They Say It’s Not Antisemitism

Critiquing a government isn’t hating a people. Questioning policy isn’t prejudice. In theory, those distinctions matter.

But Jewish institutions are being targeted — synagogues, schools, community centers with no connection to the Israeli government.

Across North America and Europe, antisemitic incidents have surged since 2023. I watched footage of a USPS driver assault a four-year-old Jewish boy.

A four-year-old.

It is not safe to be visibly Jewish in 2026.

If this were truly about Israel, the targets would be embassies, government buildings or political institutions.

Instead, it’s the places where families gather. Where children learn. Where people pray.

If this is only about Israel, why are Jews everywhere paying the price?

The Shift No One Wants to Name

We’re no longer talking about foreign policy.

“Zionist” has become a placeholder for something else entirely.

When “Zionist” is shouted at random Jews on the street.

When Jewish-owned businesses are targeted.

When visibly Jewish people are afraid to walk outside.

That’s beyond political protest; it’s identification.

And when identity becomes the target, the line has already been crossed.

What Does It Mean to Be a Zionist?

Zionism means the Jewish people have the right to self-determination in their ancestral homeland.

Anti-Zionism, in its consistent form, rejects that right.

Not how the state is governed, whether it should exist at all.

It is the only case where a people’s right to self-determination is treated as optional.

Jews are uniquely positioned as a people that is at once a religion, an ethnicity, and a nation.

That allows hostility to shift forms without changing its target.

Hate the religion — call it theology.

Target the ethnicity — call it identity.

Reject the nation — call it politics.

The entry point changes, but the target stays the same.

A Standard Applied to No One Else

Canada was built on land where Indigenous peoples lived for thousands of years. Its borders were drawn by colonial powers. Its early government was shaped by exclusion. No serious movement calls for its elimination.

Israel is the only nation whose fundamental legitimacy is treated as an open question.

Not its policies or government; its existence.

That standard isn’t applied to France or to the United States.

Not to Jordan, Syria, or Iraq.

And yet, somehow, the exception is always the Jewish state.

When one people’s right to exist is singled out for debate that no one else faces, that’s not ordinary criticism.

The Reality We’re Living In

Unchecked rhetoric doesn’t stay abstract. It moves from ideas to language to action.

Jewish people are being told: this isn’t about you. So why are their communities increasing security? Why are synagogues being attacked? Why do Jewish schools operate under police protection?

At some point, we have to stop debating definitions and start paying attention to outcomes.

A More Honest Conversation

You can hold nuanced views about Israel. You can critique its policies. You can advocate for Palestinians.

But if Jewish people around the world are becoming collateral damage in that conversation, something has gone wrong.

If the conversation keeps ending with Jews, it was never just about the land.

I first found Rabbi Tovia Singer during one of the darkest stretches of my spiritual life, a period I’ve since learned has a name: scrupulosity. Religious OCD. I was convinced I was a bad person. I was ruminating about hell.

I’m almost embarrassed to say out loud now, but at the time it was consuming.

His Let’s Get Biblical series answered questions I didn’t even know I had. Through his knowledge, I found something unexpected: peace.

So it was a full-circle moment when, years later, and two conversions to Judaism later, I sat down with him inside 7613: The Chosen Path to talk about where he came from, what shaped him, and the mission that has defined his life.

The World Outside the Neighbourhood

Tovia Singer grew up in the heart of Brooklyn, in a neighbourhood that was Jewish but surrounded by a world that made sure he knew he was different.

“Once you left the Jewish neighborhood,” he told me, “the non-Jews made it very clear that I was unwelcome.”

His father led a yeshiva. His grandfather had come to the United States from Hungary after being offered a rabbinical position in Clareton, Pennsylvania. That opportunity saved his life.

When World War II ended, his grandfather learned that his father and every one of his siblings had been murdered.

“Imagine finding out that all your family was killed,” Singer said. “He was never the same person again.”

Hungarian Jewry was destroyed in the spring of 1944, one of the fastest genocides of the Holocaust, carried out in a matter of months. In New York, families sat on the floor in mourning. The scope of what had happened was almost impossible to absorb.

As a child, Singer would sometimes ask survivors what it had been like. They would just look at him wide-eyed.

How could I possibly convey this to you?

“This genocide didn’t happen in Buddhist countries, or Hindu countries, or even Muslim countries,” he said. “It happened in Christian countries. And the people who actively participated were Christians.”

The Church on the Corner

There was a Catholic church near where he grew up called Holy Ghost.

He knew, in some vague way, that what happened inside it was connected to Judaism somehow.

Kids threw pennies at him. They told him he killed Jesus.

He learned to avoid Christians, keep his head down, and study.

When he began public speaking in his twenties, he encountered a different kind of Christian entirely. People who loved Israel. People who were warm, curious, and engaged. Nothing like the children from Holy Ghost.

“I had to sort that all out,” he said.

He began studying Christian scripture to understand it.

“When I read the Gospels, I said: Oh. You are reading this. That’s why you think the way you do. Your head has been filled with this material.”

