Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe Podcast Collection

Messiah is something that we anticipate and yearn for and await, but it is also something that we must prepare for. The consequences of being unprepared for Messiah are grave. How can we prepare for Messiah? What, specifically, do the sources focus on when it comes to getting in shape for Messiah? In this podcast we learn about how to prepare for Messiah. – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –...

On the final day of Moshe’s life, he gathered the entire nation – men, women, children, and according to the Talmud, all souls of future Jews – to pass them through a final covenant with God. The parsha also contains the prophetic predictions of the Messianic times, and it ends with a simple, binary choice: Moshe tells the nation, “Behold I have placed before you today, the life and the good, and...

The Torah has a surprising view on joy and how to attain it. The prevailing attitude in our society is that a person's state of joy is contingent upon circumstance: In good days, people tend to feel a bit more joyous. On bad days, it's more difficult to feel joy. Joy, according to society, is inextricably connected to circumstance. The Torah understands otherwise. The Torah teaches us that there i...

Our parsha contains perhaps the most difficult Torah portion to read and digest: The Tochacha (Admonition). In it we are told the consequences of our deeds. If obey the Almighty and hearken to His commandments, He will reward us with bountiful blessings. Should we deviate from Him and repudiate His Torah, however, He promises to unleash all manner of suffering upon us. And it is brutal. Our Sages...

The month of Elul is upon us. Over the course of the next few weeks, Jewish communities worldwide will prepare for the high holidays of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur with special prayers and with a daily blast of the shofar. We are preparing. We are getting ready for the awesome days upcoming. But what about those who are not preparing? What about those who are undeserving? Is there a shortcut to El...

As the Book of Deuteronomy draws to its conclusion, the narrative makes a transition: Moshe finishes conveying the mitzvos to the nation, and sets up his final parting message to the people. First, he commands the nation to perform several elaborate ceremonies on the very first day that they cross the Jordan River; then he conveys a scathing, terrifying list of curses that will befall the people i...

Our parsha begins with the unusual law of the marriage of a Jewish warrior and an enemy captive woman. When a Jewish warrior spots a prisoner of war that he desires to marry, there is a process and a protocol for how he may marry her. The Talmud (also featured by Rashi) offers a very unusual classification of why the Torah permits this union. On its surface, this reason compounds the difficulties...

The Midrash in our parsha calculates that the Torah contains 613 mitzvos, 248 positive mitzvos, where the Torah commands us to do something proactive, and 365 negative mitzvos, where we are instructed to refrain from transgressing the Almighty's will. These figures are not coincidental. They are precisely targeted to enable us to accomplish our life's mission. In this ground-breaking and earth-sha...

Life is full of nuisances. For many - maybe all - life inevitably contains some pain, suffering, and affliction. How we approach these situations is a central element of our religion and theology. Our Sages revealed to us that accepting affliction is a means to achieve wisdom. It is one of the 48 ways to acquire Torah. In this Ethics Podcast we explore this weighty subject and propose an approach...

In the parsha that contains the most mitzvos of any of the 54 Torah sections (a staggering 74 mitzvos), we read about the wayward and rebellious son, the requirement to build a fence around your roof to prevent tragedy, two episodes that we are mandated to remember, and many, many more interesting and insightful mitzvos. – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – TORCH Podcasts Survey To particip...

The nation is on the doorstep of Canaan. In our Parsha, the people are instructed in how they must treat the Canaanite inhabitants of the land. It's not pleasant. The people are told that they must engage in total war against these nations. How do we understand the requirement to be so violent and aggressive towards the Canaanite nations? What about the Canaanites who opt to join the nation? What...

Justice is a virtue that we must vigorously pursue. Our Parsha begins by instructing us to establish a court system with judges and bailiffs throughout our gates and tribes. The judge is tasked with determining the merits of every case and the bailiff is in charge of implementation. This two-tiered model is not limited to the court system. In this special edition of the Parsha Podcast we propose t...

