Monthly Archives: August 2020

Mitzvah: Sensitivity to Converts (#63-4, 431)

Is Judaism a religion or a nation? That is a tricky question to answer because the correct answer is a bit of both. We are a nation and therefore if your pedigree is Jewish you are Jewish whether you like it or not. You can be baptized 100 times – you may get wet but you are still Jewish. On the other hand we are a religion in that people can join our nation via conversion. In this special edition of the Mitzvah Podcast we discuss the process of conversion and the three special mitzvos regarding how converts must be treated.

Please email me at rabbiwolbe@gmail.com with any questions or comments

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This podcast is dedicated in the merit of the speedy and total recovery of a dear friend Avraham Ben Faiga, who recently contracted the coronavirus. May the Almighty heal him completely and may he suffer no lingering or lasting effects.

Sponsorship: Please consider sponsoring a podcast by making a donation to help fund our Jewish outreach and educational efforts at https://www.torchweb.org/support.php. Thank you!

History: Chacham Ovadia Yosef: Part One – The Prince of Torah

Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, known the world over as “Chacham Ovadia” or simply “Maran”, was one of the most important rabbinical personalities of the 20th Century. His career accomplishments were staggering: He was a Torah scholar of absolute unmatched greatness. He was a transformational Rabbi – with rabbinic posts both in Israel and abroad – who served as the Chief Rabbi of Israel. He was a voluminous Halachist – having answered hundreds of thousands of Halachic queries in his lifetime and authored 50 books on Halacha in his lifetime. His accomplishments also extend beyond the rabbinate: In the 1980s, he founded the largest and most powerful religious political party in Israel. He was also the Patriarch of a prestigious rabbinic dynasty. In part one of our series of this giant of Jewish history, we tell the story of his remarkable Torah prowess that undergirded all his career accomplishments.

Please email me at rabbiwolbe@gmail.com with any questions or comments

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This Jewish History Podcast is dedicated in honor of Shimmy and Joely Bernstein, new podcast listeners but old friends of ours – thank you for your friendship over the years

Sponsorship: Please consider sponsoring a podcast by making a donation to help fund our Jewish outreach and educational efforts at https://www.torchweb.org/support.php. Thank you!

Ethics: An Invitation to The Afterlife (4:21-2)

We all recognize that we will eventually die. Each of us know that there will come a point in time where our body and Soul separate and go their own way. The body will return to its origin, the dust, and the Soul will return to its Heavenly roots. What happens to our Soul in Heaven is certainly a tantalizing question. In this Mishnah we learn about Olam Haba, the Next world, commonly called the Afterlife. What is the Afterlife? Why is it worth preparing for? What can I do to ensure that I am included in the invite-list for this eternal bliss? In this very critical podcast we attempt to penetrate the great mystery of Olam Haba.

Please email me at rabbiwolbe@gmail.com with any questions or comments

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This special edition of the podcast is dedicated in the merit of the speedy and total recovery of Yehudit bat Sara who recently contracted the coronavirus. We hope and pray that she beats the virus completely and quickly with no lingering effects

Sponsorship: Please consider sponsoring a podcast by making a donation to help fund our Jewish outreach and educational efforts at https://www.torchweb.org/support.php. Thank you!

TORAH 101: Torah Under Siege: The Grounds for Codification of Oral Torah

The final century of the Second Temple and the one that followed its destruction were pivotal ones of Jewish history. It was an era replete with absolute Torah giants – Hillel the Elder, Rabban Yochanan Ben Zakkai, Rabban Gamliel of Yavneh and his colleagues, Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Yehoshua, Rabbi Akiva and his students, among many other giants – but it was also a time of unprecedented challenges. Several times over these centuries, the Nation was hanging on a thread. The great Rabbis were targeted, the Great Sanhedrin was threatened, the Nation was attacked and dispersed. Over the course of this time, the conditions of the Nation deteriorated to the point that it was clear to our leaders that unless something drastic was done, the Nation as we know it would cease to exist. In this podcast we talk about the conditions that led to the fateful decision to write down the Mishna and to codify the Oral Torah.

Please email me at rabbiwolbe@gmail.com with any questions or comments

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Sponsorship: Please consider sponsoring a podcast by making a donation to help fund our Jewish outreach and educational efforts at https://www.torchweb.org/support.php. Thank you!