For the first time, he understood the mechanism. He saw the way Jews were portrayed in the New Testament and how those ideas had moved through centuries.

The hatred he experienced as a child wasn’t random.

It had a source.

A Spiritual Genocide

Around the same time, Singer began noticing something deeply alarming: Jews converting to Christianity.

Not under coercion, the way they had been in the ancient or medieval world, but voluntarily.

“It would be like a Black person joining the Klan,” he said. “It just doesn’t make sense.”

He didn’t say this with contempt. He saw the shape of what was happening. Jewish communities, built up over millennia, were hemorrhaging. Young people were finding themselves in evangelical churches and messianic congregations, told that they had finally found the fulfillment of their own heritage.

“Here I was facing a spiritual genocide,” he said.

“The building was on fire. Jewry was going up in flames spiritually in the church.”

He drew the parallel unflinchingly. If you were a Jewish woman in 1942 and you knew what was happening to your people, there would be nothing more important than stopping it.

There would be no backup plan.

“I have a chance to do that now. Can I prevent the complete annihilation of the Jewish people spiritually?”

“I knew this was my purpose.”

The Tape That Started It All

At the time, no one had systematically dismantled the Christian theological arguments used to draw Jews away from Judaism, at least not in a way ordinary people could access.

Singer decided he would do it himself.

He started with Isaiah 53.

He prepared a lecture taking apart the entire passage, Isaiah 52:13 through 53:12. Then he recorded it on cassette.

It became a three-hour presentation. People sat and listened, gripped.

“Many, many Jews left the church,” he said. “Many non-Jews wanted to be part of the Jewish people, which was very surprising to me.”

Many of them, he discovered, had Jewish ancestry they hadn’t known about.

That was the start of what became a career. Decades of lectures, debates, recordings, and conversations with missionaries, with Jews who had wandered far from home, and with Christians wrestling with difficult questions.

“Now my world is enriched in that I really care about Christians,” he told me. “I just want to help them in a way that’s meaningful and thoughtful.”

A Life Built Around the Answer

Listening to Rabbi Singer, I kept thinking about the through-line. A boy who asked why people hated him, and who eventually built a life around the answer.

His grandfather lost his entire family. His father led a yeshiva. He grew up between a Jewish neighbourhood and a world that spewed hatred.

Sometimes a calling doesn’t arrive as a single moment. It arrives as a lifetime of noticing what you can’t turn away from, and finally deciding to do something about it.

That’s part of why I started 7613: The Chosen Path Podcast. I wanted to document stories like this one. Real people asking questions they couldn’t put down and following them wherever they led.

🎧 Listen to the full episode with Rabbi Tovia Singer.

And if you’re somewhere on that road between where you were and where you’re going, you don’t have to walk it alone.

Join us at 7613thechosenpath.com

When people hear about my conversion to Judaism, I often mention that my uncle Chris converted long before I did.

His journey didn’t begin with theology. It began with a question a nine-year-old boy asked his German babysitter — and never received a real answer to.

“Dorothy was my babysitter… and it bothered me. Why did people want to kill Jews? Why?”

She stared at him. Then she shouted: We didn’t know. We didn’t know. We didn’t know. She burst into tears and ran screaming from the room.

Chris was left standing there, alone with his question.

He never brought it up again. But the question never left him.

A Normal Christian Childhood

Chris Kemp-Jackson was born in Jamaica, raised in London, and immigrated to Canada as a child. His parents were devout Christians. They went to church every Sunday. His mother taught him how to pray. He excelled in Bible studies.

By all appearances, it was a normal Christian upbringing. But Chris was the kind of child who noticed things. He read William Shirer’s The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich from his elementary school library at age nine. He was deeply disturbed by the chapter about The Holocaust. He couldn’t let it go.

Jewish-Adjacent, Long Before the Conversion

Decades later, Chris met Estee. They fell in love through friendship: she was a cashier at a Safeway, he had his nose in an Isaac Asimov novel, and she refused to let him avoid conversation.

She was Ashkenazi and, as he put it, was really Jewish. He never asked her to give up her faith. She never asked him to abandon his. When they talked about raising children, his answer was simple: raise them Jewish.

So the kids went to Jewish school. Their bubbie was the center of their family life in Calgary. All the holidays were celebrated. Every friend in their social circle was Jewish.

“I’d lived longer in a Jewish-adjacent life than I had living as a Christian. It just felt natural. Nothing changed.”

His conversion didn’t happen because of his wife. It happened because of his sons’ bar mitzvahs — and because he was the one who insisted they have them.

He wanted to stand on the bimah with his kids. So he did.

Two Converts, One Family.

Listening to my uncle helped me understand something about myself.

We’re both people who ask questions we can’t ignore. We do deep dives. We analyze the analysis. We can’t accept an answer that doesn’t hold up.

Chris coined the term meta-awareness — the experience of feeling something, observing yourself feeling it, analyzing why, recognizing the analysis doesn’t help, and then observing your frustration with that. An endless loop.

