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 of the Yishuv informing them that a Torah giant was coming. Employing classic Talmudic phraseology, he wrote that “a lion is arising from Babylon”, and a respectable delegation of rabbis and community leaders arrived at the shores to greet him. It is hard to overstate the impact that this lion from Babylon will have over the Yishuv in the Land would have over the next 20 years. From his hometown of Bnei Brak, the Chazon Ish spearheaded the opening of dozens of Torah institutions, rooted in a vision of the Land of Israel, revived and blossoming, with Torah dominating every aspect of the lives and culture of the people.

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This Jewish History Podcast is sponsored in loving memory of Zelda Chaya Nechama Bat Sarah by her loving family who wish to remain anonymous. May her soul merit an elevation in Heaven

Sponsorship: Please consider sponsoring a podcast by making a donation to help fund our Jewish outreach and educational efforts at https://www.torchweb.org/support.php. Thank you!

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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 everything that generations of Jewish communities had built over the millennium. A world of Jewish infrastructure – shuls, Jewish schools, mikvaos, yeshivos, giant Torah sages and their students – ceased to exist. 

If we were around to assess the state of the nation after WW2, it would be very hard to construct an optimistic outlook. But look at where we are now: The Jewish communities reestablished themselves in the USA and in the newly founded State of Israel, and in some ways, certain parts of Jewish life – and particularly Torah life – are stronger than they were before the Holocaust. Prior to the Holocaust, there were maybe a couple of thousand Torah scholars in the yeshiva world of Europe; today, in the largest yeshiva in the world – the Mir yeshiva – a yeshiva that I am a proud graduate of, there are nearly 10,000 full-time Torah scholar students, and that’s only one of hundreds – maybe thousands – of such institutions in the world. Prior to the war, the Torah-centric world within Jewry was in decline, and now it is an ascendant juggernaut. Where did all this come from? Who founded this world? Perhaps there are several answers to that question. But certainly in Israel we can point to one man and declare that he spawned this revolution, and that is Rabbi Avraham Yeshaya Karelitz, universally known as the Chazon Ish after the eponymous title of his works – and he is going to be the subject of this Jewish History podcast and the one that follows

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This Jewish History Podcast is sponsored by my dear friend, Yigal Rifkind, in honor of Caileigh Weiss on the occasion of her birthday. Happy Birthday, Caileigh, and thank you Yigal for your support and friendship.

Sponsorship: Please consider sponsoring a podcast by making a donation to help fund our Jewish outreach and educational efforts at https://www.torchweb.org/support.php. Thank you!

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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 and final installment on the Yom Kippur War, we tell the stories of the war’s final days and assess the seismic changes that the State of Israel has undergone in the four and a half decades since this conflict.

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This Jewish History podcast is sponsored by Mike Fisher in loving memory of his father, Meier ben Feitl v’ Shayneh Yente, who passed away this past year on the 19th of Av. 

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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 making huge gains and inflicting punishing blows to the Israelis. But the tide dramatically turned, and ultimately – though with substantial loss of life and materiel –  the Israelis gained the upper hand and produced an incredible military victory, albeit with very meager gains after the diplomatic and political dust settled.

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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 from the Syrians in the Golan Heights in the North, and the Egyptians in the Sinai in the South. The Israeli losses in terms of manpower and territory and positions were staggering. In the North, the Syrians breached Israeli defenses and captured much of the Golan Heights. In the South, the Egyptians crossed the Suez Canal by the tens of thousands, smothered and bypassed the fortifications along the Bar Lev Line and established very large – and continually expanding – beachheads on Israeli soil. The Israeli response was often confused, uncoordinated, insufficient and lackluster. If there was ever a time in Israel’s history where it was on the brink of destruction, it was the first few days of the Yom Kippur War. 

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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 North. The Yom Kippur War would go on to be the bloodiest, and most consequential war in Israeli history since its founding. In Part One of our series on the Yom Kippur War we study the period between the Six Day War of 1967 and the Yom Kippur War of 1973: We outline the 3-year War of Attrition that was conducted immediately following the Six Day War; examine the factors contributing to the outbreak of hostilities; assess the military and strategic strength of the adversaries; and discuss the severe Intelligence failures that led Israel to be so unprepared for war.

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Sponsorship: Please consider sponsoring a podcast by making a donation to help fund our Jewish outreach and educational efforts at https://www.torchweb.org/support.php. Thank you!

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The final Judge to lead the people in the Book of Judges was the most unique one of them all – a mighty warrior who single-handedly faced a formidable enemy, a controversial man with a miraculous beginning and a tragic end – Samson the Mighty. During this nearly 400 year history, the nation did not have the centralized authority of a king, and was in effect self-governed, ruled by God and punished by Him. When they adhered to Torah, their enemies vanished as if by divine edict, when they strayed, their enemies arose to persecute them as a function of divine chastisement. The role of the Judges was to nudge the people back to their fidelity to God, but not to compel or enforce as a monarch. This system worked nearly flawlessly for the duration of the Era of the Judges. The Book of Judges ends with two glaring exceptions; two tragic instances where the nation would have greatly benefited from a strong centralized authority of a king.

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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 should they are unmolested by foreign enemies; when they sin and adopt the idolatrous ways of their Canaanite neighbors, subjugation is swift and brutal.

NEW! The Mitzvah Podcast – by Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe. Link to podcast on iPhone – https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-mitzvah-podcast-by-rabbi-yaakov-wolbe/id1446819937

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The Jewish History Podcast is sponsored in honor of my dear friends, and stalwart supporters of TORCH, Peter and Becky Botvin.

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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 by various mighty Canaanite enemies who posed existential military and religious threats. They became exposed to new temptations that their antecedents had never encountered. Sadly, at certain junctures, the nation yielded to these temptations, and sinned, and were swiftly punished by God for their behavior. But our nation has always been very resilient, and God always sent us leaders who helped us navigate the challenges of each generation. A remarkable group of fifteen different leaders, called Judges, skillfully lead the nation during the 3 and a half century era of the Judges, spanning from Joshua until Samuel and the anointing of the first king of Israel, Saul. The nation’s ups and downs, the stories of their oppressions and salvations, the accounts of the villains who sought our downfall and of the heroes who brought us back on track is told in the Book of Judges, and is the subject of this podcast – The Era of the Judges (Part One: Osniel to Deborah)

The Jewish History Podcast is sponsored in honor of a beacon of the Houston Jewish community, and a personal friend and friend of TORCH, David Harris.

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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 Conquest of Canaan as told in the Book of Joshua and in other classical Jewish sources.

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This Jewish History Podcast is dedicated in loving memory of anonymously in loving memory of Soraya Nassimian. May her soul have an ascendancy in Heaven.

This Jewish Histry Podcast is also sponsored by Joe Grob in the zechut of a refuah shelima to Tzivia Shoshana Chaya bat Miriam. May she merit a swift and complete recovery

Sponsorship: Please consider sponsoring a podcast by making a donation to help fund our Jewish outreach and educational efforts at https://www.torchweb.org/support.php. Thank you!

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