Torah 101 - By Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe

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 festivals of Sukkos and Pesach (Passover). There’s also Shavuos, Rosh Hashanah, and the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur. The second Order of Mishnah orients around all these days of […]

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 study it all would take a very long time. To know it all, takes a lifetime. In this podcast, we try to gain an appreciation for […]

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 introduction to Mishnah offered by Rambam, we learn about the five different components of oral Torah, two that come all the way back from the times of Moshe, and three […]

The veracity of prophecy is a critical component of our philosophy. But how do we know if a prophecy claimant is legit? How do we differentiate between real prophets and fraudulent ones? In our second installment on Rambam’s introduction to his commentary on Mishnah, we explore the four different categories of prophecy, the limitations of […]

The Torah was given to us by God with absolute perfection. A unique feature of that is the dual formats of Torah: written and oral. In this interesting and informative podcast, we begin the study of Maimonides’ magisterial introduction to his commentary on Mishnah. He begins by tracing the history of oral Torah all the […]

Spiritual pleasure is vastly, infinitely greater than physical pleasures, and are completely imperceivable by bodies. Only if you work assiduously to develop a sensory connection with your soul, can you begin to taste it. The ultimate venue of spiritual pleasure is known as Olam Haba, the world to come. What about other venues of reward? […]

There is great confusion about what the ultimate reward for righteousness and the ultimate punishment for wickedness are. Rambam’s magisterial essay is designed to provide clarity in these lofty matters of eschatology. In part 2, we learn all about the concept of spiritual pleasure. Our bodies are very finely attuned to experiences of pain and […]

In his commentary to Mishnah, Rambam (Maimonides) offers a fascinating overview of the subjects of the Afterlife, Resurrection, Messiah, Paradise, and Olam Haba (the world to come). This is arguably the single greatest essay on these exotic, esoteric, and arcane subjects. In this podcast, we address the first section of this magisterial essay. We read […]

Why do bad things happen to good people? What role does Oral Torah play in Jewish life? Why did the Almighty create two worlds, the world of the bodies and the world of the souls? What is the difference between today and the days of Messiah? These are just some of the questions that are […]

Why did God give us such a precious and holy and profound Torah? Wouldn’t it be enough to give us some simple rules to live by? Why is our nation chosen above all other nations? Shouldn’t all humans be the same? These are some very advanced question and one that our sages reveal deep insights […]

The Sinai Revelation was a mass testimony of faith. The only event of its kind saw God revealing Himself to a nation comprised of millions, who heard and experienced prophecy and lived to tell their children about it. The founding event of our religion is historically unchallengeable and completely unprecedented: There is no other religion […]

Some atheists are quite intelligent. Some atheists score highly on IQ tests. How can they be so wrong on matters of faith? Where exactly do the atheists go wrong? In this interesting TORAH 101 podcast, we pinpoint the precise area that causes atheists to err. It turns out, a perfectly functioning and competent and capable […]

We have made enormous strides in our pursuit of a deep, and comprehensive study of Rambam’s 13 principles of faith. We have plumbed the depths of these 13 tenets of our religion to the best of our ability. This podcast marks the final installment of this series. In it we explore some of the various […]

It is hard enough for us to keep track of what happens to us in our lifetime; what happens after we die is truly a mystery. But there are timelines that are even murkier: what happens after Messiah? How does the Resurrection unfold? Is Resurrection a one-time thing or are there many different resurrections? What […]

In the previous episode, we established that resurrection for the purposes of eternal life in Olam Haba is a process of restoring humanity to the sort of life that matches that of Adam and Eve before their sin. In this podcast episode, we further explore the nature of this resurrection: We identify the primary distinction […]

What is the point of resurrection? This question has dual meanings: what is the goal of resurrection and what is the point from which resurrection begins? In this very important podcast we answer both questions. What we learn greatly enhances our understanding of resurrection and gives us the faint outlines of the road map that […]

The great medieval sage my Maimonides – Rambam – has been guiding us throughout our studies of the 13th principles of faith. This transcendental scholar, who’s magisterial writings are authoritatively accepted amongst the entirety of the Jewish people, was one of our people’s greatest personalities. His writings are enormously influential and authoritative in matters of […]

In our pursuit of understanding of the subject of resurrection, many questions remain. In the previous episode we talked about the two types of resurrection, there is still a lack of clarity in the similarities and the differences between the two types of resurrection. Furthermore, the Talmud says that the righteous are alive even when […]

One of me hallmarks of the Messianic times is the resurrection of the righteous. With Messiah comes the reemergence of the righteous. Those buried in the land will precede those buried outside of it, but all the righteous will come back. This is well established in the Literature. In this podcast we discussed the two […]

The subject of resurrection was hotly debated in times of yore. The Talmud records a series of debates between great rabbis and their Roman contemporaries about the this subject. When we probe the matter more deeply, we discover that the Roman disbelievers of resurrection have a very good argument. Reasonable people can come to the […]