The Shema Podcast for the Perplexed

A life centered around Torah is a life dedicated to perpetual transformation and with that comes struggles and challenges.  Nissim Black is American-Israeli rapper who has achieved international stardom through his beautiful and inspiring music.   His transformation to an Orthodox Jew and likewise the transformation of his music through this process is equally inspiring.   He is a Tzadik and a role model for the Jewish people.   In this episode, I talk with Nissim Black, and learn about how to grow through living inspired.

The greatest mitzvah for a Jew to connect with their Creator is by keeping Shabbos. However, it is the most difficult mitzvah for a Jew to take upon themselves. The reason for its difficulty has nothing to do with the complexities of the halacha but with the fact that the Jew’s Yetzer Hara does not want to give up this beachhead. It will use every measure and tactic possible to keep a Jew from observing this mitzvah. In the episode I discuss the reason the Yetzer Hara goes Defcon 1 on this matter which simultaneously reveals why it is so important for a Jew. The reality is that the arguments of the Yetzer Hara on why one should not keep Shabbos are the exact reasons why a Jew should keep Shabbos.

I had the great honor and privilege of participating in a roundtable discussion on Succos, in Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe’s beautiful Sukkah, with my Rabbis and fellow Torch Podcasters, Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe, Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe, Rabbi Yaakov Nagel and Rabbi Chaim Bucsko. As always, I gained so much from hearing these amazing Rabbi’s insights, walking away with a heightened sense of understanding and appreciation of the festival of Succos.

The Almighty desires for us to continually strengthen ourselves spiritually so that we can grow closer to Him. Just like a weightlifter intentionally exhausts their muscles under the weights they are lifting so that their muscles will tear and then be rebuilt to be stronger, the Almighty created a framework for us to do the same spiritually. He orchestrates events which create tests for us. Tests to challenge and strengthen ourselves. Even through sin, followed by teshuva, we rebuild ourselves by returning to our source, creating ourselves anew and as a better version than we were prior. In this episode, Rabbi Buscko goes deep into how we can use the gift of Yom Kippur to successfully accomplish this task.

We are deep in the month of Elul and rapidly approaching Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. I asked my dear friend Rabbi Ari Winkler to join us and teach us, how to optimize this time of year to recalibrate ourselves back to who we truly are so we can bring greater alignment between us and our Infinite and Eternal Creator, our Father, our King.

Recently in the news it was reported that an engineer from Google, tasked with developing Artificial Intelligence or A.I., asserted that the A.I. had become self-aware. This idea has been the storyline for a litany of sci-fi movies for decades. In this episode we are joined by the great and awesome, “Average Rabbi,” Rabbi Bucsko to explore this topic with us through the lens of Torah.

In this episode I have on Rabbi Bucsko, aka “The Average Rabbi” and Joe Amar aka “The Exceptional Student” to discuss their new podcast where they are studying in classic teacher student format the foundational book of my learning, Derech Hashem (The Way of G-d) by Rabbi Luzzatto.  We discuss the book, its author Rabbi Luzzatto, the impact its wisdom has had on our lives and more.   If you have studied this book before or have not, you will want to listen to this conversation and subscribe to their new Podcast, “What is Judaism? The Complete Guide”

The Almighty gave us His Torah so we would know how to serve Him by following His laws or Halacha. One of those sets of instructions were for our sages to put fences around the mitzvos and extrapolate Torah law to apply to the myriad of situations that we would encounter throughout time. Through time and separation in the Diaspora, there have become divergent paths in matters of Halacha. In this episode I have the amazingly wise, Rabbi Yaghobian, join us to answer the question of why the Almighty created His system this way, why can’t we choose our Halacha in a more ala carte manner and select the opinions that we find most favorable and why can’t all the top sages today meet and unify our halacha, so it is the same for all?  My friends, I promise you that by the end of Part II you will have not only more clarity on this subject but also a greater reverence for our Torah.

The Almighty gave us His Torah so we would know how to serve Him by following His laws or Halacha. One of those sets of instructions were for our sages to put fences around the mitzvos and extrapolate Torah law to apply to the myriad of situations that we would encounter throughout time. Through time and separation in the Diaspora, there have become divergent paths in matters of Halacha. In this episode I have the amazingly wise, Rabbi Yaghobian, join us to answer the question of why the Almighty created His system this way, why can’t we choose our Halacha in a more ala carte manner and select the opinions that we find most favorable and why can’t all the top sages today meet and unify our halacha, so it is the same for all? My friends, I promise you that by the end of Part II you will have not only more clarity on this subject but also a greater reverence for our Torah.

The Almighty created everything for one singular purpose and that is to give us the ultimate pleasure. That ultimate pleasure is to be able to be in His presence without feeling ashamed. So, He created mankind as a microcosm of the world at large.   Just as He provides vitality to the spiritual and physical dimensions, our Neshama provides vitality to our physical body. The task at hand is to harness the power of our Neshama to rule our physical body which is our kingdom. When we accomplish our task, we will not feel ashamed in Olam Haba when He enters His kingdom, and His presence is known. Part of this equation is using our emotions, which are pure physicality, and infusing them with actions that serve His will. In this episode Rabbi Wohlgelernter shares his Torah and how to have our intellect direct our emotions or in other words to become the master rider of the horse.