Episodes

  • Roundup of interviews and lectures (links in the notes)

    Roundup of interviews and lectures (links in the notes)
    Jun 10 2025

    This is a short episode that rounds up a few other things that I've done recently:

    1. I was interviewed by Rabbi Drew Kaplan of "The Jewish Drinking Show" on the Noda BiYehudah's responsum on isinglass (a clarifying agent in beverages, made from the swim bladder of a non-kosher species of fish): https://open.spotify.com/episode/4iDlTVVbxfjaWuH9rT0goj?si=fbc49f6dde884380


    2. 18forty has a series called "18 questions, 40 Israeli thinkers." I was interviewed as part of this series: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1WaUGr39CeDjS5H8vCC3n2?si=b7171897a99f4677


    3. From Mizrachi UK: An Early Debate about Electricity on Shabbat - in the Pages of a London Jewish Newspaper: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3oFpJEQViUZfLbdkf0Wbj3?si=98ded40d3a6343ff

    Here's a source sheet for the lecture: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PVFH2JNPApe_kRm_Z7T_VPgMBKZAWpyv/view?usp=sharing


    4. For Mizrachi UK: An Intellectual Portrait of R. Nachum Rabinovich: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3wQvivlIrnAKU2uPPKZzjf?si=fcaf2d010cc447bd


    5. For Mizrachi UK: "They Did Not Change their Names, Language, or Dress" https://open.spotify.com/episode/3NMdRMCLTo3rH9lHBAkRR6?si=0fcc0b8e90dd4d8a

    I don't recall whether I have podcast this, but I've certainly written about it. Here's my article: https://www.academia.edu/28574595/_They_did_not_Change_their_Names_their_Language_or_their_Dress_The_Life_cycle_of_a_Peculiar_Midrashic_Variant
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    6 mins
  • R. Yosef Shaul Natansohn, the Shoel UMeshiv

    R. Yosef Shaul Natansohn, the Shoel UMeshiv
    Mar 27 2025

    Today - 27 Adar, 5785/March 27 2025 - is the 150th yahrzeit of R. Yosef Shaul Natansohn, author of Shu"t Shoel U-Meshiv. In this podcast, we will explore a bit about who he was and the world in which he lived and operated.

    Here's a link to the map of Shoel U-Meshiv's responsa

    Link to the teshuvah on the abusive teacher: https://www.sefaria.org/Shoel_uMeshiv_Mahadura_I.1.185.1?lang=bi

    English bio of R. Yosef Shaul Natansohn, by Haim Gertner, for YIVO: https://encyclopedia.yivo.org/article/1496
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    57 mins
  • Picking up the Pieces: On the Oven of Akhnai

    Picking up the Pieces: On the Oven of Akhnai
    Apr 26 2024
    Some thoughts and ideas on the famous story of the Oven of Akhnai, which appears in tomorrow's Daf (Bava Metzia 59)
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    59 mins
  • Some Thoughts on the Purim Story and Senator Lieberman zt"l

    Some Thoughts on the Purim Story and Senator Lieberman zt"l
    Apr 2 2024

    An idea developed by the Ketav Sofer on Megillat Esther resonates with something that appeared in Daf Yomi a few days ago and with the life and legacy of Senator Joe Lieberman.

    The idea of the Ketav Sofer appears here: https://www.hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=14083&pgnum=337

    The idea that emerges on Bava Metzia 32b is here: Rashi s.v. אי אמרת https://shas.alhatorah.org/Full/Bava_Metzia/32b.9#e0n6

    The link to Rabbi Ethan Tucker's eulogy for Senator Lieberman is here: https://www.youtube.com/live/_NTVjFB_FnU?si=8fu-kCINHVPhlHnc&t=5515
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    38 mins
  • Radbaz vol. 1, no. 40 - Ransoming Captives

    Radbaz vol. 1, no. 40 - Ransoming Captives
    Dec 20 2023
    Radbaz, R. David Ibn Abu Zimra, addresses the question of what constitutes 'overpaying' to ransom a Jewish captive. This episode gets into the economic and political realities of the 16th century in the Mediterranean basin, including the burgeoning slave trade, and the resulting attention to the great mitzvah of pidyon shevuyim, ransoming captives. Here's a link to the responsum: https://www.sefaria.org/Teshuvot_HaRadbaz_Volume_1.40.1?lang=bi And here's a link to the first part of my series on Rav Ovadiah Yosef's teshuvah on the Entebbe hostages: https://jewishreviewofbooks.com/contemporary-israel/14972/rabbi-ovadia-yosefs-and-the-halakhot-of-hostages-part-i/
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    57 mins
  • Krakenfruit (the Buddha's Hand Etrog)

    Krakenfruit (the Buddha's Hand Etrog)
    Sep 28 2023

    Two of the greatest rabbis of the Bavli Jewish community in recent centuries address the status of a new type of fruit that arrived from the Far East. Is it a kosher etrog?

    The question is addressed in two responsa, one by R. Abdullah Somekh and one by his student, R. Yosef Hayyim, both of Baghdad.

    Link to the responsum: https://www.hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=32212&st=&pgnum=379
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    50 mins
  • Public and Private Penance (Responsa Maharam Lublin)

    Public and Private Penance (Responsa Maharam Lublin)
    Sep 24 2023

    We generally think of confession and penance as either a private matter between a person and God, or as a matter between the perpetrator and victim of a wrong. But not that long ago there were forms of penance that were very public. What's the idea behind them, and what can they teach us about social healing today?

    We will be studying and discussing a series of responsa by Maharam Lublin. Here is a link to the responsa: https://www.hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=1937&pgnum=39
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    45 mins
  • Book Journeys, Some Updates, and the Hoshanot Mosh Pit

    Book Journeys, Some Updates, and the Hoshanot Mosh Pit
    Jun 28 2023
    The episode begins with some updates. First, an introduction to the "Book Journey" that I will begin next week. Sign up link: https://18forty.org/bookjourney/ This is an outgrowth of the 18forty podcast episode in which R. David Bashevkin and I discussed the vision and reality of a Jewish polity governed by Halakhah. Here's a link to the episode: https://18forty.org/podcast/elli-fischer-can-israel-follow-jewish-law/ I was also a recent guest on two other podcasts. First, Rav David Silverstein and I discussed the nature of rabbinic authority on Yeshivat Orayta's "Tzarich Iyun" podcast: https://open.spotify.com/episode/71aX8L9IA2j1QY78dOoGff?si=577b0ae9ed414716 Finally, a few months ago I was hosted by Darcy Walters for an episode of her "Desert Island Torah" podcast. Here's a link: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/pod/show/desert-island-torah/episodes/Ep-81-with-Rav-Elli-Fischer-e23me3f The responsum that we study in this episode was penned by R. Yisrael Isserlein, better known as the Terumat HaDeshen. We spend some time discussing when and where he lived, who his influences were, why his rulings are so influential, and what makes his Sefer Terumat HaDeshen so unique. Then we go on to the teshuvah itself, which addresses an issue that is not-quite-halakhah. The setting is almost surreal: Person A allegedly used the crush of hoshanot in shul as cover to maim Person B while maintaining plausible deniability. This is an important matter of social and communal governance, but halakhic standards of evidence seem to set too high a bar to take any action. How did R. Isserlein resolve the matter? Here's a link to the teshuvah in Sefariah, with my translation: https://www.sefaria.org.il/Terumat_HaDeshen%2C_Part_II.210?lang=bi
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    59 mins