Read This Over Shabbos: Reading Jewish History in the Parash with David Bashevkin (Maggid, 2026)
October 10, 2026
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5 min readRead This Over Shabbos: Reading Jewish History in the Parash with David Bashevkin
On a Saturday night, right after Shabbos ends, David Bashevkin posts a photo of the book he read over the holiday. It started as a small online gesture—an invitation to share reading recommendations and, more quietly, to advertise Shabbos observance itself. "Part of the magic of what Shabbos is," Bashevkin says, "is not just a detox from technology. It's kind of connecting to something more transcendent, more substantive." That practice became the seed of his new book, I Read This Over Shabbos: Reading Jewish History in the Parash (Maggid, 2026), which weaves together the weekly Torah portion with episodes from Jewish history—particularly the Jewish encounter with modernity—and with the books that have shaped his own thinking.
Translation as a Portal
The book's structure draws on an ancient practice called Shnayim Mikra v'Echad Targum—reading the Torah text twice and translating it once. Bashevkin argues that translation is more than moving words from one language to another. "Translation is something far deeper and far more profound," he says. "It's learning how to think within another culture." Real translation creates a portal: it renders ancient ideas into modern examples that people can grasp.
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What you'll learn
- 1 (03:43) **Introducing the Book and Its Core Idea** - Host Mark Katz welcomes David Bashevkin to discuss *Read This Over Shabbos: Reading Jewish History in the Parash*.
- 2 (05:28) **The Shabbos Reading Movement and the Book’s Origin** - Bashevkin explains how his social-media practice of posting the book he read each Shabbos grew into a community-building project and eventually this book.
- 3 (08:28) **Shnayim Mikra: Translation as a Deeper Act** - Bashevkin unpacks the Talmudic practice of reading the Torah twice and translating once, using it as a metaphor for the entire book.
- 4 (11:09) **The Patihta Method: Juxtaposing Stories** - Katz compares Bashevkin’s style to the ancient midrashic technique of starting with a seemingly unrelated verse and weaving it back to the Torah portion.
- 5 (12:01) **Case Study: Beha'alotcha and Alternative History** - Bashevkin explains his most-proud essay, which pairs the parsha of Beha'alotcha with the concept of alternative history.
- 6 (17:14) **The Art of Creating New Insights (Chidushim)** - Katz praises the sheer number of original interpretations in the book and asks Bashevkin to reflect on the creative process of a chidush.
- 7 (25:01) **How to Know a Chidush is True** - Katz and Bashevkin discuss the challenge of knowing whether a new insight is authentic or a stretch.
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Guests on this episode
Show Notes
What happens when you read the weekly Torah portion alongside the strange, fascinating, and sometimes uncomfortable story of modern Jewish history? In this episode, Rabbi Marc Katz sits down with Rabbi David Bashevkin to discuss I Read This Over Shabbos: Reading Jewish History in the Parasha (Maggid, 2026), a book that turns Shabbat reading into an intellectual journey through the Jewish past.
Bashevkin takes familiar Torah stories and places them in surprising conversation with the events and ideas that have shaped modern Jewish life. Noah’s ark leads to the Industrial Revolution. The biblical census opens a window onto the modern haredi draft debate. Korah’s rebellion becomes a lens for understanding the rise of Marxism. Along the way, Bashevkin explores questions that remain deeply relevant: Is the founding of Israel a messianic moment? How should we understand rabbinic authority centuries after its emergence? Can political disagreements justify divisions among Jews? And how did the revival of Hebrew transform Jewish identity?
The essays move freely between Jewish history, philosophy, psychoanalysis, literature, and traditional sources. They aren't conventional Torah sermons or academic lectures; instead, they are invitations to make unexpected connections and to see both the Torah and Jewish history with fresh eyes. Each essay also ends with suggested books, turning Bashevkin's own reading into an invitation for listeners to keep exploring.
Together, Bashevkin and Katz explore what happens when the weekly parasha becomes a doorway into the Jewish historical imagination—and why Shabbat might be the perfect time to slow down, pick up a book, and reconnect with the story of our people.
About the Guest:
David Bashevkin is founder of 18Forty, a media and educational platform leading conversations on Jewish faith, identity, and community, and host of its flagship podcast. He serves as Assistant Clinical Professor of Jewish Values at Yeshiva University’s Sy Syms School of Business and is a rebbe at Isaac Breuer College. David has been rejected from several prestigious fellowships and awards.
About the Host:
Rabbi Marc Katz is the Rabbi at Temple Ner Tamid in Bloomfield, NJ. He is author of the books Yochanan’s Gamble: Judaism’s Pragmatic Approach to Life (JPS) chosen as a finalist for the PROSE award and The Heart of Loneliness: How Jewish Wisdom Can Help You Cope and Find Comfort (Turner Publishing) which was chosen as a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award.
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