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Hotel Incidentals (3:20)

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In his fourth and final teaching, Rabbi Akiva shares a powerful and serious parable that is designed to shake us up and take life seriously but also contains the undertones of a very inspirational and comforting message.

This Ethics Podcast was originally released on the Ethics Podcast on Jun 16, 2019

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DONATE to TORCH: Please consider supporting the podcasts by making a donation to help fund our Jewish outreach and educational efforts at https://www.torchweb.org/support.php. Thank you!

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Tazria Metzora – Heaven on the Cheap (5783)

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This week’s double Parsha contains some of the most intricate and complex laws in the Torah, the laws of purity and impurity. This subject remains an enigmatic mystery for us, in fact, even in Talmudic times it was arcane. That said, there is always something that we can glean from every part of Torah. In this podcast we propose a theory relating to the particular subject matter of our Parsha and it’s unique and far reaching consequences.

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DONATE to TORCH: Please consider supporting the podcasts by making a donation to help fund our Jewish outreach and educational efforts at https://www.torchweb.org/support.php. Thank you!

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From Beast to Man

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Starting from the second day of Passover, we count the Omer. For 7 weeks of 7 days a piece — 49 days — we count. Once the count is completed, the festival of Shavuos is upon us. What exactly is the meaning of this interesting Mitzvah? The subject gets trickier when you examine how the Torah frames this Mitzvah. The counting does not begin on the first day of Passover, rather on the second day of Passover when a special barley meal offering is brought in the Temple, and it concludes with the bringing of a wheat flour offering. What is the significance of these two offerings? In this very special podcast we uncover one of the core themes of this time of the year, an idea that will enhance our Omer and truthfully our spiritual lives.

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DONATE to TORCH: Please consider supporting the podcasts by making a donation to help fund our Jewish outreach and educational efforts at https://www.torchweb.org/support.php. Thank you!

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Parshas Tazria & Metzora (Rebroadcast)

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A very large percentage of Torah is dedicated to the laws of purity and impurity. This week’s double Parshas of Tazria and Metzora largely deal with these laws. One variant of impurity that is discussed in both parshas is that of a metzora, A metzora is someone who is stricken with the tangible illness of tzaraas caused by a variety of sins, most notably the sin of lashon hara, evil talk and slander. In Parshas Tazria we read about when it strikes a person’s garment or body; and the bulk of Parshas Metzora orients around tzaraas remediation and a third type of tzaraas that afflicts the sinner’s house.

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DONATE to TORCH: Please consider supporting the podcasts by making a donation to help fund our Jewish outreach and educational efforts at https://www.torchweb.org/support.php. Thank you!

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World Building (3:18)

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In an astonishingly profound teaching, Rabbi Akiva informs us of the special role that humans have in completing the objective of the Almighty’s creation; and the amplified role that our nation has in effectuating that; and the tools that we were given to achieve that goal.

This Ethics Podcast was originally released on the Ethics Podcast on May 27, 2019

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DONATE to TORCH: Please consider supporting the podcasts by making a donation to help fund our Jewish outreach and educational efforts at https://www.torchweb.org/support.php. Thank you!

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Shemini – Eighth Time’s The Charm

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Assembling and disassembling the Tabernacle was a difficult task that Moshe repeated for seven days. Each morning he placed the vertical beams into their silver sockets, and affixed the golden rings on the top of the beams. He placed the horizontal bars that went on each side of the vertical beams, including the snaking bar that went through turned corners. He covered the Tabernacle with the four different covers, and arranged the whole courtyard. It was lots of work and Moshe did it himself seven days in a row, assembling the Tabernacle each morning, and then disassembling it once the day’s work was finished. Wouldn’t it be easier to simply assemble it once for good? In this very special Parsha podcast, we explore the curious week of inauguration of the Tabernacle.

