Free Daily Podcast Summary
edJEWcation: Daily Summaries Delivered
by edJEWcation
Your weekly dose of Jewish wit and wisdom. Each week Rabbi Abba Perelmuter, Chayaleah Sufrin, and Jay Covitz explore Jewish history, culture, and writings. Whether you're a relapsed Jew or an old pro there is something for us all to learn.
Latest Episodes
The most recent episodes — sign up to get AI-powered summaries of each one.
- Yesterday59 min
Jacob, Esau, and Nature vs. Nurture
Twins. Same mother, same father, same tent. One comes out red and hairy, already looking like he needs a shave. The other comes out hanging onto his brother’s heel. By thirteen they’ve split for good: one heads for the fields with a bow, the other stays home to learn and cook lentil soup. Parshas Toldos hands us the oldest parenting puzzle there is, and this week we pull it apart. How much of who we become is baked in, and how much is up to the people raising us?In this episode, we get into:The Rabbi’s report from the Chabad rabbis convention in New York, from the big group photo to the guy who wouldn’t give up seat B48Why the Torah’s description of newborn Esau might be the least flattering birth announcement ever writtenIsaac loves Esau, Rebecca loves Jacob, and how Jacob grows up to play favorites with JosephThe Midrash’s twins who were pulling in opposite directions before they were even bornWhat the Rabbi learned about Esau in third grade (red yarn included), and a Kabbalah reading where Esau’s soul started out higher than Jacob’sFree choice, and why the Talmud says a kid with Esau’s temperament could just as easily grow up to be righteous
- 1 weeks ago1h 1m
Baruch Spinoza: Judaism’s Most Famous Heretic
In 1656, the Jewish community of Amsterdam threw out one of its sharpest young minds. His name was Baruch Spinoza, and almost four hundred years later we’re still arguing with him. Today, we dig into his philosophy, why it scared everyone, and what it means for Jews today.In this episode, we get into:Who Spinoza was: born in Amsterdam in 1632 to Portuguese conversos, orphaned young, and grinding lenses in The Hague for a livingHis big challenge: the Bible as a human book, the three angels visiting Abraham as a “baby fairy tale,” and God as the laws of natureThe excommunication: Uriel da Costa, a name crossed out of the synagogue membership books, and a community of Inquisition refugees who really needed him to stop talkingThe Streisand effect, and whether booting him out made him more famousThe line from Spinoza through the Enlightenment to the Reform Jewish movementWhy most American Jews aren’t Spinozists (they still show up for the seder), and why Chayaleah thinks biblical criticism is the real slippery slopeFurther Reading on Spinoza:Steven Nadler, Spinoza: A Life (1999) and Spinoza’s Heresy: Immortality and the Jewish Mind (2001). OUPDaniel B. Schwartz, The First Modern Jew: Spinoza and the History of an Image (2012). Review: Jewish Review of Books, “Brother Baruch”Rebecca Goldstein, Betraying Spinoza (2006)My Jewish Learning, “Spinoza”
- 2 weeks ago56 min
Truth, History, and the Great Man Theory
If history has always been written by the victors, and anyone with AI can now rewrite it, how do we figure out what actually happened? And does anybody really go looking for the truth, or do we mostly go looking for proof of what we already believe?In this episode, we get into:The great man theory vs. Tolstoy, and why the Rabbi thinks timing is the real reason we remember the Baal Shem TovWhy memorizing dates kills history, and the Harkness classroom that skips itPost-truth: an Elizabeth Holmes documentary built to steer you, and the ChatGPT pumpkin that only knew what ChayaLeah had told itThe Rabbi’s honest admission about reading the other side of history (spoiler: he isn’t interested)Torah as a baseline for truth, Rambam’s thirteen principles, and the Talmud’s test of character: your cup, your pocket, and your angerThe period of history each of us would visit, from Jesus to the Alter Rebbe’s court to the Montreal Canadiens of the 1960sWe started with truth and history and ended with the Pocket Rocket. That’s how this show goes.
