Category Archives: Podcasts

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Joy, Jubilation, and Ecstasy on Sukkos

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:04:12 — 29.4MB)

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The festival of Sukkos is called “the time of our joy.” The entire festival is associated with joy. Sitting in the Sukkah is joyous, shaking the Lulav is joyous, the traditional celebratory festivities are known as the “Joy of the Drawing.” Why are these days so intimately associated with joy? In this special podcast, we offer seven explanations that will enhance our Sukkos and suffuse it with joy.

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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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The Unparalleled Day of Yom Kippur

Podcast: Download (Duration: 33:43 — 15.4MB)

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The holiest day of the year is upon us. The day of Yom Kippur is unmatched and unrivaled by any other. It is a day of elevation. It is a day of purification. It is a day to be cleansed of all of our sins. It is a day to move past all of our trauma. On this day God pledges to forgive us from for all of our sins. But some of us have a hard time connecting with this awesome day. Some of us wish that we can leapfrog this day and move on to the festival of Sukkos. Why do we have such a hard time with this day, and what is there to do about it? In this really superb podcast, we learn about the secrets of this awesome day, and what is actually we need to do so that we merit to partake in its vast, awesome power.

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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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Asking Forgiveness Before Yom Kippur

Podcast: Download (Duration: 42:43 — 19.6MB)

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Yom Kippur is a day of atonement and expiation. On this auspicious day, the Almighty forgives us for all our transgressions and we become purified before God. But the purification of Yom Kippur is limited to sins between man and God. For interpersonal transgressions, there is no atonement unless the aggressor appeases and secures forgiveness from the aggrieved. In this sweeping episode we discuss the nature of interpersonal transgressions and the tremendous sensitivity and delicateness required to not cause another person pain or loss; we scour the process of how to gain atonement for interpersonal transgressions; and we talk about the importance and the challenge of forgiving others who have wronged us.

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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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Haazinu – Surprisingly Joyous Song

Podcast (parsha): Download (Duration: 56:40 — 25.9MB)

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The last day of Moshe’s reign, coincided with the first day of Joshua’s reign. For one day, Moshe and Joshua led the nation together as co-heads. On that day, Moshe and Joshua together conveyed the exquisite, comprehensive sound of Haazinu. A song that spans everything: the past, the present, the future, this world, the world to come. A song that encapsulates all of Torah, a song that foretells all future events. Not all stanzas though scream joy. Not all of what we read does not evoke ecstasy. Not all of what we read inspires us to dance. We read about the nation going astray – Jeshurun growing fat and corpulent and rebelled against God. We read about the disastrous consequences of what happens to us when God turns away from us. We read a frightening and chilling account of the condition of our people in exile. In this interesting Parsha podcast, we learn about Joshua’s first day on the job, and the secret of the Song of Haazinu.

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This Parsha Podcast is dedicated by our friend Hadassah Benny in loving memory and leilui nishmas her mother Lila Bat Lachmin whose yahrzeit falls out on the 6th of Tishrei, the day that this podcast is being released. May her soul be elevated in Heaven.

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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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Haazinu – Trees with 70 Branches (5784)

Podcast (parsha): Download (Duration: 46:54 — 21.5MB)

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Parshas Hazinu is one of the most fascinating, poetic, and richly profound Parshas in the Torah. It is also arguably the most mysterious one. The majority of the Parsha is the Song of Haazinu, an intricate tapestry of prophecies that encapsulate the grand scope of Jewish history. The commentators on this Parsha strive to even understand the basic meaning of its words. In this penultimate episode of the 8th cycle of the Parsha podcast, focus on the commentary of the Ohr HaChaim. While we don’t go through the entirety of his magisterial commentary, we select five magnificent comments from this work. What we discover is an absolutely profound study of scope and depth and insight. I could think of know no finer way to end the Parsha podcast year of 5784 than to plumb into the depth of this song as explained by the legendary Ohr Hachaim.

