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WISDOM WITHOUT
WALLS

Welcome to our online learning community. In a world shaped by the events of October 7th, our platform provides a unique space for deep conversations, thought-provoking questions, and leadership in contemporary Jewish thought.

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Wednesday, June 3rd, 2026

7:00PM – 8:30PM ET

With Jeffrey Rubenstein

Stories as Windows: The Hidden Art of Talmudic Narrative

Talmudic stories are sophisticated literary works that emerged from an oral culture and exhibit an array of narrative techniques — among them carefully constructed structures, verbal repetition, biblical quotation, irony, wordplay, and symbolic names. The relationship of each story with its surrounding halakhic or Mishnaic context is also crucial to understanding its meaning. This conversation will examine these literary features of Talmudic stories as windows into the values, struggles, concerns and theological commitments of the Talmudic storytellers.

Inspiring Conversations with Prominent Jewish Thought Leaders

View the recording | View the program

An online salon for Jewish ideas

Wisdom Without Walls is a nonprofit, nondenominational, online learning community that hosts intimate conversations with the most prominent voices in contemporary Jewish thought, fostering discussions without ideological barriers.

Dr. Sandra Lilienthal, Rabbi Ed Feinstein, and Rabbi Jeffrey Salkin, founded the organization in 2024 with a shared vision of fostering meaningful connections and engagement within the Jewish community deeply impacted by the events of October 7th, 2023.

Participants can join individual conversations or become members for ongoing engagement. We welcome partnerships with synagogues, federations, and communities who would like to offer this enriching educational opportunity to their members.

PARTNER WITH US

“I want to take this opportunity to say THANK YOU - for giving me a different angle from which to see our situation. This hopeful, optimistic angle, in which people are knocking on each others doors and discovering manifestations of the divine within themselves, feels like a much better perspective from which to educate our campers this summer.”

"Wisdom is in short supply these days, as are conversations predicated not on imposing dogmas but on exploring differences and probing difficult questions. All the more reason to be grateful for Wisdom Without Walls, a platform for conversations that open the heart as well as the mind. I've been fortunate to participate in one such conversation myself, and left charged with that rarest of emotions these days -- hope."

"Wisdom Without Walls provides precisely what the Jewish community, and our country at large, need right now: honest, searching conversations about urgent questions to which none of us have easy answers. Jeff and Sandra are pluralists in the deepest sense and they are eager to engage with and learn from a wide array of Jewish thinkers and doers. They are not afraid of difficult and challenging issues and they conduct each session with warmth, compassion, and good humor. Being their guest is a privilege."

“I had not been able to attend [on] Zoom and instead I pressed play on the recording and went out for a run the next morning. By mid-run you had inspired a totally new show with a totally different message. Instead of dramatizing the notion that everyone wants to kill us in every generation (a point that is made clear to us on a daily basis this year), I decided to take that beautiful story of the Baal Shem Tov and turn it into a play.“

"Thank you (Sandra) and Jeff for the gift of Wisdom Without Walls. Your light is shining so brightly!"

"The intimate and engaged audience, coupled with the excellent moderating by Rabbi Salkin and Sandra, made for a thoroughly enjoyable experience!"

WISDOM WITHOUTWALLS