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Parshas Behar & Bechukosai (Rebroadcast)

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This week’s double-Parsha closes out the Book of Leviticus. Parshas Behar begins at Mount Sinai, where the Almighty instructed Moshe to convey a series of laws to the Jewish people. The first is the mitzvah of Shemittah, the prohibition of engaging in any agricultural work every seven years. In two chapters in the Torah (Leviticus 26, Deuteronomy 28) we read about the positive consequences of obeying the Torah and heeding its laws; and the terrible, painful consequences of disobeying the Law. Though reading Parshas Bechukosai is scary and a tad depressing, the truth is that this framework is the secret to our nation enduring such long and painful exiles.

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Emor – Snowball’s Chance in Heaven

Podcast (parsha): Download (Duration: 57:28 — 26.3MB)

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The story of the first person to ever be executed in a Jewish court of law is featured at the end of this week’s Parsha. An unnamed man, the son of an Israelite woman and an Egyptian man, blasphemed and was executed. When we ponder the story we discover all sorts of interesting tidbits. The blasphemer has a fascinating back story and his motivation to blaspheme is quite surprising. In this podcast we study the episode of the blasphemer and emerge with a powerful lesson that can make a big impact on our lives.

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This Parsha Podcast is dedicated by Danny Caplan and family in honor of Aron Caplan, whose bar mitzvah parsha is this week – happy birthday! And also in loving memory and leilui nishmas, Yona bat Esther, may her soul be elevated in Heaven.

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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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Emor – Sense of Belonging (5781)

Podcast (parsha): Download (Duration: 38:13 — 17.5MB)

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Our parsha contains the first recorded instance of capital punishment in Jewish history. A disgruntled man, the son of an Israelite woman and an Egyptian man blasphemed and was executed as a result. What is the significance of this story? Why do we have the narrative about the blasphemer in middle of the Book of Leviticus, a Book dedicated almost exclusively to sacrificial and ritualistic law with nary a narrative? In this special edition of the Parsha Podcast, we offer a novel understanding of this episode and draw powerful insights and lessons from it.

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Moderation (6:6:17)

Podcast (pirkeiavos): Download (Duration: 44:41 — 20.5MB)

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Our resources are finite. We must engage in trade-offs, deciding what pursuits to prioritize over others. This, of course, is all well known. But it’s more complicated: by design, we feel drawn to seek out and pursue goals that are potentially harmful and that can overtake your life. Balance is key.

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Parshas Emor (Rebroadcast)

Podcast (parsha): Download (Duration: 1:03:17 — 29.0MB)

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Parshas Emor contains a staggering 56 mitzvos, nearly all of them relating to either to the Kohanim, the priests, or to the Festivals, and the parsha ends with a very unusual episode that happened at Sinai.

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Acharei Mos/Kedoshim – It’s a Small World

Podcast (parsha): Download (Duration: 55:11 — 25.3MB)

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Our double Parsha contains many different mitzvos. In this podcast we study a set of mitzvos and a very interesting dispute about their nature. We discover a valuable and profound insight that can help us develop and cultivate our potential.

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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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Acharei Mos/Kedoshim – Challenge Accepted (5781)

Podcast (parsha): Download (Duration: 45:00 — 20.6MB)

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Our Nation has always had bad neighbors. The Midrash in our Parsha states that the Egyptians and the Canaanites, both nations that our people lived in close proximity to, are the most morally deficient of all the world’s nations. Moreover, the specific areas in those lands where the Jews resided contained that worst offenders of those nations. Evidently, the Almighty wants us to have really awful neighbors whose repugnant behavior we must shun. Why? Why did the Almighty arrange it that way? In this special edition of the Parsha Podcast we discover a new approach to this interesting phenomenon.

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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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Conversion in Jewish Philosophy and Law

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Our forefather Abraham forged a covenant with God: God shows him to be the forefather of the Jewish people, which includes all sorts of Rights and responsibilities. For one, Abraham’s descendants were condemned to be enslaved for 400 years. On the brighter side, the nation became recipients of the Almighty’s Torah and Mitzvos. The nation also received the Holy Land and a special degree of Divine Providence and oversight. The relationship between God and the Jewish people is eternal and immutable. But even people who are not biological descendants of Abraham via Isaac via Jacob can join the covenant with God. Through the process of conversion, and erstwhile Gentile can become a Jew. What is that process like? How does a non-Jew transform into a Jew with all that that entails? In this podcast we to offer a primer on conversion to Judaism from a philosophical and a law perspective.

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Parshas Acharei & Kedoshim (Rebroadcast)

Podcast (parsha): Download (Duration: 1:47:50 — 49.4MB)

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This week’s double-parsha contains a smorgasbord of mitzvos. The three chapters of Parshas Acharei cover three general categories. First we read about the Yom Kippur sacrifices and procedures; then we learn about the prohibitions against the consumption of blood among other ritualistic and sacrificial laws, and the final chapter is oriented around the many prohibited sexual relationships. Parshas Kedoshim has the highest mitzvah density of any parsha: In its 64 verses, we learn 51 separate mitzvos covering many different areas of Jewish practice, including arguably the most famous mitzvah in the whole Torah.

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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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Tazria Metzora – Heaven on the Cheap

Podcast (parsha): Download (Duration: 59:44 — 27.3MB)

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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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This Parsha Podcast by my friend Aaron Findley in honor of his daughter Anne Meredith / Chana Miriam on the occasion of her Bat Mitzvah and in loving memory of his mom Miriam Findley.

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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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#71: The Inevitability of Messiah

Podcast (torah101): Download (Duration: 51:12 — 23.4MB)

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The sources all agree: Messiah is not a possibility that we can potentially achieve; it is an inevitability. It will definitely happen. Under no circumstances will Messiah and not come before the year 6,000 since Adam. The inevitability of Messiah raises a fundamental question, though: if something is inevitable, it cannot be linked to frail, fallible, and fickle human free will. Yet the sources also maintain that the arrival of Messiah is in fact contingent on our choices and behavior. This paradox opens up for us new vistas of understanding of Messiah, it’s inevitability, and it’s variability. In this podcast we forge ahead in our studies seeking to understand Messiah and the Messianic era.

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This TORAH 101 Podcast is dedicated in the merit of the complete and speedy recovery of Ariel ben Yosef HaKohen.

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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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