The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe

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 […]

Jacob’s twin brother Esav is one of the worst villains in Jewish history. He seems to be an unending litany of bad character. Our parsha ends with Esav dead set on committing fratricide by actually murdering his own brother. Esav is just one bad apple. But is it possible that things could have ended up […]

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 […]

This Parsha Podcast is dedicated in loving memory and leilui nishmas my dear friend and study partner David Gedaliah ben Efraim, Dr. David Genecov obm. Dr. Genecov was a dear personal friend, a weekly study partner of mine, a stalwart supporter of TORCH, and a dedicated listener of the Parsha Podcast and all the other […]

The Torah dedicates an unusually large amount of verses in the beginning of this week’s parsha to describe a real estate transaction between Abraham and a gentleman named Ephron. Sarah has passed and Abraham seeks to buy Ephron’s cave to inter her in. Initially, Ephron acts with supposed generosity and offers it to Abraham for […]

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. – – – – […]

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 […]

Abraham was the most influential person in human history. He changed the tides of history, he popularized Monotheism in the world, he is the father of many nations, and fittingly his story is told at considerable length in the Torah. In this very special edition of the Parsha Podcast we study his relationship and interactions […]

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; […]

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 […]

Abraham is the Torah’s first protagonist. The entirety of this parsha and the subsequent one are following the forefather of our nation. Why does the Torah spend so much time telling the story of this ancient figure? In this life-changing episode, we study Abraham’s odyssey to find the precise guidelines to fulfill our latent potential. […]

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 […]

Please take the short one-question Parsha Podcast Survey https://forms.gle/LkCDUJhCYCnnYasS6 – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – 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 […]

Noah is arguably the most enigmatic figure in the Torah. The Torah is lavish in his praise: He was a prophet who found favor in Hashem’s eyes and selected to survive the Flood and repopulate the world afterwards. Noach is also the only person that the Torah characterized as a Tzadik. Yet Rashi and the […]

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 […]

Welcome to Year Seven (!) 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 […]

As we begin year 7 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 5th […]

With praise and appreciation to the Almighty, we begin year 7 of the Parsha Podcast. This year, we will reupload the Parsha Rebroadcast episode which covers the entire Parsha each Sunday, re-release the 5th cycles episode from 5781 each Tuesday, and we will, please God, record and release a new weekly episode each Thursday. Thank […]

The final Parsha of the Torah contains the blessing of Moshe to the nation, his death, burial, and eulogy. Rashi tells us that his blessing began with a recounting of the offer of the Torah to the Nations and to Israel. Before the Sinai Revelation, God offered the Torah to every other Nation, and they […]

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

The Song of Haazinu, the third of three Songs on the Torah, tells the story of the Jewish people, past, present, and future. It speaks of high points and nadirs, this world and the next, devastation and reclamation. In this podcast we examined the Song’s beginning. Moshe compares his words and his speech to rain, […]

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 […]

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 […]

On the last day of Moshe’s life, he accomplished a lot. He wrote 13 copies of the Torah, one per tribe and one to be permanently stationed in or near the Ark, he spoke words of comfort to the people, and he formally passed the baton of leadership of the nation to his disciple and […]

Moshe is 120 years old to the day. He was born on the seventh of Adar and now it is the seven of Adar 120 years later. Today is his last day before his passing and he is taking leave from the nation and handing over the reins to Joshua. – – – – – […]