Answers WithHeld – Details, episodes & analysis

In this special season finale, R. Shai Held welcomes his two oldest children to model a genuine conversation about God, experiences, belief, and doubt. Lev and Maya share some of the biggest questions on their minds as well as offer sage advice to grown-ups about how to have meaningful and impactful conversations with kids.

Questions surrounding our own mortality are some of the hardest to ask, and certainly some of the hardest to answer. What happens when we die? What does it mean to have a soul? R. Sharon Cohen Anisfeld joins R. Shai Held for a deeply meaningful exploration of these profound questions.

When kids ask big questions, how do you respond? Whether you are parent, educator, or just a curious person, you've probably asked yourself the same questions.

This podcast doesn’t have all the answers, but it can give you language and frameworks to engage meaningfully with these questions. 

Every week, Rabbi Shai Held invites an expert guest to explore a big question: Who is God? Why did God create the world? Why do bad things happen? No pressure.  

R. Aviva Richman joins R. Shai Held to discuss one of the most difficult moral and religious questions - why do bad things happen? Where is God when they do? Personal childhood memories of confronting this question lead them to explore how being present might mediate God's presence, to appreciate petitionary prayer in nuanced and sophisticated ways, and to wonder about God's role of holding loss in times of tragedy.

What if I don't believe in God? What if I'm not sure? Rabbi Dr. Leon Wiener Dow joins Rabbi Shai Held to reflect on the importance of doubt and continuing to question. They identify some of the straight-jackets that we put on our thinking about God and explore the possibility of being open to a spiritual life with or without a belief in God.

Universalism or particularism? It's often cited as a debate of one versus the other, but R. Shai Held and R. Jill Jacobs reflect on how both these priorities can actually strengthen the other. They consider texts that speak to how we live out our values as well as how to raise kids who care deeply.

Why did God create the world - and why did God create me within it? R. Yitz Greenberg joins R. Shai Held to ponder these theological questions and consider what it means to have a posture of gratitude and to know that we each have an individual mission or purpose in the world.

What do we do when we encounter morally troubling parts of Torah? Dr. Arna Poupko Fisher joins R. Shai Held to try and understand slavery in the Torah's historical context, as well as how we might understand the Torah more broadly as launching us into a more ethical legal trajectory.  Their sage advice on nurturing kids' moral passions and finding our own confidence when faced with difficult questions is relatable for parents, educators, and adults in general.

In a playful and poignant way, Rabbis Shai Held and Brad Artson explore questions of science and Torah. Was the world really created in six days? What are the truths we can discover when we look deeply at Torah and its stories?

R. Avi Killip and R. Shai Held continue to explore questions about God, especially thinking about the role of doubt. How can we understand God when we just don't know? And how can we have conversations with kids when we ourselves aren't sure?