All Episodes
Displaying 421 - 450 of 834 in total
What God Wants
The Torah is an instruction manual from God. The word Torah, in fact, means instruction. The Torah contains many details; in fact, there is no conceivable situation th...
Parshas Reeh (Rebroadcast)
This week’s parsha marks a transition in the Book of Deuteronomy: it is no longer primarily about admonishment and rebuke and warnings, instead we read a bevy of mitzv...
Parsha: Eikev - Longevity Pill
A ubiquitous feature in Jewish homes, the Mezuzah contains a scroll with two paragraphs from the Torah, one from this week's Parsha and one from last week's. This mitz...
Parsha: Eikev - Cheat Code for Life (5781)
The Torah contains a lot of details regarding what the Almighty expects of us. A verse in our parsha purports to get to the bottom line of what - in one sentence - doe...
Mitzvah: Fire On the Altar (#132-3)
Steady fires were always present atop the Altar. At all times, even when sacrifices were not being processed in the Tabernacle and the Temple, a steady fire was mainta...
Parshas Eikev (Rebroadcast)
We pick up where we left off last week amid Moshe’s speech to the nation before his passing, and as in the previous few weeks, Parshas Eikev is jam packed with insight...
Parsha: Vaeschanan - Jordan Rules
As a result of Moshe's sin of striking the rock, he was barred from crossing over the Jordan River and entering the Land of Canaan. In Moshe's speech to the nation, he...
The Kabbalistic Backstory of Tisha B'av with Rabbi Shmuly Botnick
The Ninth Day of the month of Av is the saddest day of the Jewish calendar. On this day, the First Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians. On this same day the Second...
Parsha: Va'eschanan - Entry Denied (5781)
Moshe was very desirous of entering the Land. The Midrash reveals that he prayed 515 separate prayers to petition God to revoke His ban on Moshe entering the Land. But...
Ethics: Good Heart (6.6.23)
Although the study of Torah is ostensibly a cognitive pursuit, there are many qualities that are not cognitive nature that facilitate and enable the study of Torah. In...
Parshas Va'eschanan (Rebroadcast)
This week’s parsha continues Moshe’s monologue to the nation in the weeks preceding his passing. He begins by recounting his repeated efforts in trying to convince God...
Parsha: Devarim - Middling East
In his speech to the Nation, Moshe revisits the episode of the Spies that occurred 39 years prior. When the nation was on the verge of entering the Land, Moshe commiss...
Parsha: Devarim - Man of Words (5781)
At the end of Moshe's life, he gathers the entire nation for his parting message to the nation. The Midrash makes a remarkable contrast between Moshe's beginning and e...
Mitzvah: Ashes of the Altar (#131)
The first activity performed in the Temple each day was the removal of the ashes from the previous day's sacrifices. Before today's sacrificial schedule can commence, ...
Parshas Devarim (Rebroadcast)
5 weeks before his passing, Moses gives a three-parsha-long speech to the nation, which constitutes his last will and testament. He begins with a retrospective of the ...
Parsha: Mattos & Masei - 49-Step Program
What did the nation do over the course of the 40 years in the wilderness? What was their objective? In our parsha we read that the nation stopped in 42 locations over ...
Ethics: Anger Suppression (6.6.22)
Anger is part of the human experience. When things agitate us, we get frustrated and have a tendency to lash out, to berate, to say things that we may regret. In this ...
Parsha: Mattos & Masei - Talent Incubator (5781)
Our parsha contains the laws regarding a person who murders someone accidentally. We are told that the accidental murderer must flee to the city of refuge and remain t...
TORAH 101: Characteristics of King Messiah
King Messiah will spearhead the spiritual movement that will reverberate the world over. This King will bear a grand and lofty stature exceeding that of the greatest e...
Parshas Mattos & Masei (Rebroadcast)
This year, the Book of Numbers ends with a double parsha – Mattos and Masei. We learn about the laws of vows and oaths; the miraculous war with Midian; the unusual req...
Parsha: Pinchas - Sons of Anarchist
Korach's rebellion claimed many victims: Some of the perpetrators were swallowed up in a miraculous sinkhole; some were consumed by a divine fire; and some were killed...
Exploring the Ohr Hachaim Torah Commentary with Rabbi Shmuly Botnick
The 18th century commentary on the Torah, Ohr HaChaim, is one of the most unique, ingenious, and sprawling works in the Jewish library. In this special podcast, releas...
Parsha: Pinchas - Eternal Promotion (5781)
Over the course of the 40 years since the Exodus, the Nation was lead by Moshe and Aaron, the King and High Priest respectively. In our Parsha, successors are designat...
Mitzvah: Definite Guilt Offering (#129)
Unlike the previous mitzvah that required a sacrifice for an uncertain violation, in this mitzvah, we learn about a guilt offering for someone who definitely violated ...
Parshas Pinchas (Rebroadcast)
Pinchas was a man of action, a zealot who avenged God’s vengeance and was handsomely rewarded for it. In this parsha we read about his reward, Moses’ succession plan, ...
Parsha: Chukas & Balak - Methods of Transformation
In the first of this week's double parsha, we read about the death of two giants: Miriam and Aaron, Moshe's older sister and brother, pass away. Our sages tell us that...
Parsha: Balak - Some Men Are From Mars (5781)
Our parsha contains an attempted genocide. Bilaam, the prophet of the idolaters, a man of prodigious ability an skill, dedicates himself with tenacity and persistence ...
Parsha: Chukas - Inglorious Origins (5781)
The red cow is the Torah's most mysterious mitzvah. We are told to take a completely red cow and slaughter it, and burn it's body together with a concoction of other i...
TORAH 101: Indications of the Messianic Era
The world will undergo immense changes in the times of Messiah. Those changes will be so transformative and so comprehensive that our current world and our current val...
Parshas Chukas & Balak (Rebroadcast)
In Parshas Chukas, we read about a highly unusual mitzvah: The Red Heifer, when an entirely red cow is burned together with a motley concoction of ingredients, and the...