Behind the Bima

On this episode of Behind the Bima, the Rabbis sit down with Rav Gav, a beloved and dynamic educator from Aish who has spent decades teaching in seminaries across Israel and engaging students around the world. Known for his humor, energy, and unfiltered honesty, Rav Gav brings a perspective that is both deeply grounded and refreshingly real.

Together, we explore what today’s students are actually struggling with, how educators and parents often misunderstand them, and why the key to growth isn’t control—it’s connection. From navigating crisis in Israel to answering life’s biggest questions about faith, identity, and purpose, Rav Gav shares what he’s learned from years on the front lines of Jewish education.

With stories, sharp insights, and plenty of laughter, this conversation challenges assumptions and reframes what it really means to teach, parent, and inspire in today’s world.

This season of Behind the Bima is sponsored by Julie Charlestein & Darryl Benjamin in honor of their grandparents, Morton & Malvina Charlestein, and their children, Ruby and Maccabi Benjamin.

Topics Discussed:

Seminary life during wartime and how students process crisis

Why students across the spectrum are often asking the same questions

The myth of short attention spans vs. ineffective teaching

“Parenting vs. ranting” and what kids actually need from parents

Support, boundaries, and how real connection is built

Educator-student relationships and maintaining proper boundaries

The broader question of identity and “modern Orthodoxy”

If Israel is so central to Jewish life… what does that mean for the millions of Jews in the diaspora?

In this episode of Behind the Bima, the Rabbis speak with Yael Leibowitz about the growing tension between Israel and the diaspora, and the deeper question of what holds the Jewish people together. Drawing from her own journey from the United States to Israel, Yael reflects on how lived experience reshapes identity, perspective, and even the way we read Tanakh.

Through the lens of Ezra-Nehemiah, the conversation explores a moment in Jewish history when not everyone returned, and what that meant for leadership, community, and continuity. Rather than offering simple answers, the episode examines how Jewish life has always required holding competing realities at once, and what happens when that balance begins to strain.

This season of Behind the Bima is sponsored by Julie Charlestein & Darryl Benjamin in honor of their grandparents, Morton & Malvina Charlestein, and their children, Ruby and Maccabi Benjamin.

This conversation explores:

The widening experiential gap between Israeli and diaspora Jews

Living through crisis vs. observing it from afar

The challenge of maintaining Jewish unity across distance

Aliyah as an ideal vs. diaspora as a lived reality

The emotional and cultural differences between communities

Ezra-Nehemiah and the reality of a partial return

Rebuilding Jewish life without full national unity

Foreign leadership as part of Jewish history (Cyrus and beyond)

How Tanakh reflects real-time Jewish challenges, not abstractions

The risk of oversimplifying complex Jewish questions

In this episode of Behind the Bima, Rabbi Efrem Goldberg sits down with former hostage Eli Sharabi for a deeply moving conversation about October 7th, captivity in Gaza, survival, loss, and the long road back.

Sharabi speaks with remarkable clarity about what it meant to endure the unimaginable, what helped him survive, and how he has chosen to live after returning to a world forever changed. He reflects on fear, faith, grief, and the inner strength that remained even when everything else was stripped away.

As Pesach approaches, this conversation carries an added weight. Not because it is a retelling of ancient slavery and freedom, but because it forces us to confront those ideas in real time, through one man’s testimony of darkness, endurance, and the meaning of being free.

The conversation also explores:

• Eli Sharabi’s firsthand account of October 7th and being taken hostage

• What daily life in captivity looked like

• The psychological and emotional toll of surviving underground

• The role of faith, family, and inner discipline in staying alive

• How he thought about hope, dignity, and identity under impossible conditions

• What he wants the world to understand about Hamas, Gaza, and what he witnessed

• Grief, healing, and rebuilding life after returning home

• Why freedom feels different after it has been taken away

This season of Behind the Bima is sponsored by Julie Charlestein & Darryl Benjamin in honor of their grandparents, Morton & Malvina Charlestein, and their children, Ruby and Maccabi Benjamin.

A powerful conversation about captivity, resilience, and what remains when everything else is taken.

How does a Chassidic Jew end up shaping global economic policy... and speaking fluent Chinese along the way?

In this episode of Behind the Bima, Rabbi Efrem Goldberg sits down with Mitchell Silk, former Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Treasury, for a conversation about global finance, China, and the unlikely path that brought him from Torah life into the highest levels of government.

Fluent in Chinese and deeply immersed in Asia’s financial world, Silk spent decades working at the intersection of international law, finance, and geopolitics. Yet throughout his career, from years living in Hong Kong to serving in Washington, he remained deeply committed to his identity and values as a Chassidic Jew.

The conversation offers a rare inside look at how global economic policy is shaped, the importance of understanding China’s role in the world economy, and what it means to bring faith and identity into rooms where decisions affecting the global financial system are made.

The conversation also explores:

• How Mitchell Silk first became fascinated with China

• Learning Mandarin and building a career across Asia

• The path from international law to the U.S. Treasury Department

• What it was like serving in Washington as a visibly observant Jew

• The role of China in global economic policy

• Bringing Torah values into leadership and public service

This season of Behind the Bima is sponsored by Julie Charlestein & Darryl Benjamin in honor of their grandparents, Morton & Malvina Charlestein, and their children, Ruby and Maccabi Benjamin.

A fascinating look at the intersection of faith, leadership, and global influence.

In this episode of Behind the Bima, Rabbi Efrem Goldberg and Rabbi Philip Moskowitz sit down with Rabbi Chaim Tzvi Senter, Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivas Aderes HaTorah in Jerusalem, for a conversation about Torah education, resilience, and the responsibility of shaping the next generation.

Drawing on his own family legacy, the influence of his rebbeim, and years of guiding talmidim, Rabbi Senter reflects on what students really need from a rebbe. He speaks about building a yeshiva that feels more like a family than an institution, why great teachers love their students, and how chinuch must balance challenge, warmth, and clarity.

The conversation also explores the pressures facing today’s boys, the role of resilience in growth, the tension between different educational philosophies, and why helping talmidim feel proud of who they are matters so deeply.

This season of Behind the Bima is sponsored by Julie Charlestein & Darryl Benjamin in honor of their grandparents, Morton & Malvina Charlestein, and their children, Ruby and Maccabi Benjamin.

This conversation explores:

• What separates a teacher from a true rebbe

• Why great educators love their students, not just their subject

• Building a yeshiva that feels like a family

• How to teach resilience without crushing a student

• The balance between challenge, warmth, and expectations

• Different approaches to chinuch and when each is needed

• Helping talmidim develop pride in who they are

• The role of parents in choosing the right yeshiva environment

• Why discomfort and growth are often connected

This is a conversation about what it takes to shape not only better students, but stronger, deeper, and more resilient Jews.