All Episodes
Displaying 781 - 810 of 838 in total
On Death and Dying: Part 2 – How to Prepare
How do you prepare for your day of death? Is that an important question? One can argue that living is much more important than dying. Death, this line of reasoning arg...
On Death and Dying: The Jewish View
Death is the destiny of mankind. Since Adam and Eve made the regrettable decision to consume from the Tree of Knowledge, Good and Evil, man has been condemned to die. ...
Parsha: 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 – Not Reddy to Change
Parshas Vayishlach is an action-packed parsha. After a tension-filled 20 years with Laban, Jacob has to dodge bullets for another parsha. Esau wants to kill him. The a...
Mitzvah: Shemittah (#84, 112, 326-9)
The Torah tells us that the land must lay fallow every 7th year. For an entire year, all the farmers in Israel must cease operations. Moreover, they must relinquish ow...
Parsha: 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 – Fortune Favors the Bold
Jacob’s accomplishments in our Parsha are remarkable. At the onset of our parsha, Jacob is a 77 year old bachelor without a penny to his name. Having been robbed clean...
Ethics: Multi-Level-Marketing of Mitzvos (5:21)
Every mitzvah that we do benefits us for all eternity. Our Sages reveal to us that each Mitzvah creates an advocate who vigorously fights on our behalf and defends us ...
Parsha: 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 – Abraham’s Torah
Was Abraham the first Jew? Did Abraham observe the laws of the Torah? The Torah dedicates a huge amount of attention to Abraham and his family. The laws of Torah were ...
Ethics: How to Have a Good Argument (5:20)
Argumentation has become a lost art. Our society promotes uniformity and consensus, a monochromatic society where divergent ideas are shunned. This approach is antithe...
TORAH 101: How Pedigree and Past Lives Determine Circumstances
How exactly does the Almighty determine what are the circumstances that people are placed in in this world? That is an impossible question for humans to answer with ex...
The Divorce Vaccine – First Dose: How to Select the Right Spouse
What do you are about to hear is a vaccine against divorce. This first dose is intended for single people, who have not yet decided who they want to spend the rest of ...
Parsha: 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...
Parsha: Chayei Sarah – The Transformation of Eliezer
Eliezer was Abraham’s right hand man. He was in charge of all of Abraham’s affairs. According to the Talmud, Eliezer was the consummate student of Abraham, drawing fro...
TORAH 101 – Frameworks for Human Situations, Sufferings, and Successes
Why are some people rich and others poor? Why do some people have a pleasant life, while others live in grinding, miserable, poverty and privation? Why is there so muc...
Parsha: Parshas Chayei Sara (Rebroadcast)
Some of the highlights of this week’s parsha: Immediately after the Binding of Isaac, Sarah passed away at the age of 127, and soon afterward Abraham had to procure a ...
Parsha: Vayeira – Exodus From Sodom
For the third time in the Torah, we read about destruction. Previously, the Flood destroyed the world save Noah and family, and the Dispersal ended the universal civil...
TORAH 101: Divine Omniscience
The Tenth Principle of the Thirteen Principles of Faith states that God is aware of the actions of mankind and acts accordingly. This kickstarts the third section of t...
Parsha: Parshas Vayeira (Rebroadcast)
This week’s parsha features several iconic episodes: Abraham was visited by God as he was recuperating from his circumcision, and concurrently engaged in superlative k...
Parsha: Lech Lecha – Applying for a Name Change
Abraham and Sarah undergo seismic changes in our Parsha. Their names get changed as does their destiny. Originally, they were barren, but in our Parsha, the founding P...
Ethics: Plummeting in Love (5:19)
Love is a fickle emotion. It is something that changes seemingly randomly. Why is love not fixed in place? What is the secret to enduring love? In this exquisite Mishn...
Parsha: Parshas Lech Lecha (Rebroadcast)
In this week’s parsha, Abraham is instructed to move to Israel, is given divine promises that he will be the father of many nations; his children will be as numerous a...
Parsha: Noach – Company Loves Misery
Our Parsha marks a nadir in the story of mankind. Humanity sunk to such spiritual lows that the Almighty decided to destroy the world and start over with just Noah and...
Ethics: How to Boost Your Intelligence (5:15-8)
There are different types of people in the world. Just as our faces are not identical, our perspectives and abilities and innate qualities differ. Regarding a host of ...
But I’m a Good Person with Dan Kullman
When my dear friend, Dan Kullman, asked me to join him on The Shema Podcast to discuss the phenomenon of people saying, “But I’m a good person,” I was not aware of how...
Parsha: Parshas Noach (Rebroadcast)
In this week’s parsha: Noah and his family build an Ark as a refuge from an extinction-level Flood brought by God to destroy the world’s sinners. Please email me at ra...
Parsha: Bereishis – Making Partner
What connection do we have with Genesis? In our parsha, God creates the world in six days and ceases to create of day seven, on Shabbos. What exactly does this have to...
Parsha: Parshas Bereishis (Rebroadcast)
With praise and appreciation to the Almighty, we begin another year of Torah study and a new cycle of the Parsha Podcast. This year, we will reupload the previous year...
Parsha: Vezos Habracha – Antidotes to Mediocrity
In the Torah’s final Parsha, and indeed, in its final words, we say goodbye to the greatest human to have ever lived. With the passing of Moshe, the Torah ends, and on...