- 3 weeks ago36 min
Death of the Prophet: The Life of Ze’ev Jabotinsky, Part 4
This is our fourth and final episode of our series on the life of Ze’ev Jabotinsky In this episode, we get into:The 1936 evacuation plan to move a million and a half Jews out of Eastern Europe, and why Jewish leaders called it “outrageous and criminal”Jabotinsky’s uneasy deal with Poland’s Foreign Minister, Józef Beck: Jabotinsky wanted Jews saved, Beck wanted them goneThe 1939 White Paper, illegal immigration, and the Sakarya, the rescue ship led by Jabotinsky’s son EriA 25-year-old Menachem Begin publicly challenging his teacher, and Avraham Stern walking out to form what became LehiJabotinsky’s final campaign in America, his death, and why David Ben-Gurion refused to bring his bones homeThe story of Shlomo Ben-Yosef, and the legacy that outlived all of Jabotinsky’s lost battles
- 4 weeks ago1h 27m
Leaving Antisemitism Behind with Lucas Gage
Three years ago, if you’d told us we’d spend October 7 interviewing Lucas Gage, we’d have laughed. So would he. Lucas is a former Marine who did two tours in Iraq, then spent 14 years in the antisemitic “JQ” movement, building an audience of 336,000 on X, going viral with “Boom Boom Tel Aviv,” and calling Jews demons. This year he walked away, wrote about why, and started showing up at kosher restaurants in Lakewood. We wanted to know how a smart guy gets that deep, and more importantly, how he got out.In this episode, we get into:How a 9/11 “truther” video after Iraq became a gateway to every conspiracy on the menu, with the Jews as the “final boss”Why conspiracy thinking is a web, not a single belief, and why you have to take it down one strand at a timeWhat Lucas actually believed about the Holocaust, and how “revisionism” sells itself as a free speech fightThe crypto scam, the Charlie Kirk assassination theories, and the moment he watched a conspiracy get built in real timeWhy a calm “so what makes you believe that?” from Jake Turx worked where name-and-shame never didRussian and Iranian influence operations, bot farms, and why antisemitism treats Jews like all-powerful godsIt’s one of the most important discussions should should be having right now, but it’s also funny and hopeful. People can go to very dark places and still come back.This is a good place to start with Lucas's writings - What Pulled Me Out of Antisemitism
- Oct 12, 202623 min
Murder in Tel Aviv: The Life of Ze'ev Jabotinsky, Part 3
This episode starts off with a murder on a Tel Aviv beach, how that murder would fundamentally change the future of the Zionist movement, Jabotinsky’s role within it.In this episode, we get into:Why Jabotinsky wrote “The Iron Wall” and how it set him at odds with the Zionist establishmentDevelopment of various aspects of his philosophy from Betar to Hadar to Monism The “fascist” smear and the problems Abba Ahimeir made for the RevisionistsHis banning from ever returning to Eretz IsraelThe Revisionists storming out of the 1931 Zionist conference at Basel Why are so many of the movements willing to accept the claim that Jabotinsky’s people are responsible for the murder of Chaim Arlosoroff.The London Agreement and the creation of a the Zionist organization Pull up a chair, and bring your thickest skin. The fourth and final episode is coming.
- Oct 7, 20261h 0m
King Solomon's Book of Proverbs
Hashem offers a 12-year-old king anything he wants. Wealth, power, conquest, all on the table. Solomon asks for wisdom, and nearly three thousand years later we’re still reading what he did with it. This week we discuss the Book of Proverbs, Solomon’s advice to his kids, and find that a lot of it reads like a group text to modern America. But first, a mazel tov: ChayaLeah’s other show, Ask a Jew, got picked up by Ark Media and is now Chosen People Problems. Yes, CCCP. We had jokes.In this episode, we get into:Solomon’s three wisdom books and the old argument over which came first: Song of Songs, Proverbs, or Ecclesiastes“The beginning of wisdom is to acquire wisdom,” and why the Rabbi says a real scholar needs a good tuchisDiscipline, corporal punishment, and why kids don’t need their parents to be their friendsAristotle in the classroom vs. Aristotle outside it, and how Jabotinsky’s Hadar connectsWhy God made mosquitoes and sloths: “Go to the ant, you sluggard”Why Jay’s favorite proverb is Proverbs 15Thirty-one chapters, one a day, and you’ve finished the book in a month. Start with this episode.
