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Elana

Stein Hain

Rosh Beit Midrash and Senior Research Fellow

Dr. Elana Stein Hain is the Rosh Beit Midrash and a senior research fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America, where she serves as lead faculty and consults on the content of lay and professional programs.

A widely well-regarded thinker and teacher, Elana is passionate about bringing rabbinic thought into conversation with contemporary life. To this end, she hosts TEXTing a bi-weekly podcast that considers issues relevant to Jewish life through the lens of classical and modern Torah texts; she also teaches Talmud from the Balcony, an occasional learning seminar exposing the big ideas, questions, and issues motivating rabbinic discussions. Elana is the author of Circumventing the Law: Rabbinic Perspectives on Legal Loopholes and Integrity (Penn Press, 2024) which uses loopholes as a lens for understanding rabbinic views on law and ethics.

Elana also contributes to For Heaven’s Sake, a bi-weekly podcast with Donniel Hartman and Yossi Klein Halevi, exploring contemporary issues related to Israel and the Jewish world.

She earned her doctorate in Religion at Columbia University and is an alumna of the Yeshiva University Graduate Program in Advanced Talmudic Studies (GPATS) as well as the Consortium in Jewish Studies and Legal Theory Graduate Fellowship at Cardozo School of Law. She also served for eight years as a clergy member on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, at both Lincoln Square Synagogue and the Jewish Center, has taught at the Wagner School at NYU, and sits on the board of Sefaria: A Living Library of Jewish Texts.

Elana lives on the Upper West Side of Manhattan with her family.

Mar 19, 2024

How has the relationship between Torah and general knowledge (Madda) changed thirty years after Norman Lamm pioneered why general study alongside Torah can be religiously meaningful?

Mar 19, 2024

What if we all took the time to figure out what is true, instead of letting ourselves get caught up in the opinions of those we care about?

Talmud from the Balcony

Mar 19, 2024

Exploring how we understand the American Jewish story in light of the complexities of race and class in America.

Elana Stein Hain

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Feb 2, 2024

Elana Stein Hain examines some of the big moral debates raised by military conflict.

Dec 7, 2023

This year, the most powerful lessons can be found in the holiday's partial victories, flawed heroes and internal strife.

Nov 1, 2023

A discussion on Jewish Broadcasting Service

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The End of Policy Substance in Israel Politics