The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe

Jacob undergoes a meteoric transformation in our Parsha. At the onset, Jacob is a 77-year-old penniless bachelor fleeing from his brother Esau’s wrath. When the Pasha concludes, Jacob is at the helm of a veritable empire. He has 12 children with his four wives, is enormously wealthy, and is heading back to encounter Esau’s rage. […]

Jacob’s accomplishments in our Parsha are remarkable. At the onset of our parsha, Jacob is a 77 year old bachelor without a penny to his name. Having been robbed clean of all his possessions, Jacob undertook the grandest, most ambitious initiative in human history: the founding of the Jewish nation. In our parsha, he pulls […]

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. – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – […]

Two very different boys are born in this week’s Parsha. Esau, the older one, is ruddy and hairy and looking for trouble. Jacob, the younger one, is wholesome and righteous. The beginning of our Parsha describe the unusual events surrounding the conception and birth of these two boys. When we read it on a superficial […]

Was Abraham the first Jew? Did Abraham observe the laws of the Torah? The Torah dedicates a huge amount of attention to Abraham and his family. The laws of Torah were conveyed at Sinai to Moshe, Abraham’s great-great-great-grandson. How much of that, if any, did Abraham have? In this special edition of the Parsha Podcast […]

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 […]

Sarah died at the age of 127. Abraham negotiated with the Hittites for the purchase of a burial plot, the Cave of Machpelah. The objective of the purchase of the Cave of Machpelah was to bury the dead. These three facts are featured at the beginning of our Parsha. On the surface these facts seem […]

Eliezer was Abraham’s right hand man. He was in charge of all of Abraham’s affairs. According to the Talmud, Eliezer was the consummate student of Abraham, drawing from Abraham’s wellsprings of Torah and sharing it with others. In our Parsha, Eliezer was the central protagonist. Eliezer was conscripted by Abraham to travel east to Aram […]

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. – – – – […]

On the second day of Rosh Hashanah each year we read chapter 22 of Genesis, the Binding of Isaac episode. Abraham is instructed to take his beloved son Isaac and offer him as a sacrifice atop Mount Moriah. Abraham does as told, only to be stopped at the very last moment. In this very special […]

For the third time in the Torah, we read about destruction. Previously, the Flood destroyed the world save Noah and family, and the Dispersal ended the universal civilization, and in our parsha we read about the overturning of Sodom and Gomorrah. The timing of Sodom’s destruction is really interesting. Our Sages said that it happened […]

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; […]

Join us for an exquisite Parsha Podcast as we go deep and deeper into Lech Lecha. The deep idea relates to Lot’s fateful decision to choose to move to the sinful cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. We then go deeper and explore the allegorical dimensions of the breakup between Abraham and Lot. Finally, we go […]

Abraham and Sarah undergo seismic changes in our Parsha. Their names get changed as does their destiny. Originally, they were barren, but in our Parsha, the founding Patriarch and Matriarch are told that they will bear a son, Isaac. The mechanics of how this transformation occurred, however, is a bit of a head scratcher. Our […]

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 […]

We started this week’s Parsha Podcast by talking about the Tower of Babel episode. We gleaned from that story something absolutely transformational and deep. We then proceeded to talk about the unusual contribution that Noah gave to the people of his generation. In that second segment, we also derived something very profound. Deeper. The podcast […]

Our Parsha marks a nadir in the story of mankind. Humanity sunk to such spiritual lows that the Almighty decided to destroy the world and start over with just Noah and his family as humanity’s progenitors going forward. What were the conditions of the Flood’s survivors after spending a year in the Ark? In this […]

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: Please consider supporting the podcasts by making […]

Today is a bittersweet day. Although we are very excited to embark on year 8 of the Parsha Podcast, we are only a few days after the terrible attacks in Israel, where hundreds of our brethren were massacred. In light of the terrible atrocities perpetrated against our people and the war that is sparked, we […]

As we begin year 8 of the Parsha Podcast, we are excited and overjoyed to share the plan for this year, with the help of the Almighty: each Sunday, we will release the rebroadcast episode that covers the entire Parsha in about an hour. On Tuesday, we will re-release the corresponding episode from the 6th […]

With praise and appreciation to the Almighty, we begin year 8 of the Parsha Podcast (5784). This year, we will re-upload the Parsha Rebroadcast episode which covers the entire Parsha each Sunday, re-release the 6th cycle’s episode (5782) for each respective Parsha each Tuesday, and we will, please God, record and release a new weekly […]

At the very end of Moshe’s life, he, like Jacob before him, blesses the tribes. When Jacob was about to pass, he blessed his sons, now Moshe is blessing the tribes that those sons spawned. These blessings were nor random, but very targeted blessings for each tribe so that they know what their particular tribe […]

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 […]

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. – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – […]

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 […]