Mussar HaTorah

Before they were even born, Yaakov and Esav struck a deal: Esav would take this world, and Yaakov the world to come. Years later, Esav stumbles in from the field, starving, and sells his birthright for a bowl of stew with a line that says it all. What was it about Esav that made the future feel unreal, and what does his very name reveal about him? Drawing on Rabbi Shalom Rosner, Rabbi Avishai David, and Rabbi Soloveitchik, we look at Yaakov's trees, Esav's mountain, and the Golden Calf, and take on a challenge to choose the long view, even once. Listen in to find out.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit notarabbi.substack.com

Eliezer's mission is almost complete and Rivkah is on the road, yet the Torah stops to show us Yitzchok walking in from a well and out into a field to pray. Rashi, Onkelos, the Ramban, and the Seforno each read the scene differently, and one of them says something that changes how we think about every prayer that seems to have gone unanswered: Yitzchok's was heard before he said a word. Why does he go out and pray a second time? Listen in to find out, and to take on a challenge that starts with finding your own quiet field.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit notarabbi.substack.com

Avraham runs after the calf himself. He chases down the guests. And then, when it comes to a little water, he says: “Let it be brought.”

Just four words, and the Gemara hears a criticism that echoes all the way to the desert.

Here’s the problem. The one who brought the water was almost certainly Yishmael, and Avraham handed him the job in order to teach him chesed. Since when is educating your son a failing?

A few pesukim later, Hashem says He chose Avraham because he would command his children and his household to keep the way of Hashem. Look through the whole Torah. You won’t find him giving that command even once.

What did Avraham actually say? And what did he fail to say? One answer explains both, and it raises a question we all have to answer for ourselves: who is watching you, and what are they learning?

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit notarabbi.substack.com

Noach steps out of the ark into a world wiped clean, and the first thing he does is plant a vineyard. The Seforno sees a problem in that very first move: the Torah says “vayachel,” Noach began, and he began with an action that wasn’t fitting. Even if Noach planted for the service of Hashem, as Rav Henoch Leibowitz zt"l suggests, wine is ordinarily planted for pleasure. That small misstep at the start ended in calamity. This week we look at what Rav Henoch calls nit shain, the unwritten standard above the letter of the law. We also ask why “Where does it say I can’t?” is the wrong question for a people who are meant to live like royalty.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit notarabbi.substack.com

Every morning we thank Hashem for clothing us, but the first clothes in history came with a lesson about who we really are. Drawing on a teaching from Rabbi Shlomo Wolbe's Shiurei Chumash, this episode explores why Adam and Chava felt no shame before the sin, what Rav Eliyahu Lopian meant by "pants of flesh," and why so many of us still answer the question "Who are you?" with our job or our appearance instead of our neshama. Join us for a practical challenge to schedule an appointment with yourself and get to know the most interesting person you will ever meet.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit notarabbi.substack.com

At the very end of the Torah, Moshe delivers one final act as a leader — and the Torah closes by declaring that no prophet like him ever arose again. But that's not the only thing the Torah says about him. Elsewhere, it makes an equally sweeping claim in the opposite direction. How can both be true of the same person? This week's episode looks at what Moshe's last moments reveal about a trait that doesn't play by the usual rules.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit notarabbi.substack.com

The Tur teaches that each of the three regalim corresponds to one of our forefathers: Pesach to Avraham's legendary chesed, Shavuos to Yitzchak's willingness to be bound at the Akeidah. Succos, though, is tied to Yaakov for something that sounds almost too ordinary to belong in that company: he built shelters for his livestock. Rabbi Yaakov Kier asks the obvious question, and the answer hides in a completely different moment from Yaakov's life, one involving a boulder, a well, and a strange line from the prayer we recite for rain. What Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz uncovers there changes what Succos is actually asking us to celebrate, and it might be the most attainable avodah of all three festivals.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit notarabbi.substack.com

Why does Hashem never actually say what Moshe and Aharon did wrong? At the very end of Ha'azinu, Moshe is told plainly that he and Aharon won't enter the land, but the reason given isn't a forbidden act or a moment of anger. It's something harder to pin down: they simply didn't sanctify Hashem's Name the way the moment demanded. This week, we trace that puzzling standard back to an earlier scene in the desert, where the Midrash accuses Moshe himself of being "lazy," and uncover why our sages sometimes measure a person not by whether they did wrong, but by whether they brought everything they were capable of bringing. A familiar mishnah gets read in a whole new light, and effort, mitzvos, and how we show up for others start to look a little different by the end.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit notarabbi.substack.com

Every Rosh Hashana we ask Hashem, in Avinu Malkeinu, to "remember us with a favorable remembrance." But if Hashem forgets nothing — if every deed, thought, and motive already stands before Him in full — what exactly are we asking Him to do? And if it's really just a request for forgiveness, why not simply say so? This week, we look at a question Rav Yehuda Amital zt"l pressed hard on, and an answer that changes what we think we're doing every time we daven for a good year.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit notarabbi.substack.com

When Moshe hands over leadership to Yehoshua at the end of Devarim, he tells him he will "come" into the land with the nation. A few pesukim later, Hashem tells Yehoshua he will "bring" the nation into the land instead. It's the same handoff, the same Yehoshua, almost the same sentence — yet Onkelos translates one small word in these two pesukim in two completely different ways. Why does the Torah's language shift, and why does Onkelos shift right along with it? The answer traces back to a fusion of two leadership roles inside one person, and it turns out that same fusion is sitting inside every single one of us, deciding which voice we listen to before we even realize we're choosing.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit notarabbi.substack.com