Category Archives: Holidays

The Seven Wonders of Repentance

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Rosh Hashana kickstarts the Ten Days of Repentance which culminates in Yom Kippur. This is the time to repent. But repentance is a daunting and terrifying concept. All change is frightening. In this very special edition of the podcast, we shed a new light on repentance. We discover that repentance is a great gift that the Almighty gave us. It is supernatural and wondrous in many ways. Given that our Sages tell us that repentance is one of the seven things that were created before the world was created, we have the Seven Wonders of the pre-World and the Seven Wonders of Repentance. This episode is guaranteed to reshape your understanding of repentance and to make your season of repentance more meaningful and efficacious.

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This special pre-Rosh Hashana podcast is dedicated anonymously in loving memory and Leilui Nishmas Bret Adam Rosenthal who passed away this week at the awfully young age of 31. May his Soul be elevated in Heaven and may his grieving family be comforted among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem

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Man In The Arena: Three Ways To Understand The Judgment of Rosh Hashana

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In addition to the many other themes and motifs of the day, Rosh Hashana is called the Day of Judgment. The Mishnah tells us that on Rosh Hashana every human has an individual audience with the Almighty in the same way that a shepherd counts each sheep individually. The judgment is comprehensive: all of a person’s income for the year is determined on this day. But the most important decree of Rosh Hashana is who will live and who will die.

In this podcast, we study a difficult statement in the Talmud regarding the judgment on Rosh Hashana. On the surface, this statement is quite inexplicable. Upon further analysis, however, we discover the central goal of Rosh Hashana, and, frankly, what we are trying to accomplish in our lives.

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A Mystical Approach To The Rosh Hashana Readings ft. Rabbi Shmuly Botnick

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As is true by Shabbos and all Festivals, on the two days of Rosh Hashana we read sections from the Torah and a supplemental reading from Tanach, the Haftorah. At first blush, the four readings of Rosh Hashana have no direct connection to the Festival. One day one, the Torah portion that we read is Genesis chapter 21 which relates the story of the birth of Isaac and the banishment and subsequent salvation of Ishmael. The Haftorah of day one is the story of the birth and youth of Samuel from Samuel I. These are certainly quite lovely stories, but they don’t immediately evoke the Day of Judgment and the New Year.

Same thing for day two. The Torah reading is the Binding of Isaac episode of Genesis chapter 22 and the Haftorah is from Jeremiah chapter 31 which talks of the destruction of the First Temple. What that has to do with Rosh Hashana is, at least initially, a great mystery.

In this very special pre-Rosh Hashana edition of the podcast, we bring on a guest to help us disentangle this intriguing question. My brother in law, Rabbi Shmuly Botnick, is a rabbi, a lawyer, and one of my favorite people to discuss Torah matters with. He has an incisive, creative, and agile mind and bears a vast repository of Torah knowledge. He will be our guide in trying to understand the deeper meaning threading through these four readings. What we learn will not only transform our appreciation of the Rosh Hashana readings, it will transform our understanding of what we are here to accomplish.

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Rosh Hashana: Customs, Rituals, Ceremonies, and Practices

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The two days of Rosh Hashana are two of the most important days in the year. These festival days are celebratory and joyous, but are also dedicated to prayer, to introspection, and repentance. Rosh Hashana is a time when we try to strike a delicate balance of festivities and trepidation due to the Day of Judgement. In this unique podcast we examine the myriad customs, ceremonies, rituals, and practices of Rosh Hashana – we learn about their significance, we learn about the lessons contained within them, we learn about about the various activities that we do to get in the right frame of mind for the Day of Judgement.

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The Essence of Elul

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These 40 days from the beginning of the month of Elul, the final month in the Jewish calendar, and Yom Kippur are the most powerful days of the year. These 40 days coincide with the 40 days that Moshe was in Heaven for the third 40 day stint when he received the second set of Tablets inscribed by the “finger of God.” Our Sages tell us that this month is “Days of Ratzon“, days of goodwill, days of desire. In this special podcast, we identify the central element of these days and discover the ways to unlock the unlimited power of Elul.

