Category Archives: Podcasts

Ki Savo – Tiers of Paradise

Podcast (parsha): Download (Duration: 43:49 — 20.1MB)

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Perhaps the most intriguing question of all is” What actually happens after we die? Everyone is curious to know the answer to that question. In this unique Parsha Podcast we venture a peek into a Kabbalistic take on that question. The format is also quite interesting. The Torah is multidimensional, meaning that each verse and section can be understood on many different dimensions. In the first mitzvah of our parsha, the Ohr HaChaim takes us on an exhilarating kabbalistic ride, interpreting the section on a kabbalistic and allegorical level as the Soul’s post-mortem journey to Paradise.

Please email me at rabbiwolbe@gmail.com with any questions or comments

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This Parsha Podcast is dedicated in honor of Pesach Yehoshua Yunger

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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Etched in Stone (4:25)

Podcast (pirkeiavos): Download (Duration: 48:14 — 22.1MB)

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Elisha Ben Avuyah was one of the greatest Sages with the potential to being a historic legend of Jewish history on par with Rabbi Akiva and his colleagues. But he went awry. He became a heretic and a sinner and abandoned Torah. Why did he go awry? That question is hotly debated among the Sages. They scoured his life and found all kinds of episodes that caused him to go bad. What is the story of this renegade Sage? Why was his teaching included in Pirkei Avos?

Please email me at rabbiwolbe@gmail.com with any questions or comments

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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!

Ki Seitzei – Roadmap to Victory

Podcast (parsha): Download (Duration: 34:54 — 16.0MB)

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The Yetzer Hara is described in Jewish Literature as a skillful and dangerous enemy that we must make war with. And unless we devise a comprehensive strategy, our enemy will triumph. How does a winning battle plan look like? In this unique Parsha Podcast we lay out the three distinct steps needed to achieve total victory.

Please email me at rabbiwolbe@gmail.com with any questions or comments

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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!

Benediction Malediction (4:24)

Podcast (pirkeiavos): Download (Duration: 30:44 — 14.1MB)

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Shmuel HaKattan was one of the legends of Jewish history. The Talmud testifies on him that had his generation been worthy, he would have been a full-fledged prophet. Notwithstanding his generation, Shmuel Hakattan did merit lower grade prophecies in his life. He was commissioned by Rabban Gamliel to compose the blessing against the heretics, a blessing that we recite thrice daily. In his Mishnah we discover that he was not motivated by hatred of the heretics. To the contrary, he loved them and sought their repentance and restoration.

Please email me at rabbiwolbe@gmail.com with any questions or comments

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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!

Sensitivity to Widows and Orphans (#65, 591)

Podcast (mitzvah): Download (Duration: 29:07 — 13.3MB)

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The Almighty is described in Scripture as the “Father of orphans and Judge of widows.” In His Torah, he instructs us to not oppress widows and orphans. The consequences: If you oppress them, He pledges to make your wives widows and your children orphans.

Please email me at rabbiwolbe@gmail.com with any questions or comments

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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!

Shoftim – Kosher Bribery

Podcast (parsha): Download (Duration: 36:04 — 16.5MB)

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A judge must remain impartial to be able to judge correctly. If he receives a bribe, even if it is non-monetary or intangible, he is disqualified from overseeing that case. The Talmud elaborates on this concept and explains the psychology behind how bribes manipulate. In this episode we show how this powerful force can be commandeered for positive, useful ends. How to bribe in a helpful, kosher, and even transformative way.

Please email me at rabbiwolbe@gmail.com with any questions or comments

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This Parsha Podcast is dedicated in the merit of the speedy and total recovery of Baruch ben Shoshana.

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!

The Shabbat Gift

Podcast: Download (Duration: 46:46 — 21.4MB)

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The laws of Shabbat are vast and seemingly draconian. A study of its laws reveal a comprehensive governance of every aspect of our lives on Shabbat. The Talmud even declares that greetings one’s fellow on Shabbat is “barely permitted.” To an outsider looking in, the laws of Shabbat are crippling and limiting. The Talmud offers us a deeper insight. It teaches us that Shabbat is a gift from God’s most innermost treasure house, but it is a gift that initially seems to be a bad gift. How Shabbat amounts to a great gift is a deep secret. In this special podcast episode we reveal the secret to the Shabbat gift.

Please email me at rabbiwolbe@gmail.com with any questions or comments

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This podcast episode is sponsored by Steve Goldberg in honor of his wife Melissa on the occasion of their second anniversary, and from all of us at TORCH and the entire podcast audience we wish them a hearty happy anniversary and many happy returns!