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This Parsha Podcast is dedicated in honor of a new baby: Yosef Simcha Borowsky, the new son of our dear friends David and Chana Borowsky. On behalf of the entire Parsha Podcast family and the extended TORCH family we wish them a hearty Mazal Tov on Yosef Simcha. May Yosef Simcha indeed add joy to his family and to the entire Jewish nation and become a beacon of light who brings honor and glory to his family and to his people, and of course to his Creator.

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DONATE to TORCH: Please consider supporting the podcasts by making a donation to help fund our Jewish outreach and educational efforts at https://www.torchweb.org/support.php. Thank you!

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Bulletproof Fences (3:17)

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Rabbi Akiva is one of the titanic figures of the Mishnaic Era. He served as the vital link transmitting the Torah that he studied from his predecessors to his students amid ceaseless oppression under the Romans. In the first of three consecutive Mishnas authored by Rabbi Akiva, we learn the keys to avoiding catastrophic promiscuity, getting and staying rich, achieving wisdom, preserving Torah, and more.

This Ethics Podcast was originally released on the Ethics Podcast on May 19, 2019

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DONATE to TORCH: Please consider supporting the podcasts by making a donation to help fund our Jewish outreach and educational efforts at https://www.torchweb.org/support.php. Thank you!

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Shemini – Fires, Foreign and Domestic (5783)

Podcast (parsha): Download (Duration: 59:15 — 27.1MB)

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Nadav and Avihu were the crown princes of the Jewish nation. These two sons were slated to succeed Moshe and Aaron. Moshe declared, without hyperbole, that his two nephews, Nadav and Avihu, were greater than he and Aaron. These two sons of Aaron were without peer. Yet they acted in an inexplicable manner: On the eighth day of the inauguration of the Tabernacle, Nadav and Avihu brought an unauthorized offering and died in shocking fashion. What possessed these two exemplars to behave in the way that they did? What do we make of the multiplicity of reasons offered by our Sages for their errant behavior? In this special edition of the Parsha Podcast we offer a novel explanation of what motivated Nadav and Avihu that neatly explains what we know about this shocking and tragic episode.

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DONATE: Please consider supporting the podcasts by making a donation to help fund our Jewish outreach and educational efforts at https://www.torchweb.org/support.php. Thank you!

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Parshas Shemini (Rebroadcast)

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After months of preparation and building, and a week of inauguration, the nation was anticipating the climax of the Tabernacle experience: When God finally rested His Presence upon the people’s handiwork. On the eighth day the Tabernacle was erected for good, and a Heavenly fire consumed the various sacrifices offered upon the Altar and the nation experienced the euphoria and intense trepidation of having God in their midst. But a second divine fire marred the joy when Aaron’s two sons were consumed for bringing a foreign and improper offering.

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DONATE to TORCH: Please consider supporting the podcasts by making a donation to help fund our Jewish outreach and educational efforts at https://www.torchweb.org/support.php. Thank you!

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Greeting Everyone with Joy (3:16)

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Rabbi Yishmael was the scion of one of the most prestigious families of our nation and a titanic Sage of the Mishnaic Era. In this podcast we share several of the fascinating stories about his fruitful and sometimes tragic life and explore the connection between those episodes and his teaching in Pirkei Avos.

This Ethics Podcast was originally released on the Ethics Podcast on Apr 28, 2019

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DONATE to TORCH: Please consider supporting the podcasts by making a donation to help fund our Jewish outreach and educational efforts at https://www.torchweb.org/support.php. Thank you!

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Stairway to Heaven (3:15)

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Rabbi Elazar from Modi’in shares a list of five very different things that disqualify its doer from Olam Haba. What is the connection between these five things and why would one who does them be locked out of eternity?

This Ethics Podcast was originally released on the Ethics Podcast on Apr 3, 2019

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DONATE to TORCH: Please consider supporting the podcasts by making a donation to help fund our Jewish outreach and educational efforts at https://www.torchweb.org/support.php. Thank you!

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