“You can’t escape,” he said, “because each layer of awareness just adds another layer to be aware of. It’s like trying to use a microscope to look at the microscope.”

I didn’t think anyone else experienced that. But it became clear, it runs in our family.

Two Jamaican converts in one immediate family. Both driven by questions we couldn’t put down. Both discovering that Judaism was the only framework that could hold them.

What Judaism Means to Him Now

Chris isn’t observant. He’ll tell you that himself. But when I asked him what Judaism means to him now, his answer didn’t require ritual to be profound.

He feels the loss of Jewish lives personally. Israel isn’t an abstract geopolitical issue to him. It’s family.

His late wife’s father was a Holocaust survivor. His sons identify as Jewish, even one who calls himself an atheist. When I asked Chris what he would say to someone considering becoming a Jew by choice, he kept it simple:

“Judaism is non-coercive. It may demand much of you. But it gives so much more in return. And you’re joining a family. That’s all.”

Why I Started 7613: The Chosen Path Podcast

When I decided to launch 7613: The Chosen Path Podcast to accompany the launch of our online community, I knew I wanted to share stories like Chris’s — real people, inside 7613, navigating questions that are rarely spoken about openly.

A Jewish convert who is the son of a pastor. A zealous Noahide studying Torah after realizing the faith they grew up with no longer makes sense.

A rabbi dedicated to bringing Jews out of the church and back to the G-d of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

If you convert through Reform or Conservative Judaism, many Orthodox communities will not recognize your conversion as halachically valid. Others never pursue conversion at all, yet believe in One G-d and live by His moral laws; Noahides by conviction. And then there are the people deconstructing, trying to hold onto faith without fear.

Each of these experiences is more common than you think.

That is why 7613: The Chosen Path exists.

🎧 Listen to the full episode here

And if you’re somewhere on this road between where you were and where you’re going, you don’t have to walk it alone. Join us inside 7613: The Chosen Path — where people ask honest questions and learn together.

Parashat Va’eira opens with a promise — but not relief.
God speaks. Moses listens. Pharaoh resists.

This parsha is not yet about freedom.
It’s about confrontation.

Moses returns to Pharaoh with a message that feels impossible:
Let my people go.

But the world does not shift all at once. Power tightens its grip before it breaks. Pharaoh’s heart hardens. Signs are dismissed. Suffering intensifies before it loosens.

Va’eira asks us to sit inside that tension — the space between promise and fulfillment — and to wrestle with what faith looks like when circumstances appear to contradict it.

In this week’s study, we’ll explore:

• What it means that God reveals Himself differently to Moses than to the patriarchs

• Why redemption unfolds in stages, not all at once

• Pharaoh’s hardened heart — and where responsibility truly lies

• The plagues as dismantling false power, not just punishment

• Why liberation begins long before departure

JOIN HERE

📚 📅 January 8th, 2026
📍 Platform: Google Meet
📖 Text: Parashat Va’eira Genesis 18:1-22:24

Download the Sefaria app for easy reading:
📲 iPhone
📲 Android

Toggle Text → Commentary to view Rashi’s notes, or He/En for both languages.

If you’re deconstructing Christianity, exploring the Noahide path, or a Reform or Conservative Jewish convert, you’re not alone.
Click here to join our online community, 7613: The Chosen Path.
We outgrew our WhatsApp Community and migrated over to a new and improved platform! Go check it out. We can’t wait to meet you!

As always, this is an open space to learn, ask questions, and deepen your understanding of Torah with clarity and context.

Looking forward to seeing you there!
xo,
Tassja

Parashat Shemot opens not with miracles, but with pressure. A new king rises. Memory is erased. What once felt like refuge becomes confinement. The Israelites grow — and that growth is perceived as a threat. Fear hardens into policy. Policy turns into cruelty.

This is not yet a parsha of redemption.
It is a parsha of awakening.

Shemot asks what happens when survival is no longer enough — when identity is challenged, names are stripped away, and G-d feels distant. It is the beginning of a long reckoning, not with Egypt alone, but with power, fear, and moral courage.

We’ll explore:

• What it means that Exodus begins with names — and what happens when names are forgotten
• How fear distorts leadership and justifies oppression
• The quiet heroism of the women who resist without fanfare
• Moses as an unlikely leader — hesitant, hidden, and shaped by contradiction
• Why redemption begins long before miracles, with choice and moral clarity

JOIN HERE

📚 📅 January 8th, 2026
📍 Platform: Google Meet
📖 Text: Parashat Shemot Exodus 1:1-6:1

Download the Sefaria app for easy reading:
📲 iPhone
📲 Android

Toggle Text → Commentary to view Rashi’s notes, or He/En for both languages.

If you’re deconstructing Christianity, exploring the Noahide path, or a Reform or Conservative Jewish convert, you’re not alone.
Click here to join over 130 others in our WhatsApp community, 7613: The Chosen Path.
Use promo code INTRO7613 to join for just $4.99 USD for a limited time.
We can’t wait to meet you!

As always, this is an open space to learn, ask questions, and deepen your understanding of Torah with clarity and context.

