Home  Rabbi Shai Held
Rabbi Shai Held

Rabbi Shai Held

Rabbi Shai Held is Co-Founder, Dean, and Chair in Jewish Thought at Mechon Hadar. Before that, he served for six years as Scholar-in-Residence at Kehilat Hadar in New York City and was Director of Education at Harvard Hillel. A renowned lecturer and educator, Shai is a 2011 recipient of the Covenant Award for excellence in Jewish education. His book, Abraham Joshua Heschel: The Call of Transcendence has just been published by Indiana University Press. Shai can be reached at held@mechonhadar.org.

|  5776

Mishpatim

One of the Torah’s central projects is to turn memory into empathy and moral responsibility. Appealing to our experience of defenselessness in Egypt, the Torah seeks to transform us into people who see those who are vulnerable and exposed rather than looking past them.

Read More

|  5774

Mishpatim

One of the Torah’s central projects is to turn memory into empathy and moral responsibility. Appealing to our experience of defenselessness in Egypt, the Torah seeks to transform us into people who see those who are vulnerable and exposed rather than looking past them.

Read More

|  5774

Shmot

What makes a leader? For the Torah, leadership is not primarily about methods or tactics; it’s about character. What kind of human being must one be in order to lead on God’s behalf? Not surprisingly, the life of Moses offers us some clues.

Read More