Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe Podcast Collection

A large section of our Parsha contains intricate descriptions of Jacob as a shepherd. Initially, he worked for Laban as a shepherd for 7 years for the rights to marry Laban's younger daughter Rachel. When the 7 years concluded, Laban swindled him, giving Leah instead, only ceding Rachel after Jacob agreed to work as a shepherd for an additional 7 years. After 14 years, Jacob's tenure as a shepherd...

Students of the Almighty's holy Torah are familiar with the term midrash. It refers to a series of books that serve as commentaries on the Torah and on other holy writings. But where does the Midrash come from? What authority does it have? What about the comments in the Midrash that seem outlandish and totally unreasonable. Are we supposed to understand them as being true? Are we supposed to under...

Parshas Vayeitzei follows Jacob as he is fleeing from his murderous brother Esau and travels to Charan to the house of Laban, his wily and deceptive uncle, and marries multiple wives and fathers 12 children. – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – DONATE to TORCH: Please consider supporting the podcasts by making a donation to help fund our Jewish outreach and educational efforts at https://ww...

We are told to respect the will of our parents. Certainly, if your parent is righteous, it is severely inappropriate to violate their will. All the more so if your parent is one of the greatest men who have ever lived. But Jacob violates the will of Isaac. Isaac wants to give a prophetic blessing to Esau, and Jacob and Rebecca conspire to usurp the blessing. Jacob impersonates his older brother an...

Our Parsha features two very different twins. After decades of infertility, Isaac and Rebecca are blessed with twins,  identical twins the Sages emphasize, who could not be more different: Jacob dwelled in the tents of Torah, eventually becoming the third and final Patriarch of our nation, and Esav was a man of the field, a trapper, a hunter, a blood shedder who stands in the way of Jacob, impedin...

Gratitude is one of the most, if not the most, important values in our religion. In fact, our sources tell us that the reason why God created His creation was to enable us to express our gratitude. But what if what we receive is a mixed bag of good and bad? Must we also express gratitude in that case? In this special Thanksgiving edition of the podcast, we explore the important subject of gratitud...

In Parshas Toldos we meet twin boys that are polar opposites: Esau, beloved by his father Isaac, is a man of the fields; while Jacob is loved by his mother Rebecca and prefers to dwell in the tents of scholarship. These two children will spawn nations and ideals that diverged from each other even before they were born. – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – DONATE to TORCH: Please consider su...

Sarah was Abraham's life partner. She was his superior as a prophetess. She accompanied him in all his journeys. In the aftermath of the Binding of Isaac, she died. How did the Binding contribute to her demise? What exactly was Saran's role in orchestrating her sudden death? In this Parsha Podcast we explore the very interesting phenomenon of "acts of Satan" that threaten to destabilize people aft...

Today's podcast is a wild card. This past Shabbos  I was invited to join a panel of rabbis to answer a series of interesting questions submitted by high school students from the all-girls high school in Houston. In this special episode I share some of the fascinating questions and some of what I said - and some of what I I was unable to say - at that panel. – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –...

Some of the highlights of this week’s parsha: Immediately after the Binding of Isaac, Sarah passed away at the age of 127, and soon afterward Abraham had to procure a burial spot for her. In addition, Abraham sent his trusted confidante, Eliezer, to his hometown to find a spouse for Isaac. – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – DONATE to TORCH: Please consider supporting the podcasts by makin...

Isaac is the most mysterious of the forefathers. His storyline does not have the same rich and dramatic narrative as Abraham and Jacob. What lessons we are supposed to learn from Isaac is an equally confounding mystery. In this very special podcast, we explore a fascinating motif that recurs throughout the Parsha: laughter, and suggest that there are actually five different types of laughter. We h...

How do we respond when we are faced with challenges? What are we supposed to think when the path before us seems unsteady and laden with dangers? Our Parsha contains some of the most memorable and iconic stories of the whole Torah. It begins with the single greatest documented episode of hospitality, and it ends with the greatest test ever foisted upon man, the Binding of Isaac. In this very speci...

