The Rabbi Dov Ber Cohen Podcast

By Rabbi Dov Ber CohenReligion & Spirituality Judaism

The Rabbi Dov Ber Cohen Podcast episodes

October 28 Shabbas 30 | Shalom Aleichem
In this shiur, Rav Dov Ber Cohen explores the inner world of Friday night, from the blessing of children to the singing of Shalom Aleichem, weaving together practical wisdom about relationships and deep Kabbalistic teaching about angels, peace, and the Jewish home.
Rabbi Dov Ber explains that the two angels who escort us home on Shabbat, the good and the challenging, are both called Malachei Hashalom once they enter a home filled with warmth, candles, and simcha. The so-called bad angel is not truly bad; like the yetzer hara itself, it serves Hashem, and our task is not to destroy what seems dark but to transform it. This is the secret of shalom: not the absence of opposition, but the turning of it toward good.
Woven throughout is a vision of home as the center of Jewish life, where unconditional love creates the safety for children, guests, and even angels to rest. When we bless, welcome, and show up fully for one another, we become vessels for Hashem's blessing in the world.
Living in Tune with Rabbi Dov Ber Cohen
Mindfulness, Torah wisdom, and inner work for a calmer, more aligned life.
Courses & Resources
- Living in Tune - 8-Week Foundational Mindfulness Course
https://www.rabbidovber.org
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38 min
October 26 Shabbas 29 | B'Yam Darkecha
Shabbat Shalom! Rav Dov Ber Cohen explores the inner meaning of Kabbalat Shabbat — not merely as a liturgical sequence, but as a genuine act of receiving. He opens with the teaching that Shabbat is a gift, a matanah tovah, and that kedusha and menuchah — conscious spiritual presence and deep well-being — are the two qualities that define what it means to truly arrive.
Rabbi Dov Ber traces the roots of Yedid Nefesh as an expression of bhakti, a lovesick yearning of the neshama for Hashem, and asks whether our nigunim are truly directed toward Hashem or have drifted into spiritual self-indulgence. He calls for kavana inside the singing — speaking to Hashem during the melody, not just enjoying the melody itself.
Living in Tune with Rabbi Dov Ber Cohen
Mindfulness, Torah wisdom, and inner work for a calmer, more aligned life.
Courses & Resources
- Living in Tune - 8-Week Foundational Mindfulness Course
https://www.rabbidovber.org
Join the WhatsApp Community
https://bit.ly/4qtfv3p
Contact: [email protected]
36 min
October 22 Parashat Lech Lecha | The Journey To Your True Self
In this shiur on Parshat Lech Lecha, Rav Dov Ber Cohen unpacks Hashem's call to Avraham not merely as a geographical journey, but as an invitation to every person to move beyond ארציות, טבע, and inherited values toward an encounter with the self that is pure neshama. The gematria of אראך equaling Shabbat becomes the thread of the entire teaching: the land Hashem promises to show us is Shabbat consciousness itself.
Rabbi Dov Ber distinguishes between superficial pleasure and the deep spiritual תענוג the soul is truly yearning for, and shows how עולם, שנה, and נפש — place, time, and the person — all point toward the same destination: presence, kedusha, and a palpable relationship with Hashem. Eretz Yisrael, Shabbat Kodesh, and purity of thought are the three pathways that open this experience. The shiur closes with a reminder that tasting true spiritual joy carries one responsibility — to give it away.
Living in Tune with Rabbi Dov Ber Cohen
Mindfulness, Torah wisdom, and inner work for a calmer, more aligned life.
Courses & Resources
- Living in Tune - 8-Week Foundational Mindfulness Course
https://www.rabbidovber.org
Join the WhatsApp Community
https://bit.ly/4qtfv3p
Contact: [email protected]
58 min
October 21 Authentic Jewish Spirituality Part 7 | Jewish Meditation
In this shiur, Rav Dov Ber Cohen teaches the fifth and deepest path of Jewish spirituality: meditation. Drawing on classical Hebrew terms and vivid imagery, he distinguishes between passive meditation — the work of calming and clearing a restless mind — and active meditation, where one consciously chooses the inner landscape of thought, gratitude, and connection to Hashem.