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!

 

Angry and Irrational (4:23)

Podcast (pirkeiavos): Download (Duration: 46:12 — 21.1MB)

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Who controls a person? That is arguably the most important question there is. As Jews we are trained to adopt the Almighty God as our Master. With the Creator governing our life via His Torah, we are on the correct path to fulfill our life’s duty. But the Talmud reveals that there is an impostor jockeying for that role. The Yetzer Hara is a foreign god seeking to supplant God from within us to to commandeer that post. Once the foreign god is sitting on the throne within us, its directives will b e obeyed with religious zeal and we are heading down a path of devestation and destruction.

Please email me at rabbiwolbe@gmail.com with any questions or comments

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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!

Re’eh – Influencing People

Podcast (parsha): Download (Duration: 40:16 — 18.4MB)

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A wise woman once said: “Judaism is terrible at marketing.” It seems like we are doing a terrible job at influencing others to adopt Torah. It is not only Gentiles that we are not a great job of attracting – and perhaps that is by design –  it is also our fellow Jews, our brethren, that we are often not reaching. Is there any way to persuade our Jewish brothers and sisters to reexamine Torah on a deep and fundamental level? What is the most persuasive arguments for the power of Torah? Guided by a powerful teaching in the Talmud regarding Onkelus the convert, we discover the answer in the first verses of our parsha.

Please email me at rabbiwolbe@gmail.com with any questions or comments

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This podcast is dedicated in loving memory of Robert Joseph Weinburger, the father in law of a dear friend of mine and of TORCH. May his Soul be elevated in Heaven.

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!

Sensitivity to Converts (#63-4, 431)

Podcast (mitzvah): Download (Duration: 43:43 — 20.0MB)

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Is Judaism a religion or a nation? That is a tricky question to answer because the correct answer is a bit of both. We are a nation and therefore if your pedigree is Jewish you are Jewish whether you like it or not. You can be baptized 100 times – you may get wet but you are still Jewish. On the other hand we are a religion in that people can join our nation via conversion. In this special edition of the Mitzvah Podcast we discuss the process of conversion and the three special mitzvos regarding how converts must be treated.

Please email me at rabbiwolbe@gmail.com with any questions or comments

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This podcast is dedicated in the merit of the speedy and total recovery of a dear friend Avraham Ben Faiga, who recently contracted the coronavirus. May the Almighty heal him completely and may he suffer no lingering or lasting effects.

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!

Ep. 74 – Chacham Ovadia Yosef: Part One – The Prince of Torah

Podcast (history): Download (Duration: 44:26 — 20.3MB)

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Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, known the world over as “Chacham Ovadia” or simply “Maran”, was one of the most important rabbinical personalities of the 20th Century. His career accomplishments were staggering: He was a Torah scholar of absolute unmatched greatness. He was a transformational Rabbi – with rabbinic posts both in Israel and abroad – who served as the Chief Rabbi of Israel. He was a voluminous Halachist – having answered hundreds of thousands of Halachic queries in his lifetime and authored 50 books on Halacha in his lifetime. His accomplishments also extend beyond the rabbinate: In the 1980s, he founded the largest and most powerful religious political party in Israel. He was also the Patriarch of a prestigious rabbinic dynasty. In part one of our series of this giant of Jewish history, we tell the story of his remarkable Torah prowess that undergirded all his career accomplishments.

Please email me at rabbiwolbe@gmail.com with any questions or comments

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This Jewish History Podcast is dedicated in honor of Shimmy and Joely Bernstein, new podcast listeners but old friends of ours – thank you for your friendship over the years

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!

An Invitation to The Afterlife (4:21-2)

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:10:09 — 32.1MB)

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Podcast (pirkeiavos): Download (Duration: 1:10:09 — 32.1MB)

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We all recognize that we will eventually die. Each of us know that there will come a point in time where our body and Soul separate and go their own way. The body will return to its origin, the dust, and the Soul will return to its Heavenly roots. What happens to our Soul in Heaven is certainly a tantalizing question. In this Mishnah we learn about Olam Haba, the Next world, commonly called the Afterlife. What is the Afterlife? Why is it worth preparing for? What can I do to ensure that I am included in the invite-list for this eternal bliss? In this very critical podcast we attempt to penetrate the great mystery of Olam Haba.

Please email me at rabbiwolbe@gmail.com with any questions or comments

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This special edition of the podcast is dedicated in the merit of the speedy and total recovery of Yehudit bat Sara who recently contracted the coronavirus. We hope and pray that she beats the virus completely and quickly with no lingering effects

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!