Category Archives: Podcasts

Parshas Balak

Podcast (parsha): Download (Duration: 1:01:55 — 28.3MB)

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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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This Parsha Podcast is sponsored by Ivry Zagury-Orly in honor of his Shabbat Chattan, which coincides with the twelfth anniversary of his Bar Mitzvah Parsha. May you and your bride build a home that is bursting with happiness, love, prosperity, and all manner of blessing, and thank you so much for supporting TORCH and the Parsha Podcast!

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!

Contact:
Websites: Personal: RabbiWolbe.com; TORCH: Torchweb.org
Twitter: Personal: @RabbiWolbe; TORCH: @TORCHWEB
Facebook: Personal: Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe; TORCH: TORCH Centre
Email: rabbiwolbe@gmail.com.

Podcasts Links:

This Jewish Life – A Podcast About Jewish Philosophy: Apple Podcasts, Android, Stitcher;
The Jewish History Podcast – The podcast telling the Remarkable story of the Jewish Peoples: Apple Podcasts, Android, Stitcher;
The Parsha Podcast – A Weekly podcast of analyzing and Exploring the Parsha: Apple Podcasts, Android, Stitcher;
TORAH 101 – A Podcast about the Divinity of Torah and the relationship between the Written and Oral Torah: Apple Podcasts, Android, Stitcher;
Eternal Ethics – The Pirkei Avos Podcast: Apple Podcasts, Android, Stitcher.
The Mitzvah Podcast – Surveying the 613 Mitzvos of the Torah: Apple Podcasts

Parshas Chukas (Recorded Live in Jerusalem)

Podcast (parsha): Download (Duration: 1:02:17 — 28.5MB)

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In this week’s parsha, we read about a high;y unusual mitzvah: The Red Heifer, when an entirely red cow is burned together with a motley concoction of ingredients, and the resultant ashes are used to sprinkle on people that came into contact with dead people in order to purify them from their spiritual contamination. We also learn about the passing of Miriam and Aaron, and the multiple battles that the nation participated in on the Eastern bank of the Jordan, and we puzzle over the sin that condemned Moses and Aaron to die before entering the Land.

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This Parsha Podcast is sponsored in honor of my brother, Mordechai, on the occasion of his wedding in Jerusalem. May he and his bride, Yocheved, have a wonderful, harmonious marriage, and share a life replete with joy!

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!

#19: The Incorporeality of God

Podcast (torah101): Download (Duration: 44:25 — 20.3MB)

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The Third Principle of the Thirteen Principles of Jewish Faith states that God is incorporeal: He has no body, nor does He behave in a bodily way, and all indications in Scripture and other Torah literature to the contrary must be understood as analogies and metaphors.

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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!

Three Post-Sinai Laws (#39, 40, 41)

Podcast (mitzvah): Download (Duration: 22:21 — 10.2MB)

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Immediately after the Sinai Revelation, the Torah commands three, seemingly distinct, mitzvos: Not to make statues even if their sole function is to beautify; Not to use metal implements to hew the stones of the Altar; Not to ascend the Altar ramp in a way that exposes the underwear of the priests. What are the reasons for these interesting mitzvos, and why are they revealed right after the Sinai experience?

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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!

Parshas Korach

Podcast (parsha): Download (Duration: 1:00:20 — 27.6MB)

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In this week’s parsha, Moshe and Aaron’s first cousin, a man named Korach, launches a rebellion claiming that Moshe is guilty of nepotism in appointing his brother as High Priest. What ensued should give one serious pause before engaging in any similar sort of divisive activities.

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This Parsha Podcast is sponsored in merit of the health and well-being of Malia Bat Alta Sara.

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!

Parshas Shelach

Podcast (parsha): Download (Duration: 58:29 — 26.8MB)

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The Jewish people were on the cusp of entering the Land of Canaan, and made a prudent, but ultimately tragic, decision: To send a contingent of scouts to reconnoiter the Land, to examine its vulnerabilities and weaknesses in order to best plan the conquest. Unfortunately, the report of the scouts sent the nation into a tailspin and caused them to remain in the Wilderness for 40 years.

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This Parsha Podcast is sponsored in honor of Shlomo ben R’ Shmuel Chaim HaKohein. May he grow up to become a great Torah scholar and a beacon for the Jewish people!

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!

Advanced Conflict Resolution (3:21)

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

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Rabbi Elazar Ben Azaria got an unusual and controversial promotion at a very young age. Due to an escalating dispute between two of the great leaders of the era, the Nasi Rabban Gamliel was deposed and Rabbi Elazar Ben Azaria, aged a tender 18, was appointed as the head of the Academy in his stead. The story of how this conflict was resolved can serve as a template of how to deal with very knotty high level conflicts.

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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!

Thou Shall Not Covet (#38, 416)

Podcast (mitzvah): Download (Duration: 26:02 — 11.9MB)

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The last of the Ten Commandments makes a big – and on the surface quite infeasible – demand that we don’t desire or covet the nice things that belong to others. How can we reasonably fulfill that and what is the underlying lesson?

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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!

Parshas Behaaloscha

Podcast (parsha): Download (Duration: 1:01:05 — 28.0MB)

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The Jewish nation has been encamped at Mount Sinai for nearly a year; in this week’s parsha they finally depart from the Mountain of God, and sadly leave gleefully as a child escaping school. This kick starts a series of missteps that carry harsh consequences.

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This Parsha Podcast is sponsored in loving memory and leilui nishmas בתשבע רחל בת נחמן הכהן. May her soul merit an ascension 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!

#18: Why Bad Things Happen to Good People: Three Torah Perspectives on this Vexing Problem

Podcast (torah101): Download (Duration: 55:35 — 25.4MB)

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The question of theodicy is one that all people of faith grapple with. The Talmud records multiple conversations between Moses and the Almighty on this subject, and even the ministering angels, and Adam before his Sin weighed in on it. It is a very difficult subject to understand, and doubly hard to find answers that satisfy. In this podcast we continue where we left off in the previous one in delineating three perspectives sourced from our Sages on how to understand the suffering of the righteous.

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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!

Hotel Incidentals (3:20)

Podcast (pirkeiavos): Download (Duration: 30:04 — 13.8MB)

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In his fourth and final teaching, Rabbi Akiva shares a powerful and serious parable that is designed to shake us up and take life seriously but also contains the undertones of a very inspirational and comforting message.

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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!

Parshas Nasso

Podcast (parsha): Download (Duration: 59:51 — 27.4MB)

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In the longest parsha in the Torah by verses, we continue to read about the Levite families and their responsibilities, we learn about the three tiers of the Nation’s encampment, the laws of a suspected adulteress, the laws of the Nazir, the Priestly blessings, and we read a very wordy account of the gifts of the tribal leaders during the weeks following the Tabernacle’s inauguration.

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This Parsha Podcast is dedicated in the merit of the complete and speedy recovery of Baruch Ben Moshe, a dear friend and longtime student of TORCH. May our Torah study serve as a merit for his complete and total and swift recovery

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!