Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe Podcast Collection

What connection do we have with Genesis? In our parsha, God creates the world in six days and ceases to create of day seven, on Shabbos. What exactly does this have to do with us is a great mystery. In this inaugural edition of the sixth cycle of the Parsha Podcast , we share two fascinating, interconnected ideas that will radically reshape our understanding of Torah and Mitzvos and put into persp...

With praise and appreciation to the Almighty, we begin another year of Torah study and a new cycle of the Parsha Podcast. This year, we will reupload the previous year’s podcast which covered the entire Parsha in each episode each week, and we will, please God, record a second weekly episode that will delve deeply into one of the themes or comments of the parsha. Thank you for downloading and plea...

In the Torah’s final Parsha, and indeed, in its final words, we say goodbye to the greatest human to have ever lived. With the passing of Moshe, the Torah ends, and on Simchas Torah- the day that we finish the yearly Torah cycle – we roll the scroll back to the very beginning and begin Genesis anew. In this very special edition of The Parsha Podcast, we explore the end of the Torah and its beginni...

The Festival of Sukkot ends with a three-day constellation of significant days: The seventh day is Hoshana Rabbah, the eighth is Shemini Atzeres, and the ninth is Simchas Torah. These days have unique customs not found in any other day in the Jewish calendar. In this sweeping podcast episode, we explore these days, plumb their mysterious and Kabbalistic meaning, and demonstrate how they are a fitt...

We are amid the incredible Festival of Sukkos. Each day (except Shabbos) we shake the Lulav and Esrog, we celebrate with our family, and we dwell in our temporary residence, the Sukkah. But what happens when the weather does not comply? What do we do when it gets swelteringly hot? In this podcast, we demonstrate that an unpleasant Sukkah is something that ought to be not only tolerable, but highly...

Over the course of the Festival of Sukkos (sometimes spelled “Sukkot”, sometimes “Succos”, rivaled only by the nightmare of trying to find the definitive spelling of Chanukah – Hannukah, Hanukkah), we must dwell in a temporary structure, a Sukkah. Why? “In order that your generations know that [God] made Sukkahs for us during the Exodus.” After we were redeemed from the enslavement of Egypt, the A...

The final parsha of the Torah details the blessings that Moshe conveyed to the tribes of Israel immediately prior to his passing, and the Torah ends with the description of the death, burial, and eulogy of Moshe. – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – Sponsorship:  Please consider sponsoring a podcast by making a donation to help fund our Jewish outreach and educational efforts at  https://ww...

The Song of Ha’azinu is a richly textured tapestry with layered meaning and subtleties. Our Sages tell us that t incorporates all of Jewish History. In its 613 words, it incorporates all of Torah as well. And it is arguably the most difficult Torah portion to decipher and unpack. In this special penultimate podcast of the fifth cycle of the Parsha Podcast, we examine a striking verse that compares...

Yom Kippur is the end of the annual judgment. On Yom Kippur, the verdict written on Rosh Hashana gets sealed. Until that deadline, however, we can effectuate our judgment. The verdict can be rewritten and amended; the bad decrees can be annulled. But it won’t happen automatically. We need to expend effort to ensure that we earn a positive outcome on Yom Kippur. In this special pre-Yom Kippur podca...

On Yom Kippur afternoon, we read the 48-verse Book of Jonah, which tells of a renegade prophet, Jonah, who defies the directive of God and refuses to castigate the people of Nineveh and instead escapes from God to Tarshish – with mixed results. A simple reading of the story reveals a tale of repentance, both of the protagonist, Jonah, and of the people of Nineveh. But our Sages let us in on a secr...

Yom Kippur is a day of atonement and expiation. On this auspicious day, the Almighty forgives us for all our transgressions and we become purified before God. But the purification of Yom Kippur is limited to sins between man and God. For interpersonal transgressions, there is no atonement unless the aggressor appeases and secures forgiveness from the aggrieved. In this sweeping episode we discuss...

Still in the final day of Moshe’s life, he conveys to the nation a 43-verse Song predicting the contours of Jewish history, both past, present, and future. The patterns are familiar to the readers of Deuteronomy and even casual observers and students of Jewish history: The nation is recipients of tremendous divine goodness, yet they become corpulent and rebel against God. Consequently, God allows...

Moshe has been the leader of the Jewish people since before the Exodus. Over the course of these forty years, Moshe has led the people through high times and low ones; through a split sea and the Sinai Revelation and countless rebellions. In our Parsha, Moshe hands off the reins of power to Joshua. The story of the unwinding of Moshe’s reign is one of dedication to a mission rarely seen in the ann...

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 o...

Rosh Hashana kickstarts the Ten Days of Repentance which culminates in Yom Kippur. This is the time to repent. But repentance is a daunting and terrifying concept. All change is frightening. In this very special edition of the podcast, we shed a new light on repentance. We discover that repentance is a great gift that the Almighty gave us. It is supernatural and wondrous in many ways. Given that o...

The Torah readings for the two days of Rosh Hashana were not arbitrarily chosen. There are very good reasons why on the first day of Rosh Hashana we read Genesis chapter 21, which tells of the conception and birth of Isaac, and the banishment of Ishmael, his brush with death, and his salvation. In this podcast we attempt to understand the many connections that this reading has with the themes and...

In addition to the many other themes and motifs of the day, Rosh Hashana is called the Day of Judgment. The Mishnah tells us that on Rosh Hashana every human has an individual audience with the Almighty in the same way that a shepherd counts each sheep individually. The judgment is comprehensive: all of a person’s income for the year is determined on this day. But the most important decree of Rosh...

As is true by Shabbos and all Festivals, on the two days of Rosh Hashana we read sections from the Torah and a supplemental reading from Tanach , the Haftorah. At first blush, the four readings of Rosh Hashana have no direct connection to the Festival. One day one, the Torah portion that we read is Genesis chapter 21 which relates the story of the birth of Isaac and the banishment and subsequent s...

With the entire nation gathered on his final day of life, Moshe warns the people against being seduced by idolatry. The nation, Moshe reveals, is particularly vulnerable to idolatry because of the people whose land through which we have traversed. We saw the Egyptian fascination with idolatry. We saw the various other nations obsession with paganism. Consequently, we are susceptible to mimicking t...

Judgment is the ultimate partnership between us and God. Litigants who come to a Jewish court are coming to hear the will of the Almighty on the case. Consequently, the judges have to be very meticulous in being impartial and neutral in judgment. – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – Sponsorship:  Please consider sponsoring a podcast by making a donation to help fund our Jewish outreach and...

The two days of Rosh Hashana are two of the most important days in the year. These festival days are celebratory and joyous, but are also dedicated to prayer, to introspection, and repentance. Rosh Hashana is a time when we try to strike a delicate balance of festivities and trepidation due to the Day of Judgement. In this unique podcast we examine the myriad customs, ceremonies, rituals, and prac...

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...

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...

A court is tasked with verifying the validity of the claims of the witnesses and rendering a ruling. What kinds of testimony are admissible in court? What are the extrajudicial carveouts for the defendants who are clearly guilty but get off on technicalities? – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – Sponsorship:  Please consider sponsoring a podcast by making a donation to help fund our Jewish...

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...