Rabbi Dov Ber introduces the foundational concepts of yishuv ha-da'at and menuhat ha-nefesh, peace of mind and genuine inner rest, as the bedrock of all avodah. He explains how conscious breathing is not merely a wellness technique but a direct pathway to the neshama, rooted in the Torah's account of Hashem breathing life into Adam. The shiur weaves together the metaphors of a garden, a whiteboard, and a car journey to illuminate how meditation clears what was never chosen and replaces it with what is true.
Living in Tune with Rabbi Dov Ber Cohen
Mindfulness, Torah wisdom, and inner work for a calmer, more aligned life.
Courses & Resources
- Living in Tune - 8-Week Foundational Mindfulness Course
https://www.rabbidovber.org
Join the WhatsApp Community
https://bit.ly/4qtfv3p
Contact: [email protected]
30 min
October 20 Shabbas 28 | BYam Darkecha
In this rich and layered shiur, Rav Dov Ber Cohen draws on the image of the Shabbat candle to illuminate the deepest structure of the neshama. The flame, he teaches, has two parts: the part that burns against the wick, transforming physicality into energy, and the part that rises above it, spreading light into the world. These two parts mirror the two dimensions of the soul — that which purifies our inner life and that which radiates outward into everything around us.
Rabbi Dov Ber weaves together kedusha, ahavah, simchah, and the spiritual architecture of Shabbat into a single, coherent vision: we are not here to escape the physical, but to refine it. Lighting Shabbat candles becomes an act of inner alchemy — releasing the weight of the week and opening to the taste of Olam HaBa that Shabbat carries. A shiur for anyone seeking to understand what it truly means to let their light shine.
Living in Tune with Rabbi Dov Ber Cohen
Mindfulness, Torah wisdom, and inner work for a calmer, more aligned life.
Courses & Resources
- Living in Tune - 8-Week Foundational Mindfulness Course
https://www.rabbidovber.org
Join the WhatsApp Community
https://bit.ly/4qtfv3p
Contact: [email protected]
51 min
October 20 Yesod VeShoresh HaAvodah Pt. 1 | Yirah, Ahavah, and the Joy of Avodah
In this opening shiur on Yesod VeShoresh HaAvodah, Rav Dov Ber Cohen introduces the foundational vision of Rabbi Alexander Ziskind, an eighteenth-century Lithuanian master whose sefer bridges the depth of Kabbalah with the practical discipline of mussar. Rather than presenting mussar as harsh self-criticism, Rabbi Dov Ber frames it as Chassidic mussar, a path of motivated, wholehearted growth carried with sweetness and compassion.
The shiur opens with the core teaching of the sefer: yirah is not fear but a way of seeing. When a person truly perceives Hashem's presence and greatness, ahavah and avodah flow naturally from that place. Love, character refinement, and service are not separate disciplines but the organic fruit of genuine yirah.
Rav Dov Ber draws on the pasuk in Devarim to show that the kavana behind every mitzvah, from tefillin to netilat yadayim, can become an act of bringing Hashem nachat ruach and revealing His presence in the world.
Living in Tune with Rabbi Dov Ber Cohen
Mindfulness, Torah wisdom, and inner work for a calmer, more aligned life.
Courses & Resources
- Living in Tune - 8-Week Foundational Mindfulness Course
https://www.rabbidovber.org
Join the WhatsApp Community
https://bit.ly/4qtfv3p
Contact: [email protected]
12 min
October 13 Shabbas 27 | BYam Darkecha
In this shiur on Shabbat candles, Rav Dov Ber Cohen draws a luminous thread from the Or of creation all the way into the Friday night home. Light, he teaches, is not merely physical. It is the most accurate expression of Hashem available to our senses — selfless, without limitation, giving always for the other.
Rabbi Dov Ber explores how the candle itself encodes the structure of the neshama. The fuel, the wick, and the flame spell nefesh — the part of the soul that anchors us into the body. Lighting Shabbat candles is not only ritual. It is the moment when body and soul, so often at odds during the week, are drawn into shalom with one another.
