Central Synagogue
500 episodes listed below
Jewish teaching with historical depth.
Central Synagogue Podcast carries the sound of a congregation thinking aloud through Torah, holidays, history, and responsibility. Its episodes move between Shabbat sermons and live learning sessions, with clergy and scholars making ancient texts feel close to ordinary moral life.
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Central Synagogue Podcast is an audio record of sermons, lectures, music, and conversations from Central Synagogue, with a clear center in Jewish learning. Its episodes often begin in the weekly rhythm of Shabbat or holiday observance. Then they open outward. A Torah portion becomes a way to talk about moral distinction, grief, leadership, or spiritual resilience. A detail in Leviticus can become a whole sermon on intimacy. A seemingly dry tabernacle inventory can become a reflection on public trust. The show is strongest when it lets inherited texts meet concrete human situations, from mandel bread in airport security to the sacred fragments of the Yanov Torah hidden by Jews imprisoned at Janowska. It can be gentle. It can be grave. It has room for jokes, classroom asides, and congregational warmth, but it does not treat Jewish memory lightly. Rabbi Angela Buchdahl’s sermon on the sacred and profane connects Parshat Shemini, Yom HaShoah, and the survival of a broken Torah scroll into a larger claim about dignity under desecration. Other sermons turn Passover, Malachi, Moses, Vayikra, and Mishkan bookkeeping into questions that feel practical rather than abstract. Alongside the sermons, the Jewish Bookshelf series gives the feed an intellectual public-classroom dimension. Rabbinic intern Rebecca Thao speaks with scholars about sacred and cultural texts, including the Zohar and the Mayse-Bukh. Those conversations are slower and more explanatory, with enough space for printing history, Jewish-Christian relations, Kabbalah, Yiddish storytelling, and Reform Jewish approaches to tradition. The result is a show for listeners who want religious teaching that is neither breezy nor forbidding. It assumes curiosity. It rewards patience. It treats Jewish vocabulary as teachable, not ornamental, and keeps returning to the same central concern: how old words, books, rituals, and stories help people recognize what is holy now.
Made for: For listeners drawn to Jewish sermons, sacred texts, Reform Jewish practice, and intellectually patient religious teaching. It especially suits those who want clergy reflections and scholar-led conversations rather than debate, news analysis, or personality-driven talk.
What sets it apart: Its range sets it apart: one feed can move from Shabbat sermons and Passover reflections to live scholarly sessions on the Zohar, the Mayse-Bukh, printing history, and Jewish mysticism. The tone stays congregational and humane even when the material becomes historically dense.
This is the podcast/audio archive of Manhattan's historic Central Synagogue- featuring sermons, music, lectures and conversations. Central Synagogue works tirelessly toward a world in which Judaism is central to the lives of people everywhere and is a profound and positive force for humanity.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Close textual study and congregational teaching show Jewish tradition being interpreted, questioned, and practiced in community.
Central Synagogue Podcast makes Jewish tradition audible as both a body of texts and a living communal practice. In the Jewish Bookshelf series, rabbinic intern Rebecca Thao guides conversations on the Tanakh, Midrash, Talmud, Zohar, and Mayse-Bukh.
One Hebrew word becomes an evening's argument, and you get a seat beside the source sheet.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A careful look at the Macebuch and the printing world around it.
Rabbi Joseph Skloot and Rebecca Thao treat the Macebuch as both a lovely book of stories and a messy printing-history puzzle. The discussion moves from title pages and woodcuts to the practical question of who could print Hebrew books in early modern Europe, and the live setting…
A calm, readable doorway into the Zohar and a Reformed Jewish conversation about what sacred texts can still do now.
Central Synagogue treats the Zohar as a living study conversation, and Rebecca Thao keeps it grounded with a calm, attentive pace. Dr. Corrin makes Kabbalah readable without sanding it down, using the idea of receiving to show how the Zohar gathers older tradition and later…
A sermon that folds leadership, memory, and courage into one communal story.
The sermon begins with a committee search and the plain work of finding a leader who fit the community's sense of itself. It then moves to Miriam, Yochevet, the wilderness well, and the recovery of women's religious leadership, so the welcome feels less like ceremony and more…
A patient look at how the Talmud became a foundation for later Jewish law.
Central Synagogue's Hanukkah-season conversation with Rabbi Ethan Tucker, PhD treats the Talmud less as a static text than as a living question about authority.
A warm Midrash class that makes interpretation feel newly alive.
