Category Archives: Parsha

Parshas Eikev (Rebroadcast)

We pick up where we left off last week amid Moshe’s speech to the nation before his passing, and as in the previous few weeks, Parshas Eikev is jam packed with insights and timeless lessons. Moshe pivots between looking back on the conduct of the nation in the preceding 40 years and admonishing them for their misdeeds, and gazing forward to the conquest of Canaan and the secrets to making their settlement peaceful, prosperous, and secure.

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Va’eschanan – Entry Denied

Moshe was very desirous of entering the Land. The Midrash reveals that he prayed 515 separate prayers to petition God to revoke His ban on Moshe entering the Land. But God said no. You may not enter the Land, though He allowed Moshe to visualize the Land from atop a mountain. The dialogue between Moshe and God is featured at the beginning of our Parsha. When did this happen? Why was Moshe so insistent on entering the Land? Why did God deny his request? Taking an important place on the Jewish bookshelf is a magisterial 17th Century Kabbalistic work called Megaleh Amukos. This monumental book – which is considered one of the great Kabbalistic work – contains 252 different answers to these questions. In this podcast we share one of this magnificent approaches.

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This Parsha Podcast is dedicated in honor of my dear friends and stalwart supporters of TORCH Dov and Rikki Eisner on the occasion of the birth of a granddaughter, Eliana. On behalf of the entire Parsha Podcast family, we wish them a hearty Mazal Tov as well as to the parents Matthew and Naomi Sulzberger. May Eliana grow up to be someone who makes her parents and grandparents and the entire Jewish people – and of course the Almighty – proud!

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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!

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Parshas Va’eschanan (Rebroadcast)

This week’s parsha continues Moshe’s monologue to the nation in the weeks preceding his passing. He begins by recounting his repeated efforts in trying to convince God to rescind His decree that Moshe not enter the Land; Moshe then begins the retelling of the Torah; and we read many warnings and predictions about proper behavior and the consequences of abandoning Torah and mitzvos. This is a parsha replete with iconic verses and big themes!

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Devarim – Man of Words

At the end of Moshe’s life, he gathers the entire nation for his parting message to the nation. The Midrash makes a remarkable contrast between Moshe’s beginning and end of his tenure: When God initially commanded Moshe to save his brethren from enslavement in Egypt, Moshe protested by saying that he is not a man of words. That was 40 years before our Parsha. Our Parsha begins, “these are the words that Moshe said….” The man who was not a man of words has become one. What does it mean to be a man of words? What is the nature of Moshe’s transformation and what can it teach us about leadership and influence?

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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!

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Parshas Devarim (Rebroadcast)

5 weeks before his passing, Moses gives a three-parsha-long speech to the nation, which constitutes his last will and testament. He begins with a retrospective of the history of the nation over the past 40 years since the Exodus – subtly rebuking the nation, guiding them, admonishing them, ensuring that they don’t repeat their mistakes of yore.

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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!

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Mattos & Masei – Talent Incubator

Our parsha contains the laws regarding a person who murders someone accidentally. We are told that the accidental murderer must flee to the city of refuge and remain there until the passing of the High Priest. Although we have neither a High Priest nor a Jewish court of laws that adjudicates as per the laws of the Torah, in this special Canada-recorded edition of the Parsha Podcast, we offer a novel and homiletic explanation of the entire subject of the city of refuge. It turns out that we all can benefit from this kind of 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!

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Parshas Mattos & Masei (Rebroadcast)

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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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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Pinchas – Eternal Promotion

Over the course of the 40 years since the Exodus, the Nation was lead by Moshe and Aaron, the King and High Priest respectively. In our Parsha, successors are designated for both posts. Due to his valiant heroism of the end of last week’s portion, Pinchas is promoted to being a kohein. He would go on to become the High Priest and the patriarch of a slew of High Priests. A successor is designated for Moshe as well when God chooses Joshua, Moshe’s trusted aide, to replace him. Upon careful analysis we see how the paths that these two took to their respective nominations could not be more different. Joshua and Pinchas had radically different, even opposing, paths to securing their promotions. It turns out that we too must seek an eternal promotion in our lives and we can select the Joshua method or the Pinchas method. Or both.

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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!

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Parshas Pinchas (Rebroadcast)

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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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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Balak – Some Men Are From Mars

Our parsha contains an attempted genocide. Bilaam, the prophet of the idolaters, a man of prodigious ability an skill, dedicates himself with tenacity and persistence to curse and destroy the people. Although his three attempts at cursing the nation backfire when he is compelled by God to bless the nation instead, the parsha ends with the implementation of his advice to get the nation to sin and indeed a large contingency of the people fall prey to his plan. In this podcast, we propose a novel understanding of Bilaam’s character and demonstrate a way that things could have gone very differently.

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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!

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Parshas Balak (Rebroadcast)

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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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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Chukas – Inglorious Origins

The red cow is the Torah’s most mysterious mitzvah. We are told to take a completely red cow and slaughter it, and burn it’s body together with a concoction of other ingredients, the ashes of which become the potion to purify people who have come into contact with dead people. If that doesn’t make sense to you, I can hereby comfort you that you are not alone. Aside from Moshe, no human in history has ever fully grasped this mitzvah. Although we are precluded from fully understanding this mitzvah, the Midrash reveals to us the mechanism at play in this process. What is reveals it quite stunning and very broadly applicable to us.

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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!

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