Today’s Learning is dedicated to the memory of our loving parents [Name]

Rabba Yaffa Epstein is the Senior Scholar and Educator-in-Residence at the Jewish Education Project. Previously, she served as the Director of the Wexner Heritage Program at the Wexner Foundation, as well as the Director of Education for North America at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, where she was also a long-time member of the faculty and staff. Yaffa is currently an Associate Faculty Fellow for Pardes North America.
In 2024, Yaffa was honored as a recipient of the prestigious Covenant Foundation Award, recognizing her outstanding contributions to Jewish education. Yaffa received Rabbinic Ordination from Yeshivat Maharat, an additional private Ordination from Rabbi Daniel Landes, and holds a Law Degree from Bar-Ilan University. She has also studied at the Pardes Kollel, the Advanced Talmud Institute at Matan, and the Talmud Department at Hebrew University.
Yaffa has taught Talmud, Jewish Law, and Liturgy for over a decade, educating rabbis, educators, and lay leaders across the spectrum of Jewish denominations. She has been the Director of the Beit Midrash at the Dorot Fellowship in Israel and has taught at Yeshivat Maharat, the Drisha Institute, The Wexner Heritage New Members Institute, Kayam Farm Kollel, and Young Judaea. Passionate about making Jewish learning accessible and inclusive, Yaffa has lectured at Limmud events worldwide, written curricula for the Global Day of Jewish Learning, and created innovative educational programming for Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life.

Online learning: Click here to view online learning material from Yaffa on Elmad, online learning powered by Pardes.

image placeholder

During a holiday where there is both darkness and light, where we retreat indoors and shine brightly from the windowsill, go on a…

image placeholder

Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz, President & Dean of Valley Beit Midrash interviews Rabba Yaffa Epstein on the topic of “Why Should We Learn…

image placeholder

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…

image placeholder

The sounding of the shofar is one of the most emotionally charged moments of the High Holiday period. Its piercing cries break through…

image placeholder

Georgetown University Law Center and the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies present The Moral Economy: A Conference on Law, Economics and Religion. In…

image placeholder

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…

image placeholder

Rabba Yaffa Epstein discusses the quest of achieving a work/life balance and how this is struggle as old as the Talmud. This class…

image placeholder

HAVRUTA MASTERCLASS from Rabba Yaffa Epstein and Rabbi Dr. Meesh Hammer-Kossoy in which they discuss modern day perceptions of two biblical heroines. Meesh:…

image placeholder

Watch Rabba Yaffa Epstein’s JDOV talk about her experience being the “outsider” in the Orthodox world and how and why she broke her…