Holy Madness - The Show sifts through the mad world seeking wisdom, tackling far-ranging, heavy subjects with a light touch and “pharismanic” flair.
Alas, the sun has set on the show, and we are not making new episodes. Fans came for the provocative conversation, stayed for the contrarian conclusions, and enjoyed loads of holy madness in-between. And we loved the community that developed around the show.
Whether you're listening again, or discovering the show for the first time: be well and be blessed.
We discuss free will, providence, intelligent design and evolution, chaos, lag ba'omer, and feature callbacks to episodes 8 and 9.
This is a more rambling episode, as Tzvi had a migraine during recording, and Meir Simcha carried the load here.
We would love for y'all to comment, critique, and share.
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22 Feb 2021
#16 What to Die For / What to Live For
Episode 16 starts with some ruminations on Israel's 70th birthday, specifically zooming in on Israel's marking of Memorial Day and Independence Day back to back and comparing it to the United States. We talk about our experiences of both, but continue on to discuss the difference between having something to die for versus having something to live for (an important distinction, indeed!).
22 Feb 2021
#15 Freedom through Words - Intro to Pesach (Passover)
This episode is an overview of Passover - what is being celebrated, why, and how.
We discuss the oddly universal celebration of our little nation's holiday commemorating its emancipation, the themes and imagery of the holiday, and we go back to place issues discussed in Episode 12b (freedom and liberty) in the Passover milieu.
Ultimately, this is a fantastic overview of the holiday's ubiquitous insistence on freedom through words. We discover a little bit of what that means, and set the stage for the coming episodes - where we will explore the Haggadah in depth and inside.
22 Feb 2021
#14 Education, Religion, Ideology
Sarah returns as a special guest. We discuss our personal connections with books in the bible, and segue into a conversation about education within religion.
We compare belief and ideology, talk about the effects of religious education on faith, and end with a discussion on the shortcomings of modern "classical liberal" ideology in giving a society a "why" to their lives, as well as something that connnects them all. Along the way, we compare orthodox and orthoprax, define what an "ummah" is, and highlight some of the real aims we ought to have in education.
22 Feb 2021
#13 Randomness - More on Esther and Purim
We discuss randomness (with a meandering random way of getting to it), then explain how the random nature of the universe is what gives us choice. Choice is the bedrock of freedom, and liberty. We then discuss the differences between the two, the need for limitations, and end up back in different views of randomness - the postmodern version, and the Torah version. Along the way, we highlight these ideas within the Book of Esther and the holiday of Purim.
This is a fun episode, featuring some bad InfoWars Alex Jones impressions, ruminations on apophenia and libations, and some personal anecdotes.
Happy Purim!
22 Feb 2021
#12 The Book of Esther
In honor of the upcoming holiday of Purim...here is Episode 12a of the Holy Madness!
Join us as we explore a little bit about the holiday, and do a quick overview of the central book about it - the Book of Esther. We tease out the farcical tone it is written in, identify many of its comedic elements, and identify some of its main themes. (Those themes will be more fully explored in episode 12b.)
We humbly suggest you read the book along with us!
22 Feb 2021
#11 Social Justice Worshippers
Join us as we explore the odd parallels between the postmodern "social justice" beliefs system and religion. We visit economics and financial markets, black swans, epistemology, facts and "alternative facts", how people form their beliefs, and sink our teeth into the difference between faith and love. We discuss Popper, Taleb, Wittgenstein, Tertullian, and Sartre, plus detour into language, antisemitism, and the difference between staying true to your beliefs and wanting to be proven wrong.
22 Feb 2021
#10 The New Year of the Fruit Trees - Tu BiShvat
Happy Tu B'Shvat to those celebrating or not!
This epsiode takes a good look at Tu B'Shvat the holiday, tracing it from the Mishna to modern day. Along the way we discuss the halachot (Jewish Law) of produce, why Man likes tree metaphors so much, what the Tree of Knowledge actually was, means and ends (which justifies which?), Spinoza and Plato, and end off with a nice insight into the deeper meaning of the holiday.
Tzvi's daughters make a guest appearance in the introduction.
22 Feb 2021
#9 Betting Against Pascal
Why Tzvi won't convert to Christianity, Pascal's Wager, sin, salvation, the afterlife and the world to come, Christian music (again), community, prayers, and more.
22 Feb 2021
#8 The Pursuit of Happiness
It's Episode 8 as the Holy Madness continues, this time welcoming special guest Adam K into the studio to discuss happiness!
Listen in as we question, what is happiness? How do people find it? Is it worth looking for? Where would be a good place to start finding it? Why care about happiness at all? Can you be happy without G-d? Can you be happy with G-d? Is happiness an emotion, a choice, something else?
As always with a special guest, we adopt a conversational style. Come for the rambling, stay for the ambling, and walk away with some thought provoking points to consider.
22 Feb 2021
#7 Iran, And Here I Am
Oh my, we've done it again! Another fantastic episode, this time about Iran/Persia, exile, redemption, identity, and way, way more.
(This episode was recorded during the protests taking place in Iran in 2018.)
We discuss Iran as a country (taking care to avoid politics as always), its history, and the Jewish People's history with Persia - and that takes us to Exile and Redemption, the World to Come, identity, peoplehood, and the unique conception of exile/redemption that the Jewish people has forged and crafted in its development. Come for the banter, stay for the knockout insights, and enjoy the show! :)
22 Feb 2021
#6 Prayer - Where Are You Now
Episode 6 is finally here, and with a special guest in the studio! Sarah joins us in our meandering exploration of prayer. We go through some Facebook comments on Meir Simcha's post on prayer, discuss different conceptions of prayer, introduce theme music for one avid listener (and commenter), and suggest a paradigm shift on what prayer really might be. There is even a suggestion for a great Christian prayer song, too, from your favorite Jewish podcasters, along with quite a few callbacks to concepts introduced in previous episodes as well.
