This Jewish Life - By Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe

Our forefather Abraham forged a covenant with God: God shows him to be the forefather of the Jewish people, which includes all sorts of Rights and responsibilities. For one, Abraham’s descendants were condemned to be enslaved for 400 years. On the brighter side, the nation became recipients of the Almighty’s Torah and Mitzvos. The nation […]

The Pesach Haggadah guides us through the Seder night and the story of the Exodus. But as is always true in our religion, there are secrets and mysteries lurking beneath the surface. To plumb the esoteric depths of the Haggadah we invited back to the podcast the legend himself, Rabbi Shmuly Botnick. In this podcast […]

The Festival of Pesach is upon us. For seven days we will eat Matzah and avoid any traces of chometz. We will gather together with our families around the Seder table and recount the story of the Exodus, retelling and reliving the founding episode of our Nation. In an effort to get in the mode […]

“When the month of Adar commences, we increase joy.” This oft-recited Talmudic dictum captures the emotion of this month. Adar is a time of joy due to the Purim miracles. It is also associated with, we discover in this belated month-theme podcast with the great Rabbi Shmuly Botnick, fish, the tribe of Naftali, techeiles, the […]

In preparation for the upcoming festival of Purim, my colleagues and I gathered together for a roundtable discussion about the power and meaning of the day. It is a joyous day of celebration and revelry, but when we examine it deeply, we discover it is a day of great, transformative, spiritual power. Elevate your Purim […]

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The Jewish people were trapped. Only a week after they left Egypt, Pharaoh had chased them in hot pursuit, and now they had no place to go: with their backs up against the sea, and a heavily armed Egyptian army encircling them, the nation complained to Moshe, “are there insufficient graves in Egypt?”. For his […]

The Jewish months are replete with secrets and mysteries. Studying the months and their hidden messages reveal to us the power contained with the days and the spiritual energy of the times. The month of Shevat is known for the minor festival at its midpoint, Tu B’Shvat, which is the Rosh Hashana for fruit trees. […]

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 commemorates The siege of Jerusalem at the hands of the Babylonians, an event which culminated in the destruction of the First Temple and the […]

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 shared an idea about Chanukah and how to make the most of these days. If you want to experience a convivial, collegial, conversation about Chanukah with the Podcasters […]

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 celebrates the victory of the Jewish people over the Greeks and the restoration and the reinauguration of the Temple. But what is the secret of this […]

In this podcast you will learn something that is simultaneously exhilaratingly exciting and angst-inducingly terrifying. You will learn how someone can have a winning lottery ticket and fail to cash it. You will learn about the small trigger that is needed to actualize our blessings and potential. This is a very important lesson that we […]

Each of the twelve months in the Jewish calendar contain a unique spiritual energy and power. The power of each month, encapsulated in a zodiac sign, is often represented in the holidays, festivals, and noteworthy days of said month. The month that just concluded, Tishrei, is jam packed with days of note: Rosh Hashana, Yom […]

The Sukkah that we dwell in for 7 days is a reenactment of the Clouds of Glory that enshrouded the nation for 40 years. Starting right after the Exodus, the nation was cocooned in miraculous clouds. These clouds flattened mountains, filled in valleys, and eliminated any threats. The clouds signal journeys, cleaned and ironed clothes, […]

In honor of the festival of Sukkot, I gathered together with some of my TORCH podcaster colleagues to chat about the festival, it’s meaning, and lessons. Each one of us got an opportunity to share an idea on the festival, and to promote our respective podcast(s). In a decision that compromised the audio quality, we […]

Yom Kippur is the greatest day of the year. The name of book of Talmud that orients around Yom Kippur is Yoma, meaning “Day.” This is The Day when everything changes. On this day, the Almighty is close to us. On this day, He extends purification and forgiveness to us. On this day, God purifies […]

One of the most mysterious elements of the Yom Kippur ceremony is the scapegoat ceremony. The High priest took two identical male goats and made a lottery, one was offered as a sacrifice to God in the Temple, and the other one was a scapegoat, upon which the sins of the nation were conferred and […]

Our Sages enumerates a list of seven things that preceded the world. Included in this list is repentance. Why was it necessary to create repentance before the creation of the world? In this podcast we speculate an answer: repentance is a supernatural miracle that thoroughly violates the rules of this world, and therefore once the […]

On the night of Rosh Hashana in Jewish homes the world over, a strange set of customs are observed. We take an apple, dip it into honey, and declare that we should have a sweet new year. We take a pomegranate, disgorge it’s seeds, consume them and pray that we be filled with merits like […]

Tastewise, kosher chicken and non-kosher chicken are indistinguishable. When it comes to the price tag, these two fowls are drastically different. The discrepancy in price creates an incentive for unscrupulous restaurateurs. If you can buy chicken at the non-kosher price, and sell it at the kosher price, you can juice your profits by a large […]