The Rabbi Yonah Sklare Podcast

  Along with dedication to the world at large we must also focus on ourselves and maximizing our personal growth. This shiur finds the healthy balance between the responsibilities to self and to community.    

  Belief in the reward of Olam Habah is indispensable for healthy Jewish consciousness. This focus does not diminish from our altruism in serving Hashem out of love.  

  This shiur will develop how Shavuos highlights the notion of reciprocity in our relationship to Hashem— just as He initiates towards us, we too, initiate towards Him. We thereby become active participants in the relationship.      

  This shiur will develop the metaphor of marriage between the Jewish people and Torah. Just like in human relationship, this marriage is based not only on passion and love, but on loyalty and trust as well. We are ‘’good listeners’’ who hear want the Torah wants, and remain fully committed to her interests.   

  This shiur develops how we have a relationship to ourselves (Bain Adom LiAtzmo) which no less real than the relationships to Hashem (Bain Adom Lamokom) and to others (Bain Adom Lichavero)   

  In this shiur we develop how the end of the era of prophecy- when Hashem revealed Himself to us, the era Torah Sheba’l Peh- our own creative endeavor, flourishes. In this role we become equal partners in His work.   

  This shiur will develop how a Talmid Chacham must be deliberate and apply standard of excellence towards himself, but towards his students he must be accepting and embracing.  

  This shiur focuses on inclusivity of all types of Jews. They all define Knesses Yisrael, and all are their needs must be met for our relationship to Torah to be complete.   

    The conventional wisdom is that to be successful in life one needs connections to the brokers of power. How reassuring than, that we have an ‘’in’’ with the ultimate Power Broker, none other than Hashem Himself.     

  The Anshai Keneses HaGedolah exhibit the resilience and courage of a fresh generation of Torah leadership-- taking on new challenges and utilizing new techniques to suit the needs of the contemporary era.  

  A successful Rebbi is willing to leave his own comfort zone and connect to the students in their world. This requires a flexibility in the style of Yiddishkeit to suit the generation, without adulterating the substance of the holy Torah.       

  Torah is a direct encounter with the Divine yet fully perceivable to man.   

  Branding, style, pizazz. These fixations of the modern world might not sound very spiritual. However, in this shiur we will study that the concepts of image and attractiveness actually have a central role in Judaism.      

    Man consists of mind and body, spirituality and physicality. Rather than tussling in conflict, these variant dimensions of who we are can cleave together in harmony-- a ‘’marriage’’ between our ruchniyos and gashmiyus inclinations.      

  The context of Avos in Seder Nezikin hints to powerful ideas regarding Rabbinic Authority as well as rationalism in Torah.  

This shiur brings to light he human dimension of a Rebbi, and how the bearers of mesorah infuse their entire personality in their teachings. 

This shiur addresses the fundametal question of where character development fits in to Halachik Judaism. 

  Relationship must be balanced with boundaries-- the granting personal space and privacy to the other party. This imperative, to respect their personal autonomy even amidst our drive for connection to them, can be traced from an elegant clue in the phraseology of our parsha.    

  In this shiur we will trace the key to self-liberation-- a holy ‘’chutzpah’’ and unwillingness to accept the dreary status quo.  

  In this shiur we will trace the key to self-liberation-- a holy ‘’chutzpah’’ and unwillingness to accept the dreary status quo.  

  The loving exchange between parents and children at the Seder by extension informs our conception of Hashem as our Father in Heaven. This awareness turns the whole notion of authority figures on its head; the image of a caring parent supplants the tyrannical model of authority exuded by Pharaoh in Mitzrayim.  

  True cherus is a state of mind and neshama. Therefore, so many people continue to find freedom elusive, even amidst modern day prosperous condition. This imperative to find cherus from within, comes to life when we trace an exciting textual pattern in the Yetzias Mitzrayim story.  

  This shiur will grant us ‘’ownership’’ of a well-known Agadah. We will creatively trace for ourselves the underpinnings of that Agadah, and discover how it emerges from an expansive, thematic understanding of Yetzias Mitzrayim.      

  By teasing out the ''worlds beneath the words'' of this Mishna we will learn the power of reframing-- finding redemptive quality to negative experiences of the past.  

    Shabbos is the source of all which transpires in the ensuing week. This shiur traces how Shabbos Hagadol captures the deeper meaning of the holiday of Pesach which follows.