21 Dec 2020
#5 Jerusalem is calling
[Holy Madness is no longer in production, but check out Meir-Simchah's new shows Two Christians And A Jew (https://my.captivate.fm/TwoChristiansAndAJew.com) and the Artifact Podcast with Nachliel Selavan (https://my.captivate.fm/ArtifactPodcast.com).
You can connect with us on Twitter: @TzviZucker (https://twitter.com/TzviZucker) and @MeirSimchah (https://twitter.com/MeirSimchah).]
Join us as we take a look at Jerusalem, moving from sacred cities and divided cities in general to Jerusalem in particular, and ending up with a deep look at what makes Jerusalem so special in the first place.
(This episode comes at the point where the United States announced its recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, and faced a UNGA resolution objecting to their accepting a fact…)
We also discuss city-specific mental illnesses, welcome our first special guest into the studio, make some oddly rap-fueled sound gags in opportune places, and feature topical musical breaks throughout.
21 Dec 2020
#4 Find the light, or become it?
[Holy Madness is no longer in production, but you may enjoy Meir-Simchah's new shows Two Christians And A Jew (https://my.captivate.fm/TwoChristiansAndAJew.com) and the Artifact Podcast with Nachliel Selavan (https://my.captivate.fm/ArtifactPodcast.com). You can connect with us on Twitter: @TzviZucker (https://twitter.com/TzviZucker) and @MeirSimchah (https://twitter.com/MeirSimchah).]
Grab some latkes and/or eggnog and join us for our fourth episode, where we discuss winter light festivals, light and darkness, metaphors, get into some of the differences between Christmas and Hannukah, reminisce on holiday season growing up, and make a key point about Light in our lives.
We also celebrate our one hundredth download, give some shout outs to our listeners, and throw in some holiday gags too!
21 Dec 2020
#3 If I'm not for myself, who will be?
[Holy Madness is no longer in production, but you may enjoy Meir-Simchah's new shows Two Christians And A Jew (https://my.captivate.fm/TwoChristiansAndAJew.com) and the Artifact Podcast with Nachliel Selavan (https://my.captivate.fm/ArtifactPodcast.com). You can connect with us on Twitter: @TzviZucker (https://twitter.com/TzviZucker) and @MeirSimchah (https://twitter.com/MeirSimchah).]
Join us as we talk about the German migrant issue, teasing apart the political talking points to get into the heart of the matter – identity.
We clocked in at just about an hour here, and hopefully addressed some of the sound issues.
As always, here are links to the articles discussed in the chat:
Economist, Germany article – www.economist.com/news/finance-and…similar-problems (https://exit.sc/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.economist.com%2Fnews%2Ffinance-and-economics%2F21720578-rest-country-and-large-swathes-europe-will-face-similar-problems)
Spectator, Norway article – www.spectator.co.uk/2017/11/norway-…ugh-love-works/ (https://exit.sc/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.spectator.co.uk%2F2017%2F11%2Fnorway-is-hard-on-migrants-but-tough-love-works%2F)
Standpoint, David Goldman article – standpointmag.co.uk/node/7031/full (https://exit.sc/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fstandpointmag.co.uk%2Fnode%2F7031%2Ffull)
21 Dec 2020
#2 Why do bad ideas happen to good people?
[Holy Madness is no longer in production, but check out Meir-Simchah's new shows Two Christians And A Jew (https://my.captivate.fm/TwoChristiansAndAJew.com) and the Artifact Podcast with Nachliel Selavan (https://my.captivate.fm/ArtifactPodcast.com).
You can connect with us on Twitter: @TzviZucker (https://twitter.com/TzviZucker) and @MeirSimchah (https://twitter.com/MeirSimchah).]
Where else can you find an earnest discussion of Richard Dawkins, sin and mistakes, evolution, paradigm shifts, and Torah, that isn’t a sarcastic take down of religion, but a search for self improvement and spiritual growth?
Holy Madness is no longer in production, but you may check out Meir-Simchah's new shows Two Christians And A Jew (TwoChristiansAndAJew.com) and the Artifact Podcast with Nachliel Selavan (ArtifactPodcast.com).
You can connect with us on Twitter: @TzviZucker (https://twitter.com/TzviZucker) and @MeirSimchah (https://twitter.com/MeirSimchah).
12 Oct 2020
#1 Anomie, Israel, Palestine
[Holy Madness is no longer in production, but you might enjoy Meir-Simchah's new shows Two Christians And A Jew (https://my.captivate.fm/TwoChristiansAndAJew.com) and the Artifact Podcast with Nachliel Selavan (https://my.captivate.fm/ArtifactPodcast.com). You can connect with us on Twitter: @TzviZucker (https://twitter.com/TzviZucker) and @MeirSimchah (https://twitter.com/MeirSimchah).]
Join us as we discuss a news article about the horrors of daily life in Gaza, and tackle some points about Israel-Palestine.
Article discussed in the podcast available here - www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/…stinians/1.821771 (https://gate.sc/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.haaretz.com%2Fmiddle-east-news%2Fpalestinians%2F1.821771&token=87c07f-1-1602589132520)
We explore the issues while keeping our discussions as agenda-free as humanly possible.
Come for the thought provoking conversation, stay for the oftentimes funny results of two guys still figuring out the medium of podcasting, sound editing, and making coherent points.
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