Category Archives: Podcasts

Shemini – Spiritual Cholesterol

Kosher food is good for you. Non-kosher food is bad. That much we learned in our parsha. But why? Why is kosher food good? In this exquisite podcast, we Go deep and deeper in trying to understand. We discover how non kosher food serves as a form of spiritual cholesterol that creates blockages imperiling our spiritual life.

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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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The Parsha Podcast

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TORAH 101

On Elevator Pitches for God with Bruce Licht and Ron Kardos

Many (most?) people believe in God. Believers accept the reality that the world, the universe, finite existence is the handiwork of an infinite God. Why do people believe? What evidence do believers have? These are some of the questions that my dear friends, Ron Kardos and Bruce Licht, sought to have answered. They conceived of an incredibly powerful and novel concept: what if people were given the opportunity to hear an elevator pitch for God? What if we asked a large collection of talented, accomplished, and famous people to share their elevator pitch for God? What resulted was a masterpiece of a book: Elevator Pitches for God. In this podcast, Ron and Bruce share their story.

Buy the Book

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Visit their website ep4g.com to see what else Ron and Bruce are doing

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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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Shemini – Aaron’s Credentials (5782)

In our Parsha Aaron is promoted to become the high priest. Previously, Moshe served as high priest in an interim role, henceforth Aaron and his descendants will serve as the nation’s emissaries before God. Why was Aaron chosen? What were his qualifications? What were the events in his life that rendered him worthy of such a lofty role? In this very special episode, we examine our Sages’ very interesting teachings on Aaron’s qualifications. We learn how Aaron was initially diffident – he was bashful and hesitant to assume the role. But Moshe nudged him forward and showed him how he was particularly suited to be the high priest. What we discover is a counterintuitive lesson about who is best qualified to lead the masses.

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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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Loving Charities (6.6.32)

Charity is a big element of religious life. Our Sages tell us that the mitzvah of charity equals all the mitzvos of the Torah combined. But monetary charity is only one type of charity. There are many different types of charity, in the love of charities is a means to acquire higher levels of wisdom. How? In this Ethics podcast you will learn.

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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 Shemini (Rebroadcast)

After months of preparation and building, and a week of inauguration, the nation was anticipating the climax of the Tabernacle experience: When God finally rested His Presence upon the people’s handiwork. On the eighth day the Tabernacle was erected for good, and a Heavenly fire consumed the various sacrifices offered upon the Altar and the nation experienced the euphoria and intense trepidation of having God in their midst. But a second divine fire marred the joy when Aaron’s two sons were consumed for bringing a foreign and improper offering.

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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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Tzav – Runaway Brain

The subject matter of Parshas Tzav is – like Parshas Vayikra – sacrifices. Before today you may have thought that sacrifices are a boring snooze fest. In this Parsha Podcast your perception of Parshas Tzav and sacrifices will be permanently transformed. In the podcast we share three deep and powerful insights: How to sheath the brain; the three unexpected times for transcendental growth; and how marriage qualifies as liberation from incarceration.

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This Parsha Podcast is dedicated in honor of a newly engaged couple: My sister in law Tova Florans and Manny Thaler. May you build a beautiful Jewish home together.

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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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This Jewish Life

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TORAH 101

Tzav – Ready, Steady, Fire! (5782)

A lot of things are needed for the Temple and the Tabernacle to function properly. There are all kinds of prerequisites, protocols, procedures, and rituals that must be followed. One of the most surprising ones is the requirement to always have a fire atop the altar. Although the fire is needed for the processing of sacrifices, there is a requirement to continuously have a fire ready even when there are no sacrifices to process. In this special edition of the Parsha Podcast, we explore the question of why? Why is it necessary to always have a fire atop the altar, even when there are no sacrifices to elevate.

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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 Tzav (Rebroadcast)

In continuation of the themes of last week, Parshas Tzav details the procedures of processing many of the sacrifices enumerated in Parshas Vayikra, teaches us about new sacrifices, and we read about the seven days of inauguration of the Tabernacle.

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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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Forbidden Fats (#147) + Annual Fundraising Drive

TORCH Fundraiser — support the Mitzvah Podcast

Our organization, TORCH, does only one fundraiser a year, and that is happening right now at giveTORCH.org. This is a matching campaign and every donation will be DOUBLED.

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Forbidden fats – even Kosher animals can have parts that are not kosher. The forbidden fats – cheilev – may not be eaten. And the consequences are stiff.

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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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The Purim Story (Rebroadcast)

TORCH Annual Fundraiser 

Our organization, TORCH, does only one fundraiser a year, and that is happening right now at giveTORCH.org. This is a matching campaign and every donation will be DOUBLED.

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Purim is a holiday celebrated by Jews worldwide on the 14th day of the month of Adar, and in Jerusalem and walled cities on the fifteenth day of Adar. It commemorates the story of the salvation of the Jewish nation from the genocidal plans of Haman and Achashveirosh in Persia. How did the Jews end up living under the Persians in the middle of the Middle East? How did the nation that entered and conquered Israel/Judea under Joshua end up in Persia? In this podcast we will tell the backstory of the Purim story and the actual Purim miracle as told in the Book of Esther and the related sources in classical Jewish Literature, embellished by discoveries in archaeology. It begins with King Achashverosh, the Persian king who ruled from Hodu until Cush (India until Ethiopia), making a massive feast for all the ministers and noblemen of Persia and Media that lasted for 180 days. Soon afterwards Achashverosh partners with the wicked Haman to annihilate the entire Jewish nation. Spoiler alert: Things don’t go as Haman 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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TORAH 101

Vayikra – Cainitis and Abelitis

TORCH Fundraiser

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This Parsha Podcast is dedicated in loving memory and leilui nishmas Amy Bas Shlomo Zalman. May her soul be elevated in Heaven

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Sacrifices. Who is excited?? We embark on the Book of Leviticus with a bang. We learn three marvelous lessons from our Parsha: The subtle summons of God; how to remedy a bad case of Cainitis and Abelitis; and the Secret of the Shelamim.

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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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TORAH 101

#86: The Nature of the Ultimate Resurrection

In the previous episode, we established that resurrection for the purposes of eternal life in Olam Haba is a process of restoring humanity to the sort of life that matches that of Adam and Eve before their sin. In this podcast episode, we further explore the nature of this resurrection: We identify the primary distinction between Adam and Eve before and after their sin, and lay out what it takes to be included in the rarified fraternity of those who are re-animated back to life – in the format of Adam and Eve before their sin – for eternal living and basking in the pleasure of the divine.

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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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SUBSCRIBE to Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe’s Podcasts

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This Jewish Life

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TORAH 101