Latest Natural disasters Podcast Episodes
Episode No. 144--Haggadah Issues
Keep the Faith with Shammai Engelmayer - April 15, 2024 22:00 - 24 minutesThe way to have constructive and meaningful s'darim next week is to study the Haggadah beforehand. That requires some help from more modern versions and haggadah commentaries. This episode explains why. It's being released several days early to give everyone time to buy one of these volumes and...
Episode No. 142--Keeping Kosher Without the Pain
Keep the Faith with Shammai Engelmayer - April 05, 2024 01:00 - 18 minutesWhat do I know about Jewish law? I'm a heretic. I can't tell you how many times I've heard that nonsense over the years—including from some members of my own family. So this week I'm going to let someone else say the things about keeping kosher that I've been saying—an Orthodox rabbi, no less. T...
Episode No. 141--Purim
Keep the Faith with Shammai Engelmayer - March 22, 2024 01:00 - 29 minutesPurim begins after Shabbat ends and lasts until sundown on Sunday. You might think you know all there is to know about Purim. If you do, this episode may show how much more there is to know about the book from which Purim sprung--Megillat Esther, the Scroll of Esther. This episode runs for about...
Episode No. 140: Calendar Conundrums
Keep the Faith with Shammai Engelmayer - March 08, 2024 04:00 - 22 minutesWhat with last Thursday having been Leap Day, with the leap month of Adar II beginning on Saturday evening with Rosh Chodesh, and the Muslim month of Ramadan beginning on Monday, I thought it would be interesting to leap into a discussion of how the secular and Jewish calendars we use today came...
Episode No. 139--Gun violence and what Judaism says we must do about it
Keep the Faith with Shammai Engelmayer - February 23, 2024 02:00 - 23 minutesAt 10 a.m. this morning, when I recorded this episode, there already had been 2,266 people who died by guns so far this year. That number is now up to 2,294. That averages out to nearly two gun deaths every hour since the new year began. Between January 1st and today, there have been 55 mass sh...
Episode No. 138--Dangerous weather and what Judaism says we must do about it
Keep the Faith with Shammai Engelmayer - February 09, 2024 02:00 - 22 minutesThe weather these days is a killer--literally. Scores of thousands of people died in 2023 of severe weather-related causes, and deaths are already mounting in the first six weeks of 2024. Judaism has much to say about our role in minimizing the threat climate change is posing on us. Support the...
Episode No. 137--MLK Day and why Jews should celebrate it
Keep the Faith with Shammai Engelmayer - January 12, 2024 02:00 - 21 minutesOn Monday, we here in the United States and also in Israel will celebrate Martin Luther King Day. That we celebrate this day here is understandable and commendable. After all, he was a great warrior for equality and justice for all people. But why is this day marked in Israel, too? And why will ...
Episode No. 136--Israel and the rise of Jew-hatred worldwide
Keep the Faith with Shammai Engelmayer - December 29, 2023 02:00 - 34 minutesWe who do not live in Israel have always maintained that we have no right to interfere in the Jewish state's internal affairs. Given the explosion of Jew-hatred we are seeing around the world, however, it is clear that "Jew" and "Israel" are synonymous in the eyes of the world, so this Diaspora ...
Episode No. 135--War according to Torah law
Keep the Faith with Shammai Engelmayer - December 15, 2023 02:00 - 19 minutesWe hear a great deal these days about whether Israel is violating international law in the way it’s conducting its war with Hamas in Gaza. The opposite, in fact, is more likely to be true. Given that Israel is the Jewish State, though, a fair question is whether Israel is also violating Jewish l...
Episode No. 134--The Media and anti-Semitism
Keep the Faith with Shammai Engelmayer - November 10, 2023 03:00 - 32 minutesThe media are helping to stoke worldwide anti-Semitism in the way they report the war Israel is fighting with Gaza. Why? Well, consider these two facts: The New York Times rehired an avowed Jew-hating, Hamas-loving avowed fan of Adolf Hitler to cover the war from Gaza. And it was just revealed t...
Episode No. 133--Gun Violence Yet Again
Keep the Faith with Shammai Engelmayer - October 26, 2023 22:00 - 21 minutesThe deadliest mass shooting of 2023 took place Wednesday night, and 2023 is on track to break the record for mass shootings. Here is another look at the issue and what Jewish law has to say. Support the show
Episode No. 132--The Leaders We Need
Keep the Faith with Shammai Engelmayer - October 20, 2023 01:00 - 23 minutesOurleaders here in the U.S., Israel, Canada, and the world are failing us. We who live in the U.S. are paying for it by having a dysfunctional Congress. Judaism offers guidelines for the qualities leaders should have, and it gives us the responsibility to put the right people in leadership posit...
Author and Naval Historian John Sherwood Part I
Killer Earth - October 18, 2023 00:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 27 ratingsOn this episode of Killer Earth, V and Kat are joined by John Sherwood, Ph.D, naval historian and author of A Global Force for Good: Sea Services Humanitarian Operations in the Twenty-First Century. We dive into the history of the U.S. Navy's humanitarian involvement with natural disasters in P...
Episode No. 131--Oy Canada!
Keep the Faith with Shammai Engelmayer - October 05, 2023 22:00 - 29 minutesWhen will Canada finally own up to its dishonorable history toward the Jews? When will it finally and forcefully own up to its clearly mixed record when it comes to the Holocaust, and when will it finally and forcefully stand up to the anti-Semitism that seems to be growing yet again in Canada, ...
The Tenerife Airport Disaster
Killer Earth - October 04, 2023 12:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 27 ratingsHey guys! On this episode of Killer Earth, V and Kat explore the deadliest aviation accident in history. Buckle up because this one gets rough! Find us on Facebook, on Instagram @killerearthpodcast, on TikTok @killerearthpodcast, and on Twitter @KillerEarthPod. Please buy our merch so we can...
