This Jewish Life - By Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe

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 pervasive such a sentiment is and why discussing it would be interesting. In the end we had a delightful and stimulating conversation. […]

We are amid the incredible Festival of Sukkos. Each day (except Shabbos) we shake the Lulav and Esrog, we celebrate with our family, and we dwell in our temporary residence, the Sukkah. But what happens when the weather does not comply? What do we do when it gets swelteringly hot? In this podcast, we demonstrate […]

Over the course of the Festival of Sukkos (sometimes spelled “Sukkot”, sometimes “Succos”, rivaled only by the nightmare of trying to find the definitive spelling of Chanukah – Hannukah, Hanukkah), we must dwell in a temporary structure, a Sukkah. Why? “In order that your generations know that [God] made Sukkahs for us during the Exodus.” […]

Yom Kippur is the end of the annual judgment. On Yom Kippur, the verdict written on Rosh Hashana gets sealed. Until that deadline, however, we can effectuate our judgment. The verdict can be rewritten and amended; the bad decrees can be annulled. But it won’t happen automatically. We need to expend effort to ensure that […]

Yom Kippur is a day of atonement and expiation. On this auspicious day, the Almighty forgives us for all our transgressions and we become purified before God. But the purification of Yom Kippur is limited to sins between man and God. For interpersonal transgressions, there is no atonement unless the aggressor appeases and secures forgiveness […]

Rosh Hashana kickstarts the Ten Days of Repentance which culminates in Yom Kippur. This is the time to repent. But repentance is a daunting and terrifying concept. All change is frightening. In this very special edition of the podcast, we shed a new light on repentance. We discover that repentance is a great gift that […]

In addition to the many other themes and motifs of the day, Rosh Hashana is called the Day of Judgment. The Mishnah tells us that on Rosh Hashana every human has an individual audience with the Almighty in the same way that a shepherd counts each sheep individually. The judgment is comprehensive: all of a […]

These 40 days from the beginning of the month of Elul, the final month in the Jewish calendar, and Yom Kippur are the most powerful days of the year. These 40 days coincide with the 40 days that Moshe was in Heaven for the third 40 day stint when he received the second set of […]

Esther Kaplan (née Wolbe), along with her husband AJ, experienced the worst nightmare parents can undergo when their adorable and perfect son Shlomo passed away only 16 weeks into his life. This intimate and stirring conversation follows up on the one we had in 2018 in which Esther shares the story of Shlomo’s life and […]

Esther Kaplan (née Wolbe), along with her husband AJ, experienced the worst nightmare parents can undergo when their adorable and perfect son Shlomo passed away only 16 weeks into his life. In this intimate and stirring conversation Esther shares the story of Shlomo’s life and opens up about how parents absorb and process such an […]

The Exodus from Egypt is the founding episode of our nation. The Almighty plucked us out, a nation from amidst a nation, and chose us to be His people. What were the preconditions of the Exodus? What had to happen in order to facilitate our freedom? When we examine the Exodus carefully we learn about […]

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Please support This Jewish Life Podcast and the annual TORCH fundraiser at giveTORCH.org Every donation will be TRIPLED Show your support for TORCH and This Jewish Life Podcast and donate to the annual fundraiser at giveTORCH.org – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – […]

On Purim we read the Book of Esther, which tells the story of the Purim miracle. The Persian king Achashverosh conspires with his Amalekite viceroy Haman to eradicate the entire Jewish nation, but God refused to allow their plans to unfold. Queen Esther, together with her relative Mordechai, spearhead the effort to turn the plan on […]

When Adar enters, we increase in Joy (Talmud Taanis 29a). Adar, the month in which contains the Festival of Purim, kickstarts the season on joy in the Jewish calendar. On this month we were saved from Haman’s genocide, and it is closely followed by Nissan, the month of the Exodus. What does the Torah mean […]

The fifteenth day of the Jewish month of Shevat – known as Tu B’Shevat – is the New Year for trees and fruits. All the fruits that sprout before this cutoff are associated with the previous year’s yield and the ones that come afterwards are attributed to the new year’s. If that was all that […]

Every year, Chanukah falls out during the weeks in which we read about Joseph and his exploits in Egypt. Our Sages tell us that there is a deep connection between Joseph’s and the Maccabean heroism.  Many connections have been proposed, and in this podcast I suggest a new approach to understanding how Joseph precisely embodies […]

Shabbat is the beating heart of the Jewish family and the Jewish week. It is the portal through which the spiritual vitality for the entire week flows. This podcast idea was proposed in my email newsletter (visit rabbiwolbe.com/newsletter to subscribe). I had thrown out the idea of going through a Shabbat dinner and detailing all […]

The Festival of Sukkot ends with a three-day constellation of significant days: The seventh day is Hoshana Rabbah, the eighth is Shemini Atzeres, and the ninth is Simchas Torah. These days have unique customs not found in any other day in the Jewish calendar. In this sweeping podcast episode, we explore these days, plumb their […]

The two mitzvos of the Festival of Sukkos (Sukkot) are the shaking of the Lulav and the Four Species and the dwelling in the Sukkah. What is the deeper meaning behind these mitzvos? In this special pre-Festival episode, we examine the two mitzvos of Sukkos and see what they teach us about the Festival in […]