KMTT - the Torah Podcast

Noach | Why Chamas Doomed the World; What Noach Missed, by Rav Ezra Bick with guest Rav Jacob Bernstein Robbery did not just add to the sins of the Flood generation. It destroyed society, and a world without society cannot stand. Rav Ezra Bick applies this to Jewish unity in Israel today. Rabbi Jacob Bernstein adds that Noach's private righteousness was not enough: Avraham and Moshe became great b...

Mind of a Monotheist | 2 | Noach: Shem, Ham and Yefet: Torah's Map of Peoplehood, by Rabbi David Debow Is the Torah biased? Why is Noach's son Yefet named for beauty? A bold read on race in the Torah. Monotheism holds that only God is a perfect unity, so a monotheist resists reducing people to a single essence. Reading Genesis 10, Rabbi David Debow shows how the Torah defines every nation by land,...

Is Halakha the Enemy of Loving God? A new series with Rav Eli Weber in conversation with Rav Ezra Bick Does God care which way your lulav faces? Rav Bick on why commitment is the truest love. Rav Bick argues that halakha's detailed obligations don't compete with love of God; they are its truest form. Loving God means serving Him, and real service includes commandments we don't understand. Drawing...

Sefat Emet | Who Was the Sefat Emet? Life, Legacy, Learning, by Rav Eli Weber Intro to the Series. He refused to become Rebbe as a teen. Meet the Sefat Emet, whose words "endure forever." Rav Eli Weber introduces the Sefat Emet, the Gerrer Rebbe raised by his grandfather, the Chiddushei HaRim, and shaped by Kotzk's passion for honesty. His Torah on Chumash is a foundational Chassidic work. It is n...

New Series! Sefat Emet | Bereishit | What was the World Missing? Rashi teaches that the world lacked one thing after six days: rest. The Sefat Emet explains that this menucha is not mere inactivity. It is the unifying force that lets us step back and see how every part of creation, even what seems to oppose holiness, serves God's plan. Shabbat completes the world by revealing its hidden purpose.

Bereishit | The Sin of the Tree of Knowledge, by Rav David Debow In this first episode of the 'Mind of a Monotheist' series, we explore Adam and Eve's first sin and how that sin is repeated by every one of us, bringing unhappiness to our lives. I examine the sin and show how it can be avoided in our personal lives. I offer a novel close reading of this biblical passage that shows how the sin is ab...

"The Take-Home Meaning of Shemini Atzeret" by Rav Assaf Bednarsh Leil Hoshana Rabba 5787, Heichal Shlomo

Exploring Charedi Culture with Alumni Coordinator Rav Yonatan Shai Freedman in conversation with Jonathan Rosenblum. Jonathan Rosenblum is the director, spokesperson, and founder of Jewish Media Resources, an organization which attempts to clarify journalists' understanding of Charedi Jewish society. Leil Hoshana Rabba 5787 at Heichal Shlomo, Jerusalem

VeZot HaBerakha | Birkat Moshe: Sequence, Meaning and Purpose, by Rav Yitzchak Etshalom This shiur addresses the order of the tribes as they receive Moshe's Berakha; what are we to make of this odd sequence? A closer look at the purpose of these Berakhot will help illuminate the rationale behind the sequence and the intent of the Berakhot as related to the upcoming conquest of the Land. Source she...

Aveilut and Simcha: How Rav Soloveitchik Read Yom Kippur's Hidden Joy, by Rav Yosef Blau Kiyum simcha beYom HaKippurim. No festive meal, no Hallel — so why does Yom Kippur still override mourning like a Yom Tov? Rav Soloveitchik understood aveilut not as a set of external practices but as an inner state — the felt sense of disconnection from Hashem — and understood Yom Tov's simcha similarly, as f...

Shabbat Shuva | Teshuva Mei'Yir'a: The Runaway Son, by Rav Eli Weber Why would Chazal choose the "cynical," self-interested model of teshuva for the Shabbat before Yom Kippur?  Hoshea 14:2-10, Mikha 7: 18-20, Yoel 2: 15-27 The Haftara of Shabbat Shuva models a modest, even self-interested form of teshuva — returning to God not out of love but out of disappointment that other paths failed — and ins...

Rosh Hashana 5787 | Chana's Silent Prayer, by Rav Eli Weber Chana's silent tears at Shiloh became the model for Jewish prayer. Discover the story. Shmuel Alef 1:1 - 2:10 The Haftara of Chana, read on the first day of Rosh Hashana, tells of a barren woman's anguished, silent prayer at Shilo and Hashem's response through the birth of Shmuel HaNavi. Rav Eli Weber highlights Chana's prayer as the mode...

