Rabbi Benjamin Weiner has been the spiritual leader of the Jewish Community of Amherst, for almost a decade. Before that, he worked for a time as a translator of Hebrew and Yiddish, and also wrote occasionally for publications including the Forward, Religion Dispatches and Pakn Treger. He lives with his wife, Cantor Elise Barber, and their son, Efraim, on a three-acre family homestead in Western Massachusetts, along with several dairy goats and chickens.
Our conversation focuses on the holiday of Shavuot, and covers topics such as the giving of the Torah, Ruth the Moabite and having Goats.
For more on Shavuot, watch our Torah Talk with Rabbi Joshua Lief, and listen to the podcast on Ruth with Dr. Gila Vachman.