All Episodes
Displaying 1 - 30 of 731 in total
Parsha: Shemos - The Name Game
The Parsha and the Book are called "Shemos", meaning names. A review of the Parsha reveals all sorts of names-related subplots: The Parsha begins with enumerating the ...
Parsha: Shemos - Moshe's Moxie (5783)
The story of the Jewish people in the book of Exodus gets off to a difficult start. The nation is firmly ensconced in Egypt, but their experience there is decidedly un...
Mitzvah: Kosher Signs (#153, 155, 158, 470)
Some animals, birds, grasshoppers, and fish are kosher, some are not kosher. How do we know which animals are kosher and which are not? For that we have signs.– – – – ...
Parshas Shemos (Rebroadcast)
The Book of Exodus begins with the Egyptians cunningly enslaving their Hebrew subjects: mandating that they work in backbreaking labor, killing their male sons, and tr...
Parsha: Vayechi - Unexpected Greatness
Prior to his passing, Jacob gave a series of blessings to his descendants. He blessed Joseph and Joseph's two sons, Ephraim and Menashe. He gathered his sons and bless...
Parsha: Vayechi - Anti-Oxidance (5783)
Immediately prior to his passing, Jacob gathered his sons with the intention of revealing to them what will happen at the end of days. With his 12 sons coalesced aroun...
Mitzvah: Priestly Decorum (#149-152)
priests are held to a higher standard. Clergymen are not like everyone else. Especially while working in the Temple/ Tabernacle. They must be on a much more elevated a...
Parshas Vayechi (Rebroadcast)
Parshas Vayechi is the final portion of the Book of Genesis. Jacob is about to die and he tends to his affairs: He assures that he will not be buried in Egypt and will...
Parsha: Vayigash - Joseph's Magnanimity
Our Parsha sees the conclusion of the Saga of Joseph. The favorite son of Jacob is finally reunited with his father and his family as the fledgling nation of Israel de...
Parsha: Vayigash - Definition of Life (5783)
Jacob relocates in our Parsha. Leaving Canaan once again, Jacob gathers his family and the possessions that he had acquired in Canaan and descends to Egypt to reunite ...
Chanukah Capstone with Rabbi Shmuel Botnick
There is no superficiality in Judaism. Everything is multi-layered, multifaceted, multidimensional. That seems to be particularly true with respect to the festival of ...
Parshas Vayigash (Rebroadcast)
Twenty two years have passed since Jacob and Joseph were separated. Ever since Joseph was torn away from him, Jacob was bereft of prophecy and inconsolable. In Parshas...
Parsha: Mikeitz - Two and Twenty
Jacob was one of the greatest people of all time. He excelled in all areas of greatness. In this Parsha podcast we examine his superlative reliance upon God. Jacob was...
Parsha: Mikeitz - Paining Grows (5783)
Joseph took a very unusual path to primacy: his brothers thought he was a good for nothing, and sold him as a slave. He was sold to Egypt, accused of a crime he did no...
The Light of Chanukah
Everyone loves the festival of Chanukah. There's something so wonderful and enchanting about this festival and its iconic mitzvah, the lighting of the Menorah. But wha...
Parshas Mikeitz (Rebroadcast)
Parshas Mikeitz continues the narrative of Joseph in Egypt. We pick up his story two years after his failed attempt at earning a reprieve via his cellmate, Pharaoh’s b...
Parsha: Vayeishev - War On Terror
Our Parsha contains the first act of several interconnected stories: Joseph had dreams of grandeur (literally) and he was placed on a path towards actualizing them. Bu...
Parsha: Vayeishev - Reuben's Special Message (5783)
One of the most shocking events in the whole Torah occurs in our Parsha: Joseph's brothers sell him as a slave to a caravan of traveling Ishmaelites. Two of his brothe...
The Dina Dilemma
Not all twins are identical in every way. Jacob and Esau were as different from each other as two humans can possibly get. When Rebecca got wind of Esau's plans to mur...
Parshas Vayeishev (Rebroadcast)
Parshas Vayeishev contains two intersecting, seemingly scandalous, storylines, that after all the dust has settled we can see are harbingers of the Messiah and Redempt...
Parsha: Vayishlach - Esau Academy
Jacob lived a rough life. He perennially had to contend with hostile forces. He was paired with an evil twin Esau who wanted to kill him. He was compelled to flee his ...
Vayishlach - Forefathers and Fouruncles (5783)
The story of the Forefathers is well known. The Fouruncles, less so. Intertwined in the story of our nation's progenitors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in Genesis, is the ...
Simple Reasons to Believe
What is your elevator pitch for the existence of God? That is a question that was posed to dozens of successful and accomplished people. They were asked to write a sho...
Parshas Vayishlach (Rebroadcast)
After successfully escaping the clutches of his deceptive father in law, Laban, Jacob heads back west to the Land of Canaan, and back to his family. The journey back h...
Parsha: Vayeitzei - Ladders To/From Heaven
On the way to Charan Jacob stopped at Mount Moriah. He spent the night there and the Torah documents his very fateful dream: he saw a ladder suspended between heaven a...
Parsha; Vayeitzei - Holy Sheeple (5783)
A large section of our Parsha contains intricate descriptions of Jacob as a shepherd. Initially, he worked for Laban as a shepherd for 7 years for the rights to marry ...
Midrash: An Introduction
Students of the Almighty's holy Torah are familiar with the term midrash. It refers to a series of books that serve as commentaries on the Torah and on other holy writ...
Parshas Vayeitzei (Rebroadcast)
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...
Parsha: Toldos - Jacob's Heist
We are told to respect the will of our parents. Certainly, if your parent is righteous, it is severely inappropriate to violate their will. All the more so if your par...
Parsha: Toldos - Twin Powers (5783)
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 n...