Shows / The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
The Parsha Podcast with Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe was started in 2016 with the goal of making the weekly Parsha accessible and useful. Every Sunday, the Parsha Podcast will feature an hour-long podcast outlining the story, narratives and major themes of that week’s Parsha and offer a selection of valuable and interesting insights from it. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, two more episodes that focuses on one idea, theme, or comment on the Parsha will be released. Please send comments or questions to…
Episodes
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Parshas Bo (Rebroadcast)
After the first seven Plagues of Egypt related in last week’s parsha, Pharaoh and his people were still unwilling to release the Children of Israel. In Parshas…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Vaeira – Hail to the Chief
Our Parsha details Moshe’s repeated efforts to get Pharaoh to send the Jews free. Pharaoh proved to be a tougher nut to crack, as predicted by God. His…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Vaeira – Manufactured Adversity (5783)
Prior to Moshe and Aaron making progress in their mission to extract the Jewish people from Egypt – their first efforts yielded no success, at least not in…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Parshas Vaeira (Rebroadcast)
Our Parsha begins in the middle of the dialogue between Moses and God. Moses’ initial foray into saving the nation has gone horribly awry. Instead of…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Shemos – The Name Game
The Parsha and the Book are called “Shemos”, meaning names. A review of the Parsha reveals all sorts of names-related subplots: The Parsha begins with…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Shemos – Moshe’s Moxie (5783)
The story of the Jewish people in the book of Exodus gets off to a difficult start. The nation is firmly ensconced in Egypt, but their experience there is…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Parshas Shemos (Rebroadcast)
The Book of Exodus begins with the Egyptians cunningly enslaving their Hebrew subjects: mandating that they work in backbreaking labor, killing their male…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Vayechi – Unexpected Greatness
Prior to his passing, Jacob gave a series of blessings to his descendants. He blessed Joseph and Joseph’s two sons, Ephraim and Menashe. He gathered his sons…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Vayechi – Anti-Oxidance (5783)
Immediately prior to his passing, Jacob gathered his sons with the intention of revealing to them what will happen at the end of days. With his 12 sons…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Parshas Vayechi (Rebroadcast)
Parshas Vayechi is the final portion of the Book of Genesis. Jacob is about to die and he tends to his affairs: He assures that he will not be buried in Egypt…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Vayigash – Joseph’s Magnanimity
Our Parsha sees the conclusion of the Saga of Joseph. The favorite son of Jacob is finally reunited with his father and his family as the fledgling nation of…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Vayigash – Definition of Life (5783)
Jacob relocates in our Parsha. Leaving Canaan once again, Jacob gathers his family and the possessions that he had acquired in Canaan and descends to Egypt to…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Parshas Vayigash (Rebroadcast)
Twenty two years have passed since Jacob and Joseph were separated. Ever since Joseph was torn away from him, Jacob was bereft of prophecy and inconsolable. In…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Mikeitz – Two and Twenty
Jacob was one of the greatest people of all time. He excelled in all areas of greatness. In this Parsha podcast we examine his superlative reliance upon God…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Mikeitz – Paining Grows (5783)
Joseph took a very unusual path to primacy: his brothers thought he was a good for nothing, and sold him as a slave. He was sold to Egypt, accused of a crime…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Parshas Mikeitz (Rebroadcast)
Parshas Mikeitz continues the narrative of Joseph in Egypt. We pick up his story two years after his failed attempt at earning a reprieve via his cellmate…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Vayeishev – War On Terror
Our Parsha contains the first act of several interconnected stories: Joseph had dreams of grandeur (literally) and he was placed on a path towards actualizing…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Vayeishev – Reuben’s Special Message (5783)
One of the most shocking events in the whole Torah occurs in our Parsha: Joseph’s brothers sell him as a slave to a caravan of traveling Ishmaelites. Two of…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Parshas Vayeishev (Rebroadcast)
