Judaism Decoded: Rabbi Grant Leboff - Torah Inspiration And Jewish Wisdom Uncovered

We all know how the Torah begins. Or at least, we think we do. 

But consider:

• Why did HaShem create the world through speech? 

• Why ten utterances? 

• What is the extraordinary connection between the Ten Utterances of Creation, the ten tests of Avraham Avinu and the Aseret HaDibrot - The Ten Commandments?

What if one of the most familiar Jewish stories in the Torah contains a secret that changes the way we understand everything; that transforms the very way that we see Judaism, Jewish values, Torah ethics, Torah wisdom, and the world around us?

What if the world isn't quite what we think it is? And what if we've been missing something that's been there all along?

We tend to think of Creation as an event in the distant past. Something that happened, was completed, and left us with the world we inhabit today.

But what if that understanding misses something fundamental?

Join us for this Torah study; a fascinating exploration of an idea that might just change the way you look at the world.

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A flight that left Dubai on its way to Israel came terrifyingly close to disaster.

But what happened in that cockpit raises a much bigger question. How much control do we really have, and what happens when human beings forget where their power ends?

This Torah wisdom is a question that takes us from Adam HaRishon in Gan Eden at the very beginning of the Torah, all the way to Moshe Rabbeinu standing on Har Nevo in its final verses.

In this Torah Study, as we finish the Torah and immediately begin again, we will uncover what Chazal and some of our greatest Mefarshim reveal about these two towering figures, and a powerful Jewish idea about Judaism, Jewish values, Jewish faith, ambition, disappointment and human greatness.

Two extraordinary moments. One profound connection. And a powerful message about the lives we each hope to lead.

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If you could become a better Jew tomorrow, what would that actually look like? What does Judaism say? What is the Torah wisdom?

More learned? More Torah? More giving? More spiritual? More observant?

We spend much of our lives trying to become better. More Torah. More mitzvot. More chesed. More growth. But better at becoming what? What do Jewish Values and Jewish faith tell us?

In this Torah Study we see that Sukkot presents a radically different picture of spiritual growth, one that raises a much deeper question: what does HaShem actually want from you?

We instinctively assume we know the answer. But one of the central mitzvot of Sukkot suggests that we may be asking the wrong question altogether.

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The Torah gives us Yom Kippur. For twenty-five hours Judaism asks us to live an almost impossible existence. We stop eating and drinking. We step away from physical pleasure. We spend the day in prayer, attempting to reach somewhere higher.

It may strengthen our Jewish faith; but then, suddenly, it is over.

We put our shoes back on. We eat. We return to work, money, relationships, frustrations and the ordinary demands of life. So what exactly was Yom Kippur trying to achieve? Where is the Torah wisdom?

The opening words of Ha’azinu contain an extraordinary clue. Moshe Rabbeinu calls upon Heaven and Earth, but listen carefully and he does not speak to them in the same way. 

That difference opens up a remarkable understanding of Jewish values and what our lives are supposed to look like. By examining this more closely this Torah study we will uncover a different way of thinking about Yom Kippur, and about teshuvah itself.

Perhaps Yom Kippur is not really about how high we can reach. Perhaps the bigger question is what we bring back with us.

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Torah Wisdom: What if the person you were last year is not the person you have to be this year?

We tend to think we know who we are. Our strengths. Our weaknesses. Our habits. Our failures. The things about ourselves that we really struggle to change against the Jewish Values and Jewish Faith that we are taught. 

Jewish Teachings tell us that Rosh Hashanah marks the renewal of Creation. But hidden within that idea is something far more personal, and perhaps far more radical.

These days are not only about what we have done, what we regret, or even what we need to change. At the moment HaShem renews His world, He gives us an extraordinary opportunity to reconsider ours.

Torah Study: What are these ten days actually asking of us? The answer may change the way you think about Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and yourself.

