The Jewish History Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe

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What's The Jewish History Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe about?

Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe started The Jewish History Podcast in 2016 with the goal of making Jewish History interesting and accessible. Over the course of the years, episodes have covered the vast expanse of Jewish history, from Abraham to Moses and Joshua, to great Sages in modern times, to Israeli wars. Each episode is dedicated to either a theme of Jewish history, a great personality of Jewish history, an era of Jewish history, or a transcendent event of our people’s history. We learn about our people’s triumphs and high-points, and of course, our nadirs. The Chosen People have experienced an unprecedented 4,000 year story, and it is gloriously retold in The Jewish History Podcast. Please email any questions, comments, or feedback to [email protected]

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Ep. 79: The History and Dev...

04.13.2021

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

The Jewish History Podcast - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe episodes:

04.13.2021 Ep. 79: The History and Development of Oral Torah (Part 3: Roman Rule and Rabbinic Reconciliation) The final century of the Second Temple and the one that followed its destruction were pivotal ones of Jewish history. It was an era replete with absolute Torah giants – Hillel the Elder, Rabban Yochanan Ben Zakkai, Rabban Gamliel of ...
03.30.2021 Ep. 78: The History and Development of Oral Torah (Part 2: Hasmoneans, Herod, and Hillel) The Second Temple Era was an eventful time for the Jewish People and the perpetuation of Torah. Over the course of the Second Commonwealth our nation was blessed with great legends, such as Ezra, Shimon Ben Shetach, and Hillel, but ...
03.23.2021 Ep. 77: The History and Development of Oral Torah (Part 1: From Moses to Men of the Great Assembly) 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 more ...
03.04.2021 TORCH Fundraiser: A Conversation with our Board President, Dan Kullman Please support The TORCH Podcasts and the annual TORCH fundraiser at giveTORCH.org Every donation will be TRIPLED Show your support for TORCH and the TORCH Podcasts and donate to the annual fundraiser at giveTORCH.org – – – – – – ...
01.03.2021 Start 2021 Right with The Parsha Podcast One of my New Year’s resolutions is to record more episodes of The Jewish History Podcast in 2021. If you may indulge me, I would like to suggest to the audience to sample my Parsha Podcast in 2021. In this ...
12.21.2020 Ep. 76: JC in Jewish Sources: Exploring the Censored Text As we approach the end of December, I chose to experiment by doing something a bit different in examining the Jewish take on the Christian hero and on early Christianity. When we look at the Talmudic sources on the matter ...
10.21.2020 Ep. 75 – Chacham Ovadia Yosef: Part Two – Restoring the Crown of Sephardic Jewry to its Former Glory Chacham Ovadia Yosef was one of the most impactful and transformative Jewish leaders of recent history. In Part One we discussed Chacham Ovadia’s complete Torah mastery, in this episode we will explore his role as a leader: as a Rabbi, ...
09.09.2020 Thanks a Million! Of all the episodes that I have recorded over the years, this will be perhaps the most unique one. For one, it will be released simultaneously on all 6 channels that I am fortunate enough to host: The Parsha Podcast, ...
08.05.2020 Ep. 74 – Chacham Ovadia Yosef: Part One – The Prince of Torah Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, known the world over as “Chacham Ovadia” or simply “Maran”, was one of the most important rabbinical personalities of the 20th Century. His career accomplishments were staggering: He was a Torah scholar of absolute unmatched greatness. He ...
07.14.2020 Ep. 73: Rabbi Avraham Grodzinsky: The Exemplar of Slabodka Rabbi Avraham Grodzinski was the last head of the Slabodka Yeshiva in Lithuania. He was primary disciple of the Alter of Slabodka, and his successor after the Alter moved to Chevron, heading the yeshiva until WW2 broke out, and even ...
