August 13, 2025

Torah Smash! The Podcast for Nerdy Jews

Episode 87 - Clone Force Kilayim

Let’s talk genetics. Yes, let’s talk genetics. Is there an echo in here? Yes, there is now.

In this episode, we take a closer look at Kilayim, the Torah’s prohibition against mixing species. We inspect it and how it shows up in a tale from a long, long time ago, of a squad of soldiers unlike any other. What does Jewish tradition say about rewriting the building blocks of life? What happens when fictional characters are made in a way they didn’t choose? What about real people? And how do asian pears fit into all of this?

00:01:32 Kilayim

00:05:03 Star Wars The Bad Batch

00:07:05 Human Cloning and Gene Editing

00:10:27 Perspective - Gift or a Defect

00:14:54 Genetic Engineering

00:21:25 The grey line

00:33:20 Science Fiction and Genetics

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July 30, 2025

Torah Smash! The Podcast for Nerdy Jews

Episode 86 - Pirkei Avigilante

Time to suit up as we take a daring dive into Pirkei Avot 1:10. From the streets to the courtroom, we unpack some of the tensions between working within the system or outside of it. We also discuss a certain red vigilante’s path and how it sometimes struggles when faced by its towering opposing force. If this topic gets too heated, it may be time you left the streets of the kitchen.

00:01:46 Pirkei Avot 1:10

00:05:42 Daredevil: Born Again

00:14:02 A little too real

00:21:17 Out of Character Arc

00:25:15 Season Two Predictions

00:30:36 The System or the Leader

00:34:30 Barak’s biggest issue with the ending

00:38:47 Pirkei Avot 1:11

00:44:27 The Safe Streets Initiative

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July 16, 2025

Torah Smash! The Podcast for Nerdy Jews

Episode 85 - Worse Than Leprosy

This week, we look at what may possibly be the least favorite torah portion: parsha metzorah. It’s tedious, it’s a bit gross, and spoiler alert - it’s not even about leprosy! We clean up our act and take a look at why the portion has such a bad rap. What other Jewish texts are disliked? Can we discover why this bad writing has survived so long into today’s world? We all know stories that we don’t like, but we’d honestly just rather forget they exist. At least, meesuh thinks so.

00:00:42 The Torah portion with the worst reputation

00:02:24 Inspired by a stretch of “meh” movies

00:09:28 It’s not even leprosy

00:11:55 Other least favorite Jewish texts

00:14:40 Let’s just get rid of the bad stories

00:17:03 Dealing with bad stories

00:21:41 Our favorite worst movies

Share this episode with a friend: https://www.torahsmash.com/post/episode-85-worse-than-leprosy

Connect with us online, purchase swag, support us with a donation, and more at www.torahsmash.com.