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
May 21, 2013 • 57min
National Revelation: An experience unlike any other
The answer to the most important question of all: How do we know we are right? Religions are mutually exclusive; The Jews, Christians and Moslems cannot all be right. It’s a zero sum game: If we are right, they all must be wrong! As Jews, we have to ask ourselves the question: are we merely basing our faith on what our parents inculcated in us? Are we no different than the 1000s of other religions out there, each touting itself as being the only true doctrine of God? Indeed, there is compelling evidence to distinguish Judaism from the crowd.
May 9, 2013 • 12min
Shavuos Snippets
Rabbi Wolbe explains why Jews have traditionally stayed up the entire night of Shavuos studying.
May 9, 2013 • 1h 12min
The Individual in a community. Ethics 2.4
Starting with a riveting history lesson for background, Rabbi Wolbe and his team of collaborators attempt to unravel and decipher a particularly complex Mishna.
Apr 23, 2013 • 57min
Ethics of the Fathers: A Truism about Altruism (1:3)
Discussing the various philosophical angles and aspects of Altruism invariably generates vigorous debate. In this class, Rabbi Wolbe attempts to unravel the very complex Jewish position on the issue.
Apr 18, 2013 • 1h 15min
Ethics of the Fathers: Spiritual Pipes (1.2)
In this class we learn what distinguishes Man from all other species, about the fascinating Jewish idea of the convergence of the spiritual and the physical and, in a first, Rabbi Wolbe calls out one of the participants as being “flaky”.
Apr 18, 2013 • 1h 28min
Ethics of the Fathers: Introduction (1.1)
Pirkei Avos, or Ethics of the Fathers is a compilation of Rabbinic ethical teachings spanning 500 years of Jewish vibrancy, circa 300 BCE to 200 CE, that, amazingly, retain their relevance to contemporary times. In this class, Rabbi Wolbe outlines the historical background to this fascinating work, explains the structure of the book, and digs into Chapter One Mishna One.
Apr 18, 2013 • 48min
Grounds for Marriage: Combating Selfishness
A small child rarely wakes up to tend to her crying mother. From the beginning of our lives we are self-centered and care about ourselves only; in our quest to build better relationships, we must learn the tools to rid ourselves of this vile characteristic.
Feb 21, 2013 • 13min
Why we get Drunk on Purim
On Purim we are instructed to intoxicate ourselves with wine till we do not know the difference between “Haman is cursed” and “Mordechai is blessed”. What could possibly be the rationale behind such a strange mitzvah?
Feb 15, 2013 • 9min
Why didn’t God create the world in one instant?
Rabbi Wolbe addresses this interesting question, and also dabbles with the philosophical problems of an infinite existence and a finite world coexisting, and the paradox of Free Will in the face of an All Knowing God.
Feb 15, 2013 • 12min
Capital Punishment in Jewish Law
Rabbi Wolbe explains the seemingly strange phenomenon where a defendant cannot be executed if the Judges unanimously call for his guilt, and other interesting laws relating to capital punishment.
