All Episodes
Displaying 91 - 120 of 941 in total
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 - Tefillin' Good
This is a very special episode of the Parsha podcast. Exactly 5 years ago, the Parsha podcast began a streak of producing a brand new episode each week. With the unend...
Parsha: Eikev - Longevity Pill (5783)
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...
TORAH 101: Second Order of Mishnah (Festivals)
The Jewish calendar is studded with days of great importance. Each week we relive Genesis by celebrating the holy Shabbos. At half-year intervals are the mega festival...
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 - Two of Hearts
Even believers are incapable of understanding God. It's supremely logical to observe that our wonderful world - our wonderful universe - certainly had a Creator, but h...
Parsha: Vaeschanan - Jordan Rules (5783)
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...
Biblical Longevity
We all want to live long. But how long is a long life? Centenarians are still rare. Global life expectancy is around 70 years old. In healthier, richer countries, mayb...
Parshas Vaeschanan (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 - Wellsprings of Beer
There are many levels of Torah. There are many ways to acquire Torah, 48 by the calculation of our Sages. The human with the greatest understanding of Torah was obviou...
Parsha: Devarim - Middling East (5783)
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...
Tisha Bav: Why We Mourn
The ninth day of the Hebrew month of Av is the saddest day of the Jewish calendar. All manner of calamities and tragedies and disasters befell our people on this day. ...
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 - Greatness and Anti-Greatness
Accidents are unfortunate. Accidents that lead to death are a catastrophe. Among the myriad of subjects discussed in this week's double Parsha is the law of the accide...
Parsha: Mattos & Masei - 49-Step Program (5783)
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 ...
TORAH 101: First Order of Mishnah (Planting)
The Mishnah is a massive, sprawling, and utterly comprehensive canon of Torah law. Spanning 60+ books over 6 Orders, the Mishnah includes all the laws of the Torah. To...
Parsha: Pinchas - Sunday and Moonday
Great leaders are often irreplaceable. The greatest leader of them all is certainly irreplaceable. But even Moshe must have a successor. In our Parsha, Moshe asks God ...
Parsha: Pinchas - Sons of Anarchist (5783)
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...
Assault on Dina: A Deep Exploration of a Third Rail Topic
Some subjects are way too dicey address publicly - electrified third rail subjects which zap anyone who approaches it. But Blake Cohn is not afraid of third rails. In ...
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: Balak - Ruthless and Ruthful Determination
Balak, King of Moab, and Bilaam, sorcerer extraordinaire, hatched a plot to annihilate the Jewish people. Had their plan been successful, there would not have been eve...
TORAH 101: Components of Oral Torah
What makes up Oral Torah? What are the different types of information included in the Mishnah? In part 3 of the authoritative, magisterial, and comprehensive introduct...
Parshas Balak (Rebroadcast)
After the Jewish nation trounced the mighty kingdoms of Sichon and Og in last week's parsha, the comparatively smaller and weaker kingdom of Moab resorted to unconvent...
Parsha: Chukas - Bold and Boulder
When the nation needed water, they found it in a most unexpected place: Moshe struck a rock and it began to spew forth enough water for the entire nation. Why was ther...
Parsha: Chukas - Methods of Transformation (5783)
In Parshas Chukas we read about the death of two giants: Miriam and Aaron, Moshe's older sister and brother, pass away. Our sages tell us that the death of the righteo...
Demystifying Chareidi Opposition to IDF Enlistment
Perhaps the most controversial and divisive subject that dominates Israeli society today is the question of the blanket army exemption given to Yeshiva students. Someo...
Parshas Chukas (Rebroadcast)
In this week's parsha, 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...
Parsha: Korach - On Cloudy
Of Korach's 253 collaborators, only three are named, and all three are Reubenites: Dathan, Abiram, and On Ben Peles. Dathan and Abiram remain true to Korach's cause un...
Parsha: Korach - Korach's Insatiability (5783)
Korach was immensely talented. He was enormously rich, he was clever, and he was devilishly persuasive. His rebellion, however, was doomed from the start. What are the...