Category Archives: Podcasts

#78: Preparing for Messiah

Messiah is something that we anticipate and yearn for and await, but it is also something that we must prepare for. The consequences of being unprepared for Messiah are grave. How can we prepare for Messiah? What, specifically, do the sources focus on when it comes to getting in shape for Messiah? In this podcast we learn about how to prepare for Messiah.

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The Parsha Podcast

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Parshas Nitzavim & Vayeilech (Rebroadcast)

On the final day of Moshe’s life, he gathered the entire nation – men, women, children, and according to the Talmud, all souls of future Jews – to pass them through a final covenant with God. The parsha also contains the prophetic predictions of the Messianic times, and it ends with a simple, binary choice: Moshe tells the nation, “Behold I have placed before you today, the life and the good, and death and evil… Choose Life!” Moshe is 120 years old to the day. He was born on the seventh of Adar and now it is the seven of Adar 120 years later. Today is his last day before his passing and he is taking leave from the nation and handing over the reins to Joshua.

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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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The Parsha Podcast

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This Jewish Life

The Ethics Podcast

TORAH 101

Ki Savo – Dial of Joy

The Torah has a surprising view on joy and how to attain it. The prevailing attitude in our society is that a person’s state of joy is contingent upon circumstance: In good days, people tend to feel a bit more joyous. On bad days, it’s more difficult to feel joy. Joy, according to society, is inextricably connected to circumstance. The Torah understands otherwise. The Torah teaches us that there is a dial of joy which can be easily manipulated. If you want more joy, all you need to do is rotate the dial in one direction. To reduce joy, spin it the other way. In this Parsha Podcast, we share the secret of the dial of joy. To boost your joy, listen carefully.

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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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The Parsha Podcast

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This Jewish Life

The Ethics Podcast

TORAH 101

Ki Savo – Maniacal Determination (5781)

Our parsha contains perhaps the most difficult Torah portion to read and digest: The Tochacha (Admonition). In it we are told the consequences of our deeds. If obey the Almighty and hearken to His commandments, He will reward us with bountiful blessings. Should we deviate from Him and repudiate His Torah, however, He promises to unleash all manner of suffering upon us. And it is brutal. Our Sages calculated that the Tochacha contains 98 distinct curses and maledictions. What is the message of these ferocious curses? In this special edition of The Parsha Podcast, we suggest a novel approach to understanding what the Torah wants of us.

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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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The Parsha Podcast

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This Jewish Life

The Ethics Podcast

TORAH 101

Elul for the Unprepared and the Undeserving

The month of Elul is upon us. Over the course of the next few weeks, Jewish communities worldwide will prepare for the high holidays of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur with special prayers and with a daily blast of the shofar. We are preparing. We are getting ready for the awesome days upcoming. But what about those who are not preparing? What about those who are undeserving? Is there a shortcut to Elul? Is there a cheat sheet for someone who wants to tap into the awesome powers of this auspicious time? In this podcast, we learn how to connect with these propitious days – even if we’re not prepared, even if we’re not deserving.

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The Parsha Podcast

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This Jewish Life

The Ethics Podcast

TORAH 101

Parshas Ki Savo (Rebroadcast)

As the Book of Deuteronomy draws to its conclusion, the narrative makes a transition: Moshe finishes conveying the mitzvos to the nation, and sets up his final parting message to the people. First, he commands the nation to perform several elaborate ceremonies on the very first day that they cross the Jordan River; then he conveys a scathing, terrifying list of curses that will befall the people in the event that we deviate from the Torah.

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This Jewish Life

The Ethics Podcast

TORAH 101

Ki Seitzei – A Lifetime A Day (5781)

The Midrash in our parsha calculates that the Torah contains 613 mitzvos, 248 positive mitzvos, where the Torah commands us to do something proactive, and 365 negative mitzvos, where we are instructed to refrain from transgressing the Almighty’s will. These figures are not coincidental. They are precisely targeted to enable us to accomplish our life’s mission. In this ground-breaking and earth-shattering edition of the Parsha Podcast, we explore a transformational element of mitzvos that will radically reshape our lives – for the good.

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TORAH 101

Accepting Affliction (6.6.25)

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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Parshas Ki Seitzei (Rebroadcast)

In the parsha that contains the most mitzvos of any of the 54 Torah sections (a staggering 74 mitzvos), we read about the wayward and rebellious son, the requirement to build a fence around your roof to prevent tragedy, two episodes that we are mandated to remember, and many, many more interesting and insightful mitzvos.

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Shoftim – Crisper Genes

The nation is on the doorstep of Canaan. In our Parsha, the people are instructed in how they must treat the Canaanite inhabitants of the land. It’s not pleasant. The people are told that they must engage in total war against these nations. How do we understand the requirement to be so violent and aggressive towards the Canaanite nations? What about the Canaanites who opt to join the nation? What is their status? In this podcast, we first explore the general notion of how to understand the Torah’s instructions regarding the Canaanite policy, and then we explore a very interesting thread about the power of behavior and how it can get embedded in the spiritual DNA that we transmit to our descendants.

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Shoftim – Gateways to Great Pursuits (5781)

Justice is a virtue that we must vigorously pursue. Our Parsha begins by instructing us to establish a court system with judges and bailiffs throughout our gates and tribes. The judge is tasked with determining the merits of every case and the bailiff is in charge of implementation. This two-tiered model is not limited to the court system. In this special edition of the Parsha Podcast we propose that every pursuit of greatness hinges upon a “judge” and “bailiff” for the project to succeed. This episode is designed to be life-changing. It is, I promise, well worth your time

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TORAH 101

#77: False and Unrealized Messiahs

Our Nation has been yearning for Messiah for a very long time. And for good cause: Messiah is associated with wonderful things. Messiah is the state of the world when the mission that Abraham began gets actualized. Messiah is when the knowledge that our nation personified for millennia finally becomes ubiquitous. Messiah is a time of peace and prosperity. But in our eagerness from Messiah, our nation has been susceptible to frauds. Over the course of our history, there have been a litany of a false and unrealized Messiahs. In our study of this critical element of Jewish philosophy, we must be very aware of the danger and devastation of false Messiahs.

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This Jewish Life

The Ethics Podcast

TORAH 101