This episode treats Midrash as a living way of reading, with Rabbi Jill Hammer showing how Jewish interpretation can move past a text's obvious sense and make a familiar passage feel newly alive.
A thoughtful conversation on Tanakh, reading, and how Jewish texts are understood.
Rabbi Robert Harris treats Tanakh as a library rather than a single book, and that framing gives the discussion real shape. Rebecca Thao keeps the exchange moving through the Shema, the word echad, and the way meaning changes with context, tradition, and history.
Daily halacha, case by case.
Parsha questions carried into serious Torah argument.
History with the room still talking.
Rabbi Angela Buchdahl of Central Synagogue in Manhattan delivers a Shabbat sermon connecting Parshat Shemini's command to distinguish the sacred from the profane with the story of the Yanov Torah — a Holocaust-era scroll smuggled into Janowska concentration camp by Lvov Jews sewn inside their clothing.
The Macebuch gets a lively, careful introduction.
A rabbi delivers a sermon discussing Passover-related topics, including the kosher status of almond milk and a personal anecdote about mandel bread at airport security.
Rabbinic Intern Rebecca Thau delivers a sermon connecting sidewalk poetry in Madison, Wisconsin, to the message of Passover, emphasizing that despite hard times, great days are to come.
This sermon by Rabbi Ari Lorge explores why the Jewish tradition reads from the prophet Malachi on Shabbat Hagadol before Pesach, highlighting Malachi's significance as the last prophet of Israel.
This sermon explores the opening of Leviticus, focusing on God's intimate call to Moses and how it sets the tone for the entire book.
Rabbi Angela Buchdahl delivers a sermon exploring how seemingly mundane Torah passages about tabernacle accounting reveal profound lessons about leadership and holiness.
Central Synagogue’s "Jewish Bookshelf" episode on the Zohar features Rebecca Thao in conversation with Dr.
A rabbi introduces the podcast and shares a personal story about studying the golden calf story in college.
A synagogue podcast featuring a sermon by Rabbi Delphine Horvelor, introduced by Rabbi Angela Buchdahl.
A Jewish synagogue podcast featuring a sermon that uses a baking analogy to discuss spiritual lessons.
A rabbi introduces a podcast from Central Synagogue, then shares a sermon about attending an interfaith service and finding strength in faith and community.
This episode features an interview with Dr.
A rabbi introduces a sermon reflecting on family relationships and the Ten Commandments.
This sermon reflects on Eric K.
Rabbi Angela Buchdahl opens Central Synagogue's podcast by describing it as a feed for sermons, lectures, and conversations from Manhattan's historic Central Synagogue.
A rabbi introduces the podcast and discusses the significance of blessings during the confluence of the secular New Year and the Torah reading cycle.
Rabbi Angela Buchdahl discusses whether Jews believe in making secular New Year resolutions, offering a nuanced Jewish perspective.
Talmud is not a code.
A rabbi introduces a sermon on the Torah portion Miketz, discussing the character Jacob's shift from active control to passivity.
A rabbi introduces a sermon discussing the phenomenon of family estrangement, referencing Oprah Winfrey's video and TikTok trends.
Midrash begins as a question.
A rabbi introduces a podcast from Central Synagogue, featuring sermons and lectures, and begins a personal story about childhood trips to a fabric store.
A rabbi shares a personal journey of reconnecting with Judaism through the stories of women in the Hebrew Bible.
A sermon from Central Synagogue addressing concerns about the newly elected anti-Zionist mayor of New York City.
Tanakh comes across as a library.
A rabbi addresses the congregation about her stance on anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism, responding to community feedback during a sermon.
A rabbi introduces the Central Synagogue podcast and shares a personal story about her mother's love languages.
A Jewish synagogue podcast featuring a sermon about forgiveness, illustrated by a story of a mother and daughter reconciling.
A Jewish synagogue podcast featuring sermons and lectures on psalms and spiritual guidance.
A Rosh Hashanah sermon reflecting on gratitude and life's dualities, delivered by Rabbi Angela Buchdahl at Central Synagogue.
A Jewish synagogue podcast featuring sermons, lectures, and conversations about Judaism and faith.
A rabbi introduces a sermon addressing existential despair and current events from a Jewish perspective.
A Jewish sermon podcast from Central Synagogue featuring messages of strength and hope.
Rabbi Angela Buchdahl delivers a Rosh HaShanah sermon expressing her fear and heartbreak over the Israel-Palestine conflict, balancing her love for Israel with concern for Palestinian suffering.