Looking forward to seeing you there!
xo,
Tassja

This is not a parsha of revelation, but of reckoning. Jacob is old. The family is settled in Egypt. The drama has passed, and now comes the question of meaning. Blessings are spoken. Futures are named. Loose ends are tied with intention. Vayechi asks what we do after survival — when the crisis is over but the story is not.

We’ll explore:

• Jacob’s final blessings and how truth is spoken with clarity, not comfort
• The difference between blessing, prediction, and accountability
• Legacy, lineage, and what we pass on knowingly or not
• Fear after loss — even after reconciliation
• How Genesis ends not with closure, but with a promise carried forward

JOIN HERE

📚 📅 January 1st, 2026
📍 Platform: Google Meet
📖 Text: Parashat Vayechi — Genesis 47:28–50:26

Download the Sefaria app for easy reading:
📲 iPhone
📲 Android

Toggle Text → Commentary to view Rashi’s notes, or He/En for both languages.

If you’re deconstructing Christianity, exploring the Noahide path, or a Reform or Conservative Jewish convert, you’re not alone.
Click here to join over 130 others in our WhatsApp community, 7613: The Chosen Path.
Use promo code INTRO7613 to join for just $4.99 USD for a limited time.
We can’t wait to meet you!

As always, this is an open space to learn, ask questions, and deepen your understanding of Torah with clarity and context.

Looking forward to seeing you there!
xo,
Tassja

This is the moment the story can no longer hold its secrets. Judah steps forward. Joseph reveals himself. Years of silence, testing, and restraint collapse into truth, tears, and reconciliation. Vayigash asks what it costs to come forward — and what becomes possible when we do.

We’ll explore:

• Judah’s approach and the power of taking responsibility
• Joseph’s reveal and the emotional weight of long-held restraint
• Fear, forgiveness, and the risk of vulnerability
• Identity after survival — who are you once the hiding ends?
• Divine providence when pain is finally named

JOIN HERE

📚 📅 December 25th, 2025
📍 Platform: Google Meet
📖 Text: Parashat Vayigash — Genesis 44:18–47:27

Download the Sefaria app for easy reading:
📲 iPhone
📲 Android

Toggle Text → Commentary to view Rashi’s notes, or He/En for both languages.

As always, this is an open space to learn, ask questions, and deepen your understanding of Torah with clarity and context.

Looking forward to seeing you there!
xo,
Tassja

Is it because a people who refuse to disappear, or to surrender moral accountability to saviours, rulers, or ideologies, unsettle a world that expects conquest, conversion, or erasure?

Or is it because Jews exist as an ethnoreligion that does not announce itself, one you cannot always see, categorize, or control, and that ambiguity feels threatening to systems built on clear labels and hierarchy?

Antisemitism is not confined to one religion, political system, or era. It has appeared in ancient empires and modern democracies, under monarchies, fascism, communism, and liberal societies alike. It adapts, mutates, and reappears, even when its previous forms have been exposed and condemned.

Antisemitism is not the result of poor education or isolated prejudice.

It is not a relic of the past.

It’s a pattern.

A People Who Refuse to Vanish

The Jewish people occupy an unusual place in the human story, living among nations yet never fully dissolving into them. Jews speak the languages of their neighbours, build their cities, contribute to their cultures, and still remain distinctly Jewish.

Most peoples survive by conquest, conversion, or disappearance. Jews do none of these. Judaism does not proselytize or seek converts. It does not expand by force. It does not erase other cultures in order to survive.

And yet, it endures.

A people who persist without conquering disrupt the expected rules of history. Jews do not fit the template. And what does not fit is often resented.

A Moral Vision That Limits Power

Judaism introduced radical ideas that destabilized the ancient world:

• One God above all rulers

• Law that binds kings and commoners alike

• Human life as holy, not expendable

• A firm rejection of human sacrifice

• No ruler as divine, no empire as eternal

These ideas were revolutionary when they emerged. They undermined civilizations built on hierarchy, fear, and divine kingship.

And they still do.

Any system that insists no one stands above the law becomes dangerous to those who wish to be.

The Scapegoat Mechanism

When societies fracture economically, morally, or spiritually, they look for someone to blame.

In medieval Europe, Jews were accused of killing God.

During plagues, of poisoning wells.

Under communism, of being capitalists.

Under fascism, of being parasites.

In the modern era, of being colonizers, manipulators, or global elites.

The accusations contradict one another completely.

That contradiction reveals the truth.

Antisemitism is not driven by evidence.

It is driven by projection.

Jews become the symbolic container for a society’s fear, guilt, and unresolved failures. And when people cannot bear what the mirror reflects, they smash it.

No Saviour, No Escape

Judaism offers no cosmic shortcuts.

There is no saviour who absorbs responsibility.

No devil onto whom human cruelty can be blamed.

No belief that faith alone absolves action.

Judaism teaches that the world is unfinished, and that we are accountable for what we do in it.

For many, this is deeply unsettling. It is easier to outsource responsibility than to carry it. Easier to hate the reminder than to face the demand.