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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 Haazinu (Rebroadcast)

Podcast (parsha): Download (Duration: 58:00 — 26.5MB)

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Still in the final day of Moshe’s life, he conveys to the nation a 43-verse Song predicting the contours of Jewish history, both past, present, and future. The patterns are familiar to the readers of Deuteronomy and even casual observers and students of Jewish history: The nation is recipients of tremendous divine goodness, yet they become corpulent and rebel against God. Consequently, God allows the nations to feast upon the people, but despite the harsh and painful torment and suffering, we continue to exist. The Song ends with a vivid description of the Messianic reclamation.

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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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The Ten Wonders of Repentance

Podcast: Download (Duration: 54:10 — 24.8MB)

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God showered humanity with endless gifts: the ability to see, to hear, to walk, to taste, to think, to make choices, to become closer to Him. The list is very long. One of the greatest gifts that God gave humanity is the ability to repent. When we err, when we make blunders, when we go awry, we don’t need to forever be in the wrong. We can rectify. We can make amends. The gift of repentance is truly wondrous. Repentance had to have been created before the world was created because it would be impossible to create something so wondrous once the structures of the world were set in place. In this very special pre-Rosh Hashanah, pre-10 Days of Repentance podcast, we identify ten different ways in which repentance is truly wondrous. What an opportunity afforded to us by God!

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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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The Binding of Isaac (Second Day of Rosh Hashana Torah Reading)

Podcast (parsha): Download (Duration: 54:36 — 25.0MB)

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On the second day of Rosh Hashana, we read the Torah section of Genesis chapter 22 that tells the very famous and quite troubling episode of the Binding of Isaac. Abraham – the same Abraham who railed against the ways of child sacrifice of the pagans – is instructed by God to take Isaac – the same Isaac who was declared as the one who will be Abraham’s true progeny – and offer him as a sacrifice on Mount Moriah. In this podcast we attempt to understand the many connections that this reading has with the themes and ideas of Rosh Hashana.

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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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The Nuanced Judgment of Rosh Hashana

Podcast: Download (Duration: 53:49 — 24.6MB)

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Rush Hashanah is a day of judgment. On this day, God sits, as it were, on His Throne of Judgment. The intensity and scrutiny of divine judgment is unfathomable. Even the angels quake and quiver with trepidation. For some, the results of the judgment are instantaneous: the completely righteous are immediately inscribed and sealed into the Book of Life, and the completely wicked are immediately inscribed and sealed into the Book of Death. For the in-betweeners however, their fate is determined by their conduct during the Ten Days of Repentance. In this very sharp and interesting podcast, we offer three approaches to the age-old question of why we don’t see a massive uptick in all-cause mortality on Rosh Hashanah. If all the wicked perish instantly, why aren’t the morgues jam-packed with dead sinners on the day following Rosh Hashanah?

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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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The Origin of Isaac (First Day of Rosh Hashana Torah Reading)

Podcast (parsha): Download (Duration: 59:55 — 27.4MB)

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The Torah readings for the two days of Rosh Hashana were not arbitrarily chosen. There are very good reasons why on the first day of Rosh Hashana we read Genesis chapter 21, which tells of the conception and birth of Isaac, and the banishment of Ishmael, his brush with death, and his salvation. In this podcast we attempt to understand the many connections that this reading has with the themes and ideas of Rosh Hashana.

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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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Nitzavim & Vayeilech – Mavericks vs. Heat

Podcast (parsha): Download (Duration: 59:29 — 27.2MB)

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The entire book of Devarim occurs over the span of 36 days, the final 36 days of Moshe’s life. The final four Parshas are an account of the last day of Moshe’s life. As he is about to transition to the other world, the reliable shepherd gathers all the people together for one last covenant and exhortation to hearken to the word of God and to not go astray. But why would the nation go astray? These are the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who were chosen by God to be his people. This is the nation that witnessed the Exodus, the theophany at Sinai, who ate the manna and drank water from a rock, who received revelation directly from God and Torah from Moshe himself. Why is there a risk that they will lapse into idolatry? Why is there a concern that they may mimic the barbarous, abominable ways of the nations? The answer, as we learn in this week’s edition of the Parsha Podcast, is fascinating and frightening.

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This Parsha Podcast is dedicated in honor of a new couple, Coby and Riva Caplan. May they build a beautiful home together.

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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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SUBSCRIBE to my Newsletter

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SUBSCRIBE to Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe’s Podcasts