Category Archives: Podcasts

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#95: Venues of Reward and Punishment

Podcast (torah101): Download (Duration: 41:58 — 19.2MB)

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Spiritual pleasure is vastly, infinitely greater than physical pleasures, and are completely imperceivable by bodies. Only if you work assiduously to develop a sensory connection with your soul, can you begin to taste it. The ultimate venue of spiritual pleasure is known as Olam Haba, the world to come. What about other venues of reward? What about Paradise, Resurrection, and the days of Messiah? How do those rewards featured in the Literature fit into the system of reward and pleasure of Jewish eschatology? In the third and final installment of Rambam’s magisterial essay, we explore the other venues of reward and punishment.

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DONATE to TORCH: 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 – Snowball’s Chance in Heaven (5783)

Podcast (parsha): Download (Duration: 56:35 — 25.9MB)

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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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DONATE to TORCH: 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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Email me with questions, comments, and feedback: rabbiwolbe@gmail.com

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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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DONATE to TORCH: 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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Email me with questions, comments, and feedback: rabbiwolbe@gmail.com

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Acharei Mos/Kedoshim – Sparring Mates

Podcast (parsha): Download (Duration: 52:22 — 24.0MB)

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If you chanced upon sparring mates going at it, you may come to the mistaken impression that these two are enemies who want each other’s throats. But the truth is, a sparring mate is helpful tool to improve your craft. The Almighty endowed us with a very helpful sparring mate to help bring the best out of us. At first, blush, this force seems to promote the worst in us. Upon close examination, we learn how this ostensible enemy is actually exceedingly good.

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DONATE to TORCH: 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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#94: The (Near Total) Inaccessibility of Spiritual Pleasure

Podcast (torah101): Download (Duration: 42:32 — 19.5MB)

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There is great confusion about what the ultimate reward for righteousness and the ultimate punishment for wickedness are. Rambam’s magisterial essay is designed to provide clarity in these lofty matters of eschatology. In part 2, we learn all about the concept of spiritual pleasure. Our bodies are very finely attuned to experiences of pain and pleasure. We discover that our souls are equally sensitive to pain and pleasure, though our default distance from the soul makes us fail to perceive it in a sensory way. Spiritual pleasure is inaccessible by default, but there is a way to experience it. It will require very hard work, but just one tiny taste of it changes your life forever.

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DONATE to TORCH: 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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Email me with questions, comments, and feedback: rabbiwolbe@gmail.com

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Acharei Mos/Kedoshim – It’s a Small World (5783)

Podcast (parsha): Download (Duration: 54:44 — 25.1MB)

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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 to TORCH: 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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Email me with questions, comments, and feedback: rabbiwolbe@gmail.com

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Free Will: An Exploration of Fundamental Concepts

Podcast: Download (Duration: 47:10 — 21.6MB)

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Free Will is a fundamental concept in our philosophy. People are endowed by God with the ability to determine the direction that they take in life. People are allowed to choose a path of righteousness or wickedness. There is a certain modicum of self-determination that the Almighty provides us with. In this mini series, we study a fantastic chapter in my grandfather’s Alei Shur volume 2 which explores fundamental concepts in free will that will help clarify and demystify this important subject.

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DONATE to TORCH: 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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Email me with questions, comments, and feedback: rabbiwolbe@gmail.com

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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 to TORCH: 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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Email me with questions, comments, and feedback: rabbiwolbe@gmail.com

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Tazria Metzorah – Scalps and Scalpels

Podcast (parsha): Download (Duration: 1:03:07 — 28.9MB)

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The process of diagnosing and purifying a person afflicted with tzaraas is long and arduous. But there was no avoiding it. It is prohibited to excise a tzaraas affliction. You must go to the priest and have him evaluate it. You must be quarantined if you are declared impure. You must undergo the long and complicated process of purification once the affliction heals. But there is one exception. In one instance, it is permitted to surgically remove the skin discoloration of tzaraas. In this Parsha podcast we learn all about the process of tzaraas and the deep and powerful lessons that we learn when from the fact that it cannot be excised, and from the unusual instance where that is permitted.

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DONATE to TORCH: 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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Email me with questions, comments, and feedback: rabbiwolbe@gmail.com

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Tazria Metzora – Heaven on the Cheap (5783)

Podcast (parsha): Download (Duration: 57:59 — 26.5MB)

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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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DONATE to TORCH: 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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Email me with questions, comments, and feedback: rabbiwolbe@gmail.com

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From Beast to Man

Podcast: Download (Duration: 46:06 — 21.1MB)

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Starting from the second day of Passover, we count the Omer. For 7 weeks of 7 days a piece — 49 days — we count. Once the count is completed, the festival of Shavuos is upon us. What exactly is the meaning of this interesting Mitzvah? The subject gets trickier when you examine how the Torah frames this Mitzvah. The counting does not begin on the first day of Passover, rather on the second day of Passover when a special barley meal offering is brought in the Temple, and it concludes with the bringing of a wheat flour offering. What is the significance of these two offerings? In this very special podcast we uncover one of the core themes of this time of the year, an idea that will enhance our Omer and truthfully our spiritual lives.

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DONATE to TORCH: 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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Email me with questions, comments, and feedback: rabbiwolbe@gmail.com

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