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The Three Weeks: A Primer

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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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Ruth: The Enduring Lesson of Shavuos

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The Book of Ruth – and its eponymous heroine – are true enigmas. The Book contains no new laws and its story, while inspirational and poignant, bears no easily discernible connection to the Festival of Shavuos, when it is read. The Book’s protagonist, Ruth, has a decidedly checkered pedigree, yet becomes the matriarch of the Davidic and Messianic dynasty. What is the secret to Ruth’s greatness, what is the Book’s connection to the day that marks the Revelation at Sinai, and what lasting lesson can we take from this story?

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Shavuos: The Time to Become Extraordinary

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Shavuos is the day that marks the most significant event in the history of humankind: A nation coalesced around Mount Sinai to temporarily catapult into a state of prophecy, to hear God say the Ten Commandments, and to live to tell the tale. Shavuos is thus aptly named, “the Day of the Giving of the Torah”. In the Talmud we discover that the power of the day is to transform people from being ordinary and generic into being special, great – extraordinary. In this special podcast we examine the connection between Shavuos and becoming extraordinary and learn the secret to elevate ourselves from being ordinary Joes into being truly special.

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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!

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Who was Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai and why does Lag Ba’Omer matter?

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Lag BaOmer is the day that marks the Yahrtzeit/Hillula of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, one of the great Sages of the Mishnaic Era. In celebration and recognition of Rabbi Shimon’s accomplishments and stature, the custom is to make it a mini-holiday. But of course, Rabbi Shimon was not the only transcendental Sage of that time. His teacher was the great Rabbi Akiva, his contemporaries included the great Rabbi Meir, that era was also graced with luminaries such as Hillel, and Rabbi Yochanan Ben Zakkai, and Rabbi Judah the Prince. Why is Rabbi Shimon singled out above and beyond all the other scholars? In this podcast, we suggest an approach to that question that will hopefully make Lag BaOmer even more meaningful.

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Esther on an Allegorical Level

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On Purim we read the Book of Esther, which tells the story of the Purim miracle. The Persian king Achashverosh conspires with his Amalekite viceroy Haman to eradicate the entire Jewish nation, but God refused to allow their plans to unfold. Queen Esther, together with her relative Mordechai, spearhead the effort to turn the plan on it’s head: Instead of Haman killing Mordechai and the Jews; the Jews were given free rein to destroy their enemies. Every year we commemorate this miracle on the holiday of Purim. But the story goes deeper. Every part of Torah can be understood on multiple dimensions. The Gaon of Vilna wrote a masterful commentary explaining the Book on an allegorical level, in which the characters and the storylines symbolize the various conflicts of our lives. What emerges is a stunning portrayal of central components of Jewish philosophy that also contains very incisive lessons for Purim itself.

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Tu B’Shevat: The Essence of the Rosh Hashana for Trees

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The fifteenth day of the Jewish month of Shevat – known as Tu B’Shevat – is the New Year for trees and fruits. All the fruits that sprout before this cutoff are associated with the previous year’s yield and the ones that come afterwards are attributed to the new year’s. If that was all that we knew about this day it would be a pretty anemic day. But the Kabbalists revealed that is a very powerful and propitious day with deep, mystical meanings. In this special episode we plumb the depths of this day and discover its power and the potential. I must admit that coming into this project I knew very little about Tu B’Shevat. This was a truly eye-opening subject that I am sure will rivet the audience as it did me.

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This podcast is dedicated in loving memory and leilui nishmas Nachshon Dov ben Shmuel, whose 25th yahrzeit falls out on this year’s Tu Beshvat. May his Soul be elevated in Heaven

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Chanukah and Joseph

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Every year, Chanukah falls out during the weeks in which we read about Joseph and his exploits in Egypt. Our Sages tell us that there is a deep connection between Joseph’s and the Maccabean heroism. Many connections have been proposed, and in this podcast I suggest a new approach to understanding how Joseph precisely embodies the story, the lesson, and the transformation of Chanukah.

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