The Torah anticipates Jewish minority status, dispersion, and hostility as a consequence of difference.

To be Jewish is to embody the claim that truth stands independent of power, a claim that has long unsettled those who worship it.

The Modern Disguise

Today, antisemitism arrives wearing new language.

It may call itself “anti-Zionism” or “resistance,” but its behaviour remains unchanged. It applies moral standards to Jews that no other people are expected to meet. It treats Jewish existence as uniquely suspect. It denies Jews the right to define themselves.

The Jewish people are not hated because of what they do.

They are hated because of what they represent:

A people who refuse to disappear.

A tradition that resists idols, saviours, and moral loopholes.

A living challenge to the belief that domination is destiny.

History has never quite known what to do with that.

And yet,

We are still here.

We’ll explore:

• Joseph’s dreams and why they threaten the family’s spiritual balance

• Sibling rivalry, favoritism, and the devastating power of projection

• The sale of Joseph and how Jewish sources understand responsibility and guilt

• The sudden shift from promise to exile — and what it teaches about hidden providence

• Themes of identity, betrayal, restraint, and God working behind the scenes

JOIN HERE

📚 This Week’s Study
Parashat Vayishlach — Genesis 32:4–36:43

📅 Thursday December 11th
📍 Platform: Google Meet
📖 Text: Parashat Vayishlach — Genesis 32:4–36:43

Download the Sefaria app for easy reading:
📲 iPhone
📲 Android

Toggle Text → Commentary to view Rashi’s notes, or He/En for both languages.

As always, this is an open space to learn, ask questions, and deepen your understanding of Torah with clarity and context.

Looking forward to seeing you there!
xo,
Tassja

Our next session is Parashat Vayishlach, and this one is powerful. Jacob is returning home after twenty years, preparing to face Esau, confronting everything he ran from, and stepping into a new identity. This is the parsha where he wrestles through the night and receives the name Israel; the one who struggles with God and prevails.

We’ll explore:

• Jacob’s transformation and why this wrestle is the turning point of his entire life

• The reunion with Esau and what Jewish sources say really happened there

• How our tradition understands spiritual struggle, fear, and growth

• The symbolism behind the name “Israel” and why it matters today

• Themes of reconciliation, boundaries, courage, and divine encounter

JOIN HERE

📚 This Week’s Study
Parashat Vayishlach: Genesis 32:4–36:43

📅 Thursday December 4th
📍 Platform: Google Meet
📖 Text: Sefaria — Parashat Vayishlach (Hebrew + English)

Download the Sefaria app for easy reading:
📲 iPhone
📲 Android

Toggle Text → Commentary to view Rashi’s notes, or He/En for both languages.

As always, this is an open space to learn, ask questions, and deepen your understanding of Torah with clarity and context.

Looking forward to seeing you there!
xo,
Tassja

Photo courtesy of Jacob Wrestling with the Angel by Alexander Louis Leloir ca. 1865 - Image Courtesy of Musée d’Art Roger-Quilliot

This week’s Torah portion invites us into a story of movement, transformation, and spiritual awakening.

Join me for Torah Study: Parashat Vayetze (Genesis 28:10–32:3), where we’ll explore the chapters that show Jacob stepping into his destiny through dreams, struggle, love, and divine encounter.

Vayetze opens with Jacob leaving home, uncertain and alone. But in that in-between place, he experiences one of the most powerful revelations in the Torah. From there unfolds a journey of love, labor, family, and becoming.

Together, we’ll explore:

The meaning of Jacob’s ladder and why this dream changes everything
What it means that Gd appears to Jacob in a place of fear and uncertainty
Rachel and Leah and the complexity of love, longing, and destiny
How Jacob’s years with Lavan shape him spiritually and emotionally
Why Vayetze is a turning point in the story of the Jewish people

JOIN HERE

📚 This Week’s Study
Parashat Vayetze: Genesis 28:10–32:3
📅 Thursday November 20th
📍 Platform: Google Meet
📖 Text: Sefaria: Parashat Vayetze (Hebrew + English)

🗓️ What to Expect

We’ll read key passages together, look at classical commentary, and explore how these narratives speak to themes of identity, transformation, divine presence, and the courage it takes to grow.
You don’t need any background — just curiosity and an open heart.

All faiths, beliefs, and non-beliefs are welcome. No judgment. Ever.

Agenda

Welcome + Intention
Reading: Genesis 28–32 — Dreams, Becoming, and the Birth of a Nation
Discussion + Commentary
Reflection: Where do we meet Gd in our own in-between places?
Closing + Takeaway

🕊️ Expect a thoughtful, inclusive space where every question and perspective is valued.

💬 Before You Join

Preview the text here: Sefaria: Parashat Vayetze
Download the Sefaria app for easy reading:
📲 iPhone
📲 Android

Toggle Text → Commentary to view Rashi’s notes, or He/En for both languages.

In Vayetze, Jacob becomes the bridge between the world he left and the world he is building. Through dreams, love, hardship, and revelation, he discovers who he is and who he is called to be.

