This Jewish Life - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe
TORCH
This Jewish Life is Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe’s flagship podcast. Since its founding in January of 2013, This Jewish Life has featured a delightful potpourri of podcast episodes on a myriad of Jewish subjects. In its current incarnation, the podcast focuses on exploring the deeper elements of Jewish life and philosophy. In each episode our objective is to go a bit deeper into subjects that we may be familiar with, to plumb the depths and uncover the essence of the beauty and sublimity of Jewish life and customs, and Torah wisdom. Please email any questions, comments, or feedback to rabbiwolbe@gmail.com.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Feb 10, 2014 • 34min
Maimonides on Reward and Punishment Part 1
Rambam on גן עדן, משיח, תחיית המתים, ועוה”ב. Definitions and perspectives.
Feb 10, 2014 • 45min
Beware of the Two Cliffs: How to navigate the perils of Self Perfection
Any pursuit of self perfection and character refinement will invariably be accompanied by two frightening and formidable challenges: 1. Body-Backlash; when the body rejects the agenda of the soul. 2. Heightened Haughtiness; when someone ascends to Mount Pious and declares himself mayor and looks down condescendingly upon others. These two dangers must be approached very carefully…
Feb 10, 2014 • 36min
Ten Pious Men and One Prostitute
When the Torah presents us with parallel stories of people with radically different priorities and spiritual statuses who faced similar challenges with counter-intuitive results, clearly there is an important lesson for us.
Feb 10, 2014 • 1h 33min
Man, Judaism and the pursuit of Pleasure Part 3
We continue with enlightening and sobering guidance from the Torah regarding happiness and Love.
Feb 10, 2014 • 1h 27min
Man, Judaism and the pursuit of Pleasure Part 2
In part 2 we dissect the nature of the different types of Pleasures and explain the Torah’s view on the pros and cons of simple physical pleasures.
Jan 20, 2014 • 1h 25min
Man, Judaism and the pursuit of Pleasure Part 1
We begin this first of a multiple part exposition of major items in Jewish Life, Philosophy and Practice with a controversial but logical conclusion and a question. The conclusion: Life can only have meaning if God exists. The question: When you accept the Jewish definition of God you accept that God lacks nothing; so for what purpose did God decide to create the universe? We then dig into the two answers promulgated by traditional Jewish sources. Tune in for some advanced Jewish philosophy.
Jan 19, 2014 • 39min
The Overachiever’s Secret
The term “overachiever” should not be mistakenly conferred onto people who achieve greatness; greatness can result from great intellect, opportunity and circumstance, overachievers are those who achieve beyond what their peers in circumstance and ability achieve. What is their secret, and how can we emulate them?
Jan 13, 2014 • 1h 21min
God through history
In this wide ranging discussion on God and his active participation in history, we ask, and attempt to answer, questions like these:
How did 600k Jews mobilize and leave Egypt at a moments notice?
Where was God during the Holocaust, Inquisition, the Chmielnicki massacres of 1648?
Why does God not do miracles miracles every day?
How is the founding of our religion different than every other one?
Jan 7, 2014 • 1h 17min
Adam and Eve: A Model Marriage?
In several places in Jewish Literature and practice we present Adam and Eve as a prototype of a relationship worth emulating. There is only one slight problem with that – Adam and Eve did not seem to have a stable relationship, much less an idyllic and harmonious one. What could the Torah possibly mean when we are instructed to act like Adam and Eve in pursuit of positive long term relationships?
Jan 7, 2014 • 48min
The Four Kinds
In 8 (!) instances in the Torah we are commanded with a seemingly unachievable task of “Thou shall walk in the ways of God”. The Talmud explains that this commandment instructs us to emulate God in our own behavior and activities – “Just as God is Merciful, you too be merciful; just as God is benevolent, you too be benevolent.” The fact that the Torah found it necessary to repeat and reiterate this commandment multiple times demonstrates the premium that the Torah places on Kindness. Alas, not all kindness are created equal. Tune in for the Four Kinds.
