This week we’re speaking with Dr. Rabbi Levi Cooper about rabbinic responses to pandemics throughout Jewish history. We’ll speak about how even hundreds of years ago, Jewish communities grappled with contemporary everyday questions, such as whether to limit synagogue attendance, and if so — who should attend? We’ll also discuss a Kabbalistic prayer practice based on the Temple incense ritual that is still being said from on high -- from a helicopter above Jerusalem, in fact. As you’ll quickly hear, Levi is originally from Australia. He immigrated to Israel as a young man, served in the IDF’s Golani Brigade and earned three law degrees, culminating in a Ph.D., from Bar-Ilan University. Today Levi teaches at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies and is a Teaching Fellow at Tel Aviv University’sBuchmann Faculty of Law. He is a prolific writer and a communal rabbi in Tsur Hadassah, just outside of Jerusalem. Image: Dr. Rabbi Levi Cooper at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies (Courtesy of Pardes)