Category Archives: Parsha

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Vayishlach – Unrequited Love

Podcast (parsha): Download (Duration: 55:19 — 25.3MB)

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This a unique edition of The Parsha Podcast that you dont want to miss. Instead of the usual one big idea that we typically cover in a Parsha podcast, in this version there are FIVE groundbreaking insights that can change your life. We learn about a remarkable staff and its powers, about the pliability of sunshine hours, about the kabbalistic result of Dina’s encounter with Shechem, about the Torah’s view on prayer, and about the mysterious origin of Amaleik. This episode is a dandy.

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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!

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Vayeitzei – Laban’s Potion

Podcast (parsha): Download (Duration: 42:01 — 19.2MB)

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As the father of all four of Jacob’s wives, Laban is in effect the father in law of the Jewish people. If we examine Laban’s story, he seems to have both qualities and shortcomings. He is constantly invoking God, he seems to be gracious and hospitable. But he also had a dark side. He is greedy and rapacious and deceptive, he is not exactly trustworthy. If we had to make an evaluation of Laban, he would get a mixed results. But the Torah’s verdict is much more stark: Laban is labeled as a super villain, worse than Pharaoh. In this podcast we speculate as to why Laban is so deadly.

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This Parsha Podcast is sponsored by my dear friend and loyal podcast listener, Michael Rosen in honor of his marriage this week to Daniella. On behalf of the entire Parsha Podcast family, I would like to extend my warmest blessings to the young couple. May they share a life of happiness and joy and harmony and peace, and may they build an amazing Jewish home together!

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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!

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Toldos – Esau’s Fatal Flaw

Podcast (parsha): Download (Duration: 38:18 — 17.5MB)

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Jacob’s twin brother Esav is one of the worst villains in Jewish history. He seems to be an unending litany of bad character. Our parsha ends with Esav dead set on committing fratricide by actually murdering his own brother. Esav is just one bad apple. But is it possible that things could have ended up differently for him? Is it possible that Esav could have become a great hero of Jewish history? In this very special edition of the Parsha Podcast we suggest a counterfactual way that Esav could have become someone very great, and we isolate the reason why he failed.

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

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Chayei Sarah – Portal to Paradise

Podcast (parsha): Download (Duration: 39:58 — 18.3MB)

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The Torah dedicates an unusually large amount of verses in the beginning of this week’s parsha to describe a real estate transaction between Abraham and a gentleman named Ephron. Sarah has passed and Abraham seeks to buy Ephron’s cave to inter her in. Initially, Ephron acts with supposed generosity and offers it to Abraham for free. But Abraham insists on paying for it, and ultimately pays an exorbitant fee for the cave. Why does the Torah spend so much time on this transaction? In this special episode we probe the meaning and mystery of the Cave of the Patriarchs.

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

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Vayeira – Abraham’s Three Protégés

Podcast (parsha): Download (Duration: 45:52 — 21.0MB)

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Abraham was the most influential person in human history. He changed the tides of history, he popularized Monotheism in the world, he is the father of many nations, and fittingly his story is told at considerable length in the Torah. In this very special edition of the Parsha Podcast we study his relationship and interactions with his three closest students: Lot, Eliezer, and Isaac. When we study Abraham’s impact on these three, we discover three different type of disciples and three different type of tutelage.

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This Parsha Podcast is dedicated in honor of David Borowsky on the occasion of his recent engagement to Chana Frand

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!

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Lech Lecha – Go West, Young Man

Podcast (parsha): Download (Duration: 50:44 — 23.2MB)

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Abraham is the Torah’s first protagonist. The entirety of this parsha and the subsequent one are following the forefather of our nation. Why does the Torah spend so much time telling the story of this ancient figure? In this life-changing episode, we study Abraham’s odyssey to find the precise guidelines to fulfill our latent potential. This podcast episode is designed to change your life. I hope it succeeds.

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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!

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Noach – Spiritual Adaptation

Podcast (parsha): Download (Duration: 45:23 — 20.8MB)

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Noah is arguably the most enigmatic figure in the Torah. The Torah is lavish in his praise: He was a prophet who found favor in Hashem’s eyes and selected to survive the Flood and repopulate the world afterwards. Noach is also the only person that the Torah characterized as a tzadik. Yet Rashi and the the sources are constantly questioning his righteousness: He is compared negatively to Abraham and to Moses, according to one opinion, his greatness was only relative to his generation; had he been in Abraham’s generation he would not have amounted to anything. Who is Noah? What are the lessons that we can learn from him? In this podcast we share a new approach to understand this interesting figure.

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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!

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Bereishis – You are Adam (Includes New Segment: A&Q)

Podcast (parsha): Download (Duration: 38:53 — 17.8MB)

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Welcome to YEAR FIVE of The Parsha Podcast. It is such a momentous day! It is a total pleasure to begin studying the weekly parsha with the best audience in the podcast universe. In this episode, we debuted a new segment called, “Answers and Questions”, “A&Q”. Thank you for downloading and please share with a friend.

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!

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Vezos HaBeracha – Betrothed to Torah

Podcast (parsha): Download (Duration: 32:29 — 14.9MB)

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What is the most important verse that we need to convey to our children? Perhaps that is a difficult question for us to speculate upon. Thankfully, the Talmud gives a definitive answer: In an interesting citation in Sukkah 42a, we are told that the fourth verse of our Parsha, together with the first verse of the Shema, are the two verses that we must teach a child immediately when they begin to babble and start learning to speak. Elsewhere, the Talmud equates this verse with the entire Torah. Why is this verse so important? Why is it an encapsulation of all of Torah?

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!

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Ha’azinu – Shattering The 6 Biggest Myths about Yom Kippur

Podcast (parsha): Download (Duration: 43:47 — 20.0MB)

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The Shabbos before Yom Kippur, when we read the penultimate parsha, Parshas Ha’azinu, is known as “Shabbos Shuva”, the Shabbos of Repentance. On this day, we are urged to get into the spirit of repentance ahead of Yom Kippur, the day of repentance. But Yom Kippur – and repentance in general – seem challenging to many of us. In this special edition of the Parsha Podcast we outline the 6 biggest obstacles inhibiting people from fully immersing themselves in Yom Kippur and repentance, and we demonstrate how these 6 reasons are actually myths. What emerges from this unique episode is a fresh approach to the Days of Awe, Yom Kippur, and the critical mitzvah of repentance.

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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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Rosh Hashana Reading (2nd day – Genesis Chapter 22: The Binding of Isaac)

Podcast: Download (Duration: 54:36 — 25.0MB)

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Podcast (parsha): Download (Duration: 54:36 — 25.0MB)

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On the second day of Rosh Hashana, we read the Torah section of Genesis chapter 22 that tells the very famous and quite troubling episode of the Binding of Isaac. Abraham – the same Abraham who railed against the ways of child sacrifice of the pagans – is instructed by God to take Isaac – the same Isaac who was declared as the one who will be Abraham’s true progeny – and offer him as a sacrifice on Mount Moriah. In this podcast we attempt to understand the many connections that this reading has with the themes and ideas of Rosh Hashana.

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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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