This Jewish Life - By Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe

Join Rabbi Wolbe and his trustful comrades as they attempt to unlock the wonderful meaning and insight of the Jewish calendar. This presentation will succeed in shattering the childish and simplistic understandings of the Jewish holidays that most of us have harbored since our youth, and infuse the holidays and rituals of the Jewish year […]

Join Rabbi Wolbe and his trustful comrades as they attempt to unlock the wonderful meaning and insight of the Jewish calendar. This presentation will succeed in shattering the childish and simplistic understandings of the Jewish holidays that most of us have harbored since our youth, and infuse the holidays and rituals of the Jewish year […]

It is well documented that modern humans fail at marriage at alarming rates. In the United States for example, in any given year the amount of divorces are roughly half the amount of marriages pegging the divorce rate around 50%. Shockingly, 5 out of 10 couples who commit to stay married to each other “until […]

Thinking and contemplating about our own demise is perhaps the most powerful tool we can use to change the way we think about life. When we realize that we too will swallow that bitter pill of death, our life and values appear in a new light. But what actually happens when we die? And what […]

A parent who brings a child to this world has accepted upon himself/herself the responsibilities of raising that child to be a happy, healthy and stable adult. This axiomatic idiom has been an unfortunate causality of today’s society. In America today only 63% of children grow up together with both biological parents. As Jews we […]

If you are ready to go kosher you have come to the right place. Rabbi Wolbe outlines the three easy step involved in transforming from a kosher novice to complete kosher observance. Kosher has never been simpler.

In the finale of the series we seek the greatest pleasure of them all.

Rabbi Wolbe addresses an interesting topic: The status of the Torah before it was given. Did Abraham have Torah? Did the Torah exist before the universe did?

Humans have a physiological innate need to live for something; to have meaning. Our needs go beyond the physical. In Judaism we say that this need is the yearning of the soul for soulful nourishment the same way bodies scream out for their unmet needs. Rabbi Wolbe teaches the Torah’s methods of how to utilize […]

Rambam on גן עדן, משיח, תחיית המתים, ועוה”ב. Definitions and perspectives.

Any pursuit of self perfection and character refinement will invariably be accompanied by two frightening and formidable challenges: 1. Body-Backlash; when the body rejects the agenda of the soul. 2. Heightened Haughtiness; when someone ascends to Mount Pious and declares himself mayor and looks down condescendingly upon others. These two dangers must be approached very […]

When the Torah presents us with parallel stories of people with radically different priorities and spiritual statuses who faced similar challenges with counter-intuitive results, clearly there is an important lesson for us.

We continue with enlightening and sobering guidance from the Torah regarding happiness and Love.

In part 2 we dissect the nature of the different types of Pleasures and explain the Torah’s view on the pros and cons of simple physical pleasures.

We begin this first of a multiple part exposition of major items in Jewish Life, Philosophy and Practice with a controversial but logical conclusion and a question. The conclusion: Life can only have meaning if God exists. The question: When you accept the Jewish definition of God you accept that God lacks nothing; so for […]

The term “overachiever” should not be mistakenly conferred onto people who achieve greatness; greatness can result from great intellect, opportunity and circumstance, overachievers are those who achieve beyond what their peers in circumstance and ability achieve. What is their secret, and how can we emulate them?

In this wide ranging discussion on God and his active participation in history, we ask, and attempt to answer, questions like these: How did 600k Jews mobilize and leave Egypt at a moments notice? Where was God during the Holocaust, Inquisition, the Chmielnicki massacres of 1648? Why does God not do miracles miracles every day? […]

In several places in Jewish Literature and practice we present Adam and Eve as a prototype of a relationship worth emulating. There is only one slight problem with that – Adam and Eve did not seem to have a stable relationship, much less an idyllic and harmonious one. What could the Torah possibly mean when […]

In 8 (!) instances in the Torah we are commanded with a seemingly unachievable task of “Thou shall walk in the ways of God”. The Talmud explains that this commandment instructs us to emulate God in our own behavior and activities – “Just as God is Merciful, you too be merciful; just as God is […]

Join Rabbi Wolbe as he explores and examines several peculiar curiosities about the forbearer of mankind, Adam. Why was man the only creature created as a single individual; why didn’t create a flock, tribe, gaggle or pride of humans? Why did Adam not have Torah, and how could he possibly have succeeded in his challenge […]