This is where transformation becomes destiny.

See you there!
xo,
Tassja

This week’s Torah portion invites us into a moment of transition, legacy, and profound spiritual continuity.

Join me for Torah Study: Parashat Chayei Sarah (Genesis 23:1–25:18) as we explore the passages that shape our understanding of grief, love, covenant, and generational purpose.

Chayei Sarah begins with the passing of Sarah, the first matriarch — and from that moment flows a series of decisions that define the future of the Jewish people. Abraham secures a burial place, sends his servant to find a wife for Isaac, and ensures that the covenantal promise continues through the next generation.

Together, we’ll explore:

• The meaning behind Chayei Sarah — “the life of Sarah” — and why the Torah names the parsha this way

• The Cave of Machpelah as the first sacred Jewish space in the land

• Eliezer’s mission and what it teaches about divine guidance

• Rebecca’s character, courage, and destiny

• How continuity, choice, and covenant intertwine in this pivotal chapter

JOIN HERE

📚 This Week’s Study
Parashat Chayei Sarah: Genesis 23:1–25:18
📅 Thursday November 20th
📍 Platform: Google Meet
📖 Text: Sefaria: Parashat Chayei Sarah (Hebrew + English)

🗓️ What to Expect

We’ll read key passages together, look at classical commentary, and explore how these narratives speak to themes of loss, love, destiny, and spiritual legacy.
You don’t need any background — just curiosity and an open heart.

All faiths, beliefs, and non-beliefs are welcome. No judgment. Ever.

Agenda

• Welcome + Intention

• Reading: Genesis 23–25 — Legacy, Guidance, and the Next Chapter

• Discussion + Commentary

• Reflection: What does it mean to carry a covenant forward?

• Closing + Takeaway

🕊️ Expect a thoughtful, inclusive space where every question and perspective is valued.

💬 Before You Join

Preview the text here: Sefaria: Parashat Chayei Sarah
Download the Sefaria app for easy reading:
📲 iPhone
📲 Android

Toggle Text → Commentary to view Rashi’s notes, or He/En for both languages.

In Chayei Sarah, we see how love, grief, faith, and choice shape the next generation. Rebecca enters the story as a woman of kindness and bravery, and Isaac steps into adulthood guided by memory and purpose.

This is where the covenant becomes a living inheritance.

🌙 RSVP & Add to Calendar: Click here to save your spot for Torah Study: Parashat Chayei Sarah

See you there!
xo,
Tassja

This week’s Torah portion invites us into one of the most human (and divine) moments in the entire Torah.

Join me for Torah Study: Parashat Vayeira (Genesis 18:1–22:24) as we explore the stories that shaped our understanding of faith, hospitality, justice, and devotion.

This parsha opens with Abraham sitting at the entrance of his tent when G-d appears to him through three mysterious visitors who announce that Sarah will soon have a child. What follows is a journey through laughter and loss, mercy and judgment, trust and testing.

Together, we’ll explore:

• The deeper meaning of vayeira elav Hashem “and G-d appeared to him”

• Abraham’s radical hospitality and moral courage

• The destruction of Sodom and the power of intercession

• The birth of Isaac, and Sarah’s laughter

• The binding of Isaac (Akeidat Yitzchak) as the ultimate act of faith

  JOIN HERE

📚 This Week’s Study
Parashat Vayeira: Genesis 18:1–22:24
📅 Thursday, November 13th at 9:00 PM EST
📍 Platform: Google Meet
📖 Text: Sefaria: Parashat Vayeira (Hebrew + English)

🗓️ What to Expect

We’ll read key passages together, explore commentary, and discuss how these ancient narratives reflect timeless questions about compassion, justice, and trust.
No background knowledge is needed — just curiosity and openness.

All faiths, beliefs and non-beliefs are welcome and encouraged to participate. NO JUDGEMENT!

Agenda

1. Welcome + Intention

2. Reading: Genesis 18:1–22:24 — Angels, Laughter, and Faith Tested

3. Discussion + Commentary

4. Reflection: What does radical faith look like today?

5. Closing + Takeaway

🕊️ Expect a thoughtful, inclusive space where every question and perspective is valued.

💬 Before You Join

Preview the text here: 👉 Sefaria: Parashat Vayeira (Hebrew + English)
Download the Sefaria app for easy reading:
📲 iPhone
📲 Android

Toggle Text → Commentary to view Rashi’s notes, or He/En for both languages.

✨ Why This Matters

In Vayeira, we see Abraham’s story turn from personal faith to moral leadership.
He argues for justice, welcomes strangers, trusts impossible promises — and still finds laughter amid trial.

This is the heart of the covenant: the courage to see G-d in every encounter, and the faith to keep showing up when tested.on.

🌙 RSVP & Add to Calendar:
👉 Click here to save your spot for Torah Study: Parashat Vayeira

See you there!
xo,
Tassja

Every journey begins with a call, and this week’s Torah portion is all about answering it.