Parshas Vayeishev contains two intersecting, seemingly scandalous, storylines, that after all the dust has settled we can see are harbingers of the Messiah and…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Vayishlach – Esau Academy
Jacob lived a rough life. He perennially had to contend with hostile forces. He was paired with an evil twin Esau who wanted to kill him. He was compelled to…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Vayishlach – Forefathers and Fouruncles (5783)
The story of the Forefathers is well known. The Fouruncles, less so. Intertwined in the story of our nation’s progenitors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in Genesis…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Parshas Vayishlach (Rebroadcast)
After successfully escaping the clutches of his deceptive father in law, Laban, Jacob heads back west to the Land of Canaan, and back to his family. The…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Vayeitzei – Ladders To/From Heaven
On the way to Charan Jacob stopped at Mount Moriah. He spent the night there and the Torah documents his very fateful dream: he saw a ladder suspended between…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Vayeitzei – Holy Sheeple (5783)
A large section of our Parsha contains intricate descriptions of Jacob as a shepherd. Initially, he worked for Laban as a shepherd for 7 years for the rights…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Parshas Vayeitzei (Rebroadcast)
Parshas Vayeitzei follows Jacob as he is fleeing from his murderous brother Esau and travels to Charan to the house of Laban, his wily and deceptive uncle, and…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Toldos – Jacob’s Heist
We are told to respect the will of our parents. Certainly, if your parent is righteous, it is severely inappropriate to violate their will. All the more so if…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Toldos – Twin Powers (5783)
Our Parsha features two very different twins. After decades of infertility, Isaac and Rebecca are blessed with twins, identical twins the Sages emphasize, who…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Parshas Toldos (Rebroadcast)
In Parshas Toldos we meet twin boys that are polar opposites: Esau, beloved by his father Isaac, is a man of the fields; while Jacob is loved by his mother…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Chayei Sarah – Reverse Repentance
Sarah was Abraham’s life partner. She was his superior as a prophetess. She accompanied him in all his journeys. In the aftermath of the Binding of Isaac, she…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Parshas Chayei Sarah (Rebroadcast)
Some of the highlights of this week’s parsha: Immediately after the Binding of Isaac, Sarah passed away at the age of 127, and soon afterward Abraham had to…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Vayeira – Five Languages of Laughter
Isaac is the most mysterious of the forefathers. His storyline does not have the same rich and dramatic narrative as Abraham and Jacob. What lessons we are…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Vayeira – The Struggle Is Real (5783)
How do we respond when we are faced with challenges? What are we supposed to think when the path before us seems unsteady and laden with dangers? Our Parsha…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Parshas Vayeira (Rebroadcast)
This week’s parsha features several iconic episodes: Abraham was visited by God as he was recuperating from his circumcision, and concurrently engaged in…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Lech Lecha – Abraham’s Fellow Travelers
Abraham seems to always be journeying. In last week’s Parsha he traveled from his birthplace of Ur to Charan. This week the Parsha begins with Abraham’s…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Lech Lecha – A Lot of Testing (5783)
Abraham was the most consequential human in all of history. He began the process of fixing the world and humanity. Amid a cesspool of idolatry, Abraham emerged…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Parshas Lech Lecha (Rebroadcast)
In this week’s parsha, Abraham is instructed to move to Israel, is given divine promises that he will be the father of many nations; his children will be as…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Noach – Cured Ham
After spending a year in the ark, Noah and his family exited it to find an empty and desolate world. The sinners who dominated the world before the flood were…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Noach – The Flood and The Fish (5783)
The Flood was a disaster for all the Earth’s inhabitants, humans and animals alike. With the exception of Noah and his family and the animals safely housed in…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Parshas Noach (Rebroadcast)
In this week’s parsha: Noah and his family build an Ark as a refuge from an extinction-level Flood brought by God to destroy the world’s sinners. – – – – – – –…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Bereishis – Genealogies of Genesis
