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Parshas Mattos & Masei

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This year, the Book of Numbers ends with a double parsha – Mattos and Masei. We learn about the laws of vows and oaths; the miraculous war with Midian; the unusual request of the tribes of Gad and Reuben; the Torah delineates the 42 different places that the Nation encamped for their 40 year sojourn; and we gain closure to the saga of the daughters of Tzelaphchad.

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

Contact:
Websites: Personal: RabbiWolbe.com; TORCH: Torchweb.org
Twitter: Personal: @RabbiWolbe; TORCH: @TORCHWEB
Facebook: Personal: Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe; TORCH: TORCH Centre
Email: rabbiwolbe@gmail.com.

Podcasts Links:

This Jewish Life – A Podcast About Jewish Philosophy: Apple Podcasts, Android, Stitcher;
The Jewish History Podcast – The podcast telling the Remarkable story of the Jewish Peoples: Apple Podcasts, Android, Stitcher;
The Parsha Podcast – A Weekly podcast of analyzing and Exploring the Parsha: Apple Podcasts, Android, Stitcher;
TORAH 101 – A Podcast about the Divinity of Torah and the relationship between the Written and Oral Torah: Apple Podcasts, Android, Stitcher;
Eternal Ethics – The Pirkei Avos Podcast: Apple Podcasts, Android, Stitcher.
The Mitzvah Podcast – Surveying the 613 Mitzvos of the Torah: Apple Podcasts

#20: Creation Ex Nihilo and the Age of the Universe Question

Podcast (torah101): Download (Duration: 54:41 — 25.0MB)

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In the Fourth of the Thirteen Principles of Faith, Rambam codifies the distinction between God and everything else and the manner through which God effectuated Creation Ex Nihilo. In doing so, Rambam departs from the positions of Plato and Aristotle and explains the critical flaw in their thinking that made them incapable of distinguishing between how the world looks like today vs. the means through which it was created. We also begin to delve into the intersection of Torah and science and ponder the feasibility of reconciling the Torah’s stance on the age of the universe with science’s.

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

The Jewish Slave (#42, 344-346)

Podcast (mitzvah): Download (Duration: 39:36 — 18.1MB)

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The concept of slavery is – for very good reasons – unpalatable to modern sensibilities. Yet the Torah seems to condone slavery, or servitude, to some extent. What is the nature of slavery as outlined in the Torah and what are some of its laws?

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

Parshas Pinchas

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Pinchas was a man of action, a zealot who avenged God’s vengeance and was handsomely rewarded for it. In this parsha we read about his reward, Moses’ succession plan, the methods through which the Land will be divided, and another census is done.

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This Parsha Podcast is dedicated in merit of the complete and total recovery of Mike Merkin, Michael ben Yaakov and Miriam, a dear personal friend and friend of TORCH who was in a car accident and sustained many injuries. We wish him Complete and swift recovery and refuah sheleimah.

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

The Three Weeks: A Primer (Rebroadcast)

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For the three weeks spanning from the fast of the 17th of Tammuz until the fast of Tisha B’av (9th of Av), the Jewish nation practices collective mourning. This mourning is the result of a collection of calamitous things that has happened to our ancestors during these inauspicious times. What is the background of these days and what can we learn today from commemorating events that happened thousands of years ago?

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

Parshas Balak

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After the Jewish nation trounced the mighty kingdoms of Sichon and Og in last week’s parsha, the comparatively smaller and weaker kingdom of Moab resorted to unconventional warfare to attack the nation by hiring the prophet of the nations, a wily and devious character named Bilaam, to curse the Jews. It did not work out as planned.

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This Parsha Podcast is sponsored by Ivry Zagury-Orly in honor of his Shabbat Chattan, which coincides with the twelfth anniversary of his Bar Mitzvah Parsha. May you and your bride build a home that is bursting with happiness, love, prosperity, and all manner of blessing, and thank you so much for supporting TORCH and the Parsha Podcast!

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

Parshas Chukas (Recorded Live in Jerusalem)

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In this week’s parsha, we read about a high;y unusual mitzvah: The Red Heifer, when an entirely red cow is burned together with a motley concoction of ingredients, and the resultant ashes are used to sprinkle on people that came into contact with dead people in order to purify them from their spiritual contamination. We also learn about the passing of Miriam and Aaron, and the multiple battles that the nation participated in on the Eastern bank of the Jordan, and we puzzle over the sin that condemned Moses and Aaron to die before entering the Land.

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This Parsha Podcast is sponsored in honor of my brother, Mordechai, on the occasion of his wedding in Jerusalem. May he and his bride, Yocheved, have a wonderful, harmonious marriage, and share a life replete with joy!

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

#19: The Incorporeality of God

Podcast (torah101): Download (Duration: 44:25 — 20.3MB)

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The Third Principle of the Thirteen Principles of Jewish Faith states that God is incorporeal: He has no body, nor does He behave in a bodily way, and all indications in Scripture and other Torah literature to the contrary must be understood as analogies and metaphors.

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

Three Post-Sinai Laws (#39, 40, 41)

Podcast (mitzvah): Download (Duration: 22:21 — 10.2MB)

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Immediately after the Sinai Revelation, the Torah commands three, seemingly distinct, mitzvos: Not to make statues even if their sole function is to beautify; Not to use metal implements to hew the stones of the Altar; Not to ascend the Altar ramp in a way that exposes the underwear of the priests. What are the reasons for these interesting mitzvos, and why are they revealed right after the Sinai experience?

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

Parshas Korach

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In this week’s parsha, Moshe and Aaron’s first cousin, a man named Korach, launches a rebellion claiming that Moshe is guilty of nepotism in appointing his brother as High Priest. What ensued should give one serious pause before engaging in any similar sort of divisive activities.

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This Parsha Podcast is sponsored in merit of the health and well-being of Malia Bat Alta Sara.

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

Parshas Shelach

Podcast (parsha): Download (Duration: 58:29 — 26.8MB)

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The Jewish people were on the cusp of entering the Land of Canaan, and made a prudent, but ultimately tragic, decision: To send a contingent of scouts to reconnoiter the Land, to examine its vulnerabilities and weaknesses in order to best plan the conquest. Unfortunately, the report of the scouts sent the nation into a tailspin and caused them to remain in the Wilderness for 40 years.

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This Parsha Podcast is sponsored in honor of Shlomo ben R’ Shmuel Chaim HaKohein. May he grow up to become a great Torah scholar and a beacon for the Jewish people!

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

Advanced Conflict Resolution (3:21)

Podcast (pirkeiavos): Download (Duration: 59:55 — 27.4MB)

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Rabbi Elazar Ben Azaria got an unusual and controversial promotion at a very young age. Due to an escalating dispute between two of the great leaders of the era, the Nasi Rabban Gamliel was deposed and Rabbi Elazar Ben Azaria, aged a tender 18, was appointed as the head of the Academy in his stead. The story of how this conflict was resolved can serve as a template of how to deal with very knotty high level conflicts.

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