Torah and Stories with Rabbi Liff

Recorded near the yahrzeit of the Baba Sali and of Rav Refoel Shmulevitz of the Mir, ten days before Tu B'Shvat. Rabbi Liff draws chizuk from the final three makkos — especially the "light" within Makkas Choshech — and shares stories of these tzaddikim, including a fresh story he heard about a childless talmid chacham sent to the Baba Sali.

On Shabbos Mevorchim Chodesh Shvat, Rabbi Liff develops the theme that Shvat is a month for "b'suros tovos" — speaking good and kindness to others. He ties this to the avodah of Chassidus from the Ramchal's Mesillas Yesharim: building a true relationship with Hashem, one's spouse, and one's children by doing what is good and proper.

Recorded Chof-Aleph Teves, just back from an intense US trip (Florida and the NY/NJ area) that ran "from Simcha to Simcha" — a talmid's bar mitzvah on Parshas Vayechi, a chasunah, a bris where he was sandek, and sheva brachos. Rabbi Liff opens Sefer Shemos amid jet lag and a packed week of family and talmidim celebrations.

Completing Sefer Bereishis ("Chazak, Chazak"), Rabbi Liff explains the parsha stuma — the hearts and eyes of Israel "stopped up" — as the mystery of Jewish survival itself, for "Yaakov Avinu lo meis," he lives through his children. With the Chafetz Chaim's chilling prediction of atomic warfare ("they make bombs; we make people ") and the blessings of Ephraim and Menashe, he teaches purity, no jeal...

Beginning the Torah anew amid the euphoria of "v'shavu vanim ligvulam" — the returning hostages — and a freed captive's plea to never again take the sun, trees, and water for granted. Rabbi Liff urges deep, not superficial, limud (Shnayim Mikra), eulogizes Rabbi Moshe Hauer, and ties the end of the Torah to its beginning: it is the lev — l'shem Shamayim — that matters, whether one learns little or...

A Chol HaMoed Sukkos message from the sukkah overlooking the Judean hills, as a hostage-release deal takes shape (" ufros aleinu sukkas shlomecha "). Rabbi Liff teaches the flimsy schach as our true protection, the Ushpizin, and — via Rav Elchonon Wasserman on a "nameless nation" — why the war against a lawless enemy is so hard, answered only by clinging to Hashem.

Recorded exhausted after davening for the amud on Yom Kippur, and shadowed by the murder of Jews in Manchester, Rabbi Liff frames Haazinu as the Shira of Klal Yisrael — emunah that even our suffering is a kapparah and a song. With the Kotzker's call to "hear the heavens" and Rav Aharon Kotler's "amaratzishe kasha,"* he carries us from Yom Kippur into the simcha of Sukkos.

The last Shabbos of 5785: "Atem nitzavim hayom" — we stand before Hashem on Rosh Hashanah through the middah of emes and the arvus of achdus. Rabbi Liff explains the simanim of Rosh Hashanah as a hidden tefillah (we crown the King rather than ask for ourselves), urging us to speak only blessing and goodness — closing with the segula of the Be'er Heitev: bentching from a siddur to be spared af v'ch...

Shabbos Shuva: real teshuva begins with recognizing our greatness as bnei melachim and truly "opening our hearts the size of a needle's eye." On Moshe's last day going to the beis medrash , Rabbi Liff teaches that we must be a "Vayelech"* people of action, and through the Ramchal's vision of the future shofar, that we long for the complete uprooting of evil.

"When you go out to war" — fitting for Elul and the ongoing war — Rabbi Liff teaches the shofar that should arouse us (as it frightened his granddaughter) and the Ben Sorer's failure to "hear the voice of his father and mother," i.e., the Avos. A rich, story-filled episode (including a beautiful run on the Gra's name encoded in the Torah) on the power of tefillah rooted in the Avos and Imahos.

"Judges and officers at all your gates" becomes the seven gates of the body each person must govern in Elul, and "ki yipalei mimcha davar" — our bewilderment at antisemitism traces back to divrei rivos , the dissension within. Rabbi Liff's centerpiece is the yeshiva administrator falsely suspected of stealing puddings he was in fact buying with his own money — the power of judging favorably.

Ushering in Elul (" Re'u, Elul higia "), Rabbi Liff eulogizes Rav Berel Wein as the bridge from Lithuanian Jewry to America — a man who taught us to "see the big picture" and to be a good man . The avodah of Elul: to see and be good, to choose the blessing, knowing " Re'eh anochi nosein " — every single day Hashem gives us anew the power of choice.

A Bein HaZmanim episode reflecting on floating in the Yam HaGadol beside Eretz Yisrael and a beachside memory of Rav Chaim Kanievsky guarding his eyes. Rabbi Liff teaches "v'haya eikev" — joy even in the heel-times of Ikvesa d'Meshicha — and that Eretz Yisrael, Torah, and Olam Haba are acquired only through yissurim* and toil, citing the Stipler and Reb Chaim Brisker.

