Category Archives: Ethics of the Fathers

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Making Fences (6.6.28)

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Humans are fallible. We are imperfect, yet we are tasked with being the stewards and the guardians of the perfect. We hold the Almighty’s Torah in our hands. We are tasked with perpetuating it from generation to generation and with rendering rulings in line with the will of God. The only way that we can stand up to the sacred task is if we make fences.

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Joyous With Your Lot (6.6.27)

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There is an unequal distribution of talents, gifts, abilities, strengths, and weaknesses. Everyone is different. Everyone is their own world. This applies both in the spiritual domain and in the material/physical domain. A believer who understands that the Almighty gives everyone exactly what they need must be joyous with their lot. Your lot is exactly what the Almighty apportioned to you to fulfill your mission in life. It is also way number 27 to wisdom.

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Know Your Place (6.6.26)

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The greatest pedagogues of history – the Sages of the Mishnah – codified “knowing your place” as a means to acquire Torah, to acquire wisdom. What exactly is intended with knowing your place? In this Ethics Podcast we share three life-changing approaches.

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This Ethics Podcast is dedicated in loving memory and leilui nishmat Miriam bat Ashraf. May her Soul be elevated in Heaven.

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Accepting Affliction (6.6.25)

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Life is full of nuisances. For many – maybe all – life inevitably contains some pain, suffering, and affliction. How we approach these situations is a central element of our religion and theology. Our Sages revealed to us that accepting affliction is a means to achieve wisdom. It is one of the 48 ways to acquire Torah. In this Ethics Podcast we explore this weighty subject and propose an approach to rationalize how this can contribute towards the acquisition of Torah.

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Trust Sages (6.6.24)

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Our primary responsibility as humans and as Jews is to develop and deepen our faith in the Creator. Can we have faith in man? Can we have faith in a mortal? In the 24th way to achieve and acquire wisdom, we learn about the concept of having faith in our Sages. What does it mean to have faith in Sages? How does this contribute towards our acquisition of Torah? In this interesting Ethics Podcast, we discover the answers.

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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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Good Heart (6.6.23)

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Although the study of Torah is ostensibly a cognitive pursuit, there are many qualities that are not cognitive nature that facilitate and enable the study of Torah. In this way to acquire wisdom, way #23, we learn about what it means to have a good heart , and how that serves as a means to acquire wisdom.

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Anger Suppression (6.6.22)

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Anger is part of the human experience. When things agitate us, we get frustrated and have a tendency to lash out, to berate, to say things that we may regret. In this ethics podcast, we learn about the virtue of being slow to anger and how it can help supercharge our pursuit of wisdom.

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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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Levity (6.6.21)

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Life is serious. Pursuit of wisdom is the pursuit of truth. Pursuit of wisdom is the pursuit of understanding the Divine (to the best of our abilities). To access wisdom, we have to be very serious. But a little bit of levity – when done properly and in the right context – can be helpful. In this Ethics Podcast we explore the Torah’s perspective on levity and seriousness.

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This Ethics Podcast is dedicated in loving memory of Miriam bat Rahim. 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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Conversation (6:6:20)

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We are speaking beings. In fact, the central differentiation between humanity and animals is the capacity of verbal communication. The judgment that we face in Heaven is largely about how we deployed our superpower, our speech. The greatest mitzvos are performed with speech and some of the most grievous transgressions are also a product of the spoken word. What about idle chit chat? What about ordinary conversation? Small talk? There is a lot of gray area of speech that doesn’t immediately appear to be neither a mitzvah nor a sin. How are we to relate to this form of speech? In this Ethics Podcast we study the subject of speech and the Torah’s guidance for how to properly balance it.

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This Ethics Podcast is dedicated in loving memory and leilui Nishmas Yosef Binyamin ben Avraham Chaim, George Topas, whose third Yartzeit falls out on 19th of Sivan, the day that this podcast is being released.

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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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Sleep (6.6.19)

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We all need to sleep. All humans, irrespective of their intelligence, their physical prowess, their wealth, must lay down in a comatose state for several hours a day and sleep. Sleep is also enjoyable. There’s something seductively delicious about sleep. What is the Torah’s attitude on sleep? Why did the Almighty design us that we need to sleep? What are the spiritual dangers in excessive sleep? In this ethics podcast we explore this fascinating subject. I would not recommend starting this podcast if you want to go to sleep. It’s so interesting, it will keep you awake. Caveat dormitator!

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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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Pleasure (6.6.18)

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Pursuit of pleasure and avoidance of pain are hardwired impulses . We all want to feel good and to avoid feeling bad. Perhaps surprisingly, the Torah fully embraces this principle. The reason why we were created, we are told, is so that we can become receptacles of pleasure. Our only disagreement with other philosophies is regarding the nature of said pleasure. In this Ethics Podcast episode we explore the subject of pursuit of pleasure, both spiritual and physical.

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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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