Torah and Stories with Rabbi Liff

Torah and Stories with Rabbi Liff

By Rabbi Yehoshua LiffReligion & SpiritualityJudaism
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Torah and Stories with Rabbi Liff episodes

  • Parshas Bereishis: New Beginnings and Three Yesodos in the Creation of the Universe
    Recorded on Erev Shabbos Kodesh Parshas Bereishis 5787, Erev Rosh Chodesh Marcheshvan, Rabbi Liff begins the Torah again and brings from the parsha three yesodos in the creation of the universe. He opens with the Vilna Gaon's remez to pidyon haben in the first word of the Torah, tells over how Rav Chatzkel Abramsky was kept alive through six years in Siberia, and draws from the first shidduch and from the Kohen Gadol on Yom Kippur. He closes with the Gaon's remez to the Menorah in the opening words of each Chumash and Reb Akiva Eiger on the lamed and the beis.
    24 min
  • Parshas Bereishis: Why the Kohen Gadol Needs a Wife
    Why must the Kohen Gadol have a wife to do the avodah lifnai v'lifnim on Yom Kippur? From the Ramchal and "lo tov heyos ha'adam l'vado", Rabbi Liff explains that a person is created to be meitiv to others, and one who has not learned to give to a wife cannot be mechaper for all Klal Yisrael. From the Parshas Bereishis 5787 shiur.
    3 min
  • Rav Chatzkel Abramsky and the Good Winter in Siberia
    The Communists sent Rav Chatzkel Abramsky to Siberia: 45 below, little food, no tallis, tefillin or sefarim. For six years he never fell sick, because he told the Ribono Shel Olam "here it's hakol bidei shamayim", and he could still say Modeh Ani with nothing. Released on Erev Yom Kippur, the station head asks mechilah and swaps his ticket for a heated car. From the Parshas Bereishis 5787 shiur.
    5 min
  • Sukkos 5787: How the Teshuvah of Yom Kippur Brings the Simchah of Sukkos

    Rabbi Liff records on Erev Shabbos, Erev Sukkos 5787, as the podcast for the whole Yom Tov, on how the teshuvah of Yom Kippur brings the simchah of Sukkos. He brings Reb Yaakov Kamenetsky's answer to why the mitzvah of simchah is written about Sukkos: after the mechilas avonos of Yom Kippur there is no greater simchah. From the Yehi Ratzon said before entering the sukkah and from Rav Moshe Wolfson, he shows how the sukkah is galus and Eretz Yisrael together, the tzila d'mehemnusa where a Yid can sleep calmly under the protection of HaKadosh Baruch Hu. He tells over, from the Tolna Rebbe, how the Beis Yisrael of Ger explained "v'hayisa ach sameach" to his nephew Noachl at the first Sukkos tisch after the war, and how Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz stopped the singing of V'samachta after the Ma'alot massacre in 1974, then said it must be sung nevertheless.

    Chapters:
    00:03 Opening, dedication and a family simchah
    03:50 V'Zos HaBerachah
    04:55 Why the mitzvah of simchah is on Sukkos — Reb Yaakov Kamenetsky
    08:27 The sukkah as tzila d'mehemnusa
    09:30 The Yehi Ratzon: galus, kaparah and Eretz Yisrael
    12:54 Sleeping in the sukkah — Rav Moshe Wolfson
    15:23 The ushpizin and the ananei hakavod
    17:37 The Beis Yisrael and Noachl: "V'hayisa ach sameach"
    22:33 Hakafos with half a Gemara in Siberia
    24:24 Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz and Ma'alot, 1974
    26:17 Closing brachos

    27 min
  • The Beis Yisrael and Noachl at the First Sukkos Tisch After the War
    Rabbi Liff tells over, from the Tolna Rebbe, how the Beis Yisrael received his nephew Noachl after the war with only “take a Gemara and go into the beis medrash.” At the first Sukkos tisch he stopped the singing at “ach sameach” and explained it from “Vayishaer ach Noach”: a Yid can be wounded and still be Noach, still b’simchah. From the Sukkos 5787 shiur.
    5 min
  • Parshas Haazinu: The Nefilah Is the Tekumah

    Rabbi Liff records on Erev Shabbos Parshas Haazinu, Shabbos Shuva, two days before Yom Kippur. He asks why the Midrash counts Haazinu among the highest shiros when its pesukim speak of failure rather than nissim veniflaos, and answers with Rav Shimshon Pincus's mashal of the man who broke his leg and found a treasure only because he was bent low enough to see it — the nefilah is the tekumah. He also explains "Haazinu hashamayim va'adabeirah" against "vesishma ha'aretz imrei fi," learns "Kchu imachem devarim" from the haftarah of Shuvah Yisrael, and brings the sefarim hakedoshim that even a ratzon to have a ratzon is nichlal in the ikar. The episode closes with the story of a Gerer chassid in Tel Aviv who refused to cancel an empty shiur on a stormy night, and saved a man's life.

    31 min
  • Parshas Haazinu: Why the Shirah Sings the Failures

    The Midrash counts Haazinu among the highest shiros, yet its pesukim speak of "Am naval velo chacham" and "Vayishman Yeshurun vayiv'at" rather than the nissim veniflaos of the other shiros. Rabbi Liff answers with Rav Shimshon Pincus zt"l's mashal of the man who broke his leg and found a treasure only because the limp brought him low enough to see it. The nefilah is the tekumah, and that is the history of Klal Yisrael that Haazinu sets to song. From Parshas Haazinu, Shabbos Shuva 5787.

    3 min
  • The Empty Shiur in the Storm

    A Gerer chassid in Tel Aviv, Reb Polak, kept a weekly shiur going in a shul where almost no one was left coming. On a night of heavy winter storm he went anyway and found the shul empty. Refusing to give up on even one person, he went outside, was turned down twice, and knocked on a door in the first building — where a man had already tied the noose. The family learned of it only after Reb Polak's death, when the man came and told them. From Parshas Haazinu, Shabbos Shuva 5787.

    4 min
  • Erev Rosh Hashana 5787: Simanim Tovim, Hakaras Hatov and the Shofar That Is Tefillah
    Erev Rosh Hashana 5787, the last shiur of 5786. Rabbi Liff marks his grandfather's yahrzeit, recalls driving Rav Elyashiv to the Kosel for the last Minchah of the year, and the hakaras hatov Rav Elyashiv showed his chazanim and his Rosh Hashana visitors. The simanim, from the Gemara in Horayos to Reb Dovid Fox's kiwi and kohlrabi, point to the real siman: seeing the good in another Yid, and, as the Chazon Ish taught, never throwing away another Yid's kvitel. He closes on a year when the shofar is not blown on the first day (Aruch LaNer, Rav Meir Simcha of Dvinsk) and on Reb Eliyahu Baruch Finkel's vort: the shofar is tefillah, and Hashem is ma'azin to the teruah of a broken heart.
    21 min

About Torah and Stories with Rabbi Liff

From the publisher's feed

Every Erev Shabbos, Rabbi Yehoshua Liff sits down and speaks directly — about the parsha, about what is happening in our world, and about the stories he carries from the gedolim he learned from. He…