This Jewish Life - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe

Students of the Almighty’s holy Torah are familiar with the term midrash. It refers to a series of books that serve as commentaries on the Torah and on other holy writings. But where does the Midrash come from? What authority does it have? What about the comments in the Midrash that seem outlandish and totally […]

Gratitude is one of the most, if not the most, important values in our religion. In fact, our sources tell us that the reason why God created His creation was to enable us to express our gratitude. But what if what we receive is a mixed bag of good and bad? Must we also express […]

Today’s podcast is a wild card. This past Shabbos I was invited to join a panel of rabbis to answer a series of interesting questions submitted by high school students from the all-girls high school in Houston. In this special episode I share some of the fascinating questions and some of what I said – […]

Abraham’s storyline in the Torah is curiously: There are some parts of his life that are told in detail, while other seemingly important events are omitted entirely. What we discover is that the storyline of Abraham serves as a prototype for how to actualize our potential. In this very special podcast, we dissect Abraham’s story […]

It’s election season in America. Your vote matters. Even if you don’t live in the swing state, it is recommended that you vote and exercise your civic right and duty. There is another area where you need to vote. The other area is much more consequential. The effects of how you vote in that area […]

Serious people face a serious problem: once you understand that the Almighty created you for a purpose, and that purpose is completely unique to you – there is no one else who can fulfill whatever it is that you must fulfill- you recognize the imperative to discover your personal mission. But how do you find […]

The Jewish holidays are not evenly spaced out. They appear in bunches. A mere five days after Yom Kippur comes the seven-day (truthfully nine when you tally everything) Festival of Sukkos (appendaged by Shemini Atzeres and Simchas Torah). The next Festival (excluding the Rabbinic holidays of Chanukah and Purim) does not occur for six months. […]

Repentance draws a person out of darkness into eternal light. It transforms the penitent into a completely new person. But how exactly does repentance work? How do you repent? What are the various elements and facets of repentance? The authoritative book on these questions, Shaarei Teshuva, the Gates of Repentance, was written in the 13th […]

The Ten Days of Repentance are upon us. In just a few days is the Day of Judgment, Rosh Hashanah. These powerful high holidays culminate with the climax of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. What exactly is repentance though? How are we supposed to think about repentance? In this very special podcast, we study […]

Jew hatred is not a new phenomenon. Ever since our people were founded — and truthfully even beforehand — we have been the recipients of unprecedented, enmity and hostility. Why are God’s chosen people uniquely targeted? What is the underlying reason for anti-Semitism? Why are we not more accepted into and tolerated by the general […]

Seven things were created before the world was created. That much we are told in the Talmud. What is the significance of this collection of things that preceded the world? When we analyze the list, moreover, we read how the name of Messiah is included amongst it. What exactly is the name of Messiah? Is […]

The festival of Shavuos marks the anniversary of the most momentous and consequential event in all of human history: the Sinai Revelation. A mere 50 days after the Exodus, the nation coalesced around the mountain and witnessed when no other people has had witnessed prior or since: They heard the Ten Commandments directly from the […]

Questions can be unsettling. Questions can cause dissonance. Questions can be painful. But questions can also be illuminating. They can open up new portals of insight and perspective. Questions are a central part of Torah study. Much of the Talmud is written in a question and answer format. The Passover seder is marked by the […]

The Torah is effectively infinite. It is longer than the land and broader than the seas. God is infinite and unfathomable; He gave us His Torah in order for us to connect with Him. Torah is, in fact, accessible to us, but we never arrive at the end point of Torah. It’s infinite. Moreover, the […]

Many (most?) people believe in God. Believers accept the reality that the world, the universe, finite existence is the handiwork of an infinite God. Why do people believe? What evidence do believers have? These are some of the questions that my dear friends, Ron Kardos and Bruce Licht, sought to have answered. They conceived of […]

TORCH Fundraiser — support the This Jewish Life Podcast Our organization, TORCH, does only one fundraiser a year, and that is happening right now at giveTORCH.org. This is a matching campaign and every donation will be DOUBLED. Please support the This Jewish Life Podcast right now at giveTORCH.org The website for the Fundraiser is giveTORCH.org Click and donate to […]

TORCH Fundraiser — support the This Jewish Life Podcast Our organization, TORCH, does only one fundraiser a year, and that is happening right now at giveTORCH.org. This is a matching campaign and every donation will be DOUBLED. Please support the This Jewish Life Podcast right now at giveTORCH.org The website for the Fundraiser is giveTORCH.org Click and donate to […]

Our nation is at war. Our brothers and sisters are in combat in Gaza, displaced from their homes in the north and the south of Israel, traumatized from the atrocities of October 7th, and of course there are 100 plus hostages still in Gaza. Our nation is experiencing pain and challenge the likes of which […]

Our family was blessed with a new baby boy this past Sunday evening. With the help of the almighty, he will be joining the covenant of Abraham and receive his Bris tomorrow morning, Monday the 15th of January, in the Young Israel of Houston. In this special, celebratory podcast, I share what I said on […]

When our nation experiences tragedy, we gravitate back to God. That is how we process pain and suffering. The Jewish people – especially our brothers and sisters in Israel – are exhibiting this response with resplendent nobility and strength of character. During the ongoing war, the Jewish spirit is being awakened. Jewish faith is being ignited […]