- Oct 5, 202620 min
15 Years for Defending Jews: Ze'ev Jabotinsky, Part 2
Picking up where we left him last time…Jabotinsky is in a refugee camp in Egypt with 12,000 Jewish refugees, who had been expelled from Palestine by the Turks.He surveys the camp, the Jews within it and comes out with one conclusion: pity won’t build a nation, soldiers will. What follows are the three of the loneliest years of his life, followed spending time in a British prison for the crime of defending Jews against Arab violence.In this episode, we get into:The Jewish Legion, and why nearly every Zionist leader thought Jabotinsky was a mad manHow Joseph Trumpeldor became one of his lone allies early in his fightHis failed effort to recruit Jews from London’s East End to fight for their homeland.The Balfour Declaration and his crossing the Jordan as part of the LegionHis defense of the Jews in Jerusalem during the Nebi Musa riots in his sentence by a British court of 15 years of hard labor Grab a seat, and bring your stubborn streak. Part three is coming.
Get edJEWcation summaries in your inbox
Free AI-powered daily recaps. Key takeaways, quotes, and mentions — in a 5-minute read.
Get Free Summaries →Free forever for up to 3 podcasts. No credit card required.
You Might Also Like
Listeners also like.
The Jewish History Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
A podcast featuring Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe's lectures on Jewish history.
Tablet Studios
Explores Jewish identity, tradition, and culture through diverse podcasts offering insight for contemporary Jewish life.
Adventures with Dead Jews
Explores bizarre and darkly humorous stories from Jewish history to examine society's obsession with dead Jews.
Da Mah Shetashiv
Rabbi Aaron Lopiansky
Judaism's Top Talks
National Jewish Retreat
On the Other Hand: Ten Minutes of Torah
ReformJudaism.org
Into the Verse - A Parsha Podcast
Aleph Beta
Asking For A Friend - Timely Issues. Timeless Torah.
Kehillas Federation
Stories We Tell
Union for Reform Judaism
Ask Haviv Anything
A history podcast shaped by listener questions, covering identity, conflict, and culture with moments of humor.
Hebrew School
Kids play games to learn about Jewish culture, traditions, and history in this interactive podcast.
The Jewish Grandma Podcast
A Jewish grandmother shares life wisdom and humorous insights on family, faith, and tradition.
About edJEWcation
Your weekly dose of Jewish wit and wisdom. Each week Rabbi Abba Perelmuter, Chayaleah Sufrin, and Jay Covitz explore Jewish history, culture, and writings. Whether you're a relapsed Jew or an old pro there is something for us all to learn.
Customized Recaps
AI-powered recaps with compact key takeaways, quotes, and insights.
Straight to Your Inbox
Get key takeaways from edJEWcation in a 5-minute read.
Save Hours Every Week
Stay current on your favorite podcasts without falling behind.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Podzilla's edJEWcation daily summary?
It's a free AI-powered email that summarizes new episodes of edJEWcation as soon as they're published. You get the key takeaways, notable quotes, and links & mentions — all in a quick read.
How does the edJEWcation podcast summary work?
When a new episode drops, our AI transcribes and analyzes it, then generates a personalized summary tailored to your interests and profession. It's delivered to your inbox every morning.
Is this an official edJEWcation product?
No. Podzilla is an independent service that summarizes publicly available podcast content. We're not affiliated with or endorsed by edJEWcation.
Can I get summaries of other podcasts too?
Absolutely! The free plan covers up to 3 podcasts, any in the catalog. Basic raises that to 15, Pro to 40 and Max to 100. Browse our full catalog at /podcasts.
How often does edJEWcation release new episodes?
edJEWcation publishes weekly. Our AI generates a summary within hours of each new episode.
What topics does edJEWcation cover?
edJEWcation covers topics including Religion & Spirituality, Spirituality, Judaism. Our AI identifies the specific themes in each episode and highlights what matters most to you.
Start getting edJEWcation summaries tomorrow morning.
Free forever for up to 3 podcasts. No credit card required.
Free forever for up to 3 podcasts. No credit card required.