TORAH 101

Shiurim

• #90: Testimony at Sinai

  Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe

  The Sinai Revelation was a mass testimony of faith. The only event of its kind saw God revealing Himself to a nation comprised of millions, who heard and experienced prophecy and lived to tell their children about it. The founding event of

• #103: Fifth Order of Mishnah (Sacrifices)

  Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe

  Unfortunately, none of us have ever witnessed or participated in a sacrifice. Ever since the Temple was destroyed more than 1,950 years ago, our nation has been bereft of a central component of our religious life. Our nation, and truly the

• #86: The Nature of the Ultimate Resurrection

  Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe

  In the previous episode, we established that resurrection for the purposes of eternal life in Olam Haba is a process of restoring humanity to the sort of life that matches that of Adam and Eve before their sin. In this podcast episode, we f

• #5: An Unprecedented Eternal Nation

  Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe

  We explore some predictions in the Torah that have come true and ponder how a human author could have known the future. ——– This podcast was recorded live at the TORCH Centre in Houston, TX. Please visit torchweb.org for program details and

• #63: Admission to the Afterlife

  Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe

  The term “Olam Haba” refers the world after the Resurrection, the world where there’s life with no death, where there is the dispensing of reward for those who adhere to the word of God. If we were to distill our life mission to one sentenc

• #82: Messianic Resurrection

  Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe

  One of me hallmarks of the Messianic times is the resurrection of the righteous. With Messiah comes the reemergence of the righteous. Those buried in the land will precede those buried outside of it, but all the righteous will come back. Th

• #27: Mosaic Prophecy

  Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe

  The prophecy of Moses differs from all other prophecies. In fact, Rambam tells us that they are only nominally similar – in truth, they are two totally different experiences. When we break down the subject we find that the differences fall

• #59: Paradise and Purgatory

  Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe

  Paradise and Purgatory, “Gehenom” and “Gan Eden” in Hebrew, are two potential destinations of the soul after a person dies. The righteous ones who have lived their lives in complete compliance with the rules, instructions, and guidance of t

• #57: The Afterlife in Torah Literature

  Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe

  A central pillar of our belief is that when we adhere to the word of God, He will reward us in the Afterlife. Conversely, if we disobey God, we will suffer the consequences of our rebellion in the Afterlife as well. In this podcast we ponde

• #74: Messianic Prognostication

  Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe

  When will Messiah come? We are all curious to know the answer. What if we can find evidence or proof in Scripture to know when the redemption will happen? Isn’t that a tantalizing notion? In this podcast we survey the prohibition, futility,

• #38: What is Halacha?

  Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe

  With all the development and codification of Oral Torah that went into the Talmud, one areas was still incomplete: Halacha. Halacha refers to the practical application of Torah law, and despite the tremendous efforts invested in the Talmud

• #13: Does God’s Creation of the Universe Conflict with the Principle of God’s Perfection?

  Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe

  This podcast attempts to reconcile a knotty philosophical dilemma: The First Principle of the Thirteen Principles of Faith teaches us that God, Creator of heaven and earth, is Omniscient, Omnipresent, and Perfect. If God is Perfect and lack

• #40: The Case for the Divinity of Torah

  Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe

  The most important question we must ask is, “who wrote the Torah?” The consequences of this question are vast: If the Torah is divine, then its laws are obligatory and immutable; if the Torah is a hoax, then studying it and obeying its laws

• #106: Mishnah Commentary, Heuristics, and Appendices

  Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe

  As a very young man, Rambam wrote a commentary on the entire Mishnah. He prefaces his commentary with a sprawling and magisterial introduction which covers vast subjects related to Torah, oral and written, the history of the transmission, a

• #98: Components of Oral Torah

  Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe

  What makes up Oral Torah? What are the different types of information included in the Mishnah? In part 3 of the authoritative, magisterial, and comprehensive introduction to Mishnah offered by Rambam, we learn about the five different compo

• #9: Clear and Convincing Evidence to the Error-Free Transmission of the Oral Torah

  Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe

  The integrity of Jewish law, and by extension the dream of a great Jewish destiny, hinged upon the accurate transmission of an enormous body of law orally for 1400 years. Indeed, a fundamental principle of Jewish faith is that the same Tora

• #79: Messiah Panoply: Messiah Ben Joseph, Gog and Magog, Elijah, Resurrection, etc.

  Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe

  We have studied the subject of Messiah in its length and breadth. In the 16th and final installment of our study of the 12th of Rambam’s Thirteen Principles of Faith, we briefly survey a potpourri of subjects that are tangential to the main

• #25: The History of Prophecy + FREE TORCH Gift

  Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe

  In this sweeping retrospective of prophecy from Adam until the extinction of prophecy at the onset of the Second Temple Era, we address many fundamental questions: What is the critical difference between the prophecy of Abraham, Isaac, and

• #51: How God Dispenses Divine Reward and Punishment

  Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe

  In our previous episode we established the basic principle that God dispenses reward to those who hearken to Him, and metes out punishment to those who disobey Him. In this episode we get down to specifics: What is the nature of the Divine

• #70: The Messianic Renaissance

  Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe

  The Messianic era will unleash seismic changes to our nation and to all of humanity. In this podcast we talk about the ultimate catalyst of Messiah: Repentance. The sources agree that it is only via repentance that Messiah can arrive. When

• #97: Real and Fraudulent Prophecy

  Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe

  The veracity of prophecy is a critical component of our philosophy. But how do we know if a prophecy claimant is legit? How do we differentiate between real prophets and fraudulent ones? In our second installment on Rambam’s introduction to

• #89: Where Atheists Go Wrong

  Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe

  Some atheists are quite intelligent. Some atheists score highly on IQ tests. How can they be so wrong on matters of faith? Where exactly do the atheists go wrong? In this interesting TORAH 101 podcast, we pinpoint the precise area that caus

• #46: Divine Omniscience

  Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe

  The Tenth Principle of the Thirteen Principles of Faith states that God is aware of the actions of mankind and acts accordingly. This kickstarts the third section of the Principles which broadly deal with reward and punishment. Divine rewar

• #3: Implications of the Authorship of the Torah

  Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe

  Why it matters who wrote the Torah. ——- This podcast was recorded live at the TORCH Centre in Houston, TX. Please visit torcweb.org for program details and to make a donation. If you enjoy this podcast please subscribe and check out my othe

• #16: How can Humans have Free Will if God is in Total Control?

  Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe

  In the previous podcast we discussed the Second Principle of the Thirteen Principles of Faith, that God is the sole Singular Power. How can that precept be reconciled with another pillar of Jewish faith – that man is in control of his own d

• #87: The Timeline of Resurrection

  Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe

  It is hard enough for us to keep track of what happens to us in our lifetime; what happens after we die is truly a mystery. But there are timelines that are even murkier: what happens after Messiah? How does the Resurrection unfold? Is Resu

• #96: Origins of Oral Torah

  Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe

  The Torah was given to us by God with absolute perfection. A unique feature of that is the dual formats of Torah: written and oral. In this interesting and informative podcast, we begin the study of Maimonides’ magisterial introduction to h

• #67: The Messianic Revolution

  Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe

  Messiah will be an era of seismic changes for the Jewish people and for the world. Knowledge of God will be ubiquitous. The primacy of the Jewish people as God’s chosen Nation will be universally accepted. The pursuit of wisdom will superse

• #99: First Order of Mishnah (Planting)

  Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe

  The Mishnah is a massive, sprawling, and utterly comprehensive canon of Torah law. Spanning 60+ books over 6 Orders, the Mishnah includes all the laws of the Torah. To study it all would take a very long time. To know it all, takes a lifeti

• #110: Man As Microcosm

  Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe

  How exactly can man influence all the worlds, all the spheres, all the dimensions, and all the realms? Our Sages compare the human to the soul of the world. We have the levers that determine what happens to all of created existence. But wha

• #53: The Anatomy of the Soul

  Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe

  The human Soul is the most ethereal of God’s creations. Our Sages tell us that it is spiritually loftier than Angels. Before we continue our discussions related to what happens to the Soul in the Afterlife, it is important to gain a basic u

• #2: The Fallacy of the Bible Critics

  Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe

  We continue our dissection of the various options regarding the authorship of the Torah. ——- This podcast was recorded live at the TORCH Centre in Houston, TX. Please visit torcweb.org for program details and to make a donation. If you enjo

• #92: World of Souls

  Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe

  Why do bad things happen to good people? What role does Oral Torah play in Jewish life? Why did the Almighty create two worlds, the world of the bodies and the world of the souls? What is the difference between today and the days of Messiah

• #44: Torah Study: The Soul’s Panacea

  Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe

  Why is our nation so obsessed with Torah? Why do we make such an emphasis on it? What benefits do we as individuals and does society at large accrue with Torah study? In this sweeping episode we explore this fundamental question. We begin w

• #88: Unresolved Mysteries of Resurrection

  Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe

  We have made enormous strides in our pursuit of a deep, and comprehensive study of Rambam’s 13 principles of faith. We have plumbed the depths of these 13 tenets of our religion to the best of our ability. This podcast marks the final insta

• #7: Introduction to Oral Torah

  Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe

  What are the four components of Oral Torah? What are the four elements of the Oral Torah that are not sourced in the Written Torah? What are some of the classical pieces of evidence proving the existence of the Oral Torah? This is the place

• #8: Why Moses Didn’t Simply Write Down the Oral Torah?

  Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe

  For nearly a millennia and a half, the entire corpus of Oral Torah was transmitted orally from generation to generation; parents to their children and teachers to their students. Moreover, a fierce prohibition was established to prevent its

• #104: Sixth Order of Mishnah (Purity)

  Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe

  The Order of Purity is the longest of the Six Orders of Mishnah and by far the most foreign to us. The overwhelming majority of the laws of this order of Mishnah are only applicable in Temple times. different sources of impurity although ou

• #94: The (Near Total) Inaccessibility of Spiritual Pleasure

  Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe

  There is great confusion about what the ultimate reward for righteousness and the ultimate punishment for wickedness are. Rambam’s magisterial essay is designed to provide clarity in these lofty matters of eschatology. In part 2, we learn a

• #45: The Immutability of Torah

  Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe

  In Principle #8 of the 13 Principles of faith, we learned that the Torah is divine. In our exploration of that Principle, we probed many aspects of the idea of the Divinity of Torah, ranging from the history of Torah, to the components of T

• We Have Been Blessed With a Baby Boy

  Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe

  With deep appreciation to the Almighty for all the goodness that He has bestowed upon us, I’m happy to share that my wife, Chaya, and I were blessed with a beautiful baby boy on Monday, March 14. Thank God, both Mom and baby are doing fabul

• #61: Reincarnation

  Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe

  After a person dies, the Heavenly tribunal determines the fate of their Soul. If the Soul is pristinely pure, the person having accomplished everything that was expected of them and they are also lacking any blemishes borne about by sin, th

• #55: The Transposition of the Soul

  Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe

  How did the soul end up here? What transpired to the soul before it got here? These are fascinating questions that on the surface seem to be quite theoretical. What difference does studying the history and the backstory of the Soul make for

• #30: What is Oral Torah?

  Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe

  When Rambam lays out the Eighth Principle of his Thirteen Principles of Faith, that the Torah is divine, he includes believing in not only the Written Torah but also the Oral Torah as a necessary belief for Jews. But what exactly is Oral To

• #50: Divine Reward and Punishment: A General Introduction

  Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe

  The 11th of the 13 principles of Faith states that God dispenses reward to those who obey His will and punishes those who violate it. What is the nature of this reward and punishment is a vast and complex subject that we will yet navigate,

• #35: What is Mishnah?

  Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe

  For 1500 years, Oral Torah was just that: Oral. It was not committed to canonized writing. Circa 200 CE, that changed. Under the leadership of Rabbi Judah the Prince, the Nasi of the Sanhedrin , and the greatest Sage of his day, the laws of

• #32: From Moses to the Men of the Great Assembly: Development, Systematization, and Perpetuation of Torah

  Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe

  Although the process to formally codify the Oral Torah did not begin for more than 1500 years after Sinai, there were many advancements in organizing and systematizing Oral Torah that began in earnest soon after Moses’ passing. In this spec

• #72: The Variability of Messiah

  Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe

  We have been awaiting and anticipating Messiah for millennia. Messianic yearning has been a hallmark of Jewish life ever since we were exiled from our land with the destruction of the Second Temple. Messiah, we have learned, will definitely

• #60: The Mechanics of the Afterlife

  Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe

  What happens after we die is an endlessly fascinating – or terrifying – topic. In our exploration of the Afterlife we have covered vast grounds: We’ve spoken about death and the various types of death; we’ve spoken about the reckoning and a

• #1: Who Wrote the Torah

  Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe

  The authorship of the Torah is a highly consequential matter to clarify. If it is – as Jews have traditionally believed – the word of God, then it holds eternal absolute value for all. If it is not the word of God then it is no different th

• #22: God Alone is Worthy of Worship

  Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe

  In the fifth of the Thirteen Principles of Faith, Rambam codifies that God alone is worthy of our worship and that we ought not worship anything else, nor worship God via intermediaries. What is the general concept of worshipping God and wh

• #31: Innovation and Dynamism in Oral Torah

  Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe

  In the narrow sense, Oral Torah refers to the interpretation and understanding of the Written Torah. The Written Torah is written cryptically, and the Oral Torah demystifies and explains it. But the truth is that Oral Torah includes much mo

• #34: Torah Under Siege: The Grounds for Codification of Oral Torah

  Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe

  The final century of the Second Temple and the one that followed its destruction were pivotal ones of Jewish history. It was an e ra replete with absolute Torah giants – Hillel the Elder, Rabban Yochanan Ben Zakkai, Rabban Gamliel of Yavneh

• #73: The Sequencing of Messiah

  Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe

  What will happen in the times of Messiah? For us, that is an unanswerable question. Our Sages tell us that unless you are a prophet, it is not possible for you to know ahead of time how the Messianic transformation will unfold. That said, o

• #47: Frameworks for Human Situations, Sufferings, and Successes

  Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe

  Why are some people rich and others poor? Why do some people have a pleasant life, while others live in grinding, miserable, poverty and privation? Why is there so much inequality in the world? These questions are hard to answer. Rambam tel