03.03.2020 Ep. 72: Chazon Ish: Part Three – On Politics and the Conflict of Religion and State Please support TORCH and The Jewish History Podcast TODAY during our only annual fundraiser giveTORCH.org Support The Jewish History Podcast – https://www.charidy.com/torch/History EVERY DONATION IS QUADRUPLED Today, TORCH needs your help!! Today YOU can partner with us in the largest ...
02.11.2020 Ep. 71: Chazon Ish: The Founding Father of the Modern Yeshiva World (Part Two: Making the Spiritual Desert Bloom) In 1933, Rabbi Avraham Yeshaya Karelitz – the Chazon Ish – moved to British Mandate Palestine. Prior to his departure, the recognized leader of the Torah world, Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinsky of Vilna had sent a letter to the leaders ...
01.28.2020 Ep. 70: Chazon Ish: The Founding Father of the Modern Yeshiva World (Part One: Torah Renaissance Man) The destruction of European Jewry during the Holocaust decimated more than the thousands of Jewish communities of Europe. Europe had been the epicenter of Ashkenazic Jewish life for 1,000 years, and with the destruction of the 6 million Jews, came ...
11.05.2019 Ep. 69: The Yom Kippur War (Part Four: Ceasefire and Aftermath) The turning point in the trajectory of the State of Israel was the Yom Kippur War. In almost every way, the history of the State can be divided into two eras, before and after this pivotal conflict. In the fourth ...
08.12.2019 Ep. 68: The Yom Kippur War (Part Three: The Tide Turns) The Yom Kippur War is – at least from a military perspective – a tale of two conflicts: The early stages of the war were completely one-sided, with the combined Arab armies of Syria and Egypt dominating the battlefields and ...
06.05.2019 Ep. 67: The Yom Kippur War (Part Two: Israel on the Brink) The first few days of the Yom Kippur War were among the most disastrous and devastating days in Israel’s history. Thanks to unprecedented intelligence failures that we detailed in the previous episode, they were ill-prepared for the simultaneous surprise attacks ...
05.17.2019 Ep. 66: The Yom Kippur War (Part One: Prelude to War) On October 6th, 1973 – on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar – a coordinated, surprise attack was launched on the State of Israel by its two great adversaries: Egypt in the South and Syria in the ...
04.03.2019 Ep. 65: The Era of the Judges (Part Three: Samson the Mighty) + ANNUAL FUNDRAISER Support TORCH and The Jewish History Podcast TODAY during our only annual fundraiser. https://www.charidy.com/torch/History EVERY DONATION IS QUADRUPLED Today, TORCH needs your help!! Today YOU can support the thousands of Jewish Houstonians who learn and get inspired at TORCH Torah ...
03.06.2019 Ep. 64: The Era of the Judges (Part Two: Gideon and Yiftach) 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 ...
02.13.2019 Ep. 63: The Era of the Judges (Part One: Osniel to Deborah) 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 ...
01.09.2019 Ep. 62: Joshua and the Conquest of Canaan 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 ...
12.12.2018 Ep. 61: Joshua: Disciple Par Excellence of Moses 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 ...
11.27.2018 Ep. 60: Moses: The Quintessential Jewish Leader 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 ...
11.15.2018 Ep. 59: The Blueprint of Jewish History 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 ...
10.24.2018 Ep. 58: Abraham: The Birth of Monotheism and the Origins of the Jewish Nation 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 ...
10.10.2018 Ep. 57: A History of Kabbalah (Part Two: The Arizal and His Era) 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 ...
09.06.2018 Ep. 56: A History of Kabbalah (Part One: Fom Sinai to Safed) 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 ...
07.24.2018 Ep. 55: Techeiles: The History of the Mysterious Blue Dye and its Fringe Benefits 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, ...
07.04.2018 Ep. 54: The Entebbe Raid 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 ...
06.05.2018 Ep. 53: The Ten Lost Tribes: History, Legends, and Folklore 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 ...
05.15.2018 Ep. 52: The History of the Sanhedrin (Part Two: From Yavneh Onward) 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 ...
05.08.2018 Ep. 51: The History of the Sanhedrin (Part One: From Moshe until the Destruction of the Second Temple) 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 ...
