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We pick up the story of the Judges after the miraculous destruction of the enemies of Israel – Yavin and his star general Sisera were vanquished, peace reigned for forty years, but as we have seen previously, the period of the Judges is marked by ebbs and flows: When the Jews are behaving as they […]

After the passing of Joshua, the Jewish nation – newly settled in the land of Canaan, the land of Israel – confronted new realities that spawned new challenges. The leadership of the nation was greatly diminished – their future leaders were not of the caliber of Joshua and certainly not of Moses. They were surrounded […]

After the death of Moses, Joshua was tasked with the leadership of the people and with the invasion, conquest, and division of Canaan. Precisely 3 days after the 30-day mourning period of Moses, the invasion commenced with a rapid flurry of miracles, battles, and monumental events. This podcast covers the story of Joshua and the […]

Joshua was the undisputed leader of the Jews after the passing of Moses. Even during Moses’ lifetime, Joshua played an important role as Moses’ aide and confidante and protegé. Among his many accomplishments: He led the war effort and vanquished the Amaleks immediately after the Exodus; He was Moses’ right hand man in his lifetime, and […]

Moses was the greatest human of all time. His resume is replete with superlatives: He was the greatest prophet of all time, both qualitatively and quantitatively; He was the humblest man to grace the earth; He ascended to Heaven, negotiated successfully with angels and brought down the Torah and taught it to the Jewish people; […]

The oft-repeated refrain “history repeats itself” is especially true with respect to the stories of the forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as conveyed in the Book of Genesis. Our Sages have made the bold claim that everything that happened to our forefathers as individuals will be repeated to their children on the national stage. The […]

The story of the Jewish people – and truthfully the story of all monotheists, Christians and Muslims too – begins with Abraham. Abraham is of course the progenitor of the Jewish nation via his son, Isaac and grandson, Jacob, and his other son, Ishmael, is viewed as the forbearer of the Arabs and by extension […]

In the 16th century, the city of Safed in Northern Israel became host to one of the greatest collections of Torah Sages ever assembled, none more transformative or influential as Rabbi Yitzchak Luria, known as the Arizal. Though he lived a very short life of 38 years (1534-1572), he revolutionized the study, perception, and understanding of Kabbalah […]

Kabbalah is part of the corpus of Oral Torah – like the Mishnah, the Talmud and Halacha – that was given to Moshe at Sinai and transmitted from generation to generation, but unlike the revealed Torah which was disseminated as widely as possible to the whole nation, the Kabbalah was arcane and esoteric – known to the very […]

The word “Techeiles” is mentioned dozens of times in the Torah, and is a subject that appears in many places in the Talmud and associated literature. Techeiles is both a color and a material, namely wool dyed with this color, but to fulfill the Torah’s requirement for this particular color it can only be derived from the […]

On the 6th of Tammuz, July 4th 1976,  a team of Israeli commandos flew 2500 miles undetected across hostile countries, raided the Entebbe airport in Uganda and rescued 100 Jews who were being held hostage after their commercial plane was hijacked. This stunning, daring, audacious, miraculous Hollywoodesque rescue wowed the world, and galvanized the Jewish […]

The story of the Ten Lost Tribes is shrouded in mystery, replete with legends and folklore. At its core it is one of the greatest tragedies of Jewish history. It began with the worst schism and civil war in our history. The rift persisted for decades and was never resolved despite many concerted efforts of the great prophets […]

After the Temple and Jerusalem were destroyed, the Sanhedrin at Yavneh became the epicenter of Jewish life. Though the pride of the nation – The Holy Temple in Jerusalem which was standing for 420 years – was destroyed, and tens or perhaps hundreds of thousands of Jews were massacred, Rabban Yochanan Ben Zakkai’s negotiations with Vespasian […]

The Sanhedrin, the highest halachic authority in the Land comprised of the 71 greatest scholars in the Jewish world, was the Supreme Court of the Jewish Nation. It was founded by Moshe about a year after the Revelation at Sinai and continued almost uninterrupted for 1700 years. This body played an instrumental role in guiding and […]

David is now the undisputed king of Israel, but before him lay several key tasks: Of course the various Philistine and Canaanite tribes continue to be a pest, and David must subdue them to create lasting stability. Most importantly, however, David needs to corral the tribes of Israel who were formerly loyal to Saul and Ish […]

King David was anointed as the second king of Israel by the prophet Samuel and is considered the archetype of the Jewish king who earned the mantle of monarchy for his descendants forever. He authored the Psalms, which until this day are the ultimate manifestation of the Jewish soul yearning for its Creator and praying and beseeching […]

Annual Appeal To my dear listeners, At TORCH we have a simple philosophy: We give stimulating and engaging and relevant Torah teachings every day. But there is one day a year that we ask our friends, students, supporters and partners to give to TORCH. Today is that day. Today we will, please God, raise the […]

The Purim Story begins with King Achashverosh, the Persian king who ruled from Hodu until Cush (India until Ethiopia), making a massive feast for all the ministers and noblemen of Persia and Media that lasted for 180 days. Soon afterwards Achashverosh partners with the wicked Haman to annihilate the entire Jewish nation. In this podcast […]

Purim is a holiday celebrated by Jews worldwide on the 14th day of the month of Adar, and in Jerusalem and walled cities on the fifteenth day of Adar. It commemorates the story of the salvation of the Jewish nation from the genocidal plans of Haman and Achashveirosh in Persia. How did the Jews end up living […]

Prayer is a central aspect of Jewish life. The second mishnah in Pirkei Avos identifies the three pillars that uphold the world, one of them being prayer. Prayer also occupies a large part of Jewish observance: we pray thrice daily, four times on Shabbos, Rosh Chodesh, holidays and festivals, and five times on Yom Kippur, amounting […]

The ancient and historic city of Jerusalem is the most contested piece of real estate on the planet. For Jews, it is the center of the world; it is the hallowed grounds upon which Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob treaded and prayed; it was the site of the two Temples, and of the long-awaited third Temple. […]

The holiday of Chanukah commemorates the triumph of the Maccabean Revolt over the oppressive regime of Antiochus IV and the Seleucid Empire. In this podcast we tell the story of this miraculous victory of the weak over the mighty; the few over the many; the pure over the impure; and the righteous over the wicked. NEW PODCAST – […]

The burgeoning yeshiva movement today, and indeed the fact that yeshivos did not go extinct a century ago, is due to Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel, known the world over as the Alter of Slabodka, more than any one person. He was the first to combine two of the greatest movements of the 19th century into one, […]

Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel, known the world over as the Alter of Slabodka, was and is the greatest builder of Torah of the last several centuries. The burgeoning yeshiva movement today, and indeed the fact that yeshivos did not go extinct a century ago, is due to him more than any one person. He was the first […]