The Pillars: Jerusalem, Athens, and the Western Mind
Lobel Center for Jewish Classical Education
Welcome to The Pillars: Jerusalem, Athens, and the Western Mind, a podcast that tells the story of the prophets, philosophers, and poets who created the West.
In this podcast, Rabbi Dr. Mitchell Rocklin guides listeners through more than 3,000 years of Western history, offering a coherent, civilizational story of how the West came to be—along with a deepened understanding of the challenges it now faces. While many of the texts discussed will be familiar to students of the humanities, Rabbi Rocklin offers a new framework for understanding them—a framework in which the teachings of the Jewish religious tradition play a central role. For, as Rabbi Rocklin explains, Western civilization can only be understood as the product of a transformative and ongoing collision between the great traditions of Jerusalem and Athens—between the religious spirit of the Jews and the philosophical spirit of the Greeks.
In this podcast, Rabbi Dr. Mitchell Rocklin guides listeners through more than 3,000 years of Western history, offering a coherent, civilizational story of how the West came to be—along with a deepened understanding of the challenges it now faces. While many of the texts discussed will be familiar to students of the humanities, Rabbi Rocklin offers a new framework for understanding them—a framework in which the teachings of the Jewish religious tradition play a central role. For, as Rabbi Rocklin explains, Western civilization can only be understood as the product of a transformative and ongoing collision between the great traditions of Jerusalem and Athens—between the religious spirit of the Jews and the philosophical spirit of the Greeks.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Jun 25, 2025 • 48min
Medieval Literature VI: Medieval Chivalry II
Dr. Liliana Wirth, a medieval literature scholar of chivalric romance and Arthurian tales, guides listeners through Tristan and Isolde and Erec and Enide. She highlights the love potion, illicit passion, exile, loyalty conflicts, repentance moments, and how marriage reshapes knightly duty. Conversations cover tragic, consuming love and Chrétien de Troyes’ playful, self-aware storytelling.
Jun 18, 2025 • 40min
Medieval Literature V: Medieval Chivalry I
Liliana Wirth, a medieval literature specialist with Oxford training and founder of Hadar Jewish Classical Academy, guides a lively tour of medieval heroics. She explores why Beowulf still captivates, how The Song of Roland shaped French identity, the Cid’s blend of family duty and warfare, and the shift from chivalry toward courtly romance.
Jun 11, 2025 • 45min
Medieval Literature IV: Medieval Law and Love
Legal power struggles between church and state, including investiture conflicts and limits on kings. Charlemagne's revival of learning and the rise of autonomous universities and scholastic thought. The Magna Carta placed in broader medieval legal customs. The passionate correspondence of Peter Abelard and Heloise and how romantic longing was redirected toward devotion and reputation.
Jun 4, 2025 • 52min
Medieval Literature III: Aquinas
R.J. Snell, philosopher and editor steeped in Thomistic thought and natural law, guides a lively tour of Thomas Aquinas. He explores Aquinas’s synthetic genius blending Augustine and Aristotle. Short takes cover Aquinas’s view of existence, fine-grained theological distinctions, mysticism alongside scholarship, scriptural interpretation, law and reason, the nature of evil, and Trinitarian roots of personhood.
May 29, 2025 • 46min
Medieval Literature II: Maimonides
A lively tour of Maimonides' life and works, from his sweeping codification of law to his medical and communal roles. Listeners hear about The Guide's impact on medieval thought, debates over its banning, and his clash with Aristotelian ideas. The conversation highlights his views on knowing God, human intellect, free will, and the tension between philosophical study and communal responsibility.
May 27, 2025 • 39min
Medieval Literature I: Islamic Thinkers
A survey of medieval Islamic thinkers and their role in preserving and transmitting Greek philosophy. Short takes on kalam, al-Farabi’s ordering of the liberal arts, and Avicenna’s synthesis of Aristotle and Neoplatonism. A look at Averroes’ emphasis on reason and the controversies it sparked in Christian thought. Brief notes on Jewish engagement and the pathway toward Maimonides.
May 22, 2025 • 43min
Jews in the Middle Ages: Intellectual Life, Religion, and Persecution
A brisk tour of medieval Jewish life across Christendom and Islamic lands. Stories range from the Cairo Geniza’s everyday records to Rashi and Tosafot’s textual innovations. Migration waves, economic roles like moneylending, and Poland’s rise as a refuge are explored. The narrative also traces violent slanders, forced conversions, the Spanish expulsions, and how Sephardic culture reshaped the diaspora.
May 20, 2025 • 43min
The Classical Christian: Augustine's Life and Legacy
A lively look at Augustine's life, from his restless childhood to his dramatic conversion. Discussion of how he fused Greco-Roman thought with Christian theology and reshaped ideas about time, creation, and human significance. Exploration of his views on the soul, free will versus divine power, and the redemptive purpose of history.
May 15, 2025 • 37min
Medieval Church History: Art, Religion, and Power
A tour through 14th-century upheavals: plague, famine, and public rituals that reshaped religious life. Stories of scapegoating, flagellants, and the Dance of Death expose social panic. Power struggles within the church, papal schisms, and reformers like Wycliffe and Huss set the stage for conflict. Gothic cathedrals, stained glass, and icons reveal how art expressed divine ambition and communal identity.
8 snips
May 13, 2025 • 29min
Death and Dissent: Disasters, Revolts and Wars of the 14th Century
A tour of fourteenth-century calamities: famines, the Black Death, and the demographic collapse that reshaped society. Discussion of broken price and wage controls and the economic chaos that followed. Accounts of peasant revolts, shifting land and labor power, and the rise of parliamentary authority. Military conflicts from the Hundred Years War to Agincourt and Joan of Arc's pivotal role.
