All Episodes
Displaying 1 - 30 of 809 in total
Parsha: Bamidbar - Letter of the Law
Long strings of numbers don't typically make for riveting radio or podcasts. Many of us feel our eyes glaze over when we read seemingly meaningless batches of numbers ...
A Rigorous and Comprehensive Torah Study Regimen
What would a comprehensive and rigorous regimen of Torah study look like? Suppose someone wants to really become a Torah maestro. What would be a fitting schedule of c...
Parsha: Bamidbar - Common Census (5783)
The United States Constitution mandates that a nationwide census is conducted every decade. Other nations also conduct censuses. Censuses are common. Our parsha begins...
Parshas Bamidbar (Rebroadcast)
We kickstart the Book of Numbers with a census of the twelve tribes of Israel – not including the tribe of Levi who is counted independently – conducted by Moses, Aaro...
Parsha: Behar/Bechukosai - Tilling and Toiling
The laws of the Torah - all 613 of them - were conveyed by God to Moshe at Mount Sinai. This is explicitly conveyed regarding the first Mitzvah featured in the first o...
Parsha: Behar Bechukosai - Hostage Letter (5783)
Our Parsha contains some of the most difficult portions in the Torah, the Admonition. Our nation is told of the consequences of failing to adhere to the rules of God. ...
Modern Day Heresy
Heresies and idolatries come and go. The idolatry that titillated the ancients no longer excites modern men. The heresies that revolutionized the world a century ago n...
Parshas Behar & Bechukosai (Rebroadcast)
This week's double-Parsha closes out the Book of Leviticus. Parshas Behar begins at Mount Sinai, where the Almighty instructed Moshe to convey a series of laws to the ...
Parsha: Emor - Lopside Down
Passover marks the Exodus from Egypt. But leaving Egypt was only the beginning of the radical transformation that the Almighty brought about. 50 days after the Exodus,...
TORAH 101: Venues of Reward and Punishment
Spiritual pleasure is vastly, infinitely greater than physical pleasures, and are completely imperceivable by bodies. Only if you work assiduously to develop a sensory...
Parsha: Emor - Snowball's Chance in Heaven (5783)
The story of the first person to ever be executed in a Jewish court of law is featured at the end of this week's Parsha. An unnamed man, the son of an Israelite woman ...
Mechanisms of Free Will
Is free will limited or unlimited? What is the scope of free will? How much of our decisions must filter through that system of choice? How much can we actually accomp...
Parshas Emor (Rebroadcast)
Parshas Emor contains a staggering 56 mitzvos, nearly all of them relating to either to the Kohanim, the priests, or to the Festivals, and the parsha ends with a very ...
Parsha: Acharei Mos/Kedoshim - Sparring Mates
If you chanced upon sparring mates going at it, you may come to the mistaken impression that these two are enemies who want each other's throats. But the truth is, a s...
TORAH 101: The (Near Total) Inaccessibility of Spiritual Pleasure
There is great confusion about what the ultimate reward for righteousness and the ultimate punishment for wickedness are. Rambam's magisterial essay is designed to pro...
Parsha: Acharei Mos/Kedoshim - It's a Small World (5783)
Our double Parsha contains many different mitzvos. In this podcast we study a set of mitzvos and a very interesting dispute about their nature. We discover a valuable ...
Free Will: An Exploration of Fundamental Concepts (Part 1)
Free Will is a fundamental concept in our philosophy. People are endowed by God with the ability to determine the direction that they take in life. People are allowed ...
Parshas Acharei & Kedoshim (Rebroadcast)
This week's double-parsha contains a smorgasbord of mitzvos. The three chapters of Parshas Acharei cover three general categories. First we read about the Yom Kippur s...
Parsha: Tazria Metzorah - Scalps and Scalpels
The process of diagnosing and purifying a person afflicted with tzaraas is long and arduous. But there was no avoiding it. It is prohibited to excise a tzaraas afflict...
Parsha: Tazria Metzora - Heaven on the Cheap (5783)
This week's double Parsha contains some of the most intricate and complex laws in the Torah, the laws of purity and impurity. This subject remains an enigmatic mystery...
From Beast to Man
Starting from the second day of Passover, we count the Omer. For 7 weeks of 7 days a piece -- 49 days -- we count. Once the count is completed, the festival of Shavuos...
Parshas Tazria & Metzora (Rebroadcast)
A very large percentage of Torah is dedicated to the laws of purity and impurity. This week's double Parshas of Tazria and Metzora largely deal with these laws. One va...
Parsha: Shemini - Eighth Time's The Charm
Assembling and disassembling the Tabernacle was a difficult task that Moshe repeated for seven days. Each morning he placed the vertical beams into their silver socket...
Parsha: Shemini - Fires, Foreign and Domestic (5783)
Nadav and Avihu were the crown princes of the Jewish nation. These two sons were slated to succeed Moshe and Aaron. Moshe declared, without hyperbole, that his two nep...
Parshas Shemini (Rebroadcast)
After months of preparation and building, and a week of inauguration, the nation was anticipating the climax of the Tabernacle experience: When God finally rested His ...
Guard The Matzos: A Yahrzeit Tribute to Rabbi Shlomo Wolbe
Matzah is a tricky food. It is made with the same ingredients as bread ; the only difference is the speed of how they are processed. The Torah tells us that we must gu...
Parsha: Tzav - Conceal the Deal
A top of the altar were fires that were never extinguished for hundreds of years. What was the nature of these fires? What were they made up of? How are they different...
Parsha: Tzav - Pure-Bread (5783)
On the first day of a Kohein's tenure doing service in the Temple, they bring a once-in-a-lifetime offering: a meal-offering that is almost identical to the daily meal...
Five Questions for Pesach
Pesach (Passover) marks the founding event of our nation. We had been enslaved in Egypt for centuries, and in one night the Almighty extracted a nation from amidst a n...
Parshas Tzav (Rebroadcast)
In continuation of the themes of last week, Parshas Tzav details the procedures of processing many of the sacrifices enumerated in Parshas Vayikra, teaches us about ne...