Join me for our next Torah Study Session as we explore Parashat Lech Lecha (Genesis 12:1–17:27) — the moment when Abram hears G-d’s voice for the first time and steps into the unknown.

This Parsha begins the story of the Jewish people, unfolding themes of faith, trust, identity, and divine promise. We’ll dive into the moment G-d says “Lech lecha” — “Go forth” — and reflect on what it means to leave behind the familiar in search of purpose.

Together, we’ll explore:

• The inner meaning of “Lech lecha” — a journey both outward and inward

• The first covenant between G-d and Abram

• The spiritual courage to follow a calling before seeing the destination

JOIN HERE

📚 This Week’s Study
Parashat Lech Lecha — Genesis 12:1–17:27
📅 Thursday, November 6th at 9:00 PM EST
📍 Platform: Google Meet
📖 Text: Sefaria: Parashat Lech Lecha (Hebrew + English)

🗓️ What to Expect

We’ll read short sections together, discuss insights, and explore classic commentaries like Rashi and Ramban to uncover deeper layers of meaning.
No prior experience is needed — just curiosity and an open heart.

Agenda

1. Welcome + Intention

2. Reading: Genesis 12:1–17:27 — Abram’s Call and Covenant

3. Discussion + Commentary

4. Reflection: What does “going forth” mean for us today?

5. Closing + Takeaway

🕊️ Expect an open, inclusive conversation where everyone’s perspective is welcome.

💬 Before You Join

Preview the text here: 👉 Sefaria: Parashat Lech Lecha (Hebrew + English)
Download the Sefaria app for easy reading:
📲 iPhone
📲 Android

Toggle Text → Commentary to view Rashi’s notes, or He/En for both languages.

✨ Why This Matters

Lech lecha is a timeless invitation to walk with faith — to leave behind what no longer serves us and trust the path ahead, even when it’s unclear.
It’s not just Abram’s story; it’s ours.

I’d love for you to join and bring your insight to this week’s discussion.

🌙 RSVP & Add to Calendar:
👉 Click here to save your spot for Torah Study: Parashat Lech Lecha

See you there!
xo,
Tassja

After Creation came consequence and compassion.
I’m so excited to invite you to this week’s Torah Study Session as we continue our journey through Parashat Noach (Genesis 6:9–11:32).

This portion opens with a world steeped in corruption and violence, and one man who found grace in the eyes of G-d. From the Flood and the Ark to the Tower of Babel, Noach tells the story of destruction, survival, and the covenant that binds heaven and earth through a simple symbol: the rainbow. 🌈

Together, we’ll explore:

• What it means that G-d “regretted” creating humanity

• The deeper symbolism of the Ark and the Flood

• The first covenant in Torah and what it reveals about divine mercy

• How the Tower of Babel still speaks to our modern search for control and unity

✨ RSVP & Add to Calendar:
Click here to save your spot for Torah Study: Parashat Noach

📚 This Week’s Study
Parashat Noach — Genesis 6:9–11:32
📅 Thursday, October 30th at 9:00 PM EST
📍 Platform: Google Meet
📖 Text: Sefaria: Parashat Noach (Hebrew + English)

🗓️ What to Expect

We’ll read short sections together, discuss insights, and open classic commentaries like Rashi and Ramban to unpack layers of meaning.
No prior study experience is needed! All are welcome. Join with curiosity and an open heart.

Agenda

1. Welcome + Intention

2. Read Genesis 6:9–11:32 — The Story of Noach

3. Discussion + Commentary

4. Reflection: What does covenant mean to us today?

5. Closing + Takeaway

🕊️ Expect an open, inclusive space where every question and interpretation is welcome.

💬 Before You Join

Preview the text here: 👉 Sefaria: Parashat Noach (Hebrew + English)
Download the Sefaria app for easy reading:
📲 iPhone
📲 Android

Toggle Text → Commentary to view Rashi’s notes, or He/En for both languages.

✨ Why This Matters

Parashat Noach is about renewal.
It reminds us that even after the deepest collapse, G-d remembers the covenant. The rainbow is not just in the sky — it’s a reflection of our own promise to rise again.

I’d love for you to join and add your voice to this week’s discussion.

See you there!
xo,
Tassja

TONIGHT is Part 2 of our Torah Study on Bereshit (Genesis 4:1–6:8) — where the story continues beyond the Garden.

This week, we’ll explore the first siblings, the rise of human civilization, and the moral tensions between jealousy, justice, and mercy. What does it mean to be our “brother’s keeper”? What happens when creation meets consequence?

📚 Our Two-Part Study
We began with the story of Creation, now we turn to the story of humanity.

Part 2: Genesis 4:1–6:8 — Cain, Abel, and the Generations of Adam
📅 Tonight — Monday, October 27th at 8:30 PM EST
📍 Platform: Google Meet
🔗 Join / Add to Calendar: Click here
📖 Text: Sefaria: Parashat Bereshit (Hebrew + English)

🗓️ What to Expect

We’ll read the text together, pause for reflection, and open classic commentaries like Rashi and Ramban.
No prior study experience is needed. All are welcome!