Our Nation has been yearning for Messiah for a very long time. And for good cause: Messiah is associated with wonderful things. Messiah is the state of the world when the mission that Abraham began gets actualized. Messiah is when the knowledge that our nation personified for millennia finally becomes ubiquitous. Messiah is a time of peace and prosperity. But in our eagerness from Messiah, our nat...

This week we learn the laws governing all kinds of leaders: The parsha begins by detailing the laws of judges, the jurisdiction of the Sanhedrin, the Supreme Court, and what happens to rebellious judges; we read about the unique laws related to kings; there are more laws pertaining to the Kohanim; and we find the means of vetting professed prophets and what happens to the six kinds of false prophe...

The Parsha ends with a delineation of the festivals. When discussing Passover, the verse notes that for 7 days we eat matzah because we left Egypt within great haste. The Exodus was so rapid and frantic, that the dough that we had been preparing was unable to rise and we did not have fluffy, puffy bread. Why is this trivial factoid so central to the Exodus and the festival that commemorates and re...

Moshe begins our parsha by presenting the Nation with a choice: See, I have placed before you today blessing and curse. And he continues to state that the blessing is the steadfast observance of the commandments of the Almighty, while the curse is the repudiation of said commandments. In this special edition of the Parsha Podcast, we explore an incredible comment of the Ohr Hachaim on Moshe's stat...

Our primary responsibility as humans and as Jews is to develop and deepen our faith in the Creator. Can we have faith in man? Can we have faith in a mortal? In the 24th way to achieve and acquire wisdom, we learn about the concept of having faith in our Sages. What does it mean to have faith in Sages? How does this contribute towards our acquisition of Torah? In this interesting Ethics Podcast, we...

The Torah is an instruction manual from God. The word Torah, in fact, means instruction. The Torah contains many details; in fact, there is no conceivable situation that the Torah does not provide guidance for. But what is the ultimate goal of Torah? What does the finished product supposed to look like? In a surprising set of verses, Moshe offers an answer. His formulation, though, raises question...

This week’s parsha marks a transition in the Book of Deuteronomy: it is no longer primarily about admonishment and rebuke and warnings, instead we read a bevy of mitzvos – some repetitions and some new ones that have hitherto not been mentioned. – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – TORCH Podcasts Survey To participate in the TORCH Podcasts Survey, please click here or visit TORCHsurvey.com ...

A ubiquitous feature in Jewish homes, the Mezuzah contains a scroll with two paragraphs from the Torah, one from this week's Parsha and one from last week's. This mitzvah bears a distinction that it shares with no other mitzvah. In this interesting and useful podcast, we explore the secrets represented by the Mezuzah, and learn how it can serve as a panacea - a pill of longevity. – – – – – – – – –...

The Torah contains a lot of details regarding what the Almighty expects of us. A verse in our parsha purports to get to the bottom line of what - in one sentence - does God actually want of us. But after reading the verse we emerge with more questions than answers. While ostensibly touting simplicity and ease, the requirements seem anything but that. In this important Parsha Podcast we plumb the d...

Steady fires were always present atop the Altar. At all times, even when sacrifices were not being processed in the Tabernacle and the Temple, a steady fire was maintained on the Altar. – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – DONATE: 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 . Th...

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 se...

As a result of Moshe's sin of striking the rock, he was barred from crossing over the Jordan River and entering the Land of Canaan. In Moshe's speech to the nation, he recounts how he petitioned God to have this decree rescinded. When studying Moshe's prayer to enter the Land, we discover several incredible insights about the nature of prayer, the efficacy of prayer, and what it takes to accomplis...

The Ninth Day of the month of Av is the saddest day of the Jewish calendar. On this day, the First Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians. On this same day the Second Temple was destroyed by the Romans. The Bar Kochba rebellion was stamped out with violent finality on this day. This is a day that is designated for tragedy and misfortune. What are the roots of this day? What can we do to help rect...