04.25.2018 Ep. 50: The Story of King David (Part Two: David, King of Israel) 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, ...
04.18.2018 Ep. 49: The Story of King David (Part One: Rise to Monarchy) 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 ...
03.21.2018 Ep. 48: The History of the Jewish Calendar (Plus Annual Fundraising Appeal at GiveTORCH.org) 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 ...
02.28.2018 Ep. 47: The Purim Story 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 ...
02.22.2018 Ep. 46: The Purim Backstory 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 ...
02.15.2018 Ep. 45: A History of Tefillah (Jewish Prayer), Liturgy, and the Siddur 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, ...
01.02.2018 Ep. 44: Jerusalem: A History of the Holy City from the Bible to Bibi 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 ...
12.12.2017 Ep. 43: The History of Chanukah: Hellenism, Heroism and Hasmoneans 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 ...
11.15.2017 Ep. 42: Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel (Part Two: The Mussar Ideology) 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 ...
11.09.2017 Ep. 41: Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel (Part One: The Slabodka Revolution) 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 ...
10.19.2017 Ep. 40: Rabbi Chaim Soloveichik and the Brisker Method of Talmudic Analysis Rabbi Chaim Soloveichik, the scion of a prestigious rabbinical family, was the father of a new penetrating, incisive, and brilliant approach to Talmudic study and analysis that took the Yeshiva world by storm and is now ubiquitously accepted in the ...
09.13.2017 Ep. 39: Rabbi Yisrael Salanter and the Mussar Movement By the 1840s, ferocious winds of changes were sweeping through the Jewish nation, and leaving wreckage and carnage in the wake of their consuming vortexes. The spiritual standing of the nation was under assault from without and vulnerable from within. ...
09.01.2017 Ep. 38: Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin and the Mother of all Yeshivos To see pictures of the devastation of the TORCH Centre please visit http://rabbiwolbe.com/harvey/ To make a donation to the rebuilding of the TORCH Centre please visit rebuildtorch.com Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin was a man of extraordinary character and scholarship, and ...
08.16.2017 Ep. 37: Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch and Torah Im Derech Eretz 19th Century German Jewry was faced unprecedented, hitherto unseen threats to its continuity. Due to the rise of Reform and the Haskalah movements bent on drawing Jews away from Torah, coupled with the circumstances – the Emancipation and the relaxing ...
08.02.2017 Ep. 36: Rabbi Moshe Sofer (Chasam Sofer) and his Hardline Response to Haskalah The Haskalah movement that swept through European Jewry in the 19th Century, brought about several different responses from what became known as the Orthodox communities. In Hungary, Rabbi Moshe Sofer, known by the name of one his books as the ...
07.19.2017 Ep. 35: Emancipation, Haskalah, and Reform: The Zeitgeist of 1800s European Jewry The 19th Century was a tumultuous time of fundamental change, opportunity, and upheaval for the Jewish people. For centuries, the Jews of Europe were subject to systemic marginalization: They were second-class citizens, were not granted equal rights or protection, were ...
07.05.2017 Ep. 34: Great Jewish Personalities: The Gaon of Vilna Rabbi Eliyahu the son of Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Kramer (1720-1797), known to all as the Gaon (genius) of Vilna, or simply the “Gaon”, was a legendary and towering figures of Jewish history. While he never headed a yeshiva, held rabbinic ...
06.21.2017 Ep. 33: Great Jewish Personalities: Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto (Ramchal) Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto (1707-1746) was a transformative paragon of Kabbalah, Mussar and Jewish theology. Despite living a short and tumultuous life, Ramchal’s writings and teachings were astonishingly prolific, and many of his books became indispensable classics that redefined their ...

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