Agenda (Part 2)

• Welcome + Intention

• Read Genesis 4:1–6:8 — Cain & Abel and the Generations of Adam

• Discussion + Commentary

• Reflection + Takeaway

🕊️ Expect a thoughtful, inclusive conversation where every question is welcome.

💬 Before You Join

Preview the text here:
👉 Sefaria: Parashat Bereshit (Hebrew + English)

Download the Sefaria app for easy reading:
📲 Download for iPhone
📲 Download for Android

Toggle Text → Commentary to see Rashi’s notes, or He/En for bilingual view.

I can’t wait to continue this journey with you.
Bring your questions, your voice, and your light.

See you tonight!
xo,
Tassja

I’m so excited to invite you to my very first Torah Study Session, where we’ll begin at the beginning — with Parashat Bereshit (Genesis 1:1–6:8).

This portion opens the entire Torah with the story of Creation, the Garden of Eden, the first human choices, and the beginnings of moral awareness.

Together, we’ll explore meaning, context, and reflect on how the Torah speaks to timeless human themes like light and chaos, choice and consequence, and what it means to be created b’tzelem Elohim (in the image of G-d).

📚 Our Two-Part Study

We’ll explore Bereshit over two sessions to give each section the depth it deserves.

Click the Link below to join👇

Part 1: Genesis 1:1–3:24 — The Creation Story & Adam and Eve
📅 Thursday, October 23rd at 8:30 PM EST

Part 2: Genesis 4:1–6:8 — Cain, Abel, and the Generations of Adam
📅 Monday, October 27th at 9:00 PM EST

Platform: Google Meet
Text: Sefaria: Parashat Bereshit (Hebrew + English)

🗓️ What to Expect

We’ll read short sections together, discuss our insights, and open classic commentaries like Rashi and Ramban.
No background knowledge is needed — we’re learning and exploring together.

Agenda (Part 1)

1. Welcome + Intention

2. Read Genesis 1:1–3:24 — The Creation Story & Adam and Eve

3. Discussion + Commentary

4. Group Reflection

5. Closing + Takeaway

🕊️ Expect an open, inclusive conversation where everyone’s perspective is welcome.

💬 Before You Join

Preview the text here:
👉 Sefaria: Parashat Bereshit (Hebrew + English)

You can also download the Sefaria app for easy reading during the session:
📲 Download for iPhone
📲 Download for Android

Click Text → Commentary to view Rashi’s notes or toggle He/En for both languages.

✨ Why This Matters

Every creation story is a reminder that light emerges out of chaos.
As we study Bereshit, we’re not only reading about the world’s beginning, but about our own capacity to begin again.

I’d love for you to join us for these first sessions — and to bring your voice, questions, and light to the conversation.

See you there!
xo,

Tassja

But what if this famous prophecy isn’t about one man at all?

In this episode of By the Book: Christ or Mashiach, Tassja Cadoch dives into the Hebrew text to uncover who Isaiah was really describing. 

If you’ve ever wondered why Judaism sees Isaiah 53 differently, this episode will change how you read it forever.

Thanks for listening to Christ or Mashiach: By the Book.

Join the conversation with me on Instagram @jewgreekanmama.

⭐ If this episode gave you something to think about, the best way to support the show is by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

Because if we’re going to talk about the Jewish Messiah… we’ve got to go by the book.

In this opening episode, host Tassja Cadoch takes us straight to the Hebrew Bible — the Torah, Prophets, and Writings — to uncover what the word Mashiach really means. From King David to the Persian ruler Cyrus, “anointed one” has always described a human leader set apart for a mission.

So what does the Tanakh actually say about the Messiah of the future? What will he do, and why is he never described as divine? And how does that definition compare to the Christian framework of a savior from sin?

This episode lays the foundation for the series, showing why Jews and Christians can use the same word “Messiah” but picture two completely different figures.

Whether you grew up Christian, Jewish, or somewhere in between, this is your chance to see what the text itself says, and why definitions matter before we ever get to prophecy.

Thanks for listening to Christ or Mashiach: By the Book.

Join the conversation with me on Instagram @jewgreekanmama.

⭐ If this episode gave you something to think about, the best way to support the show is by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

Because if we’re going to talk about the Jewish Messiah… we’ve got to go by the book.

But what if that’s not what Isaiah meant at all?

In this episode, host Tassja Cadoch goes back to the Hebrew text, where the word almah means “young woman,” not “virgin.” We’ll look at how the Septuagint’s Greek translation changed the meaning, and why Matthew quoted that version instead of the original Hebrew.

Was a virgin birth ever part of the Jewish expectation of Messiah? And if not, what does Isaiah 7:14 really teach us about signs, lineage, and God’s presence in history?

Thanks for listening to Christ or Mashiach: By the Book.

Join the conversation with me on Instagram @jewgreekanmama.

⭐ If this episode gave you something to think about, the best way to support the show is by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

Because if we’re going to talk about the Jewish Messiah… we’ve got to go by the book.