Verse-by-verse Tanakh with heat and clarity.
Lenny Goldberg Bible Classes treats Tanakh as active argument, moving verse by verse through Judges with peshat, midrash, and plain-spoken explanation. Recent classes follow Samson, Yiftach, Gideon, Ephraim, and the Philistines through questions of holiness, speech, conflict, and responsibility.
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Lenny Goldberg Bible Classes is a traditional Tanakh teaching series with the feel of a live room and the discipline of close reading. Recent classes are centered in the book of Judges. The material is dramatic, but the method is textual. Samson is introduced through the oppression of the Philistines, the angel's announcement to Manoach's wife, and the unusual holiness of a Nazir from the womb. Yiftach is followed from battlefield victory into the tragedy of his oath. Gideon is not left as a simple hero. His victory over Midian gives way to resentment from Ephraim and the harder work of managing internal conflict. The class keeps returning to the same basic question: what is the verse doing here? Sometimes the answer comes from grammar. Sometimes it comes from geography, tribal politics, Midrash, Talmud, Chazal, Malbim, or Mitzudat David. A pronunciation test at the Jordan becomes a lesson about identity and consequence. A diplomatic speech to Ammon becomes an argument about history, land, and the difference between taking territory from Ammon and defeating Sihon. A miraculous flame rising from an altar becomes a way to recognize the divine messenger standing in front of Manoach and his wife. The teaching is brisk, but it is not rushed. It repeats when repetition helps the argument settle. It uses Hebrew terms freely, then translates or circles back so the point does not disappear into vocabulary. The tone is confident and sometimes sharp, especially around war, vows, impurity, and failed leadership. Still, the show is more classroom than sermon. It wants the listener to notice how ancient Israel's leaders think, argue, stumble, and carry responsibility. Its best moments come when a familiar story, like Samson's birth or Yiftach's daughter, is slowed down enough to become morally and spiritually complicated again.
Made for: For listeners who want traditional Jewish Bible study that stays close to the text while drawing on midrash, commentators, Hebrew terms, and historical context. It especially suits people interested in Judges, leadership, war, vows, and the religious meaning of national struggle.
What sets it apart: The series combines brisk classroom pacing with granular textual attention, moving from a single word or phrase into broad questions of holiness, politics, and responsibility. It treats biblical figures as complicated leaders inside a charged national story.
The Bible is the foundation of Judaism. Unfortunately, as a result of our long exile, it has been neglected. Jewish studies today usually revolve around the oral traditions like the Talmud, and the Bible is left on the shelf. The Jews wrote it, and the gentiles read it. The fact is, only by studying Tanach can one can learn authentic Jewish concepts - nationalism, leadership, redemption, Eretz Yisrael, war, vengeance.... Through the David's, Saul's, Jonathan's, and other dynamic figures in the Bible, we reveal how a Jew conducted himself in the land of Israel before the exile.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Chapter-by-chapter Tanakh study connects Hebrew wording, classical commentary, and the moral pressures facing biblical leaders.
Lenny Goldberg Bible Classes moves through Tanakh chapter by chapter, pairing close exegesis with an alert eye for leadership, warfare, vows, tribal conflict, and divine intervention.
Gideon's water break becomes an army selection test; your next sip may feel unusually consequential.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A clear reading of Manoach's fear and Samson's holiness from the womb, anchored by the angel's ascent in the sacrificial flame.
The review frames Manoach's meeting with the angel as a focused reading of Samson's holiness before birth. Manoach hears the promise, feels the weight of it, and asks that the visitor return to teach the parents how the child should be raised.
Samson's birth opens under Philistine rule and with a father's request for guidance.
Samson enters the story as more than a dramatic new figure. His birth is set against Israel's long crisis under Philistine rule, and the lesson slows down before his arrival to show why this enemy will matter through the rest of Judges and into Shmuel.
A lethal pronunciation test becomes a study of dialect, identity, and Tanakh's brief judge narratives.
This class remains in Judges 12, with the conflict against Ephraim at its center, then circles back to Yiftach's disastrous vow through Midrash Tanchuma.
A careful reading of the vow that shadows Yiftach's victory and gives the episode its uneasy weight.
Yiftach's victory over the Ammonites is almost pushed to the side, as the lesson follows the vow that comes to define the episode more than the battlefield success.
Yiftach answers Ammon by tracing who conquered the disputed land and why Israel would not return it.
The episode tracks Yiftach as he first tries to meet Ammon's claim with argument rather than battle. Its clearest strength is the way it follows the disputed land back through Numbers chapter 21: Sihon, king of the Amorites, had already taken it from Ammon, and Israel later…
A Benjaminite's shofar call exposes the tribal fracture still threatening David's rule.
Sheva ben Bichri's revolt lands as the next turn in the tribal dispute that ended the previous chapter. A Benjaminite blows the shofar and declares that Israel has no share in David, turning the strain between Israel and Judah into a direct danger to the king.
A focused study of Gideon's reduced army, the water test at Charod, and the faith asked of 300 men.
Judges 7 begins at the spring of Charod, with Gideon, also called Yerubal, looking out toward Midian and hearing that his army is too large. The episode tracks the narrowing of the force with care, then settles on the water test that leaves 300 men in place for the battle ahead.
This episode analyzes 2 Samuel Chapter 20, the rebellion of Sheva ben Bichri.
The episode analyzes Judges chapter 7, verses 1-7, where Gideon prepares to battle the Midianites.
Lenny Goldberg Bible Classes examines Joshua 1:10–18, where Joshua moves from Moses’ encouragement to organizing Israel’s crossing of the Jordan.
Lenny Goldberg’s class on Joshua 1:6–9 distinguishes courage for conquering Canaan from commitment to Torah.
Lenny Goldberg Bible Classes begins its study of Joshua 1:1–5 with the command "Arise and Cross Over" and the transition from Moses to Joshua.
Judges 13:9-25 tracks Manoach, Hatzlelponi, and an angel who keeps returning to the wife instead of to him.
Lenny Goldberg Bible Classes examines Judges 13:1-8, introducing Samson against Israel's 40-year oppression by the Philistines.
This Judges 12 class links Yiftach's vow, Midrash Tanchuma's blame of Pinchas and Yiftach, and the death of Yiftach's daughter.
A Bible study analyzing Judges 12:1-6, where the tribe of Ephraim confronts Yiftach for not including them in the war against Ammon, threatening to burn his house down.
This episode explores Midrashic and Talmudic interpretations of Yiftach's tragic vow in Judges chapter 11, addressing unanswered questions from the biblical text.
Judges 11:39 says Yiftach "did to her what he had vowed," while the text leaves the details unstated.
Yiftach turns the land dispute into a theological argument: "Whatever your God gives you, you can take."
Gideon faces internal conflict and jealousy from the tribe of Ephraim after a military victory over the Midianites.
A Bible study analyzing Judges chapter 7, focusing on God's strategy to reduce Gideon's army to 300 men to demonstrate divine intervention in Israel's victory over the Midianites.
A Bible study analyzing Judges chapter 7, where Gideon prepares for battle against the Midianites and God reduces his army size.
This episode explores the Song of Dvorah in Judges chapter 5, focusing on Ye'el's killing of Sisera and the Midrashic interpretations, then discusses Sisera's mother's perspective.
This episode analyzes Judges chapter 7, focusing on Gideon's reduction to 300 men and the divine strategy behind Israel's victory over the Midianites.