My dear friend and long time podcast listener Yoshi Rosenbluth spent a month in Gaza as a fighter in the IDF. In this very special podcast, he tells us what things are like on the ground from a soldier’s perspective. If you want an insider’s look into the battlefront in Gaza, this podcast is for […]

In the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas, the terror organization that has governed Gaza since 2007, there is a very big divide between Jews living in the land of Israel and those of us in the Diaspora. While Jews worldwide may empathize with their Israeli brethren and rally and pray for their cause, the […]

Kidneys serve many vital functions. Their primary function is to filter the blood from any toxins or contaminants. Thankfully, the Almighty sends (most of) us to this world with two working kidneys. We have a bit of nephrological redundancy. People who suffer from kidney failure, God forbid, are greatly imperiled. In this podcast, I welcome […]

Few sequels live up to the high standards set by the original. Podfather Part 2 is an exception to the rule. In this special episode covering a variety of parenting subjects, we hear from both PodParents. My father and my mother – Avi and Faige Wolbe – both joined me in the TORCH Centre to […]

The Hebrew word for education is “Chinuch”. Rabbi Yerachmiel Garfield is the Head of School of Yeshiva Torat Emet, the school in Houston, Texas that we send our children to, and is the host of the Chinuch Today podcast. In his podcasts, he interviews teachers and educators about Jewish education. He asked my brother and […]

Rabbi Shmuly Botnick returns to the podcast with his most mind-bending and dynamic contribution hitherto. In this exhilarating roller-coaster of a podcast, Rabbi Botnick weaves the generation of Enosh, the Flood, the placement of Moshe into the water, his retrieval by Pharaoh’s daughter, his complaint to God about the initial efforts to save the nation, […]

It is not exactly clear what the participants in the Tower of Babel wanted. We know they wanted to ascend to heaven and to make a name for themselves, but what precisely they wanted is more of a mystery. The Midrash talks about it, the Talmud does as well – and in this podcast we […]

Parents are sent home with newborn babies without an instruction manual. They are expected to raise their child(ren) to become productive, responsible, and successful adults. As Jews, we have an added responsibility to raise our children as good Jews. Parents face a monumental task. This was always nightmarishly difficult, but with the rapidly-changing world that […]

The festival of Sukkos is called “the time of our joy.” The entire festival is associated with joy. Sitting in the Sukkah is joyous, shaking the Lulav is joyous, the traditional celebratory festivities are known as the “Joy of the Drawing.” Why are these days so intimately associated with joy? In this special podcast, we […]

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 people of Nineveh and instead escapes from God to Tarshish – with mixed results. A simple reading of the story reveals a tale of repentance, both of […]

The days spanning from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur are known as the Ten Days of Repentance. Over the course of these days, we have extra prayers and supplications, and make an extra effort to improve and correct our ways, culminating of course, with the greatest day of them all, Yom Kippur. But repentance is […]

Rosh Hashana is a day of repentance. But unlike Yom Kippur, there is nary a mention of sin in all the ceremonies, prayers, and liturgies of Rosh Hashanah. What is the nature of repentance decoupled from acknowledgment of sin? When we study the sources related to Rosh Hashanah, we discover several fascinating opportunities that differentiate […]

Rosh Hashanah is the beginning. It is the beginning of the High Holidays. It is the beginning of the 10 days of repentance. It marks the beginning of humanity. On this day, Adam was created. Rosh Hashana marks the beginning of God’s Dominion and Kingship over the world, because a king absent a nation is […]

The month of Elul is upon us. Over the course of the next few weeks, Jewish communities worldwide will prepare for the high holidays of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur with special prayers and with a daily blast of the shofar. We are preparing. We are getting ready for the awesome days upcoming. But what […]

The Torah is an instruction manual from God. The word Torah, in fact, means instruction. The Torah contains many details; in fact, there is no conceivable situation that the Torah does not provide guidance for. But what is the ultimate goal of Torah? What does the finished product supposed to look like? In a surprising […]

The Ninth Day of the month of Av is the saddest day of the Jewish calendar. On this day, the First Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians. On this same day the Second Temple was destroyed by the Romans. The Bar Kochba rebellion was stamped out with violent finality on this day. This is a […]

The 18th century commentary on the Torah, Ohr HaChaim, is one of the most unique, ingenious, and sprawling works in the Jewish library. In this special podcast, released on the 280th yartzeit of the author of Ohr HaChaim, Rabbi Chaim ibn Attar, Rabbi Shmuly Botnick shares with us a sampling of ideas curated from the […]

The Sinai Revelation is the most significant event in all of human history: God revealed Himself to the entire Jewish people, He spoke to them, He gave them the Torah, and they lived. This day is revisited every single year on the festival of Shavuos. Our objective on this day is to renew our vows […]

Shavuos is the Festival that marks the day of the giving of the Torah. More than 3300 years ago, our nation coalesced around Mount Sinai and we experienced some thing that no other nation has ever experienced: the Almighty spoke to us as a nation and we lived to tell the tale. We heard the […]

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 […]

Please support the annual TORCH fundraiser at giveTORCH.org Every donation is DOUBLED. Our organization, TORCH, runs one annual fundraiser, and it is happening right now at giveTORCH.org. We need your support – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – This week […]

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 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 […]

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 […]