Rosh Hashana | How Did We Get To 30 Blasts? by Rav Yitzchak Etshalom Why do we blow 30 shofar blasts from one vague word in the Torah? The answer involves doubt, unity, and Caesarea. This shiur explores the halakhic development of the shofar blowing on Rosh Hashana, tracing the transition from the Torah's vague command of 'Yom Terua' to the established practice of 30 sounds. Rabbi Etshalom analyze...

When Rosh Hashana Falls on Shabbat, by Eli Weber A topic which is obviously specific to this year, but also a topic with huge implications to the interplay between Deoraita and Derabbanan.

The Parasha Pod | 51 | Rosh Hashana, by Rav Menachem Leibtag and Rav Mordechai Rosenberg Rosh Hashana and Listening to the Shofar When we Can't Hear It 00:00 - What is Rosh Hashana without the shofar? 08:50 - How is Rosh Hashana like Har Sinai? 12:50 - The festivals essence and details: Emor and Pinchas 16:55 - How to fulfil Rosh Hashana without the shofar? 20:15 - Why is Rosh Hashana on the first...

Nitzavim - Vayelekh | "Sos Asis" - I Greatly Rejoice in God by Rav Eli Weber The last and sweetest of the seven haftarot of consolation — can love and awe of God actually be the same feeling? Yeshayahu 61:10 - 63:9 Exploring the haftara "Sos Asis," the final and most comforting of the seven haftarot of consolation, the shiur centers on the marriage metaphor for our relationship with God — a brideg...

 Ki Tavo | The Historical and Metaphysical Future, by Rav Eli Weber Why is the haftara for Ki Tavo so uniquely comforting? A look at divine light, historic redemption, and surprising echoes. Yeshayahu 60: 1-22 This shiur examines the haftara for Ki Tavo, Yeshayahu's "Kumi Ori" — the sixth of the seven Haftarot of Consolation. It highlights three themes: a metaphysical shift in which Hashem's own l...

Ki Tavo | The Power of Mikra Bikkurim and Vidui Ma'asrot, by Rav Yitzchak Etshalom The final two Mitzvot in Moshe's presentation of the Law (נאום המצוות) are the "Bikkurim Declaration" and the "Ma'asrot Confession". Immediately after this, the multi-tiered covenant in Moav begins. In earlier shiurim, I have proposed that the נאום המצוות is Moshe's explication, in order, of the עשרת הדברות - and th...

Ki Tetze | Roni Akara: Hope That Transforms Present Pain, by Rav Eli Weber Yeshayahu 54: 1-10 The haftara "Roni Akara" consoles Israel not about the pain of the present but about despair over the future. The barren woman symbolizes suffering that seems permanent — and God's promise of children transforms it into bearable hope, an idea echoed in Viktor Frankl's Holocaust observations. To guarantee...

The Special Celebration of טו באב - the Fifteenth of Av, by Rav Yitzchak Etshalom The happiest days of the year, Rabban Shim'on b. Gamliel tells us, were the 15th of Av and Yom haKippurim. On these days, he reports, young women would go into the vineyards and dance and the young men would choose them as wives. The Gemara expresses an understandable confusion about the special nature of the 15th of...

Vaetchanan | Nachamu Nachamu Ami, by Rav Eli Weber Yeshayahu 40: 1-26 Is repentance required for redemption?

Devarim | "The vision of Yeshayahu son of Amotz", by Rav Eli Weber Yeshayahu 1:1-27 Is ritualistic worship enough?

Matot - Masei | "For My people have committed two evils", by Rav Eli Weber Yirmiyahu 2: 4-28, 3:4 Idolatry as Betrayal. Why couldn't even Yoshiyahu's great teshuva revolution save Yerushalayim? Yirmiyahu reveals the sin God takes personally — and the lesson for the Three Weeks. 

Yirmiyah, the Joyous Sounds of Weddings, and the Return to the Land, by Rav Yitzchak Etshalom Why are the themes of marriage and the return to Yerushalayim intertwined in Yirmiyah's prophecies and in the Birkat Chatanim? We are all famliar with the phrase עוד ישמע בערי יהודה ובחוצות ירושלים...from songs, from the final ברכה under the חופה and from countless homilies. Yet, if we look at the origina...

Matot | Moabite Daughters, a Midianite Princess and Pinchas, by Rav Yitzchak Etshalom Balak-Pinchas-Matot. Why is the "war of vengeance" carried out against Midian, if the instigators and participants in the BaalPeor episode were Moabites?  The story of Pinchas's zealotry is famous, yet his action along with the subsequent Divine command to launch a war of נקמה against Midian is surprising, consid...