Korach: Friends Don’t Let Friends Drive Drunk

Introduction

Through a fanciful Gemara about an unsung heroine, the wife of On ben Peleth, Rabbi Dr. Meesh Hammer-Kossoy examines what it means to be a good friend, neighbor, or family member, as well as the complexity of Korah’s holiness claim.  Can “the whole community be holy?”

Credits:
Larry Kluger – Creative Consultant
Arlene Harel – Production Coordinator

Meesh Hammer-Kossoy

Rabbi Dr. Meesh Hammer-Kossoy is Director of the Year Program and Rosh Beit Midrash at Pardes, where she has taught since 1999. Originally from Washington, D.C., Meesh is a Pardes alumna herself, attending the Year Program in 1991-1992. Meesh holds degrees from Brandeis University and New York University, and received Orthodox ordination from Beit Midrash Har’el in 2015.

Meesh previously taught at NYU, Drisha, and Midreshet Lindenbaum. She has received multiple fellowships, including from ATID, the Memorial Foundation, and the National Foundation for Jewish Culture. Despite having written her doctoral dissertation about criminal punishment in the Talmudic period, Meesh is known by her husband and three children as a lover of mercy and kindness.