The Torah of Social Media

In a world where TikTok trends go viral before Shabbat candles are lit and Instagram reels shape public opinion faster than a breaking news alert, where does ancient Torah wisdom find its voice?

In The Torah of Social Media, Rabbi Avram Mlotek curates a provocative and soul-stirring collection of over two dozen essays, poems, and reflections from leading rabbis, Jewish creators, and cultural thinkers whose lives and messages unfold in pixels and posts. Together, they explore the spiritual, ethical, and communal implications of living Jewishly in an age of tweets, trolls, and ten-second Torahs.

From the sanctity of a viral mitzvah to the perils of cancel culture, from digital identity to online activism, the essays dive into the sacred tension between permanence and ephemerality, tradition and technology, humility and a hashtag.

Whether you're a rabbi with a ring light, a content creator with a conscience, or simply someone navigating your Jewish identity in the ever-scrolling now, The Torah of Social Media offers wisdom, wit, and wonder for the screen-bound soul.

Avram Mlotek is a writer, rabbi, and social worker. He is the author of Why Jews Do That or 30 Questions Your Rabbi Never Answered, Passover in a Pandemic, and Butterfly. His essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Daily News, JTA, The Forward, and Tablet. He cocreated the operetta Amid Falling Walls, which features music and poetry written during the Holocaust and won the 2024 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Revue. Named one of America's "Most Inspiring Rabbis" by The Forward, he is a cofounder of Base, a Jewish pluralistic movement of homes for community and learning. A grandchild of Yiddish cultural leaders, Mlotek holds rabbinic ordination from Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, an MSW from Fordham University, and a BA from Brandeis University. He lives in New York with his three children and dog, Shoko.