On Shmini Atzeret/Simchat Torah 5786/2025, the Jewish world lost a titanic leader, Rabbi Moshe Hauer, a man who modeled Jewish living and leadership in an extraordinary manner. Rabbi Hauer was the Executive Vice President of the Orthodox Union, as well as Rabbi Emeritus of Baltimore's Bnai Jacob Shaarei Zion. He spearheaded a wide variety of communal initiatives while occupying a rare "middle ground" - passionately committed to core Torah principles, but respectful of and connected to all precincts of the Orthodox community, and beyond. In tribute of this great figure, who exemplifies the ideals that Iyun promotes, we speak with Rabbi Yisroel Motzen, rabbi of the Ner Tamid synagogue in Baltimore, a longtime rabbinic student of the late Rabbi Hauer, as well as his associate at the OU. Rabbi Motzen helps us sketch the contours of Rabbi Hauer's unique personality and hashkafa, and shares principles of his that we might incorporate into our own lives.

Dr. Moshe Koppel is a leading computer scientist in Israel, with a specific expertise in AI. But over past twenty years he has led an intellectual movement promoting judicial reform within Israel. Through his Kohelet Policy Forum, Dr. Koppel researches alternatives to the entrenched judicial dynamics, and advocates for what he considers a more balanced and democratic approach, in line with other Western countries. Obviously, this topic has been at the center of stormy debates and protests in Israel; while it seemed to subside in the wake of the October 7th tragedy, this issue has returned to the foreground, with broad implications for swaths of Israeli society, perhaps most notably, the chareidim. We speak today with Dr. Koppel about the history and intellectual perspective of this movement, how and why it seemed to unravel, and where the typically non-ideological and narrowly focus charedi public fits in to the story.

Since inaugurating this podcast, and focusing a long series on charedim and army service, one episode has conspicuously been missing: a full treatment of the halachic parameters of the notion of milchemes mitzvah, as well as an analysis commonly advanced ideals such as "Torah magneh u'matzleh" ("Torah study protects"). In this episode we remedy that void and address these issues that are vital to any Torah-centered Jew. To do so, we speak with Rabbi Dr. Yitzchak Lifshitz, a noted rav and rosh Kollel based in Yerushalayim, who has written extensively on these topics in recent months. Rabbi Dr. Lifshiftz is also a professor of philosophy at Shalem College.

Rabbi Dovid Eliezrie is a longtime Chabad Shaliach (emissary), co-director of the North County Chabad Center in Orange County, California. Author of the book Secret of Chabad, he has recently released a groundbreaking biography of the “Friediker Rebbe” - the Sixth Rebbe of the Chabad chassidic dynasty - called “Undaunted: How the Sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn Saved Russian Jewry, Reimagined American Judaism, Ignited a Global Jewish Renaissance.” In this episode, we review Rabbi Eliezrie’s own background and this most recent work, then springboard into an analysis of Chabad’s perspective on Zionism, secular nationalism, army enlistment and the modern state of Israel.

Dr. Nechumie Yaffe is a Haredi scholar and lecturer at Tel Aviv University whose work focuses on Haredi sociology and the challenge of translating the lived experience of the ultra-Orthodox world to audiences outside of it. Her research explores the tensions, assumptions, and internal complexities of Haredi society, offering a rare voice from within the community who can both analyze it academically and articulate it authentically. In this episode, we discuss the sociology of the Haredi world, how insiders and outsiders often misunderstand one another, and what is gained when the Haredi experience is explained with nuance rather than caricature. For more quality content, join our weekly newsletter: https://iyun.org.il/en/join-our-newsletter Our Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/Tzarichiyun