With gratitude to the Almighty for all the goodness that He has bestowed upon us, we hereby begin again with the book of Genesis with year nine of the Parsha…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Bereishis – Cain’s Discovery (5783)
Welcome to Year Nine (!) of The Parsha Podcast. Each week will feature, with the help of the Almighty, three episodes, two ones from previous years and a new…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Parshas Bereishis (Rebroadcast)
With praise and appreciation to the Almighty, we begin year 9 of the Parsha Podcast (5785). This year, we will re-upload the Parsha Rebroadcast episode which…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Vezos Haberacha – Family Above (Almost) Everything
The final Parsha of the Torah tells of Moshe’s deathbed blessing to the tribes. For the duration of the Torah, Moshe has been constantly criticizing and…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Vezos Haberacha – An Offer You Can Refuse (5782)
The final Parsha of the Torah contains the blessing of Moshe to the nation, his death, burial, and eulogy. Rashi tells us that his blessing began with a…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Parshas Vezos Haberacha (Rebroadcast)
The final parsha of the Torah details the blessings that Moshe conveyed to the tribes of Israel immediately prior to his passing, and the Torah ends with the…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Jonah: The Yom Kippur Reading on a Deeper Level (Rebroadcast)
On Yom Kippur afternoon, we read the 48-verse Book of Jonah, which tells of a renegade prophet, Jonah, who defies the directive of God and refuses to castigate…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Haazinu – Trees with 70 Branches
Parshas Hazinu is one of the most fascinating, poetic, and richly profound Parshas in the Torah. It is also arguably the most mysterious one. The majority of…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
The Rosh Hashana Torah Reading – Day Two (Rebroadcast)
On the second day of Rosh Hashana, we read the Torah section of Genesis chapter 22 that tells the very famous and quite troubling episode of the Binding of…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
The Rosh Hashana Torah Reading – Day One (Rebroadcast)
The Torah readings for the two days of Rosh Hashana were not arbitrarily chosen. There are very good reasons why on the first day of Rosh Hashana we read…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Haazinu – Torrential Torah (5782)
The Song of Haazinu, the third of three Songs on the Torah, tells the story of the Jewish people, past, present, and future. It speaks of high points and…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Parshas Haazinu (Rebroadcast)
Still in the final day of Moshe’s life, he conveys to the nation a 43-verse Song predicting the contours of Jewish history, both past, present, and future. The…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Nitzavim Vayeilech – Like Clockwork
We are not machines. We are humans. And that’s messy. We have all sorts of struggles doing the right thing. We are influenced by a myriad of impulses…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Vayeilech – Career Capstone (5782)
On the last day of Moshe’s life, he accomplished a lot. He wrote 13 copies of the Torah, one per tribe and one to be permanently stationed in or near the Ark…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Nitzavim – The Penitent Manifesto (5782)
Repentance is one of God’s greatest gifts to mankind. When we blunder; when we err; when we create distance and barriers between us and God, we are afforded…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Parshas Nitzavim & Vayeilech (Rebroadcast)
On the final day of Moshe’s life, he gathered the entire nation – men, women, children, and according to the Talmud, all souls of future Jews – to pass them…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Ki Savo – Gaze from Heaven
Blessings and curses. That is the dominant theme of our Parsha. We read the admonition of Deuteronomy – 98 bone-chilling curses that will befall our people in…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Ki Savo – Clinging to Gold (5782)
On the surface, Bikkurim appears to be an ordinary, tithe-like Mitzvah. When the first fruits of a season’s crop begin to sprout, you designate them as…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Parshas Ki Savo (Rebroadcast)
As the Book of Deuteronomy draws to its conclusion, the narrative makes a transition: Moshe finishes conveying the mitzvos to the nation, and sets up his final…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Ki Seitzei – Conscience Cleanser
Of the motley potpourri of subjects featured in Parshas Ki Seitzei are several fascinating mitzvos that we address in this week’s Parsha podcast. We begin with…
- The Parsha Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
Ki Seitzei – The Payoff Pitch (5782)
What is the nature of the conflict of life? How, indeed, are we suspended between good and bad, between mitzvos and sin, between the evil and good…