This Jewish Life - By Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe

Rabbi Wolbe explains why Jews have traditionally stayed up the entire night of Shavuos studying.

Starting with a riveting history lesson for background, Rabbi Wolbe and his team of collaborators attempt to unravel and decipher a particularly complex Mishna.

Discussing the various philosophical angles and aspects of Altruism invariably generates vigorous debate. In this class, Rabbi Wolbe attempts to unravel the very complex Jewish position on the issue.

In this class we learn what distinguishes Man from all other species, about the fascinating Jewish idea of the convergence of the spiritual and the physical and, in a first, Rabbi Wolbe calls out one of the participants as being “flaky”.

Pirkei Avos, or Ethics of the Fathers is a compilation of Rabbinic ethical teachings spanning 500 years of Jewish vibrancy, circa 300 BCE to 200 CE, that, amazingly, retain their relevance to contemporary times. In this class, Rabbi Wolbe outlines the historical background to this fascinating work, explains the structure of the book, and digs […]

A small child rarely wakes up to tend to her crying mother. From the beginning of our lives we are self-centered and care about ourselves only; in our quest to build better relationships, we must learn the tools to rid ourselves of this vile characteristic.

On Purim we are instructed to intoxicate ourselves with wine till we do not know the difference between “Haman is cursed” and “Mordechai is blessed”. What could possibly be the rationale behind such a strange mitzvah?

Rabbi Wolbe addresses this interesting question, and also dabbles with the philosophical problems of an infinite existence and a finite world coexisting, and the paradox of Free Will in the face of an All Knowing God.

Rabbi Wolbe explains the seemingly strange phenomenon where a defendant cannot be executed if the Judges unanimously call for his guilt, and other interesting laws relating to capital punishment.

Is Halacha immutable? Does Halacha adapt to modernity? Did the executioners of the Law have the integrity to stay true and not bend in the face of controversy?

Rabbi Wolbe tackles a puzzling point to ponder relating to Adam and Eve and discusses various elements of Free Will.

Rabbi Wolbe explains the meaning of Moses being the “father of all prophets”, and delineates the profound differences in the veracity of our Revelations vs. all other religions.

How do we understand Biblical stories that seem to indicate that great men made grave mistakes? In this Q&A episode, Rabbi Wolbe discusses the story of Cain and Ebel, Reuben and Bilhah, David and Bathsheba and more.

In this episode we address the idea of “Bashert” or destined one, the Talmudic sources for it, and outline the plan to find that special one

In this episode we discuss the positive and negative effects of our society, our community and our friends

In this episode, Rabbi Wolbe explains the theory and the practice of prayer and addresses all the philosophical problems with prayer, and  gives us the key to getting our prayers answered.

We all have those moments in life where we are galvanized to change ourselves, our community or the entire world. However, only a select few people actually take the inspiration to the finish line. In this episode, Rabbi Wolbe delineates the fundamental key point that distinguished the great ones from the common-folk. (לע”נ שלמה בן חיים […]

Our intellect is our most potent of assets. It is what distinguishes us from animals and what enables us to overcome our challenges. Learn the how what and why of maximizing your intellectual power in this episode

What is Mussar and how did it come about? Those questions, coupled with anecdotes and lessons, are the content of this episode.