Rabbi Mike Rothbaum

I believe Torah can withstand hard questions. In fact, I believe it demands them.

When I teach, I center:

• Close textual reading
• Historical and economic context
• Moral application in contemporary life
• Intellectual honesty alongside spiritual depth

Whether I am teaching Talmud, Chumash, Midrash, or modern Jewish thought, my goal is learning that:

• Challenges assumptions
• Clarifies moral stakes
• Strengthens spiritual literacy

I want students to see that Torah is neither brittle nor simplistic. It is layered, argumentative, and morally serious. It holds tension, contradiction, and possibility. Serious learning does not weaken tradition — it refines it.

For me, Torah is not abstract. It demands embodiment. It shapes how we build families, structure communities, wield power, and pursue justice. It asks not only what the text means, but who we are becoming in relationship to it.

Learning to celebrate my queer identity was an integral part of developing this approach. Claiming my full self required wrestling honestly with text, tradition, authority, and interpretation. I had to ask difficult questions of Torah — and allow Torah to ask difficult questions of me. That process deepened my insistence on rigor, sharpened my awareness of inclusion and exclusion, and strengthened my conviction that sacred tradition grows stronger when engaged with integrity.

I do not teach to protect Torah from inquiry. I teach to help us encounter it fully — with courage, clarity, and faith that it can hold us as we hold it.