On Shabbos Nachamu and Tu B'Av, Rabbi Liff answers how we move from sitting on the floor to celebration: like Moshe's 515 tefillos, we keep davening even when our prayers feel like mere words, for "Hashem hears the tefillah of every mouth." He develops Shema*, lifting our eyes to see Hashem as Creator, as the comfort that carries Klal Yisrael through exile and antisemitism.

Erev Tisha B'Av and Shabbos Chazon: rebuke that is positive — reminding a Jew of his greatness — is the only path to teshuva and the rebuilding of the Beis HaMikdash. Through Rav Yisrael Gustman's nichum to the bereaved Professor Aumann and a Gerrer/Lubavitcher Jew clinging to Yiddishkeit in Siberia, Rabbi Liff shows that the geulah comes precisely at the depth of the darkness.

Entering Menachem Av and Bein HaMetzarim, Rabbi Liff teaches the neshama of Torah (Mishnah = neshama) as the source of true nechama, and the 42 journeys as a reminder that every step of Klal Yisrael's exile is divine providence. He weaves in "Mattos Aleicha Yaakov," the protection of the batei midrash, and how to "bury the taava" to reach the courtyard of Hashem.

Recorded mid-trip in the U.S., on the two parshiyos of Pinchas — the act of kana'us and its reward split apart, teaching that zealotry is only valid when wholly l'shem Shamayim , as a "son of Aharon," the pursuer of peace. Rabbi Liff brings the Chafetz Chaim on his rebbe's tears before any act of zeal and his visit of nichum to the Noel family who lost a son in Gaza.

Recorded on his 50th wedding anniversary from Kever Rachel, at the beginning of the Three Weeks. Rabbi Liff reflects on the tragedy of five soldiers lost that week in Gaza and shares the story of a mother who asked him to say brachos for her son's neshama . He reminds his listeners of what the Kever Rachel itself teaches: pouring out your heart to Hashem is a distinctly Jewish thing. A person of b...

The Parah Adumah as the paradigm of the chok we cannot fathom — fitting for the unfathomable miracles of the just-ended war, even quoted by a moderate French imam who called the Jewish nation "a nation that lives on miracles." Rabbi Liff brings the burning of the sifrei Torah in France (the origin of the Erev Shabbos Chukas fast) and the Klausenberger Rebbe's superhuman koach as proof of Am Yisrae...

After the "twelve-day war" with Iran, an episode of hoda'ah for open miracles (the Soroka evacuation, the unscathed pilots) paired with Korach's true sin: a lack of emunas chachamim . Rabbi Liff explains sameach b'chelko — striving to grow within one's own role rather than grasping for another's — through Rav Shlomo Zalman's lesson on balance to a man who abandoned learning for tefillah alone.

Recorded at 3 a.m. as Israel and Iran exchanged missile fire (June 2025), Rabbi Liff anchors the episode in the Nefesh HaChaim's "Ein od milvado." Through Aharon's kindling of the Menorah he teaches the Or HaGanuz — staying faithful in avodah even when the light is hidden and the going is hard — and the anava of Moshe Rabbeinu who wrote of his own humility.

A post-Shavuos message: after Kabbalas HaTorah the Torah expands, and Bnei Kehas — the middle child — carry the Aron, teaching that every Jew has a share in the light of Torah. Through stunning stories of Birchas Kohanim (including a deathly ill Mir yungerman whose strength returned through duchening), Rabbi Liff shows how blessing others brings blessing on oneself.

Why Moshe and Aharon themselves counted Klal Yisrael — because each Jew is a treasured, named individual to Hashem. Rabbi Liff develops the Midbar as hefker : the Torah is open to all, and we must make ourselves and our time ownerless to acquire it and teach it to others, the way the Gedolim cherished every single Yid.

Completing Sefer Vayikra in the month of Sivan (the mazal of teumim /unity), Rabbi Liff presents the Torah as the "mission statement" by which a person sanctifies the physical world, citing Rav Wolbe on ameilus baTorah and the Mir's choice of Reb Yerucham. He weaves in the murder of two Jews in Washington and Rav Moshe Feinstein's teaching on the supreme erech of the Holocaust survivor who clings...

On Lag BaOmer and the hilula of the Rashbi, Rabbi Liff explains why the day of a tzaddik's passing becomes a Yom Tov — the revelation of pnimius haTorah — and the avodah of Nishmas as gratitude for the past and tefillah for the future. Marking his father's yahrzeit, he shows through Rav Moshe Feinstein's warmth to every Yid that true chinuch flows from a parent who lives the Torah with sweetness.