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You didn't choose Avraham. You didn't choose Sinai. You didn't choose the covenant. You didn't even choose to be born Jewish. Yet Parsha Nitzavim tells us we are part of it all anyway.

And then the Torah tells you: Choose Life. So what is it? What are Jewish values? Do we get to choose or not?

Torah Study: As Rosh Hashanah approaches, parsha Nitzavim confronts us with a fascinating tension at the heart of Jewish life: between what we inherit and what we choose, between who we already are and who we might yet become.

Every Rosh Hashanah we tell ourselves that this year will be different.

But will it? We carry the same personality. The same weaknesses. The same habits. The same things we promised ourselves we would change last year.

Can a person really choose to become different? How much of who we are is fixed, and how much can still be changed? Parsha Nitzavim contains a surprising answer. 

And it begins with a covenant made thousands of years before we were born.

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A Jewish farmer stands in the Beit HaMikdash holding a basket of fruit. But the story he tells doesn't begin with his field. It doesn't begin with the harvest. It doesn't even begin with him. It begins thousands of years earlier.

In this Torah study we ask, why does a Jewish farmer, standing in the Beit HaMikdash with the first fruits of his own hard work, tell a story that began thousands of years before he was born? What does it tell us about Jewish faith? What is the Torah wisdom?

Bikkurim appears to be a simple mitzvah of gratitude. But hidden within its few passukim is an extraordinary idea about Jewish history, Jewish values, Jewish philosophy, Judaism, human achievement and the way we understand our own lives.

This week’s parsha contains one of the Torah’s most remarkable ideas about gratitude, success and the story we tell ourselves about how we got here.

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Torah Wisdom: Why does the Torah sometimes tell us to remember, sometimes warn us not to forget, and occasionally command both?

The answer opens a fascinating window into the psychology of memory and  profound Jewish teachings and Torah insight.

Some things must be remembered. Some things must never be forgotten. And they are not the same thing.

This Torah study shows that hidden inside the Torah’s language in this parsha, is a remarkable understanding of Judaism,  jewish philosophy, how memory works, how identity is formed, and what can happen when the most important truths in our lives quietly disappear from consciousness.

What does the Torah fear we might forget?

And what happens to us if we do?

The answer may change the way we understand Jewish values, some of Judaism’s most familiar ideas, and perhaps the way we understand ourselves.

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For a Jewish person Elul can feel overwhelming. We look back at the year, see the same weaknesses, the same struggles and the same failures and wonder: what does HaShem actually expect from us?

Every Elul we start again. Through Torah wisdom we think about what needs to change, what we should be doing better, our Jewish values, our Judaism, and the person we ought to become.

In this Torah study, one passuk in Parsha Shoftim suggests that HaShem may be asking us for something rather different. And the clue lies in one Hebrew word thats meaning is very easily misunderstood.

As we approach the Yamim Noraim, perhaps we have been asking ourselves the wrong question. What if one of the biggest mistakes we make during Elul is trying too hard to become better?

Parshat Shoftim contains a deceptively simple instruction that takes us from Avraham Avinu to Ya’akov, from astrology to Har Sinai, and ultimately to a very different understanding of what HaShem actually wants from us.

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In Parsha Re’eh, Moshe places blessing and curse before the Jewish people. 

But an extraordinary thread running through the parsha suggests that the consequences of our choices reach far beyond reward and punishment.

Some choices change what happens next. Others change the person making them.

We imagine that the defining moments of our lives will be obvious. Jewish philosophy says that perhaps they aren't.

Judaism is telling us that perhaps the moments that shape us most are the ordinary ones, the decisions nobody notices, the battles nobody sees, and the things that gradually stop feeling like decisions at all.

Parsha Re’eh begins with the starkest choice imaginable; blessing or curse.

But behind that choice lies something subtler, and perhaps, much more important. A real dose of Torah wisdom.

Perhaps Re’eh is not merely about Jewish Values and asking us what we will choose. Perhaps it is asking us to see what our choices are doing to us.

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