Category Archives: Parsha

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Vayishlach – Unrequited Love (5781)

Podcast (parsha): Download (Duration: 55:19 — 25.3MB)

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This a unique edition of The Parsha Podcast that you dont want to miss. Instead of the usual one big idea that we typically cover in a Parsha podcast, in this version there are FIVE groundbreaking insights that can change your life. We learn about a remarkable staff and its powers, about the pliability of sunshine hours, about the kabbalistic result of Dina’s encounter with Shechem, about the Torah’s view on prayer, and about the mysterious origin of Amaleik. This episode is a dandy.

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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 Vayishlach (Rebroadcast)

Podcast (parsha): Download (Duration: 1:00:57 — 27.9MB)

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After successfully escaping the clutches of his deceptive father in law, Laban, Jacob heads back west to the Land of Canaan, and back to his family. The journey back home was a lot more tumultuous and chaotic than anticipated.

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Vayeitzei – Holy Sheeple

Podcast (parsha): Download (Duration: 1:04:09 — 29.4MB)

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A large section of our Parsha contains intricate descriptions of Jacob as a shepherd. Initially, he worked for Laban as a shepherd for 7 years for the rights to marry Laban’s younger daughter Rachel. When the 7 years concluded, Laban swindled him, giving Leah instead, only ceding Rachel after Jacob agreed to work as a shepherd for an additional 7 years. After 14 years, Jacob’s tenure as a shepherd continued: for six more years, Jacob served as Laban shepherd in exchange for pay, with all spotted and speckled sheep born to the flock being acquired by Jacob, and all monochromatic sheep remaining Laban’s.

What is the salience of the Torah’s protracted descriptions of Jacob as a shepherd? Why did Jacob seek the speckled and spotted sheep specifically and not the monochromatic sheep? Why does the Torah spend so much time discussing Jacob the shepherd? In this special edition of the Parsha Podcast we dive deep into the meaning and mystery of the sheep of Laban.

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The Parsha Podcast is dedicated in loving memory and leilui nishmas Dayan Chanoch Ehrentreu, the head of the Bet Din in London and one of the most impactful and influential Rabbis in Europe over the last half century, who passed away last week. His passing is a huge loss for the Jewish communities of Europe and all the people who were fortunate enough to know him and have a relationship with him. May his 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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Vayeitzei – Laban’s Potion (5781)

Podcast (parsha): Download (Duration: 41:23 — 18.9MB)

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As the father of all four of Jacob’s wives, Laban is in effect the father in law of the Jewish people. If we examine Laban’s story, he seems to have both qualities and shortcomings. He is constantly invoking God, he seems to be gracious and hospitable. But he also had a dark side. He is greedy and rapacious and deceptive, he is not exactly trustworthy. If we had to make an evaluation of Laban, he would get a mixed results. But the Torah’s verdict is much more stark: Laban is labeled as a super villain, worse than Pharaoh. In this podcast we speculate as to why Laban is so deadly.

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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 Vayeitzei (Rebroadcast)

Podcast (parsha): Download (Duration: 1:03:08 — 28.9MB)

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Parshas Vayeitzei follows Jacob as he is fleeing from his murderous brother Esau and travels to Charan to the house of Laban, his wily and deceptive uncle, and marries multiple wives and fathers 12 children.

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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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Toldos – Twin Powers

Podcast (parsha): Download (Duration: 59:42 — 27.3MB)

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Our Parsha features two very different twins. After decades of infertility, Isaac and Rebecca are blessed with twins, identical twins the Sages emphasize, who could not be more different: Jacob dwelled in the tents of Torah, eventually becoming the third and final Patriarch of our nation, and Esav was a man of the field, a trapper, a hunter, a blood shedder who stands in the way of Jacob, impeding him at every turn. Why did Esav go awry? Why did the son of Isaac and Rebecca end up as he did? In this episode of the Parsha Podcast we explore some threads and angles to this question and emerge with a foundational principle that can help us design a life to perfection.

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Toldos – Esav’s Fatal Flaw (5781)

Podcast (parsha): Download (Duration: 38:18 — 17.5MB)

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Jacob’s twin brother Esav is one of the worst villains in Jewish history. He seems to be an unending litany of bad character. Our parsha ends with Esav dead set on committing fratricide by actually murdering his own brother. Esav is just one bad apple. But is it possible that things could have ended up differently for him? Is it possible that Esav could have become a great hero of Jewish history? In this very special edition of the Parsha Podcast we suggest a counterfactual way that Esav could have become someone very great, and we isolate the reason why he failed.

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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 Toldos (Rebroadcast)

Podcast (parsha): Download (Duration: 1:06:32 — 30.5MB)

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In Parshas Toldos we meet twin boys that are polar opposites: Esau, beloved by his father Isaac, is a man of the fields; while Jacob is loved by his mother Rebecca and prefers to dwell in the tents of scholarship. These two children will spawn nations and ideals that diverged from each other even before they were born.

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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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Idolatrous Wine (#111)

Podcast (mitzvah): Download (Duration: 22:39 — 10.4MB)

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Of the many laws related to idolatry is a law governing wine and other items used for idolatrous practices. Said items to not be consumed. The Sages extend this prohibition in manifold ways.

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This Mitzvah Podcast is dedicated in loving memory and leilui nishmas Dina bat Esther, as we commemorate her 5th yartzeit. May her soul be more elevated in Shamayim and may she always experience lots of Nachas from her children and grandchildren.

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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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Chayei Sarah – Eulogizing A Giant

Podcast (parsha): Download (Duration: 46:31 — 21.3MB)

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This Parsha Podcast is dedicated in loving memory and leilui nishmas my dear friend and study partner David Gedaliah ben Efraim, Dr. David Genecov obm.

Dr. Genecov was a dear personal friend, a weekly study partner of mine, a stalwart supporter of TORCH, and a dedicated listener of the Parsha Podcast and all the other podcasts that we do, who sadly passed away – tragically and shockingly – in a car accident a few days ago.

Our Parsha begins with the death, eulogy, and burial of Sarah – Our parsha contains the first eulogy in the Torah – and I want to dedicate this Parsha Podcast episode to a Eulogy for David Genecov. May his Soul be elevated in Heaven.

David and I in Dallas a few weeks before his untimely passing

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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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Chayei Sarah – Portal to Paradise (5781)

Podcast (parsha): Download (Duration: 39:58 — 18.3MB)

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The Torah dedicates an unusually large amount of verses in the beginning of this week’s parsha to describe a real estate transaction between Abraham and a gentleman named Ephron. Sarah has passed and Abraham seeks to buy Ephron’s cave to inter her in. Initially, Ephron acts with supposed generosity and offers it to Abraham for free. But Abraham insists on paying for it, and ultimately pays an exorbitant fee for the cave. Why does the Torah spend so much time on this transaction? In this special episode we probe the meaning and mystery of the Cave of the Patriarchs.

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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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