Rabba Yaffa Epstein is a Faculty Associate Fellow for Pardes North America and previously served as Director of Education for North America. She currently serves as Senior Scholar and Educator-in-Residence at the Jewish Education Project. Yaffa received rabbinic ordination from Yeshivat Maharat and from Rabbi Daniel Landes, and holds a Law Degree from Bar-Ilan University.
Yaffa teaches Talmud, Jewish law, and liturgy across the spectrum of Jewish denominations. She has taught at Yeshivat Maharat and Drisha, lectured at Limmud events worldwide, created innovative educational programming for Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life, and served as the Director of the Beit Midrash at the Dorot Fellowship. In 2024, Yaffa received the Covenant Foundation Award for her contributions to Jewish education and her commitment to accessible and inclusive Jewish learning.
During a holiday where there is both darkness and light, where we retreat indoors and shine brightly from the windowsill, go on a journey with Pardes North America to find meaning in the discord within our tradition. Night 4 –…
Jewish Calendar, Chanukah
Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz, President & Dean of Valley Beit Midrash interviews Rabba Yaffa Epstein on the topic of “Why Should We Learn Torah?” See https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org/ for more information on Valley Beit Midrash.
Teaching Resources & Education, Torah Study
It’s Yom Kippur and love is in the air. Love? Isn’t this a day of fasting, and praying? Of admitting our guilt? Certainly so, and yet there is something more fundamental about this day. Yom Kippur is a day of…
Jewish Calendar, Yom Kippur
The sounding of the shofar is one of the most emotionally charged moments of the High Holiday period. Its piercing cries break through our consciousness and implore us to better ourselves. In fact, the very purpose of the shofar is…
Self & Spirituality, Reflection, Jewish Calendar, Rosh Hashana, Teshuvah, Yom Kippur
Georgetown University Law Center and the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies present The Moral Economy: A Conference on Law, Economics and Religion. In this session, Rabba Yaffa Epstein, Michael Goldman and Dr. Noah Bickhart discuss Marriage: An Economic Enterprise? You can…
Critical Issues, Economic Justice, Jewish Living, Marriage and Divorce, Podcast Series, Pardes Live and Mini-Series
In this class that was recorded at Pardes as part of the Tisha B’Av 2016 program, Rabba Yaffa Epstein discusses the question of whether Tolerance leads to Indifference.
Podcast Series, Pardes Live and Mini-Series, Jewish Calendar, The Three Weeks, Tisha B’av
Rabba Yaffa Epstein discusses the quest of achieving a work/life balance and how this is struggle as old as the Talmud. This class was part of the Summer Evening Lecture Series that was sponsored in memory of Brondell Pomerenze by…
Podcast Series, Pardes Live and Mini-Series, Jewish Living, Women’s Issues
HAVRUTA MASTERCLASS from Rabba Yaffa Epstein and Rabbi Dr. Meesh Hammer-Kossoy in which they discuss modern day perceptions of two biblical heroines. Meesh: Back then, the ceiling was not glass, and I don’t think Esther or Ruth made any attempt…
Tanakh, Neviim & Ketuvim, Megillot, Esther, Jewish Calendar, Purim
Watch Rabba Yaffa Epstein’s JDOV talk about her experience being the “outsider” in the Orthodox world and how and why she broke her way into the conversation. “In this talk, I examine the concept of feeling like an impostor. The…
Self & Spirituality, Reflection, Jewish Living, Women’s Issues