Mischel on how to be a Jewish optimist, Yaakov Klein on prayer as an answer in itself, Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein on reaching beyond our community, Rabbi Moshe Taragin on Israel and American Jews, Rabbi Moshe Benovitz on why religious change does not always last, Etan Epstein on new journeys in Torah learning, Rabbi Shais Taub with David Bashevkin on shame, selfhood and authenticity, and Rabbi Haskel and Josh Lookstein on finding yourself in a rabbinic dynasty. Simon Jacobson tells how he received the Rebbe's endorsement.

To find your way here: the page opens with Show & Tale, then the series, then Jewish mysticism, then the short answers, and last the single conversations. Most conversations run an hour or two, so they are made for listening at length - on a drive, at work, or over a few evenings - and a series is best heard in its order, one guest after another, the way the channel numbers them.

In Show & Tale the channel opens rare Jewish books and documents: the YU Maimonides exhibit - why the Rambam's works were burned and banned, and what may be the first printed reference to Shabbetai Tzvi - first-edition responsa of Rabbi Akiva Eiger, Rabbi Yaakov Emden and the Chacham Tzvi in Columbia's collection, an 1860 Talmud set, and the Mizrahi Book Store. Short answers stand beside them - God, Talmud, Teshuva - and five books every Jewish child should read. Each recording opens on its own page, with no ads and no comments around it.

You can search inside the episodes by what was said, play the whole catalog back to back, or follow 18Forty to be told when something new comes in.