Episode No. 130: What Yom Kippur is Really About
Keep the Faith with Shammai Engelmayer - September 21, 2023 22:00 - 17 minutesMost people think the sins for which we seek forgiveness are the "ritual" or "religious" ones: not observing Shabbat or keeping kosher, and so forth. Most people also think that if they pray hard enough, their sins are forgiven by the time Yom Kippur ends. Actually, that forgiveness doesn't happ...
Episode No. 129: The Roadmap for Repentance Part 3
Keep the Faith with Shammai Engelmayer - September 08, 2023 01:00 - 28 minutesThis episode is jam-packed with issues we need to consider during Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, including: Women’s rights; workers’ rights; gun violence and gun control; the plight of the poor and disadvantaged; the influx of migrants coming across our Southern border; how business should be con...
Komodo Dragons
Killer Earth - August 26, 2023 20:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 27 ratingsHey guys! On this episode of Killer Earth, Kat does a deep dive into the world of the deadly Komodo dragon. She went to Bali recently and basically became one of them!
Episode No. 128: The Roadmap for Repentance Part 2
Keep the Faith with Shammai Engelmayer - August 25, 2023 04:00 - 26 minutesThis is the second episode in a 3-part series designed to help us with the awesome tasks of reflection (already underway) and repentance (it begins three weeks from tonight with the start of the High Holy Days). The topic this week deals with our responsibilities towards the poor and the disadva...
Episode No. 127: The time to account for ourselves is here
Keep the Faith with Shammai Engelmayer - August 11, 2023 01:00 - 21 minutesThere’s one week left before the season of reflection and repentance begins with the beginning of the month of Elul. Unless we take the five weeks from today leading up to Rosh Hashanah 5784 to examine who we are and who we should be, how we’ve lived our lives in the past year, and what we need ...
episode # 126 judicial reform israel
Keep the Faith with Shammai Engelmayer - July 28, 2023 00:00 - 14 minutesThis week, Israel's parliament, and the behest of a prime minister on trial for serous offenses, spit in the face of Torah law and endangered the state in ways most serious. Support the show
Episode # 124--Supreme Court vs. our democracy
Keep the Faith with Shammai Engelmayer - July 14, 2023 02:00 - 22 minutesYes, I did praise the Supreme Court my last podcast, but only because I wanted us to have reason to celebrate on July 4th and three High Court rulings gave us reason to cheer. There is, however, more to fear than to cheer coming out of this court, which is eroding our rights in so many areas. S...
Episode No. 123--The Supreme Court and the American Way
Keep the Faith with Shammai Engelmayer - June 30, 2023 04:00 - 28 minutesIt was touch-and-go for a while, but thanks to six justices of the U.S. Supreme Court there’s great reason this coming Tuesday to celebrate the founding of the American Republic 247 years ago on July 4th, 1776. At the same time, there’s also reason to be concerned about the ethics of some of the...
Episode No. 122: What Jewish Business Law can teach us about living life generally
Keep the Faith with Shammai Engelmayer - June 16, 2023 00:00 - 27 minutesThe title says it all. You may be surprised, though, at some of those laws. Support the show
North Sentinel Island
Killer Earth - June 12, 2023 16:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 27 ratingsWe're back!!!! On this episode of Killer Earth, Kat and Vanessa unpack the story of the mysterious island of North Sentinel and the murderous people who inhabit it. Find us on Facebook, on Instagram @killerearthpodcast, on TikTok @killerearthpodcast, and on Twitter @KillerEarthPod. Please b...
Episode No. 121--The history of the Israel-Palestinian conflict that the world chooses to ignore.
Keep the Faith with Shammai Engelmayer - May 19, 2023 01:00 - 29 minutesThe world has a way of ignoring history when it comes to Israel and the Palestinian issue—and the world’s media plays along.. This is a 30-minute episode but it's filled with information all of us should be aware of given the level of reporting on the conflict and the efforts by the Palestinians...
Episode No. 120--Domestic violence and Jewish law’s attitude towards it
Keep the Faith with Shammai Engelmayer - May 05, 2023 01:00 - 22 minutesHere are some gruesome statistics: On average, nearly 20 people per minute are physically abused by an intimate partner here in the United States. The National Domestic Violence Hotline, in fact, receives an average of 1,000 calls per day from people being abused, most of whom are women. Three w...
Episode No. 119--Congressional deadlock and what Judaism has to say about compromise
Keep the Faith with Shammai Engelmayer - April 20, 2023 23:00 - 21 minutesUnless both sides can compromise on some of their most strongly held positions, the U.S. will, for the first time ever, default on its obligations this summer, to a devastating effect here and around the world. The need to compromise is something Judaism has much to say about, and Congress and t...
Episode # 118--Fitting the Exodus into Egyptian History
Keep the Faith with Shammai Engelmayer - March 24, 2023 01:00 - 43 minutes"They" say it never happened. It's all made up. Just a work of pure fiction. Nothing in Egyptian history supports it. So why can't we eat a bagel during Passover? Why do we have to go to all the trouble and expense to vicariously relive events that were invented by anonymous biblical authors? We...
Episode No. 117: Toward a saner approach to Passover
Keep the Faith with Shammai Engelmayer - March 10, 2023 02:00 - 22 minutesA Passover Primer unlike any you have ever seen before but one you will wish you knew about all along. Vodka before dinner and beer during? Whole wheat bread for luncheon sandwiches? Oatmeal for breakfast? In this episode, we interview an Orthodox rabbi who says it is all Kosher for Passover. No...