Category Archives: Podcasts

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Mattos & Masei – Contrarian Guide (5782)

Podcast (parsha): Download (Duration: 49:24 — 22.6MB)

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This week we conclude the Book of Numbers with a double-Parsha, the sole double-Parsha of this calendar year. Of the myriad of interesting subjects found in our Parsha is the long and detailed negotiations between Moshe and the tribes of Reuben and Gad. These tribes sought to permanently settle on the East Bank of the Jordan and not on its Western side, in Canaan proper. For 42 verses, the Torah records their dialogue and negotiation. In this special edition of the Parsha Podcast we propose an explanation of this protracted negotiation. What emerges is an authoritative guide for contrarians.

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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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Asking and Answering (6.6.42)

Podcast (pirkeiavos): Download (Duration: 22:51 — 10.5MB)

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Questions are arguably the most potent tool by which to open up a complex subject. Asking questions on a given matter; asking many, diverse questions, analyzing and probing the issue from all angles, helps open portals of understanding that can deepen your appreciation and your perception of the matter. Our Sages were masters of the art of the question. If we want to deepen our connection with the Almighty’s Torah, it is imperative that we learn to ask sharp questions and to keep them on point.

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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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Parshas Mattos & Masei (Rebroadcast)

Podcast (parsha): Download (Duration: 1:00:55 — 27.9MB)

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This year, the Book of Numbers ends with a double parsha – Mattos and Masei. We learn about the laws of vows and oaths; the miraculous war with Midian; the unusual request of the tribes of Gad and Reuben; the Torah delineates the 42 different places that the Nation encamped for their 40 year sojourn; and we gain closure to the saga of the daughters of Tzelaphchad.

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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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Pinchas – Eggs Not Cheese

Podcast (parsha): Download (Duration: 57:09 — 26.2MB)

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Pinchas, Aaron’s grandson, did a valorous and zealous act of bravery when he skewered the prince of the tribe of Shimon and stopped the plague from wiping out the entire nation. What motivated Pinchas’ behavior? What attributes were at play during his act of zealotry? This question is answered in a comment in Rashi in our Parsha. We learn how qualities and attributes that are present in antecedents are manifested in their descendants. Character is heritable. That same theme is featured elsewhere in our Parsha, when the daughter is of Tzalafchad seek a portion in the land of Israel, in a manner similar to that of their antecedent Joseph. When we zoom out, we discover that the heritability of character, both good and bad, is featured in many many places in the literature. The lessons and the takeaways are profound.

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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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Pinchas – Staying Hungry (5782)

Podcast (parsha): Download (Duration: 41:07 — 18.8MB)

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Although a paternal grandson of Aaron the Kohein, Pinchas was not initially – prior to his heroic act of martyrdom – a Kohein. The law stated that only Aaron and his sons were to be anointed as Kohanim. All sons born to Kohanim subsequently were to be Kohanim, but Pinchas who was alive at the time of anointing of Aaron and his sons was excluded from this exalted fraternity. When he zealously ended the plague, a divine dispensation ruled that he was to be elevated to being a Kohein – a High Priest no less. In this podcast we study Pinchas’ unusual career trajectory and posit a pedagogical device designed to get the most out of ourselves and our charges.

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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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Well-Grounded (6.6.41)

Podcast (pirkeiavos): Download (Duration: 19:23 — 8.9MB)

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What is our relationship with our studies? For some (many?) studying Torah is very important. It is a great priority. But is it the permanent fixture of a person’s life? That designation is applied to the few. In this way to wisdom, we learn about the transformative nature of rendering Torah study the primary focus of a person’s life, and also learn about the proper approach for plumbing the depths of Torah study.

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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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Parshas Pinchas (Rebroadcast)

Podcast (parsha): Download (Duration: 51:44 — 23.7MB)

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Pinchas was a man of action, a zealot who avenged God’s vengeance and was handsomely rewarded for it. In this parsha we read about his reward, Moses’ succession plan, the methods through which the Land will be divided, and another census is done.

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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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Balak – Donkey Gait Keeper

Podcast (parsha): Download (Duration: 57:23 — 26.3MB)

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In every generation there are malevolent forces seeking to destroy the Jewish people. They have never been successful, nor will they ever be. The Almighty always protects our people and ensures our continuity. Most of the time we are completely unaware of the mortal dangers that the Almighty thwarted on our behalf. The canonical example of this phenomenon is the story of our Parsha , when the greatest sorcerer of all time was hired to curse the Jewish Nation. In this special edition of the Parsha podcast, we share three deep ideas on the very unusual story of Bilaam’s unsuccessful attempts to curse the Jewish Nation.

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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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Balak – A Single Point (5782)

Podcast (parsha): Download (Duration: 52:12 — 23.9MB)

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Our nation has no shortage of enemies. This is not new. Even in antiquity, our nation was always a target. Laban, Jacob’s father-in-law, try to smothered the Jewish Nation in its infancy. I’m this week’s Parsha, to fearsome, shadowy figures try to do the same. Balak, king of Moab, commissions Bilaam, master sorcerer and prophet, to curse and decimate the nation. Although their diabolical scheme fails, the lessons that we learn from this parsha are transformative.

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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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Truth and Peace (6.6.40)

Podcast (pirkeiavos): Download (Duration: 30:51 — 14.1MB)

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Truth and peace are often incompatible. A peaceful solution to a problem is often not truthful; unvarnished truth is rarely diplomatic. In way number 40 to acquire wisdom we learn how we must deploy truth and peace in the right manner, in the right fashion, to the right person, at the right time – and how this leads to deepening the integration and assimilation of Torah within ourselves.

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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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Parshas Balak (Rebroadcast)

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

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After the Jewish nation trounced the mighty kingdoms of Sichon and Og in last week’s parsha, the comparatively smaller and weaker kingdom of Moab resorted to unconventional warfare to attack the nation by hiring the prophet of the nations, a wily and devious character named Bilaam, to curse the Jews. It did not work out as planned.

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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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