He also reflects on the role of the Jewish woman as a vessel for the Shekhinah, whose presence she draws into the home through this mitzvah. As Tisha B'Av approaches, this teaching carries particular weight: bringing in Hashem's presence, one candle at a time.
Living in Tune with Rabbi Dov Ber Cohen
Mindfulness, Torah wisdom, and inner work for a calmer, more aligned life.
Courses & Resources
- Living in Tune - 8-Week Foundational Mindfulness Course
https://www.rabbidovber.org
Join the WhatsApp Community
https://bit.ly/4qtfv3p
Contact: [email protected]
44 min
October 08 Parashat Bereishit | Turning Striving to Inner Ease Through Torah
In this shiur, Rav Dov Ber Cohen addresses one of the defining struggles of modern life: the relentless striving, comparing, and craving that leaves people exhausted yet unable to rest. He draws a careful distinction between vegging out and true Menucha, the settled, fully present ease that Shabbat brought into creation as its crown.
Rabbi Dov Ber traces the soul's architecture, from Nefesh through Ruach into Neshama, and shows how Menuchat HaNefesh and Nachas Ruach are not luxuries but prerequisites for tapping into genuine Oinek, the deep delight of Gan Eden that flows into our consciousness when we stop chasing. The Kina, Taiva, and Kavod that drive modern anxiety are named honestly, and the breath, the body, and the Torah itself are offered as the path back.
Living in Tune with Rabbi Dov Ber Cohen
Mindfulness, Torah wisdom, and inner work for a calmer, more aligned life.
Courses & Resources
- Living in Tune - 8-Week Foundational Mindfulness Course
https://www.rabbidovber.org
Join the WhatsApp Community
https://bit.ly/4qtfv3p
Contact: [email protected]
35 min
September 23 Sukkot 2026 | Presence, Impermanence, and the Embrace of Hashem
In this Sukkot shiur, Rav Dov Ber Cohen invites us into the deeper avodah of לישב בסוכה — not merely sitting inside four walls, but arriving fully present within a space he describes as a Shechinah compression chamber. Moving from the yirah of the Yamim Noraim into the ahavah of Sukkot, he traces how the season shifts from awe and distance into intimacy and divine embrace.
Rabbi Dov Ber unpacks the sukkah as a teaching on impermanence: the sechach is drying, the arba minim are fading, and everything visible is temporary. This is not a cause for sadness, but an invitation to anchor our simchah in emunah and neshama rather than in the material world. He also guides the listener through the lulav and etrog as a practice of conscious ownership — values, heart, sight, and speech — taken deliberately into hand.
The closing image is simple and beautiful: sitting alone in the sukkah, breathing deeply, held.
Living in Tune with Rabbi Dov Ber Cohen
Mindfulness, Torah wisdom, and inner work for a calmer, more aligned life.
Courses & Resources
- Living in Tune - 8-Week Foundational Mindfulness Course
https://www.rabbidovber.org
Join the WhatsApp Community
https://bit.ly/4qtfv3p
Contact: [email protected]
15 min
September 17 Shabbat Shuva | The Souls Return Home
In this shiur, Rav Dov Ber Cohen reframes teshuva not as a word of burden or guilt, but as a warm and healing return to one's truest self. Drawing on Shabbat Shuvah and Parshas Ha'azinu, he teaches that the neshama's natural state is love, joy, and awe, and that teshuva is simply the act of remembering where we come from.
Rabbi Dov Ber weaves together the inner meaning of Shabbat, the practice of presence, and the silence that underlies all of creation. He shows how menucha is not rest from exhaustion but a return to the stillness that was here before creation began. The yetzer hara, he explains, arrives precisely when we are on the verge of something holy, which is itself a reason for encouragement rather than despair.
This shiur is a call to stop running, look up, and recognize that you are never truly disconnected from Hashem.
Living in Tune with Rabbi Dov Ber Cohen
Mindfulness, Torah wisdom, and inner work for a calmer, more aligned life.
Courses & Resources
- Living in Tune - 8-Week Foundational Mindfulness Course
https://www.rabbidovber.org
Join the WhatsApp Community
https://bit.ly/4qtfv3p
Contact: [email protected]
54 min