How do we overcome false ideas and ideals? We slaughter them publicly. This is the purpose of the Paschal lamb and a great lesson for our time.

What happened to Pharaoh's free will when God hardened his heart? And isn’t it unfair for God to punish Pharaoh for something he really didn’t have a choice in?

These are great questions. And there are several ways we might think about the Rambam’s answer.

Take a few minutes to explore what the Rambam thought and what it means for us.

Sources: Eight Chapters, chapter 8, with commentary by Rabbi Yitzchak Sheilat (pp. 318-322), Guide 2:24, 48 with commentary from Goodman and Lieberman, Rabbi Sacks Free Will: Use it or Lose it.

Moshe was not always a prophet. First, he was a person inspired by the Spirit of God. And we can be too.

Who decides what’s prophecy- and who decides what to trust?

And what surprising spiritual lesson is revealed when we learn the answers to these questions?

Sources: Gen. 48:3, 35:6-11, Kings 1 3:15, Guide 2:32, 36, 39, 41, 45

Painting by Yoram Raanan

Why does Unkelos translate “I will go down with you to Egypt” literally—when he usually avoids any language that suggests God has a body? In this episode of Unperplexed, we follow the Rambam’s answer and discover a deep principle about prophecy, interpretation, and why reverence for great thinkers still matters today.

We usually think the Torah is deeply critical of our attachment to money and property. But what if the law itself assumes that attachment—and even takes it seriously? This episode explores a surprising Rambam, an anxious moment in the Yosef story, and what they reveal about human nature and the Torah’s legal wisdom.

Sources: Guide 3:40, De’ot 3:1-2, Gen. 43:18 with commentaries.

The Rambam argues that sin offerings are so often goats because the brothers dipped Joseph's coat into goat blood. In fact, in just a few words, he reframes our understanding of offerings, sin, repentance, and Jewish peoplehood. And we learn of the debts we carry.

Sources: Guide 3:46, Gen. 37:31

Yaakov dreams that he wrestles and angel and somehow comes out with a limp. Is this possible? And what does it mean?

In fact, it contains the kernel of a great and life changing idea.

Sources: Guide 2:42, 6, Rabbi Avraham ben HaRambam to Gen. 32:26.

Pictured: Gustave Doré, Jacob Wrestling with the Angel (1855)