Abraham's storyline in the Torah is curiously: There are some parts of his life that are told in detail, while other seemingly important events are omitted entirely. What we discover is that the storyline of Abraham serves as a prototype for how to actualize our potential. In this very special podcast, we dissect Abraham's story and discover a comprehensive system for how to unlock our vast potent...

This week’s parsha features several iconic episodes: Abraham was visited by God as he was recuperating from his circumcision, and concurrently engaged in superlative kindness with three angels masquerading as pagan travelers; Abraham was informed that the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were about to be destroyed and was unsuccessful in interceding on their behalf; and we also read the two Torah sect...

Abraham seems to always be journeying. In last week's Parsha he traveled from his birthplace of Ur to Charan. This week the Parsha begins with Abraham's journey to Canaan. He traveled there with his family, he traversed the land in every direction; and when famine strikes, he went down to Egypt and returns. Abraham's journey is more than being about sightseeing. This is the saga of the transformat...

Abraham was the most consequential human in all of history. He began the process of fixing the world and humanity. Amid a cesspool of idolatry, Abraham emerged as a beacon of faith. When the entire world had forgotten about its Creator, Abraham restored faith in God to the world. Our Parsha follows Abraham in his journey. How did the son of an idol wholesaler from the city of Ur become the father...

It's election season in America. Your vote matters. Even if you don't live in the swing state, it is recommended that you vote and exercise your civic right and duty. There is another area where you need to vote. The other area is much more consequential. The effects of how you vote in that area will reverberate the world over. – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – DONATE to TORCH: Please co...

In this week’s parsha, Abraham is instructed to move to Israel, is given divine promises that he will be the father of many nations; his children will be as numerous as the dust of the earth and the stars of the heaven, a son Ishmael is born, and he is commanded to circumcise his foreskin and those of all males in his household. – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – DONATE to TORCH: Please c...

After spending a year in the ark, Noah and his family exited it to find an empty and desolate world. The sinners who dominated the world before the flood were gone as were basically everything else. The animals, not including token representatives of each species, were gone. The trees, the grass, the plants - everything was gone. Noah and his family began to rebuild the world a new world. In this...

The Flood was a disaster for all the Earth's inhabitants, humans and animals alike. With the exception of Noah and his family and the animals safely housed in the Ark, all the land-based animals died in the Flood. But not the fish. The fish were completely unaffected by the Flood. The sources maintain that the animals had become corrupted in the run-up to the flood and thus deserved to be destroye...

Serious people face a serious problem: once you understand that the Almighty created you for a purpose, and that purpose is completely unique to you - there is no one else who can fulfill whatever it is that you must fulfill-  you recognize the imperative to discover your personal mission. But how do you find your own path in life? How do you discover your purpose, the task, the mission, the job t...

In this week’s parsha: Noah and his family build an Ark as a refuge from an extinction-level Flood brought by God to destroy the world’s sinners. – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – 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! – – – – – – – – – – –...

With gratitude to the Almighty for all the goodness that He has bestowed upon us, we hereby begin again with the book of Genesis with year nine of the Parsha podcast. Who would have believed that we would have been able to study the weekly Parsha together for so long?! In this episode, we study the fascinating story lines and insights of the generations from Adam to Noah. The end of our Parsha del...

Welcome to Year Nine (!) of The Parsha Podcast. Each week will feature, with the help of the Almighty, three episodes, two ones from previous years and a new one: On Sunday, the Parsha Rebroadcast that covers the whole Parsha in about an hour will be released. On Tuesday, we will release the episode from 2 years ago, from the Seventh fifth cycle of the Parsha podcast, in the Jewish year 5783. On T...

With praise and appreciation to the Almighty, we begin year 9 of the Parsha Podcast (5785). This year, we will re-upload the Parsha Rebroadcast episode which covers the entire Parsha each Sunday, re-release the 7th cycle's episode (5783) for each respective Parsha each Tuesday, and we will, please God, record and release a new weekly episode each Thursday. Thank you for downloading and please shar...