All Episodes
Displaying 511 - 540 of 785 in total
The Secret of the Month of Teves with Rabbi Shmuly Botnick
The Month of Teves doesn’t have many memorable days. The only days of note are the last couple of days of Chanukah, and the fast of the 10th of Teves, which commemorat...
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 – Definition of Life
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 ...
Parsha: Vayigash – Fruitful Famine (5781)
In Parshas Vayigash, the Joseph trilogy comes to a close. The saga that began when Joseph was 17 ends when Jacob is reunited with his favorite son, now viceroy of Egyp...
TORAH 101: Messiah: A General Introduction
Our nation has been anticipating and longing for the Messiah, Moshiach (משיח) in Hebrew, for millennia. We are awaiting his arrival, which can come any day. The Messia...
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 – Growing Pains & Paining Grows
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...
Ethics: 48 Ways to Wisdom – #9: Purity (6:6:9)
Our sages tell us that one of the ways to acquire wisdom is with purity. What exactly is purity and why would it be a means through which we can acquire wisdom? In thi...
Parsha: Mikeitz – Talent Evaluation (5781)
Joseph is one of the most impressive figures in Jewish history. His accomplishments are vast: His holiness under spiritually treacherous conditions are legendary, his ...
Mitzvah: Mincha Offering (#116)
The second category of sacrifices featured in Leviticus is actually not one that deals with animal sacrifice. Meal offerings are brought from flour and oil. Not includ...
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 – If You Hear Something, Do Something
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...
Parsha: Vayeishev – The Holy Hologram (5781)
Joseph is one of the greatest heroes of Jewish history. His greatest deed was when he resisted temptation and rebuffed the seductions of his master, Potiphar’s, wife. ...
Chanukah Roundtable with the TORCH Podcasters
In preparation for the upcoming festival of Chanukah, the TORCH Podcasters gathered together in the TORCH Centre to discuss the upcoming days of light. Each of us shar...
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 – Forefathers and Fouruncles
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 ...
Parsha: Vayishlach – Unrequited Love (5781)
This a unique edition of The Parsha Podcast that you dont want to miss. Instead of the usual one big idea that we typically cover in a Parsha podcast, in this version ...
TORAH 101: Admission to the Afterlife
The term “Olam Haba” refers the world after the Resurrection, the world where there’s life with no death, where there is the dispensing of reward for those who adhere ...
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 – Holy Sheeple
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 ...
Parsha: Vayeitzei – Laban’s Potion (5781)
As the father of all four of Jacob’s wives, Laban is in effect the father in law of the Jewish people. If we examine Laban’s story, he seems to have both qualities and...
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...
The Secret of the Month of Kislev with Rabbi Shmuly Botnick
The most noteworthy days of Month of Kislev are the days of Chanukah that begin on the 25th of Kislev and stretch into the following month of Teves. Chanukah celebrate...
Parsha: Toldos – Twin Powers
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...
Mitzvah: Olah Sacrifice (#115)
Sacrifices constitute and important part of Jewish life and practice. Absent the Temple, we cannot offer sacrifices, but we can study them. In this episode we look at ...
Parsha: Toldos – Esav’s Fatal Flaw (5781)
Jacob’s twin brother Esav is one of the worst villains in Jewish history. He seems to be an unending litany of bad character. Our parsha ends with Esav dead set on com...
Parshas Toldos (Rebroadcast)
In Parshas Toldos we meet twin boys that are polar opposites: Esau, beloved by his father Isaac, is a man of the fields; while Jacob is loved by his mother Rebecca and...
Mitzvah: Idolatrous Wine (#111)
Of the many laws related to idolatry is a law governing wine and other items used for idolatrous practices. Said items to not be consumed. The Sages extend this prohib...
Parsha: Chayei Sarah – Eulogizing A Giant
This Parsha Podcast is dedicated in loving memory and leilui nishmas my dear friend and study partner David Gedaliah ben Efraim, Dr. David Genecov obm. Dr. Genecov was...
Parsha: Chayei Sarah – Portal to Paradise (5781)
The Torah dedicates an unusually large amount of verses in the beginning of this week’s parsha to describe a real estate transaction between Abraham and a gentleman na...