Episode 84: Why soldiers wept when Ran came home, lessons from Tu Bishvat

This week, Israel finally brought home the remains of its last hostage, 24-year-old Ran Gvili. To outsiders, the sheer scale of the national sacrifice and the collective exhalation of relief that followed his return can seem like a mystery. Every nation honors its fallen, but few go to the lengths Israelis do to reclaim a body from the hands of the enemy.

In this episode, we use the upcoming holiday of Tu Bishvat as an entryway into the Jewish psyche. We explore the idea of "hesed shel Emet" -- the "true kindness" of a dignified burial, which is called "true" because it can never be reciprocated. We dive into a world where a dignified burial is more than a ritual; it is a declaration that even in death, a human being remains a reflection of the divine. Through the teachings of the Malbim and the Sfat Emet, we re-examine Tu Bishvat not as a simple children’s holiday, but as a sophisticated meditation on the human condition. From the sap stirring in the dead of winter to the "inner light" hidden within the shells of the Seven Species, we discover a "New Year of the Human"—a day that honors our unique mission to find meaning in our mortality and uncover the sacred within the broken.

This episode was sponsored by an anonymous donor who asked to dedicate it to all our fallen soldiers and to the sacrifices of the reservists and their families, from October 7 until today. Thank you for your sponsorship.

If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at haviv@askhavivanything.com⁠.

Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.

Upptäck Premium

Prova 14 dagar kostnadsfritt

Skaffa Premium

Avsnitt(103)

Episode 82: 'From the River to the Sea' - Lost in Translation?

Welcome to our new short-form episodes interspersed with the regular interviews that dive into an often-asked question about Israel, Jews and the Middle East. Our current question: 'From the River to ...

25 Jan 8min

Episode 81: Israel's future and the ticking Gaza clock, with Andrew Fox

Andrew Fox is a frontline conflict researcher who has visited Gaza, Syria and Lebanon to study Israeli deployments and strategy there.He joins the podcast to talk about what he calls Israel’s ticking ...

22 Jan 57min

Episode 80: Who is Hamas and what do they want?

19 Jan 10min

Episode 79: Breaking Iran's machinery of oppression

Iran is burning. The streets are full of marchers demanding an end to the regime. Thousands of protesters have been murdered by the regime in recent days — we may never know exactly how many. Presiden...

14 Jan 35min

Episode 78: Do you still want to globalize the intifada?

13 Jan 20min

Episode 77: Did Israel intentionally target civilians in Gaza?

9 Jan 12min

Episode 76: How elites drive Jew-hatred, with Hussein Aboubakr Mansour

From Manchester to Bondi Beach to Denver, from Tucker Carlson to Nicolas Maduro to Zohran Mamdani to the most significant and mobilizing political ideologies of today’s Muslim world, Jews seem to loom...

6 Jan 1h 14min

Episode 75: Power, fear, and the survival of the Iranian regime, with Roya Hakakian

Iran’s streets are in tumult. The latest protests are of a scale not seen before. New sections of Iranian society are in the streets — middle class merchants, the elderly and others. The protestors ha...

2 Jan 52min

Allt en och samma app

Lyssna på dina favoritpoddar och ljudböcker på ett och samma ställe.

Noga utvalt innehåll

Njut av handplockade tips som passar din smak – utan ändlöst scrollande.

Fortsätt när du vill

Fortsätt lyssna där du slutade – även offline.

Premium

99 kr/ månad

Tillgång till alla Premium-poddar
Reklamfritt premium-innehåll
Avsluta när du vill

Prova 14 dagar gratis

Premium

129 kr/ månad

Tillgång till alla Premium-poddar
Reklamfritt premium-innehåll
Avsluta när du vill
Ett extra konto

Prova 14 dagar gratis

Populärt inom Historia

Berättelserna och rösterna du älskar att lyssna på

Obegränsad lyssning på alla dina favoritpoddar och ljudböcker

Upptäck Premium